2013 Draft: Hilarious at the top, value at the bottom

The NBA Draft kicks off tonight at 7:30 on ESPN. The Draft is always one of my favorite days of the year. I love the immediate speculation for the season although maybe three players from the class will have a significant impact the next year (that's not just this class, that's almost every class). I love the ridiculous suits, the one player who sits in the Green Room for an uncomfortably long time, Stephen A. Smith's vast misunderstanding of the college basketball season and how each fan base talks themselves into a pick they know was shitty in their heart.

UNLV's Anthony Bennett has great potential, but the true value in this year's draft class lies in the late first round.

This draft will be especially great because all the top-10 picks will be legitimately funny. As I hinted at last night, when I wrote that Alex Len would be the worst top-five pick of the past decade, this draft class is hilariously weak at the top. This was corroborated by respected Charlotte writer Rick Bonnell, who called Len, the 19th best player in a historically weak ACC, the best long-term prospect in the class. (Side note: How sad is it for Adam Sandler that the commercials for Grown Ups 2 will actually be less funny than the draft they're airing during?). There's not one franchise player in this draft. Nerlens Noel, Otto Porter, Trey Burke and Anthony Bennett have the most potential of them all, and their haphazard comparisons would be Tyson Chandler, Tayshaun Prince, Mike Conley and Kenyon Martin. Good enough to be a starter/top-three player for a Finals team? Sure. Franchise player? Not for any franchise worth a damn.
However, the rich will get richer with this draft, in a sense. There's major value in role players in the back half of this first round and second round. Teams like the Clippers, Pacers, Thunder, Nuggets, Spurs and Bulls are all well-positioned to add critical pieces to their on-the-cusp puzzles. The following are all guys who will likely be post-lottery selections that I can see being the fifth starter/sixth man/rotation player on a championship team in the next 5-7 years:
Shane Larkin
C.J. McCollum
Reggie Bullock
Tim Hardaway, Jr.
Jamaal Franklin
Gorgui Dieng
Jeff Withey
Ray McCallum
Ricky Ledo
Allen Crabbe
Lorenzo Brown
Richard Howell
Deshaun Thomas
Ryan Kelly

Future rotation players like Lehigh's C.J. McCollum have value as post-lottery selections.

Recent years in the NBA have illustrated that teams cannot win the Finals without an excellent supporting cast. Big 3/Heat jokes aside, LeBron couldn't win until he had Shane Battier and Udonis Haslem filling the 4th/5th starter positions on his team. The 2011 Mavericks and Dirk Nowitzki won because Tyson Chandler emerged as an elite defensive center, Shawn Marion did Shawn Marion things, and Jason Terry/JJ Barrea added sparks off the bench. The Spurs have built a dynasty by having a superstar, a couple great guys and several fantastic role players filling out the roster.
When we give grades/evaluations on this draft, we can't measure picks as if they're the next star for their teams. We need to take an extended look at their fit and value as rotation players. A pick like Reggie Bullock, who brings 3-point marksmanship, solid rebounding and defending to a playoff team, has more immediate value than, say, Victor Oladipo, who will be pegged as the young superstar for a team when his true fit is being an exceptional role player.
This is the same reason Harrison Barnes was considered to have a better rookie season than Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. Barnes had real value as a fourth-option wing scorer on a team with established stars. MKG, a second-fiddle by nature, wasn't in a position to succeed as the most talented player on the Bobcats.
So, yes, we can all laugh at the fact Alex Len will stroll onto the draft stage early Thursday night, and that team's fans will convince themselves he's their big man of the future. We'll get a lot of good laughs at some of the guys who go in the top 10, and we'll get a lot of good laughs when all 10 of those teams are back in the lottery next year. But, pay special attention as the night grows older. The NBA is getting more competitive and more balanced, and somebody picked by a playoff team in the back half of the first round could be the one guy who swings a championship to his city. This draft is light on stars but heavy on solid contributors. That's not glamorous, but it's interesting to real basketball fans at the very least.
And please, to any GM who wants to compete, use a second-round flyer on N.C. State's Richard Howell. His floor is Reggie Evans, who just started for the 4th-seeded Nets and pulled down 11+ rebounds a game.