Certain NBA GMs have proven very deft at using the draft to better their team even in inauspicious draft spots, with later selections like Tim Hardaway, Karl Malone, Gilbert Arenas, and Tony Parker.  These steals are often the difference in making a team advance to the next level or keeping you on top.

But what about the picks that are so obvious even the dumbest team could make them? And in some cases, should have made them?  Here's a brief selection of those:

2009 Blake Griffin, #1 to the LA Clippers: Just look at the number 2 pick, Shawn Bradley 2.0, and you know all you need to about this draft.  Hmmm...the double-double machine with awesome athleticism  or #2 or the teen point guard from Spain, etc.? 

2007 Kevin Durant, #2 to the Seattle Sonics: You may recall the debate over whether Durant or Oden was better (this debate is settled now, no?).  Since the Blazers took Oden, the Sonics made this pick asleep.  While the Sonics/Thunder deserve no credit for this pick, the Blazers certainly deserve scorn for passing up one of the most breathtaking college players of all time who crushed all competition in every single national POY award.  How untouchable would Portland be with Durant?  Scary to think about, so I'm glad I don't have to.

2006 Brandon Roy, #6 to the Blazers (via trade): The Italian Nowitzki-lite?  The 'Stache?  The Landlord?  These teams should have gone with the leader who could do everything well and deliver in crunch time.  I believe it was me who said in October 2006 about the Bobcats: "They drafted the 'Stache, but when Brandon Roy hoists the Rookie of the Year trophy this year and is knocking down clutch shots in the playoffs in a few years, the Bobcats will conclude they made the wrong choice."  Picks 9 and 10 in that draft are so horrible, the entire personell department should have been immediately gutted.  Not fired, actually gutted.

2005 Chris Paul, #4 to the Hornets: After the Bucks amused us with the selection of the Australio-Croat, the Hawks picked UNC's sixth man, and Deron Williams went to the Jazz, who else could they have picked?  The next six are an astounding collection of chuckers.

2003 Lebron James, #1 to the Cavs: We were all witnesses to the Kings awesomeness.  As fantastic as picks 3-5 were, LBJ was the obvious choice.  Not so obvious: why the supremely overrated Joe Dumars picked the Count Chocula soundalike who couldn't even crack the rotation on his second-rate Serbian team.

1997 Tim Duncan, #1 to the Spurs: 1997's draft looks a lot like this year's.  Duncan was the unanimous player of the year and Boston not getting him set the Celtics back for years.  He looked like an all-timer from beginning, and the next pick was Keith Van Horrible.  Billups has made a nice career for himself (at #3) and McGrady was briefly a superstar-caliber player, but the rest of the lottery picks are a litany of busts and overrated role-players. 

Our Congress is wasting more of its time debating with the NBA about its age rule (instead of spending time giving our tax dollars to banks posting billion dollar profits and union cronies who oppose trade that would grow our economy).  There are innumerable precedents to setting an age limit in a workplace, and given that the NBA is a venture entered into by free will, it is only legal and logical that it should be able to set a few basic parameters for working there.

Lots of people oppose age limits (like R Kelly, Roman Polanski, the late Michael Jackson) who argue that players have a right to earn a living.  How is this right taken away?  Players are free to work anywhere else - an office, a restaurant, even the NBDL - and as Brandon Jennings showed us last year, they can make a nice living playing basketball abroad.  The NBA has a responsibility to its shareholders to protect the value and quality of their product and have the right to do it in a manner they see fit.  PR backlash from the drafting of high school players was strong, especially among non-young fans.

Is the game any worse off for not having these players for a year or two?  Couldn't we have done without Kobe's airballs against the Jazz in the playoffs, or Lebron's bad Cleveland teams missing the playoffs, or the initally unimpressive showings of Garnett, Chandler, and Jermaine O'Neal?  And weren't Derrick Rose and OJ Mayo handsomely compensated for their efforts in college? (Zing!)

The NBA age floor provides the league with more polished, mature athletes who have built a bit of a brand for themselves in the college game.  Staying in college didn't hurt Tim Duncan or Brandon Roy, and even helped Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley.  The only people truly harmed are the failures who fold under the pressure of increased competitiveness, like Kwame Brown and his ilk.

One thing that drives me nuts is when a basketball player can't shoot, particularly free throws.  In all the draft previews, Jay Bilas and Chad Ford will mention player after player who needs to work on his jump shot.  My question is why haven't they nailed that anyway?  Isn't shooting the ball a huge percentage of the job? 

Would you go to a dentist who was great with teeth, but not so much with gums?  Would you want a construction company that made superior roofs and foundations, but made horrible walls?

After playing for 5 years where his time could be exclusively dedicated to basketball, Dwight Howard has no low post moves?  That's his job!  Shaq has become a worse free throw shooter over his career.  Chris Paul can't hire a shooting coach and develop a jumper?  He's a basketball player, dammit.

Are Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan, Robert Horry, and Jerry West known for their clutch leaping?  Basketballers everywhere: learn to shoot - it's your job.

A lackluster NBA draft like 2009's is sure to be only magnifies the difference between the well-run teams and the ones doomed to Clipperdom.  Myriad factors play into a draftee's success: background, demeanor, makeup of the drafting team, coaching, and plain ol' luck.  From management's perspective, the utmost care must be taken in assembling your team of millionaires who will 82+ times a year prove your competence or lack thereof.  Thus teams with lottery picks must be especially careful in their selections, not just for the sake of building the team, but for the perception of paying customers of how they're building the team. 

That's why Ricky Rubio presents such a challenge.  Scouting of European teams has become vastly more sophisticated in the past decade, but the huge differences in style of play and team composition make it difficult to extrapolate how well a foreign player will do in the NBA.  European leagues have a long history of producing excellent NBA swingmen and even a handful of quality bigs.  However, here's the list of All-Star point guards from across the Atlantic: Tony Parker.  Carlos Arroyo and Jose Calderon have been contributors and the jury's still out on Sergio Rodriguez, but the list of busts is lengthy, including such luminaries as Marko Jaric and Sarunas Jasikevicius.  Success in Europe, like success in the American college game, doesn't always translate (e.g. Adam Morrison and JJ Redick were both in these NBA finals, fetching drinks for Kobe and Dwight), especially from point guard production.

Some might make the argument that Rubio performed well in international competition, even against the mighty Redeem Team.  There are several flaws with this thinking.  First, FIBA is not the NBA, with different game play and even a different court.  Second, a couple of games against Team USA is a pathetic sample size to know how someone fares against the NBA style, and it doesn't say anything about how he would play in an NBA style.  Third, certain players make a big splash in international play and it doesn't carry over into league play.  Sarunas Jasikevicius had a long history of sensational play in international tournaments, particularly torching Team USA (2000 Gold medal game?)  Then he signed with the Pacers and was dealt to the Warriors and couldn't crack the rotation in either place and went back to Europe with his tail between his legs.

Lastly, when you watch Ricky Rubio highlights, none of them include him hitting a jump shot.  With a low, flat shot and poor lateral movement, he is guaranteed to be torched on both ends by guards with any quickness.

There is a lot to like about Ricky Rubio - his passing, his court awareness, his leadership potential - but before we anoint him, let's take a long, hard look at his entire skill set and the history of European point guards in the NBA. 

I think any NBA fan should be wary anytime your team is looking at any player whose skills are "raw," especially on offense.  For the life of me, I cannot remember a single player entering the NBA draft who was described as raw who ever lived up to their so-called potential; do Jonathan Bender, Al Harrington, Josh Smith, Patrick O'Bryant, Mahmoud Sene, and Macie Lampej ring a bell?  In the history of the NBA, nobody has ever gone from terrible to All-Star offensively, and rarely defensively.  Dwight Howard has been in the NBA 5 years and dude still has no baby hook?  I once read that some scouts have hope for Thabeet's offensive game because of his free throw stroke (he maxed out his sophomore year at 69.8%); these scouts should be issued a lifetime ban.  Thabeet is a miserable passer (about half an assist a game), can be moved fairly easily from his post position, has no offensive moves, has a fairly high turnover rate for a player not involved in the offense, and cannot shoot outside of 3 feet.  Hasheem Thabeet will never be more than an offensive liability.   I guess the glass-half-full view is that there's nowhere to go but up.

Thabeet's NBA comparison is allegedly Dikembe Mutombo, but it's likelier that he's more Shawn Bradley than Deke.  Here's a comparison of their college stats in their best season (Thabeet as a 22 year old junior, Mutombo as a 24 year old junior, and Bradley as an 18 year old freshman):

Thabeet      PTS 13.6  REB 10.8  AST .5    STL .6  BLK 4.2  FG% .640  FT% .627  MPG 31.8

Mutombo    PTS 15.2  REB 12.2  AST 1.6  STL .6  BLK 4.7  FG% .586  FT% .703  MPG 34.1

Bradley       PTS 14.8  REB 7.7    AST 1.2   STL .7  BLK 5.2  FG% .582  FT% .692  MPG 28.9

Other than Bradley's rebounding number (which is superior to the freshman numbers of both Thabeet and Mutombo, 6.4 and 3.3 respectively), the numbers match up fairly well.  Additional factors come into play in translating those college performances into professional play.  Bradley played in the WAC, many of whose teams are now in the Mountain West, so the competition wasn't that imposing with the exception of Utah.  At the same time, he played with lackluster teammates.  He also took two years off from basketball to serve as a missionary.  Thabeet  and Mutombo played in the Big East, the premier conference in college basketball.  Mutombo played alongside Alonzo Mourning in an era where college basketball was much deeper and Thabeet played with talented perimeter players in an era where the best players play for a season or two and leave.

Thabeet weighs some 30 pounds more than Bradley's playing weight, but true big men have brutalized him with his surprising weakness (DeJuan Blair, anybody?) and poor footwork.  Mutombo was a rock in the post, moved only by the human steamroller Shaquille O'Neal.  Dikembe and Shawn never developed consistent offensive games, but Mutombo won defensive player of the year 4 times and Bradley was in the top 10 in blocks every season of his career despite largely coming off the bench.

Hasheem Thabeet has a long way to go to prove that he's a budding Mutombo.  It's more likely he'll have a career more comparable to Shawn Bradley but with better rebounding instincts.  At worst, he'll be an Adonal Foyle, at best Dikembe Mutombo.  What you have to ask yourself is if that's worth a very high lottery pick, even in this terrible draft.  If you're the Grizzlies and have needs at every position, you need somebody who'll be more versatile.  He might be a fit for the Thunder who could just use someone in the middle to ignite the break with blocks and rebounds. 

Thabeet is not going to be a superstar and probably not be one of the best defensive players of his generation, but considering that Shawn Bradley earned $70 million in the course of his career, there are worse lives to have.