It is chic, and sometimes justified, to rip on Isiah Thomas in his career as an NBA executive.

Now, I know Isiah earns a lot of his eminity. Some people can't reconcil the Two Zekes. Psychology isn't my field, but from where I sit, Isiah wears The Mask well - I'm talking DuBois, not Jim Carey.  Outside, we get the baby-faced, doe-eyed face, soft voice with the Jell-O pudding smile. Inside, he's straight Michael Corelone. Grow up the way Thomas did, and you better have it.

That core, that life cred makes him able to relate to a Stephon Marbury. Kind of hard to pull nonsense of a man who's won two title on the court. Pity parties won't work on a brother who escaped a Chicago project (and on to a NCAA, two NBA titles, and the Hall Of Fame)that made Coney Island look like Disneyworld.

Celtic Nation still hold the "Larry Bird would be just another good player." line against him - and forget that it was Dennis Rodman who actually mouthed the phrase. Some Piston fans still feel that he shanked a great player and teammate in Adrian Dantley, and got him run out of Motown in favor of his lifelong pal Mark Aguirre.

And we won't even get into the whole CBA mess.

Since taking over as the Knicks GM in late 2003, Isiah has presided over 25 trades, five coaches (including himself), gone through moved more bodies than Tony Soprano (and Tony had a 4 year head start), and it has gotten the Knicks... what?

Well, after the Larry Brown "Reign Of Err", the Knicks actually looked like a playoff team at times, winning 33 games - 10 more than the year before under Brown - and holding down a playoff spot deep into March until injuries to Jamal Crawford, Stephon Marbury, and David Lee proved too much to overcome.

Along the way, the astute fan had to take note of something: For all of the Thomas trades and free agent signings that got rightly panned - my personal favorite was signing fat underachiever Jerome James to a 30 million dollar contract based on one good playoff series against a Kings team minus Chris Webber - Isiah's draft picks have been spot-on:

In 2004, he drafted Trevor Ariza late in the first round. Sought after by several teams after his rookie year, he became trade bait in the Francis trade.

2005: A pretty fair windfall. Channing Frye, who turned in a solid rookie season, and possessed enough promise that Portland welcomed him in the Zack Randolph deal. Isiah also plucked Florida's David Lee at number 30, already acknowledged as one of the league's best rebounders, and a big-time "energy" player off the bench. When he isn't being a knucklehead (or winning dunk championships), Nate Robinson has created a niche as a high energy 6th man, a fan favorite who packs a two-guard mentality into a 5-7 frame.

In 2006, well, do I have to remind anyone of Renaldo Balkman? From personal experience, I can tell you that the best part of attending the NBA Draft are are angry Knicks fans, and they absolutely...cut..LOOSE! The experts echoed the fans with universal disbelief and derision.

Then a funny thing happened - Balkman turned out to be a solid NBA player. He brought defense, passion, and reckless abandon to a team in dire need of all of it. The second Knicks pick, Mardy Collins, made it very easy for the Knicks to move Steve Francis (and his cap-strangling contract) on to Portland, which should tell you a lot.  Note that other than Frye, the above mentioned players were drafted at number 20 or later. How many teams can claim even one decent NBA player acquired at similar spot in the draft?

And now that the dust has settled, Isiah can breathe a huge sigh of relief over the Eddy Curry deal. After foolishly not lottery-protecting either first round pick in the deal, it turns out that the Knicks got Curry for Joakim Noah and Ty Thomas. While both young Bulls are promising talents that will defend and run the court, Curry could very well outscore both men this year - combined. Meanwhile, the Bulls are still in dire need of a low-post presence. Curry had a breakout season last year as a low-post scorer - the scarest commodity in the league, almost making up for his criminal lack of rebounding.

Not such a bad deal after all, eh?

Looking back at the trades Thomas has made, Crawford is on the verge of developing into a prime-time scorer. Quinton Richardson will either start at small forward, or be a may be a valued trade chip. The Malik Rose for Nazr Mohammad deal was panned as a big win for the Spurs. Mohammad has since washed out with both the Spurs and Pistons, and Rose is a valued locker room presence, which was why he was acquired in the first place.

Francis came over for Ariza, and while that deal never worked for all of the obvious reasons, he did net the Knicks a 20-10 player in Randolph.

Above all else, give Zeke credit for trying. In a league where too many executives are scared to pull the trigger on a trade, Thomas is probably too aggressive. His trades have often been poor, and cap-hostile, but he makes them. And some of them do work, once we get past the Isiah-bashing.

And be honest - whose roster would you rather have right now? The Knicks with Curry, Randolph, Marbury, Lee, et al. or the Larry Bird's Pacers? Or the Celtics or T-Wolves?

How about the Knicks' roster versus the Lakers - sans Kobe Bryant?

Yeah, I thought so.

Now, if Isiah would just stay away from Ron Artest...

The Jeopardy Answer Of The Day is... "Whoopy Dee Damn Do." - Derrick Coleman

The Question?

What is "Hey, Paris Hilton was released yesterday!"? DING!

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Every damn June, I tune into the NBA Draft and get reminded how I'm making money the hard way.

I mean, people get PAID to draft J. J. Reddick 11th overall....what is that [insert profane gerund here] GM thinking about? There are few certainities, but here is one: There is some genius who will pass on a Josh Howard to take a Brian Cook. (Yeah, I'm still ticked about that one.) 
 
You get the idea. NBA drafting isn't rocket science. (Yes, I know something about rocket science - this ain't it.) Yet, almost every year, at least 2 or 3 GMs fall on their face. You could spend the next hour reading technical reasons - and NBA sabermetrics are still dicey. But in a nutshell?

No one uses their common sense. If GMs did, the (L)eastern Conference wouldn't get their heads handed to them every year by the West. Then again, the draft wouldn't be half as much fun.

Anyhow, here are some Drafting For Dummies tips for all of you:

• Upside is wonderful for dating a significant other. If she's 35, no kids, a tight body and can tie a cherry stem into a knot with her tongue - she has mad upside.

Alas, upside does NOT work very well with most NBA players. Look for at least five players to be drafted higher than they ought to be because of "upside". Expect one of them - if we're all lucky - to work out. (See DeSanger Diop, Rodney White, etc) If you hear "upside" attached to a player, odds are that he'll either be a 9th or 10th man 4 years from now, or he'll find some game with a different team.

• The NBA Draft makes men sound, uh, less "manly" than they ought to be. You'll hear Jay Bilas or Hubie Brown talk about a prospect being "long" and having a "great body", the same way Peter Graves asked little Robbie if he had ever seen a grown man naked in "Airplane!" All that's missing is some oiled male torsi... Put away your copy of "Roadhouse" and "Top Gun" - it just so happens that there are only so many ways to talk about the potential athleticism of a NBA prospect without having a Brokeback Moment.

But seriously, does Bilas watch gladiator movies? Heh heh heh...

• If you are a GM, and the opportunity presents itself to draft a center - if the center in question is not being compared to an All-Star - PASS. This especially applies to 1) Slow, white American-born college centers and, 2) centers with very difficult to pronounce names (such as Mouhamed Saer Sene). For a while, it seemed that any brother from The Motherland (that's African for the hip-imparied) over 6-10 was being drafted in case they turned into the next Dikembe or Hakeem.

We're still waiting. This year, it will be Spencer Hawes.

• Avoid drafting a player who played poorly against lesser players with better athleticism, especially guards who lived to shoot against zones (see Reddick, J.J., Drew, Bryce). It doesn't get much easier in the NBA ya know. The average player may be poor in the basics, but I'll bet my Tony Parker bachelor party tickets that he's an good "at-uh-lete", as we say in the South.
• By the way, a good GM should look for a guy who played well at the best conferences. (See Howard and Chris Paul.) Production does count you know.
• Avoid players who set the cruise control in college despite prodding. Tim Thomas is the poster boy here for living heart donors. He was a Poster Boy in college. Surprise! He's a pro Poster Boy too.
• And to think, Tim had such upside. He was long...and a "live" body...I wish I could quit him. 
• This one is real important: If a very good player fills a big need - take him. Simple. The Atlanta hawks needed a point guard. They passed on Deron Williams and Chris Paul, to take Marvin Williams. Marvin was such a stud that Atlanta is now looking at Al Horford who plays... the SAME POSITION!

Funny thing is, Atlanta is looking like the Detroit Lions. Every year the Lions passed on other needs to take a wideout. Finally, they HAD to take a wide receiver this year, because Calvin Johnson was too damned good to pass on, no matter what their other needs were.. Same thing will probably happen this year with the Hawks. And it will be the right move...and Mike Conley will haunt the Hawks for the next decade.

OK...now that you are primed on what to look for, here is WHO to look for. No fancy ratings, simple. Best case and worst case. Don't ya love it when I keep it simple?

The G-Report Player Ratings:

Greg Oden - Ohio State
Hope: That he is the next Bill Russell. Or at least Ben Wallace Squared - with some offense.
Fear: That his wrist has the karma of Grant Hill's ankle.

Kevin Durant - Texas
Hope: He's Kevin Garnett with handle.
Fear: He steps into an open manhole.

Mike Conley Jr. - Ohio State
Hope: He's Mo Cheeks and Mike Bibby, but much quicker.
Fear: He's Jamal Tinsley, but much quicker.

Spencer Hawes - Washington
Hope: He's Bill Laimbeer or Vlade Divac.
Fear: He's Big Country Reeves

Al Horford - Florida
Hope: He's Karl Malone.
Fear: He's Tito Horford.

Yi Jianlian
Hope: He is the next Bob McAdoo.
Fear: He's the next Tim Thomas.

Jeff Green - Georgetown
Hope: He's Scotty Pippen, with some low-post game.
Fear: He never learns to shoot.

Joakim Noah - Florida
Hope: Noah is a young Paul Silas.
Fear: Noah is Mark Madsen with a ponytail.

Corey Brewer - Florida
Hope: He's another Scotty Pippen.
Fear: He's a poor man's Larry Hughes. You expect so much more.

Brandan Wright - North Carolina
Hope: That three years from now, Wright looks like Shawn Marion.
Fear: Three years from now, his nickname is "Brenda".

Acie Law - Texas A&M
Hope: Law becomes another Chauncey Billups one day.
Fear: Law is a not-so-Speedy Claxton.

Nick Young
Hope: Nick shoots it like Peja Stojakovic.
Fear: Remember John Salmons?

Julian Wright
Hope: He's a bigger, better Boris Diaw.
Fear: He forgets that taking over a game is not illegal.

Morris Almond - Rice U.
Hope: He is the next Ricky Pierce (It's a Rice thing.), or better, Michael Redd.
Fear: He's the next Steve Kerr.

Jared "From Subway" Dudley - Boston College
Hope: He develops into a poor man's Shane Battier.
Fear: The real Shane Battier isn't making anyone's All-Star team.

Nick Fazekas - Nevada
Hope: He's been likened to Keith Van Horn with a better inside game.
Fear: Anybody likened to Keith Van Horn isn't hitting on much.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis - LSU
Hope: He's a taller Charles Barkley who keep his weight down and his game up.
Fear:  Either he'll 1) Eat a teammate. or 2) He'll single-handedly cause the NBA to add food to their substance abuse list. 

Jarvis Crittenton - G-Tech
Hope: He can play the point like Reggie Theus
Fear: He plays the point like Earl Watson.