In yesterdays NBA Draft two players from the Mountain West Conference. The first was J.R. Giddens from the University of New Mexico and was selected by the world champion Boston Celtics. Giddens has the talent who could have been a lottery pick, but with all of his off the court issues is stock dropped all the way to the 30th pick. Being teamed up with a talented and older team perhaps Giddens will learn from the experience of Paul Pierece, Ray Allen, and Kevin Garnett. If Giddens can stay focused on the court then look for this to be a steal of a pick for the Celtics. Giddens is a scorer and could be an impact off the bench in year one.
The next pick came from BYU with Center Trent Plaisted being drafted at pick 46 by the Seattle Super Sonics, but they were picking for Detroit in the trade which is where Plaisted will end up, pending league approval.
In my opinion Plaisted would have been better off waiting one more to enter the draft, because this years Freshman class was one of the best in the last 15 years and a slew of big men. Plaisted might have been a first rounder if he did stay next year, not because he would improve all that much but as of now it looks to be a weaker Freshman class and less quality big men. If the trade goes through to Detroit, Plaisted could help soon with his size and defensive presence. Offensively Plaisted had problems going against players with size, but by going against Rasheed Wallace, Theo Ratliff, and Antonio McDyess in practice should toughen him up.