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Miles won't be starry-eyed for long
Posted: Thursday June 29, 2000 08:47 PM
Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor gave his post-mortem on the NBA draft to CNNSI.com: CNNSI.com: The Clippers are excited about the potential of high school star Darius Miles. But should Miles be excited about being a Clipper? Phil Taylor: I don't think he'll be excited for very long, once he gets a good look at that Clippers organization. As a young player coming straight out of high school, he's especially raw, and he really needs a stable organization to go to, and the Clippers are definitely not that. They have no coach in place; they're going to have, really, nothing but young players, no veteran leadership to show Miles the ropes. It's almost like showing up for the first day of school and finding out that there's no teacher in the classroom and that the principal doesn't care. He's going to have to be a very strong individual in order to keep from getting into bad habits and becoming disillusioned. If he thinks he's going to a typical NBA franchise, he's very wrong -- this is probably the worst place he could have ended up. CNNSI.com: Predicting the future impact of these picks is an inexact science; who among the draftees would you consider sleepers, able to deliver more than expected? PT: The guy I've heard a lot about from personnel people and who rose very quickly in the draft was Jerome Moiso of UCLA, who was taken by the Boston Celtics. Moiso is a long-limbed kind of player, a little like Marcus Camby or Theo Ratliff, in that he can block shots inside. But he has a little bit more of an offensive game than those guys do. Once he gets around the basket, he has some nice moves, so he can score for a team as well. I really think that down the line we may be looking at him as a guy who should have gone even higher than he did. Another guy who is a possible sleeper is Courtney Alexander, who wound up in Dallas. He's a fine shooting guard, has the kind of game that's suited for the pros. He's going to get the opportunity to play a lot for the Mavericks; I think he could put up some pretty good numbers for a rookie. He might be a guy you'll find in the rookie of the year race, because he's going to have the stats and the playing time. CNNSI.com: The Chicago Bulls were busy, practically drafting a whole new roster. What do their picks tell us about the future, particularly the team's pursuit of free agents? PT: It was very interesting that they went for Marcus Fizer. A lot of people were left scratching their heads when the Bulls made that choice. The fact that they already have Elton Brand at power forward means that Fizer's going to be tried out as the 3, at small forward. That would tend to make you believe that the Bulls don't think they have a great chance to get some of the big-name small forwards in free agency like Grant Hill or Tracy McGrady. Taking Fizer was an interesting move, and it could be a precursor to tell you that Chicago isn't going to be as big of a player in the free-agent market as the team hoped it would be. CNNSI.com: As the dust settles, do you see a clear-cut winner as far as a team that performed best? PT: I think you'd have to pick the Orlando Magic. They did everything they wanted to do on draft night. They got a pretty good player who might be able to help them in Mike Miller, a forward who can handle the ball and create things for other players. And they dealt those other two first-round picks, which they really didn't want. They didn't want any more young players taking up salary-cap room. They dealt those picks, dealt the contract they wanted to get rid of with Derek Strong, and freed up even more money for this great free-agent sweepstakes. The way the Magic dealt with things on draft night makes you think that general manager John Gabriel thinks they have a great chance to get either Tim Duncan or Hill or perhaps both. The Magic were the big winners and Gabriel was the big star of draft night 2000.
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