Chronicle draft recap; quotes from the staff & Eddie

Wouldn't want to spoil HP's morning by telling anything in the headline.

Rockets trade top picks to Nets for Eddie Griffin

By JONATHAN FEIGEN
Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle

Killing time between the endless strategy sessions and tape examinations, Rockets coach Rudy Tomjanovich put his coaches and scouts through a draft exercise.

Who, Tomjanovich asked, would they choose if -- instead of picking 13th in Wednesday's NBA draft -- they could pick first?

One name Tomjanovich said was the overwhelming choice:

Eddie Griffin.

The Rockets never did get the No. 1 pick, but they got their No. 1 choice, sending the rights to their three first-round picks -- the 13th, 18th and 23rd picks of the draft -- to New Jersey to pick up Griffin, a 6-9 freshman forward from Seton Hall who until recent days had been projected as the No. 1 pick of the draft.

"No way in the world did we think we would have the opportunity to get this guy," Tomjanovich said. "Three picks help you fill some big holes. (But) we think we got someone special. How many times do you get a chance to get a special player? Now we got this guy."

Griffin was at least as surprised as the Rockets to find himself unclaimed through six picks. To that, he went from staying in New Jersey and the same arena in which he played college ball, to a team that had not even worked him out.

AP Seton Hall star Eddie Griffin did not even work out for the Rockets, but the team has had its eyes on him from the start. "I was shocked about it," Griffin said. "People were saying I was going No. 1. I'm find I went No. 7. I'm happy to be drafted in the NBA.

"I'm real excited about it. I was excited going to New Jersey. I'm excited I'm going to Houston and playing with Cuttino Mobley and Steve Francis.

"They're a team on the rise. They have good, talented, young players. I'm going to try to fit in."

The Rockets considered Griffin's availability so stunning a turn of events and Griffin so rare a talent that Tomjanovich compared acquiring Griffin to the trade that brought Steve Francis, the second player taken in the 1999 draft to Houston.

He was not alone.

"We feel unbelievably fortunate," Rockets owner Leslie Alexander said in a statement, "to get a player who could have been the No. 1 pick."

The Francis trade actually helped the Rockets net Griffin, with the eighteenth pick coming from Orlando to help complete that three-team deal. The twenty-third pick came from Orlando in exchange for the extra draft pick the Rockets picked up from last season's draft day trade with the Bucks for center Jason Collier.

The Rockets later parlayed another first-round pick acquired for another player that never played for them, Mirsad Turkcan, to pick up Maryland forward Terence Morris in the second round. The Rockets sent the future pick the Pistons had owed them, any pick the Pistons should acquire by 2004, to Atlanta for the fifth pick of the second round, using it to acquire Francis' former Maryland teammate.

Tomjanovich said he had considered Morris a high first-round prospect two years ago when Morris, a 6-9 senior, considered coming out for the draft.

"Terence is a guy I watched for several years," Tomjanovich said. "He's a guy a couple of years ago we thought was going to come out and I thought would fit the way I wanted to play. I was disappointed when he went back in. That kid just fits us."

Griffin offers a different sort of fit, bringing a physical, forward with a taste for battling on the boards and defending inside. Tomjanovich said Griffin can defend small forwards or power forwards and in some cases, centers.

"I think I can help them out with rebounding and shot blocking and help out scoring," Griffin said.

That much has been clear. The tricky part was getting a way to move into a position to select one of the draft's most coveted talents.

Though the Rockets have been working to move up in the draft for weeks, and especially since acquiring the eighteenth pick June 12, the deal on Wednesday was not completed until the five-minute window after the Grizzlies had selected Shane Battier, putting the Nets on the board.

The Rockets had often discussed moving up with the Nets and other teams, giving the Nets a pretty good idea they were not wasting their time calling on Wednesday. But Tomjanovich said he made his staff pause for a moment before doing what they had done before and choose Griffin.

Griffin might have slipped because of several incidents of fights in high school and at Seton Hall. Tomjanovich said the Rockets research, however, failed to raise any concerns.

"We heard he's a quiet kid, loves basketball and keeps to himself," Tomjanovich said.
Griffin was second in the nation in blocked, averaging 4.43 per game while averaging 17.8 points on 43 percent shooting.

"It was really an amazing situation," Tomjanovich said. "We thought Eddie Griffin would be picked very high talent. We did some ratings of this draft and he was right there on top.

"Versatility. Size. We think he's an all around guy. He can block shots. He can rebound, shoot outside, finish inside and he's 19 years old.

"When you're talking about three pick for one, he would have to be someone special. It reminds me of the Steve Francis situation. It's amazing how things can happen. I couldn't be happier."

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/sports/bk/bkn/955320

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