[Winston-Salem Journal] A TRIP: Battier made some big news on day of draft

he NBA is a trip, but not necessarily a time trip. If the NBA could turn back the clock to Wednesday morning and adjust for assorted night moves, the draft would have turned out differently.

Shane Battier would have been the first Duke player taken, ahead of No. 5 Shelden Williams and No. 11 J.J. Redick. Battier might have been the NBA's first pick, eclipsing Toronto's Andrea Bargnani, a foreign traveler from the Italian A League.

How? In essence, Memphis threw Battier into the draft pool after the fact, trading him to Houston for No. 8 pick Rudy Gay of Connecticut and pedestrian veteran Stromile Swift. Offered the option, several teams ahead of Houston most likely would have welcomed Battier aboard.

Battier was picked sixth in 2001, two months after Duke won the NCAA championship and a year after the same Vancouver/Memphis franchise picked Swift second. Swift basically flopped. The LSU flash rushed to the Grizzlies' bench and stayed there until free agency put him in Houston, where he started five games last season and averaged a typical 8.9 points without doing much else.

Battier panned out as a superior defender and stationary jump shooter during his first five seasons. He averaged 4.8 rebounds, 10.5 points and more public-relations points than all Grizzlies combined for all time. The last category could qualify as a bogus stat, given the Grizzlies' criminal background. Battier made all-rookie and all-teammate, and he helped make the gypsy Grizzlies amiable homebodies in Memphis.

He can play, guaranteed. He will play for the disjointed Rockets after the deal goes through on July 12, the first day his five-year, $32 million contract will permit a trade.

Swift probably doesn't merit major status in the swap, his inclusion presumably needed to make the piles of money even out. Right now, Battier is better than Gay, a 6-9 forward who can shoot and run. Down the road, Gay, 19, might emerge as a star, possibly for another franchise in a league infatuated with three-year commitments.

Is Gay happy? That was hard to discern during the draft telecast. He was perplexed, handed the cap of a Houston team he will not join unless the fine print jams the contract mill. He was asked questions for which he had no solid answers. Gay's position: Everybody cut me out of the information loop.

Jerry West, the Memphis boss, partially adhered to NBA censorship rules regarding unfinished trades while proclaiming Gay one of the top two players in the draft. The day before, West had demeaned the folks who closely follow the Grizzlies.

"Our job is to win games," West said. "If it doesn't satisfy the press or the fans, the hell with 'em."

West apologized, spinning draft magic and draft propaganda in the same sugar-filled machine. Memphis made the playoffs last season with a 49-33 record, fifth in the Western Conference. Will the Grizzlies win more games with Battier gone? That seems unlikely.

That also seems secondary during the intoxicating week surrounding the draft, when the prospect of future romance far exceeds the value of demonstrated love and tangible progress. The modern NBA drafts on potential and promotes its addiction to futures trading, all the while declaring immediate victory within hours (or seconds) of making picks.

With high-school seniors barred from this draft, the NBA projection experts overlooked advanced American talent and invested heavily in foreigners. Only a few foreigners rate as polished products, however, and NBA teams will leave a bunch of them overseas in unofficial development leagues that augment the NBA farm.

This apparently makes perfect sense in the imperfect NBA whirlwind, but when Portland uses the final first-round pick for an Englishman working plainly in Spain (6-10 Joel Freeland), perhaps someone suffers from delusions of sangria.

Along the way, Freeland might compete against Wake Forest's Eric Williams, who got the Big Cold Shoulder, and Justin Gray. The conventional reaction: With second-round contracts worth far less than before, marginal prospects often can arrange better situations here or abroad while operating as free agents.

But unconventional wisdom also applies to Gray, a short shooting guard, and Williams, a center short on face-the-basket forward skills. The baseline: They must improve dramatically to make NBA money or seek professional joy across the pond.

Drafted ACC veterans fared decently. Shelden Williams could start for Atlanta, woefully shy on inside power. Guard Redick, the ACC career scoring leader, could start beside Jameer Nelson for Orlando, which needs a golden outside shooter to parlay with center Dwight Howard.

Cedric Simmons, the 6-9 forward who left N.C. State early, couldn't have done much better than the No. 15 slot, the second player chosen by New Orleans/Oklahoma City as a complementary part for Chris Paul. If Simmons had stayed, the scouts would have emphasized his shortcomings next season rather than overemphasizing his potential, and many entering freshmen might have knocked him down the list.

In the second round, No. 36 Craig Smith (Minnesota), No. 39 David Noel (Milwaukee), No. 45 Alexander Johnson (Indiana) and No. 52 Guillermo Diaz (L.A. Clippers) stuck some large feet in the door. Noel, a heavy contributor as a North Carolina senior, might stay awhile. He can run, defend, rebound, jump over condos and shoot the jumper.

He's not Shane Battier, the instant-replay draftee. Nor is anyone else.

 

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