WRG 2012 Mock Draft - #16 Houston Rockets

Our last pick tells you where our head is in terms of the risk/reward aspect of this draft.  We think there are players who might turn out to be home runs, but we are more interested in adding precisely what we need to our team.

We feel we did that with the previous pick, and we see a player here who we really think can win us games, whether he replaces a player who leaves or simply joins our rotation and does what he does.

And what he does is pass the ball.

If you go back through recent drafts, almost all the PGs drafted are scorers first and have to learn to run NBA offenses.  We like those players.  We have one in Kyle Lowry who many people said was a career backup, but now has some eye-popping assist totals to go with his natural scoring ability.  We paired him last year with an amazing scorer in Goran Dragic.  The two of them made our PG position one of the strongest overall in the league.

But now Dragic is a free agent, and he is going to command a huge contract which we may not be able to afford.  If he leaves, we feel plugging in a polished, pass-first, good-sized game manager to go along with the explosiveness of the smaller Lowry is the best use of this pick.  Even if Dragic stays, we still consider him a valuable addition considering the questionable durability of our entire backcourt.

The Rockets select Kendall Marshall, PG, North Carolina.  (And we are going to lock him in a gym until he can drill open 15 ft. jumpers from anywhere.)

He already has a hat deal.

WRG Mock Draft: #14, Phoenix Suns

Excuse us if we are in an ornery mood, but the Suns are in a real jam right now.

We saw the window closing two years ago and we got rid of the pebble in our shoe that was Shawn Marion. Instead of taking back an expiring deal and some future picks, we felt we had one last good try in us and acquired Shaq and about $65M of his salary instead.

It didn't work. We have no regrets.

We then tried to transition into a more traditional style of play with a new coach last year. That alienated our players - and to head off a revolt, we had to back down and bring back our old, turbo-paced, stat-bloating system they loved so much.

So right now we have a lot of expensive players we don't want and can't afford, a group of young players playing a system we really don't want them to get comfortable with, and no idea who will be on our team when the season starts - never mind what our long-term identity will be.

So yeah, we are grumpy.

This situation calls for us to simplify, so here's what we're thinking.

Richardson, Barbosa, Dragic and Lopez are our core right now. We have the assets to add a few nice pieces. We believe that will include at least one All-Star quality player.

So we need a guy that can play up front in a high-tempo system, yet be able to adjust to a slower pace in the future. We like Dragic, but we could also use another point guard to potentially replace the cornerstone of our franchise - who may or may not be here, but either way is winding down his career.

So we go to the board, and we see some nice guards, but everyone we wanted this high is gone.

That's fine with us, because a big man with potential to grow is a more urgent need for us, and there is one remaining that we think - in time - can be a star.

And since we have no idea how everything will turn out, we can afford to be patient.

The Phoenix Suns select James Johnson, a big combo forward who is a great fit for us right now - and is versatile enough to grow with us no matter what we become.

♫ Out came the Suuuns and dried up all the rain... ♪

The Detroit Pistons are on the clock.