NBA Draft 2012 Grades: Analyzing Dion Waiters and Biggest Reaches of First Round
Thursday night's NBA draft kicked off with the obvious choice of Kentucky forward Anthony Davis going to the New Orleans Hornets, but there was plenty of unpredictability from that point forward.
Making a surprising pick isn't necessarily a bad thing every time, but there are occasions where teams outsmart themselves and end up with a poor selection because of it.
There were several teams who appeared to do precisely that on Thursday, and it could have a negative effect moving forward. Going with the obvious pick may not always be exciting or captivating, but it is usually the right move. A few teams threw that convention out the window, however, and it will be interesting to see how it works out.
Here is some in-depth analysis, as well as grades for the three most head-scratching reaches of Thursday's first round.
With both Kansas forward Thomas Robinson and North Carolina forward Harrison Barnes still available at No. 4, the Cleveland Cavaliers seemed poised to nab an elite prospect in this year's draft.
They opted to go way off the board, though, when they took Syracuse combo guard Dion Waiters. He has been a fast-riser throughout the draft process and looked to be a late lottery pick, but the Cavaliers stunned everyone when they made him a top-five selection. There had been talk that Cleveland liked him and that obviously proved to be true.
The Cavaliers needed help at essentially every position aside from point guard with Kyrie Irving in the fold, so they couldn't go wrong from that standpoint. I can't help but think that they would have been way better off with an interior scoring presence like Robinson, however.
Waiters is intriguing because of his ability to attack the rim and get to the line, but he didn't start a game for the Orange this past season and has questionable defensive ability coming out of a zone. Waiters could be a nice complement to Irving, but there was very little value to this pick.
Grade: D
Entering the draft, there was a lot of talk about what the Toronto Raptors might do with the No. 8 pick. They have some decent pieces in Andrea Bargnani, Jose Calderon and DeMar DeRozan, but it's tough to say exactly what kind of team they're trying to build.
Clearly the Raptors were looking for a perimeter shooter and scorer, as they went with Washington guard Terrence Ross at that spot. The pick came as a pretty big surprise as Ross was tabbed as someone who would go outside the lottery and perhaps as late as the 20s.
Maybe the Raptors had plans to take someone like Waiters or Barnes, who went a pick ahead of them, and Ross was their contingency plan. Entering the draft, Ross was a guy I really liked because he has good size at 6'7" and can score in a variety of ways.
Toronto seems to be crafting a team that can play an up-tempo style and spread the floor with shooters, so Ross is a good fit in that regard. I might have traded down with a team looking to move up and select center Andre Drummond, such as the Houston Rockets at No. 12, but Toronto identified the guy it liked and didn't worry about how others valued him.
Grade: C
It may not be fair to call a late-first-round pick a reach necessarily, but I doubt many people expected Duke power forward Miles Plumlee to go in the opening round. The seven-footer is definitely intriguing, but the Indiana Pacers shocked a lot of fans when they nabbed him at No. 26.
Plumlee is a big-bodied guy who always puts in an honest effort, but I'm not sure that is deserving of such a high pick. He excels as a rebounder, and that gives him value, but it is essentially his only attribute.
Finding a star-caliber player is tough late in the first round, but it does happen. The Pacers opted to pick up a guy whose ceiling is that of a serviceable role player, though.
I can sort of see where Indiana was coming from, as it is a team with a lot of depth that wanted to add another bench big, but I would be surprised if Plumlee becomes anything more than a center who plays 10-15 minutes per game and gives Roy Hibbert a breather.
At least his rebounding should allow him to hang around in the league, but the Pacers should have taken a shot at someone with more upside.
Grade: F
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