NBA GM on This Year’s Draft: ‘It’s Horrendous’

With the lottery taking place tonight, NBA front-office types aren’t exactly looking forward to this year’s Draft class, to say the least. From Yahoo! Sports: “After the past four drafts produced Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Blake Griffin and John Wall, 2011 isn’t expected to offer any can’t-miss stars. Whoever wins the lottery can’t be sure they’ll receive a franchise-changing player. ‘You can only pick who’s there,’ [Toronto Raptors GM Bryan] Colangelo said. One Western Conference general manager was more succinct in his analysis of this year’s pool of available players. ‘It’s horrendous,’ he said. ‘Every year we always talk about how bad the draft is. This year we really mean it.’ Colangelo considers Duke freshman point guard Kyrie Irving and Arizona sophomore forward Derrick Williams the top prospects available, but said the rest of the draft holds a lot of ‘murkiness.’ Another NBA GM thinks Turkish center Enes Kanter and Lithuanian center Jonas Valanciunas could also merit consideration with the No. 1 pick.”