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The man projected to be the Nets' first round pick in the 2009 draft, according to a highly regarded Web site, had some seemingly alarming measurables over the weekend.
Pittsburgh's monster power forward DeJuan Blair, one of college basketball's premeir low-post players over the last few years, is currently New Jersey's projected selection at 11th overall, according to DraftExpress. That site lists Blair at 6'7 and 265 pounds, which is quite small for a low-post player, with few exceptions like the great Charles Barkley. Blair has drawn comparisons to former NBA'er Robert "Tractor" Traylor because of their similar build, and college success.
What was alarming, was that Blair measures only 6'5.25 in shoes, according to Draft Express' Chicago combine report, which is even somewhat small for a small forward, and even tinier for someone who seemingly would play the four at the next level like Blair. But DraftExpress went on to compare Blair to other previous draftees, saying that "Blair is a quarter of an inch taller than Jason Maxiell without shoes and an inch shorter than Paul Millsap." Blair's potential upside would seemingly be high energy, smaller, post-up players like Detroit's Maxiell and Utah's Millsap, who really improved significantly over the last season and would command a huge salary on the free agent market this summer if the Jazz choose to resign Carlos Boozer. If the Nets can draft someone even close to Millsap's ability to compliment Brook Lopez on their front line, it would be an extremely successful draft, especially given New Jersey's unenviable position at 11th in the draft. I wondered what Nets fans think of the team drafting Blair even though the team invested a pick just last year in Ryan Anderson and traded Richard Jefferson for a big man project in Yi Jianlian.
In a call made to the Newark Star-Ledger's Dave D'Allesandro, Nets General Manager Rod Thorn said that the team interviewed 13 players while in Chicago. Blair, Louisville's Earl Clark, Ohio State's BJ Mullens, North Carolina's Ty Lawson and Tyler Hansbrough, Kentucky's Jodie Meeks, USC's DeMar DeRozan, Georgetown's DaJuan Summers, Arizona State's James Harden, Duke's Gerald Henderson, Wake Forest's James Johnson, Davidson's Stephon Curry, Syracuse's Johnny Flynn, UCF's Jermaine Taylor and UCLA's Jrue Holliday were all given half hour interviews by New Jersey. I think that it would be fairly safe to say that the Nets are going to take one of those 13 players with the 11th pick, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on the situation.
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