Interview with: Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors)

If there is one thing that I can be truly proud of on this blog (and the ones before it) is that I have always been fortunate enough to get great people to interview. And once again this comes to life when I am able to do another edition of “Interview with: Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors)”, who can also be followed on Twitter. As I have done with some other bloggers I ask him some general questions about the NBA Draft, then hit him up with some about the four Heels headed to the pro’s. But let me stop yapping and give you the newest interview from The Fifth Corner…

A.E.M.:  We are going to talk NBA Draft, so my first question to you is pretty forward. Is this a strong or weak draft. How do you rank it amongst the last 5/10 years?

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors):  It’s far from the weakest draft in the last 10 years, but it’s certainly nowhere near the strength of the 2003 NBA Draft obviously, with the likes of Lebron, Melo, Wade, Bosh, Howard, West, Diaw etc.

If you forced me to tip one way or the other i’d have to call it a weak draft. There are a ton of legitimate athletes with huge ‘potential’, but they are very raw and won’t be immediate impact players. There are a lot of ‘projects’ in this year’s draft.

A.E.M.: Moving on from the draft itself, let now talk about the players. Who is the player that you believe is going to be the absolute lock – can’t miss – this is the one – pick of this draft? And of course why is that.

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors): I think anyone you ask this question will have to go with Blake Griffin. Griffin is a player that will immediately help any team that drafts him with his offensive and defensive abilities. He’s well built for his age so he should be able to handle the increase in physicality in the NBA game. He can jump put of the gym, has great timing, and is skilled enough that he is as much of a ‘lock’ as you will get in this year’s draft.

A.E.M.: Staying with the best of the best, give me your best for each position.

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors): I guess my ‘First-team All Draft’ right now would have to be:

H.Thabeet – C

B. Griffin – PF

T. Williams – SF

J. Harden – SG

B. Jennings – PG (yes, I think Jennings is going to be much better than Rubio in the long haul)

A.E.M.: And if I ask you about the best pick of the draft, you know I am going to ask you to tell me who you believe is going to be the one that we all should have stayed away – can’t believe it’s so bad – pick of this year? And again, why is that.

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors): Hmmm….this is a tough one. I hate to rain on someones parade this early before all of the pre-draft camps and workouts really show us who has been puttin’ in work. So instead of who I think will be the worst, i’ll give you my opinion on who I think is currently much too high on all draft boards, including The Hoop Doctors by Doc Dime. Ricky Rubio.

I watched quite a bit of Rubio in the Olympics last summmer, and this season on televised Euro games. The guy has some serious handle and great court vision. He has potential, and I think one day could be a fine NBA player. With that said, I think he currently is the 3rd or 4th best PG option in the draft. He is being overhyped and i’m not sure why. Maybe because of his exciting style of play and the hopes he’ll put butts in seats.

He’s flashy, but lacks the substance necessary to be an immediate impact player in the NBA. Personally I think he’s far too skinny to be able to defend any point guard in the league. I think he’ll be outweighed by even the littlest of point guards like Steve Nash, and Mo Williams let alone trying to guard the big strong ones like Jason Kidd, Chauncey Billups, Chris Paul, Deron Williams etc.

Offensively he’s streaky, and plays with a lot of emotion. Don’t get me wrong emotion is good. But given the grind of the NBA season, and the fact that he’ll most likely get drafted by a weaker team that needs him to log a lot of minutes to stay competitive, his lack of consistency and an even keel may not serve him well. He’s one guy that i’d prefer to see drafted lower to avoid lofty expectations. My guess is Rubio will take at least 3-4 years in the NBA to develop into the player people will expect him to be in his first season.

A.E.M.: Now that we have worked on the easy questions, time to get more specific. Who is the one player going in the second round that we don’t know much about and is going to be a household name come next year?

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors): Actually there is one particular player that we’ve started hearing has been performing really well in recent workouts that has been turning some heads. Apparently Tyrell Biggs of Pitt has been playing out of his mind lately, and has some scouts even considering the possibility of taking him in the late first round. Look for him to be a possible sleeper in this year’s draft.

A.E.M.: Now, as you know my blog is about North Carolina. This year four players from Chapel Hill are going to be in the draft. I would like you to tell me where each of them (Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green) will end up (more or less) in the draft.

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors): Well Ty Lawson is one of the Top 4 point guards available in the draft so he’ll be your first Tar Heel on the board. Then I think Tyler and Wayne should go in the mid-late first round. Danny Green probably early-mid second round.

A.E.M.: As I ask any blogger of the NBA (or college), what do you think of the “one and done” rule? Would you keep it as is, tweak it a bit or get rid of it altogether.

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors): Personally, I think David Stern had the right intentions when coming up with the one and done rule. But the problem is the player’s nowadays have options. Stern at the time wasn’t really thinking of the global implications of his actions. Now that we are seeing young ballers not only go to Europe to play professionally instead of college for that one year, we are also seeing some drop out of high school and play professionally for 2-3 years before becoming eligible.

Clearly, the lure of the money from Europe, as well as the NBA’s draft rule have combined to have a reverse effect to that which David Stern was looking for when it came to the development process for young ballers.

Problem now is, the cat is out of the bag, the horse has left the barn, etc. It’s too late, reversing the rule won’t do much good now.

A.E.M.:And lastly, the question I ask of any blogger: where do you see blogging going? Both compared to main stream media and the single blogs (as both of us have) compared to the blog community (as both of us write for).

Dr. Anklesnap (The Hoop Doctors):I may be a little too close to the subject to be objective, but I think that sports blogging is the way of the future for sports fans to consume their sports information. They want entertainment, analysis, and media.

What people are quickly realizing, is the blogosphere as a collective can give that to them quicker, easier, and more ‘uncut’ then the mainstream media ever can hope to.

Personally I think people generally want to feel part of something, whether it’s a community, a culture, or a paradigm. That is something sports blogs provide to the average fan that mainstream media has not in the past. Blogs are an interactive community where the readers are no longer just ‘readers’, they are “users” who can get involved, discuss, argue, and produce content themselves.

What more can there be to be said than to thank Dr. Anklesnap for stopping by and doing this. Now my only hope is to be able to get him back once the draft is over to see how he did with his predictions. Until then I hope you enjoy this edition of “Interview with:”.

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