quick mock draft.

1. derrick rose: although the bulls would be much better off with mike beasley, they instead choose a safe, "character-oriented" point guard to go along with the other five guards they have on their team.
2. o.j. mayo: the heat talk themselves into a corner, and the mayo/wade backcourt becomes too hot to pass up.
3. mike beasley: minnesota is confused yet ecstatic at this point, and they snatch their small forward for the next decade.
4. jerryd bayless: sonics get electric combo guard to go along with durant.
5. kevin love: grizzlies opt for slightly more versatile version of brook lopez.
6. eric gordon: too much offense for the knicks to pass up at this point.
7. russell westbrook: clippers prefer smooth shooting guard to ease livingston's transition back to the nba.
8. d.j. augustin: fills a leadership need for bucks.
9. brook lopez: allows bobcats to move okefor back to power forward and sean may back to bench. a win for all involved.
10. danilo gallinari: he slips for no good reason. nets snatch him to play in now european-style offense.
11. brandon rush: pacers gamble and rebuild around some character guys instead of guys with more upside.
12. joe alexander: kings stash away precocious talent.
13. darrell arthur: blazers take forward to come off bench and provide scoring.
14. kosta koufos: in the end, his jump shooting ability and potential to run the floor too much to pass up.
15. robin lopez: suns panic, take next jason collins.
16. anthony randolph: sixers gamble on raw talent to provide inside presence.
17. marreese spreights: now that o'neal is gone, pacers look for additional interior presence.
18. roy hibbert: wizards prefer local center with limited upside to alternatives.
19. donte greene: slipped under the radar, but a player with plenty of upside on a team that desperately needs it.
20. nicolas batum: bobcats shock planet by taking a player that makes sense at this point.
21. jason thompson: nets need interior presence and thompson provides energy and heart.
22. mario chalmers: magic take point guard to hint to jameer nelson that the door isn't so far away.
23. javale mcgee: tough interior presence to step in off jerry sloan's bench.
24. deandre jordan: sonics can't believe good fortune at this point, take raw but talented center.
25. chris douglas-roberts: too easy to take at this point.
26. alexis ajinca: spurs wrap up international center for future.
27. j.j hickson: blazers take combo forward to develop in D-league.
28. serge ibaka: grizzlies take stab at talented big man who may not sign immediately
29. ryan anderson: pistons decided to grab one more shooter to come off the bench.
30. courtney lee: rugged guard to back up ray allen.

thought of the day:

the toronto blue jays' gm, jp riccardi, recently commented on adam dunn's play, and had absolutely nothing that was good to say about it.

maybe someone should comment about the blue jays, their payroll, their manager, and their gm. i bet you would have very little that was good to say about it.

$97 million for the jays. yikes. and a.j. burnett's contract is pretty sweet. link.

also: enjoy paying alex rios $70 million.

U.S. Open

I follow golf intermittently, perhaps because it's a sport that I don't have time to play, can't afford to play, and generally suck at when I do play. But Columbus has been a hotbed for golf over the past month, and I've come to really enjoy watching it, even though the sport isn't action-intensive. Perhaps this is because economics has made me into a completely boring, analytical mess; alternatively, it might be because one of the most underrated sporting experiences I've seen in the past few years was U.S. Open qualifying.

I followed Davis Love III for a few holes and I was shocked at how great he is in person; his drives were between 340 and 370 yards on some holes, and he made a rather intimidating golf course (OSU's Scarlet) seem rather pedestrian on his way to something in the mid-60s, qualifying for the Open. It's interesting that he qualified without an earned exemption, because today he sits around the top of the leaderboard, looking to pick up another major. This is probably what makes the Opens and the PGA better than Augusta; anyone can win, and almost anyone can qualify to have a chance at winning.

The Open at Torrey Pines exemplifies golf's best qualities; you have a megastar lurking to win another major, but you have a ton of great stories right around the lead. I mentioned one earlier; Davis Love's resurgence to play some of the best golf of his career is a welcome sight for a sport so desperate to show that it has more dimensions to it than simply Tiger Woods and a bunch of other random winners. This is an important point; the PGA sees what has happened to the ATP (and, to some extent, the NBA) and is desperate to avoid those fates. And so it has to pull for Els, Love III, and Ogilvy to some extent, because once fans are convinced that the sport is uninteresting all hope is lost.

But the best story at Torrey Pines isn't Woods, or Love, or Ogilvy, or Els. It isn't Lee Westwood's inevitable run at the lead before his fade at the end; it isn't Jimenez or Mediate, two guys who are in the hall of the very good, but aren't considered greats without the majors.

No, it's Stuart Appleby, a guy who lost his first wife in one of the saddest stories you will ever read. Link.

Appleby happens to fall in the Mediate/Jimenez class of the "Hall of the Very Good." Nobody is ever surprised when one of these guys wins a major; after all, Mike Weir and Trevor Immelman have majors, as does David Toms. But it's generally unlikely to see this happen, in part because these guys have the propensity to shoot high numbers more frequently than the elite.

So when Sunday comes around, I hope Appleby is in the lead. Because his win would do more for golf than another Woods victory, or a repeat win by the other major winners around the lead.

outrageous claim of the day and a poll:

paul pierce could take kevin garnett.


kobe: over/under 35 in game 2? i'll take OVER.