Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 8:00 am  |  14 responses

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SLAMonline Mock Draft: James Anderson, No. 17

Building, not rebuilding.

by Russ Bengtson

[Phone ringing]

“Hello?”

“Hey Pax, it’s Thibs. How you doin’?”

“Thibs! Shouldn’t you be working on defense or something?”

“Ha, right. You saw Game 2, right? We’ve got the Lakers right where we want them. Of course we wouldn’t be playing them at all if you were able to trade Luol Deng for Kobe.”

“Lord, don’t remind me. You’re making me want to punch someone and Vinny isn’t around anymore. So what’s up?”

“I was just wondering what the draft was looking like. Any ideas?”

“What, was Gar Forman not around to discuss this?”

*laughter*

“Anyway, I’m looking at this James Anderson kid from Oklahoma State. Seems like the way to go.”

And with the 17th pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, the Chicago Bulls select…

James Anderson from Oklahoma State University.

“Anderson, huh? I read his Draft dot net bio. Sounds like he can help us. I mean, assuming I don’t bring Ray Allen with me.”

“Could you do that?”

“We’ll discuss that later. Heck, I’ll call you from the parade. But back to Anderson. He makes sense to me. He’s 21, so he should be able to contribute right away. He’s a legit 6-6, 200, so he’s a for-real two guard. But didn’t I read somewhere that he’s not a very good defender?”

“Yup.”

“Well hold on — didn’t you hire me because I’m a defensive genius?”

“Yes. That, and because you’re going to get us LeBron.”

*laughter*

“Look Thibs, we know he’s no Scottie Pippen. But he’s got all the tools to BE a Pippen-type, right? Long arms, decent athleticism and quickness. If anyone can make him in to a great defender, isn’t it you? Please say yes — it’s not too late for us to fire you and hire Mike Brown. Besides, did you ever see Ben Gordon play defense? I still have nightmares.”

“Good point, Pax. But don’t we need bigs? What about Daniel Orton? I could turn him in to a monster.”

“No doubt, Thibs — and I’d gladly take him if our pick was later. But we want to win an NBA Championship, not the SEC championship. And not sure whether you’ve noticed, but we need scoring. Derrick might improve his jumper — he probably will — but in the meantime it would be nice to have a shooting guard who can, you know, shoot. I don’t really want to go through another season where our most dangerous three-point threat is a tobacco-spitting center. Orton’s what, 19? You remember the last time we had young bigs without college experience, right? Does the name ‘Eddy Curry’ ring a bell?”

“OK, OK, I get it. Let’s go with Anderson. I’ll tell him all about how Ray takes cabs to the arena and spends more time shooting than anyone alive. I’ll convince him that he can improve his strengths AND his weaknesses. I’ll show him tape of both Allen and Rondo, since he should be able to be a similar defender. If it’s just a matter of working on his stance and stuff like that, I’ll turn him in to an All-NBA defender in no time. Watch me.”

“That’s what I like to hear. Good thing we didn’t hire Calipari. So it’s settled then. If Anderson’s still on the board, he’s ours. This way we get a deadeye shooter from Arkansas without having to give the max to Joe Johnson. Anything else, Thibs?”

“Yeah, what are we gonna do with Luol when LeBron signs?”

*laughter*

“Whoops — gotta go, Pax. Worldwide is on the other line. I wonder what he could possibly want?”

“I knew we hired you for a reason. Tell him I said hi.”

[Click. Dial tone.]