James Harden and Jordan Hill Sign

Arizona’s Jordan Hill and Arizona State’s James Harden have inked contracts for their respected NBA teams. Hnba_logo_2_z-thumbill was the 8th overall pick in the 2009 NBA draft for the New York Knicks while James Harden was the 3rd overall pick for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Details of Harden’s contract were not released yet however it is rumored that Hill’s contract looks something like 4.3 million over the next 2 years. Personally I’m still waiting to hear news about Chase Budinger, another former ex-zona player and Jeff Teague, my underdog pick to turn up huge in the league.

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Better yet, which college team lost the most in the 2009 NBA draft?

It’s fun to discuss the NBA draft in terms of which NBA team will benefit the most from their picks as well as which players were drafted too soon or too late. However it is rare that a rookie comes into the league and dominates right away. They may snatch a starting position and put up impressive numbers in their first year, but they almost never make a huge impact right away. They have to develop first. That is why after the NBA draft it is more fun to discuss the NCAA. Imagine losing an NBA quality player at the college level? Now that makes an impact on your team. So instead of further dissecting where the draft picks are headed, were taking you back to where these players came from to see which programs have gaping holes to fill next season. The rules of this evaluation are simple: Two NBA players that leave the NCAA affect the college they attended more than if just one player left. So below are all the colleges that lost 2 or more players this year to the 2009 NBA draft.Louisville Media Day Basketball

  • Arizona – Jordan Hill (8) and Chase Budinger (44)
  • Arizona State- James Harden (3) and Jeff Pendergraph (31)
  • Uconn- Hasheem Thabeet (2) and A.J. Price (52)
  • Louisville- Terrance Williams (11) and Earl Clark (14)
  • Memphis- Tyreke Evans (4) and Robert Dozier (60)
  • North Carolina- Tyler Hansbrough (13)/ Ty Lawson (18)/ Wayne Ellington (28)/ Danny Green (46)
  • Oklahoma- Blake Griffin (1) and Taylor Griffin (48)
  • Pittsburgh- Sam Young (36) and Dejuan Blair (37)
  • UCLA- Jrue Holiday (17) and Darren Collison (21)
  • USC- DeMar DeRozan (9) and Taj Gibson (26)
  • Wake Forest– James Johnson (16) and Jeff Teague (19)
  1. North Carolina wins or technically loses this contest. Four players from their team left the Baby Blue behind. They have by far the most work to do if they are to match the caliber of their championship team this past year.
  2. Louisville loses the second most.  Terrance Willams and Earl Clark closed business deals for them on the court and losing them hurts.
  3. Arizona State and Wake Forest tie for third. ASU will have a tough time in the Pac-10 without Harden’s scoring and Pendergraph rebounding and blocking shots. Wake Forest finished poorly this last season but will be hard to recognize without James Johnson and Jeff Teague.

James Harden and Gilbert Arenas Twins?

The NBA draft is only three days out and the only thing that is certain is that everything is uncertain. Teams ing202266_u52637_Gilbert_ArenasPHP4919E61073EB0 the past years at three days out almost always knew which players were going to be available when their turn to pick was up and they knew which players they’ll most likely decide to draft. This year is completely different. There are potentially 50 different combinations of how players could be drafted positions 2 thru 10 or something close to 50 (not going to do the math right now better to spend the time studying the players), which is crazy.

What would be funny in my book and what is probable is that James Harden from Arizona State will be drafted fifth overall to the Washington Wizards. He would play opposite Gilbert Arenas on the wing and would confuse the hell out of me if I were a defender. Think about playing transition defense against the Wizards when they have numbers on the break. Everyone knows Harden is going to his left because he is like Lamar Odom and can only go left, so as I defender you want to make him use his right hand. However at the speed a fastbreak happens would you be able to tell if the guy with the ball is James Harden or Gilbert Arenas? I mean they look really similar, are close enough in stature, and yeahh look similar. I’m thinking they are twins, were separated at birth, that one of them lost a birth certificate, and are about to be united on the court in Washington. Want more proof that they are twins? Twins think alike. Gilbert Arenas played college ball at Arizona while James Harden played at Arizona State.