NBA Draft 2013: SB Nation's 1st round draft round up, and Utah Jazz grade

So SB Nation's blogs have been having a mock draft. You can find all of the info at Ridiculous Upside here. We were more likely to wheel and deal than actual NBA GMs and wheel and deal we did. Here's how it all went down.

Bottom Line:

The Jazz end up with three good players, and still hold onto our second round pick and our 2014 pick.

• #14: D. Schroeder, PG -->RU page where I talk about why we made this pick

Last season the Utah Jazz started three guys on the wrong side of 30 at point guard during any random part of the season. The most complete player was the oldest. The best defender was coming off an injury. And the youngest was the one who has the least ‘point guard-y' game of the trio. The madness must stop in a Western Conference stocked with talented point guards who love to run the pick and roll. The Jazz need to correct all of the point guard fail, and will attempt to do so in short order by drafting Schroeder. While he's young and turnover prone, he's injury free and fearless. His shot needs work, but admits with pride that his calling card is defense. It's easy to see why, he has a 6'7.75 wingspan and will get his hands on more balls than a urologist. The Jazz don't need a me-first point guard on the team, they need a PG who can spoon feed our young bigmen and know how to play defense. Out of all that point guards in this draft no one does those two things better than Dennis. Meeting him at the NBA Draft Combine I immediately hated this guy. (A German guy who doesn't listen to Techno music?) However, the entire Jazz roster is filled with pussycats. Maybe it's time we got someone with a little attitude back on the court.

• #21: K. Olynyk, PF/C -->RU page where I talk about why we made this pick

The Jazz currently field Derrick Favors and Enes Kanter. They are the future towers that the team will build around, and their exploits are apparent. Favors routinely emasculates other big men by blocking their shots or dunking on them; while Kanter is a throwback bruiser who has already had a 20/20 game by the tender age of 20. They both rebound and play defense. But neither have that stretch ability that all good big men of this era need to have. That's where Kelly Olynyk comes in.

He is a stretch big who shot 33.3 3pt% over his three year collegiate career. At the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago he was one of the few bigmen to participate in the Pick and Pop, and Spot up around the world from three drills. He surprised me by actually being a way better shooter from deep (NBA three point range) than I had anticipated. I guess this is a product of working on his game for three years in college.

Olynyk is actually older than both Favors and Kanter, which is a plus, and finished his last NCAA season with a robust line of 18 / 7 / 2 / 1 / 1. He's more than just a jump shooter, and it's obvious that Utah needs some more polished younger guys on their roster. But probably the best thing about Kelly is that he's not going to challenge Favors and Kanter for the lion's share of the minutes in the frontcourt. It (Mehmet) Okurs to me that he could be a solid third big on an up and coming team.

• #26: S. Adams, C -->RU page where I talk about why we made this pick

Steven Adams is a steal at #26 and needed to be picked up. He's a 19 year old 7 footer, his agent is Arn Tellen, and the super raw young man has only been playing basketball for a handful of years. As a result, he hasn't learned any bad habits yet. He's primed to get better and with the right coaching could be a rotation player in this league for a very long time. As a Freshman he averaged 2.0 bpg in less than 24 mpg. That's not too shabby for a guy who doesn't know how to play yet. While he's young and inexperienced he has an NBA ready body at 255 pounds, and NBA ready athleticism for a 7 footer with a 33.0 Maximum Vertical , 6.7% body fat, and a 3.40 second sprint time. Adams could be a bubble lotto pick who fell down to the bottom of the first. This is a no brainer. And that's fine, because Karl Malone was hired on to work with the bigmen. Adding Adams to Derrick Favors, Enes Kanter, and Kelly Olynyk - and brains aren't his specialty. Brawn is.

And we also pick up:

• PG/SG: J.J. Barea (MIN) for the cost of Jeremy Evans.

Jeremy Evans was a troublemaker in Utah, with his consistently poor work habits, penchant for arriving to practice and flights late, and his better left unstated "$5,000 a day Faberge egg" habit. It was the last straw when instead of working on his game in the off-season he took off with two UtahJazz.com employees to go on a road trip - more like a vision quest - to remote locations of the American South West. Okay, only the last part is true, and he's doing charity work right now to underserved communities. He's a great guy, but not a very useful basketball player. He has been in the league three seasons and has not yet developed the skills needed to be a power forward, or transition to a small forward. No ball handling skills. No jumper. No post moves. Did not gain any weight. He is really good a jumping though. J.J. Barea is a little pricey right now, but last season Mo Williams and Randy Foye cost the Jazz $11 million alone. He does what they do, but at less than half the cost. Jub Jub also brings championship experience to the lottery Jazz. Utah takes on some salary here, but they also get a late 1st round pick.

Furthermore, the draft ended before we could sign off on a deal we are working with the Oklahoma City Thunder that could only happen after July 1st (or 15th, I'm not a cap expert). It would be: Al Jefferson, J.J. Barea, and Steven Adams (2013 #26) for Kendrick Perkins, Cody Zeller (the 2013 #12), the 2013 #32. We did not do a second round, but I would have for sure picked the BPA shooting guard there (Ricky Ledo or Tim Hardaway Jr.). Hopefully if he lasted that long I would have also picked up Myck Kabongo with our #46, or traded up for him with the #46 and cash.

Everyone of the contributors at SLC Dunk gave their input for this exercise and it was a team selection each time. I'm happy with what we were able to accomplish.

How do you think we did?