***Official 2012 NBA/Royce White Draft Day Thread***

[Jordanj6502]

Oh, New Yorkers...

[HFCS]

I despise David Stern as much as anyone in sports, but I never tire of listening to his pronunciation of "Houston".

EUWWWSTON Rockets

[DistrictCyclone]

JH analysis from Yahoo sports:

Mike Huguenin's Analysis: Hamilton began his career at Iowa State before becoming a productive one-season player at LSU. He’s a big, physical guy who has some low-post moves, but he is slow and not that good a rebounder. He also shot less than 50 percent from the floor.

I don't think that's accurate at all; I remember Ham having a very good FG% (like most guys who take most of their shots a few feet from the hoop).

EDIT: had a .494 FG% ... dropped a lot from his ISU days.

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bask...ustin-hamilton

[CycloneErik]

Ham had a really nice game against Kentucky in the SEC tournament.

Not like Royce, of course, but there's only one Royce.

[HFCS]

Wow Hamilton was drafted.

Not too big of a shocker given the lack of quality big men who can shoot. I was actually pretty surprised that Jared Homan never stuck in the league for at least a little bit. I think a lot of it is lucky breaks. I've certainly seen centers with worse game than he had cashing a few NBA checks. He'd have been significantly better defensively on day one than quite a few around the league when he left ISU.

[DistrictCyclone]

Big Ham to the Heat just happened.

[DistrictCyclone]

Anyone think Gatens gets drafted in 2nd round?

***OFFICIALLY*** did not happen.

[RING4CY]

If this sticks, here's a great looking Houston cap:

Houston Rockets NBA Rev 30 Flex Cap Hats at lids.com


We can wear those colors pretty nicely.

Screw the hat, I want a jersey! Anyone know what # Royce will be wearing?

[IHavNoCyCash]

"There were a lot of things in the hopper, I could tell you that, a lot of different things we were looking at," coach Kevin McHale said. "Ideally, it would've been nice to be able to pull off a trade that really would've helped the team, pretty much immediately. But when those (trades) kind of fell through, we took the players we felt were the best there and we're really happy with the draft.

"Am I disappointed?" McHale said. "There were a few trades that I was excited that we might be able to do. But when they fell through, you move on and you draft and I thought we did a nice job on the draft."

Rockets take Lamb, White and Jones - Boston.com

Interesting quotes

[MNCyGuy]

Wasn't able to watch the draft, but I am catching up this morning. The Fred-McHale connection seems so obvious now, it blows my mind that we didn't spend more time discussing the possibility of Houston taking Royce. I really hope that if Houston ends up putting together a trade package for Dwight Howard that Royce isn't part of it. McHale, while a terrible GM that ruined the T-Wolves, is a great big man coach and by all accounts was a huge part of Kevin Garnett's early development. If he can make improvements to Royce's low post game, which already isn't terrible, to go along with his more unorthodox power forward skills he could really develop into a special NBA player.

[rholtgraves]

How about Oklahoma City picking up a talent like Perry Jones that late in the draft? He would have been a top 5 pick after his freshman year.

I also liked Boston's picks. If Sullinger can be fine after surgery they got a great deal with that pick.

[dtISU]

Screw the hat, I want a jersey! Anyone know what # Royce will be wearing?

I only want a jersey if it cheap and high quality!

[uro cy]

My overall draft grade: C-

There were no great suits...where have you gone Joachim Noah, Karl Malone, Maurice Taylor....

Where was Stephen A. Smith?!? The harassing SAS videos are classics.

[IHavNoCyCash]

Rockets got another Power Forward because of the 4-team trade including Mo Williams and Lamar Odom.

Lamar Odom traded to Los Angeles Clippers, Mo Williams to Utah Jazz in four-team trade - ESPN Los Angeles

[CycloneErik]

Rockets got another Power Forward because of the 4-team trade including Mo Williams and Lamar Odom.

Lamar Odom traded to Los Angeles Clippers, Mo Williams to Utah Jazz in four-team trade - ESPN Los Angeles

They got the rights to an international second-round pick. That doesn't exactly bring somebody in competing for playing time.