Check out our first Mock Draft for the upcoming 2011 NBA Draft:

1. Cleveland - Kyrie Irving. Cleveland would be crazy not to take the Duke product (and Australian native…we had to throw that in there), Irving with the number 1 pick. They need a new start, a new floor leader and Irving is a true PG who can distribute, shoot, defend, makes good decisions and has NBA ready ball handling & speed. We personally have a draft-crush on Kemba Walker, but Irving makes the most sense for the Cavs. He also gives them some class…which they’ve lacked in all their Lebron-hating over the past 12 months.
2. Minnesota – Derrick Williams is the the most obvious choice here. He’s one of the very few NBA-ready players in the draft. Although we think they still have much work to do. The T-Wolves have finally secured the previously unrequited love of Ricky Rubio so drafting a point guard is out of the question. They have Anthony Randolph, Michael Beasley, Martell Webster & Wesley Johnson under contract filling up the 3 & 4 positions with Kevin Love also in the rotation. Our thinking is that Minnesota will trade this pick if they can’t move either Randolph or Beasley. It’s likely that they’ll trade down and take a SG or C that better suits them right now.
3. Utah - Brandon Knight. We don’t really get it. We like Knight but we don’t understand why Utah are hell-bent on taking a PG in the draft when they have  Devin Harris under contract for another 2 years and over $17m. But if their desire is a creating, pass-first point guard then Knight is the best option.
4. Cleveland – Enes Kanter. The Cavs will take Enes Canter here…but we feel Jan Vesely would be a better fit. The Cavs already have Varejao and JJ Hickson under contract with Antawn Jamieson also playing a lot of power forward… Vesely is a 6-11 combo forward who has a tonne of moves in the mid & low post. He’d slot in very nicely with the existing unit in Cleveland and we’d love to see it. But it’s likely we’ll see Canter picked at 4 as the Cavs are big on Kanter.
5. Toronto – Kemba Walker. The Raptors were terrible last season and need to take the best player available. The Raps have never been big on Calderon and Barbosa didn’t impress. Latest word is Barbosa is heavily considering the free agent market. Kemba could really revitalise this franchise and he’d make life a lot easier for Demar Derozan in the back-court sa well.
6. Washington – Kawhi Leonard. Some don’t see him going this high, but the guy has a great motor, is athletic and runs the floor with a lot of energy. Big time rebounder (pulled down 17 boards against UNLV), good instincts on the defensive end, good guy. Put him on the floor with Wall, Crawford, McGee & Blatche….hell yes.
7. Sacramento – Jimmer Fredette. He’s not exactly a pure point guard but the Kings can’t work with Beno Udrih anymore. Fredette is one hell of a shooter. Seriously, the guy can jack it up from 35ft and is a phenomenal scorer. Tyreke Evans is a slasher, a creator off the dribble…the Kings need a shooter in the backcourt to compliment Evans’ game and we think Fredette is the answer. He averaged 28.9ppg last season including a HUGE 52 points against New Mexico.
8. Detroit – Jonas Valanciunas. We’re sure Detroit are hoping that big Jonas falls this far. He’s the tough, rebounding, athletic, back-t0-the-basket big man that the Pistons need to allow Greg Monroe to play more outside and on the high blocks where he’s more comfortable.
9. Charlotte – Jan Vesely. Vesely would be the best option for Charlotte here. Before the signing of Rich Cho we would have some joke here about ‘does it matter? The Bobcats will screw up their pick anyway.’ But we have faith in Cho. Vesely would be a great pickup or perhaps the versatile Alec Burks.
10. Milwaukee – Marcus Morris. The Bucks have a good looking roster, they just struggled with cohesiveness & injuries last season. For the Bucks, you have to take the best player available who is going to play hard, get along with team-mates and score points (Bucks were last in the NBA in 10-11 in points per game. Tristian Thompson is also an option at pick 10 but for the folks down here at 3MW, we’d take Morris for sure. He’s a much better scorer, better shooter and has risen to fame alongside his brother Markieff so has no problem sharing the spotlight.
11. Golden State – Alec Burks. The Bobcats were second last in the NBA in scoring last season and Burks would be a nice addition. A 6-6 PG/SG with a great knack for getting to the line (7.9 free throw attempts a game last season), he’ll get to the basket in the NBA. Good passer, athletic, think Eddie Jones or Manu Ginobili.
12. Utah – Chris Singleton. He’s a very ‘Utah Jazz’ kinda guy. Strong, big, long, athletic, can defend extremely well, good attitude, good motor. No real ‘back to the basket’ game to speak of, but can hit a face-up jumper which could work in nicely with Al Jefferson. Still a good chance they’ll take Klay Thompson though.
13. Phoenix – Marshon Brooks. Smart player. Has good athleticism but unlike other draftees, Brooks doesn’t always rely on athletic gifts to create offense or get to the basket. He’s got a nice range of offensive moves, almost likea crafty veteran. Has been called out for his lack of athleticism, strength & speed… but everything we’ve seen is that Brooks certainly lacks strength (he was one of the weakest in bench press at the Draft Combine). But athleticism and speed he has…just doesn’t always play with it. He’s better than he’s been given credit for… lucky for Phoenix. A Marshon Brooks/Petrius/Childress combination at the 2-guard spot means the Suns don’t need to re-sign the continually dissapointing Vince Carter.
14. Houston – Bismack Biyombo. The Rockets may or may not have Yao Ming back in the lineup. After Yao, they have 35 year old Brad Miller, the raw & undeveloped Hasheem Thabeet and potentially could bring back the 6-6 Chuck Hayes. They really need some help in the middle and Biyombo could be that guy. Scouts are loving the 6-9 centre from the Congo in workouts and his draft stock is rising. Don’t be surprised if he goes even higher than 14.
15. Indiana – Klay Thompson. The Pacers are finally rid of TJ Ford, Jeff Foster, Jamaal Tinsley and potentially Mike Dunleavy Jr as well. That’s over $30m in salaries that they’ve really been waiting to wave goodbye to. Hopefully we’re seeing a revival of the Pacers now and what better way to do it than drafting a ‘Larry Bird’ kind of player. Klay Thompson (6-7 SG) can flat out shoot the rock. He averaged 22.1ppg in his junior season and a very good defender (he averaged 1.6 steals a game last season). He’s a tough competitor, from a small town and achieves much despite his lack of physical gifts. Sound like anyone? No wonder Larry Bird is a fan of this kid.
16. Philadelphia – Tristian Thompson. Not likely he’ll be here…some scouts are very, very big on Thompson. He plays very smartly, gets great position defensively, seals his man well for rebounds. Not much of a shooter, needs work offensively but will get minutes in the NBA for his defensive ability alone.
17. New York – Donatas Motiejunas. Motiejunas pulled out of the draft last year and it’s tough to say whether the extra year in Europe has increased his draft stock. Houston, Indiana and Philadelphia are all chances to pick the 7-0 F/C from Lithuania. Has a tonne of talent but is accused at times of being lazy and lacking energy. Donatas has played brilliantly in the Italian leagues, but his draft workouts have been short of terrible. The last thing New York needs is a potential problem, but with no GM and owner James Dolan making the pick… we expect the worst.
18. Washington – Markieff Morris. His brother Marcus has a bit more ‘wow’ factor, but Marfieff is one of those guys who does A LOT of things well. He may not be a standout post player, or shooter, or defender, etc, etc. But we’ll say again… he does A LOT of things quite well. He shot 59% from the field in his final year of college, makes good decisions. BUT, we think Washington will trade this pick. They have 13 players under contract going into 11-12, plus the 6th pick gives them 14 guys with guaranteed contracts. We don’t see them taking on another guaranteed contract with a lockout looming.
19. Charlotte – Jordan Hamilton. The 6-8 SG/SF from Texas can create his own shot and in a range of different ways, too. He’s a decent rebounder, so-so defender, but DOES have the ability to play in an NBA style of system. The Texas Longhorns have adopted an ex-Utah Jazz (see, Jerry Sloan) system, so Hamilton already has proven he can play in a system making him a decent pick at this point in the draft.
20. Minnesota – Tyler Honeycutt. The T-Wolves will have the 2nd pick to add to their young core of Love, Rubio, Beasley, Webster & others. They could trade this pick, but if they keep it then Honeycutt would be great. He’s a 6-8 SG, or SF, or perhaps a point… Honeycutt doesn’t really know what he is. Tonnes of potential, great basketball IQ but between positions and at only 187 pounds he may have a tough transition to the next level. The Wolves have players to play ahead of him and allow Honeycutt to develop. The team who can do that may be fortunate enough to do that could reap the benefits.
21. Portland – Trey Thompkins. The Blazers don’t have a great history of healthy Bigs, so we can see them taking the 6-10 power forward from Georgia. He’s not a brilliant athlete, but he’s got a nice post game, nice jump shot, great with either hand, doesn’t give up defensively. Ain’t gonna throw one down from the free throw line, but the Trailblazers could pick a lot worse at 21.
22. Denver – Malcolm Lee. Lee has shown in workouts that he’s one of the most underrated
23. Houston – Kenneth Faried. Yes, he’s only 6-7. But he averaged 14.5 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a game last season. Amazing physical gifts, great leaping ability to go along with being one of the best (if not THE best) rebounders in this draft class.
24. OKC – Reggie Jackson. Apparently the Thunder have already made a promise to take Jackson if he’s still on the board. All more to fuel the rumour that Russell Westbrook will be shipped out of OKC this summer.
25. Boston – DeAndre Liggins. The Celtics are still hurting from the loss of Tony Allen. He guarded Lebron, he guarded Kobe, he guarded Dwayne Wade, he guarded everyone and they felt it come playoffs last season. Liggins is possibly the best on-the-ball defender in the draft. Maybe he’s not a first round pick, but as talented as Boston are they can probably afford to draft him at 25. He’s 6-6, 210, can guard all three perimeter positions, shoots the three at .391%…why not?
26. Dallas – Tobias Harris - The 6-8 combo forward from Tennessee has some great tools and has the NBA skill set, but we think he’ll get passed on/slept on.
27. New Jersey – Nikola Vucevic. Great size (6-11 & 260), can shoot the rock, has a comfortable range out to 18ft.
28. Chicago – Justin Harper. The 6-9 power forward shot 49% from three as a senior and 53% from the field. Ability to shoot that far out is going to mean a tonne of pick and rolls with D-Rose.
29. San Antonio – Iman Shumpert. So you’re sitting around saying ‘what would Coach Popp say?’ This is what we did, and we came up with Shumpert. If the Spurs don’t take him, then someone else will. And whoever that is will be happy. Shumpert has an EPIC amount of athleticism (he recorded a 42″ vertical leap at the Draft Combine), averaged 2.7 steals a game last year for the Yellowjackets…the guy has all the physical tools, can defend, looks after the ball…that alone will make Coach Popp happy.
30. Chicago – This pick is for sale at the moment so we’re going to cop out and say we’re undecided.

Just outside our first round:

Kyle Singler - The senior from Duke is a guy that’s worthy of going in the first round, but just not enough ‘wow’ factor for the guy.
Nolan Smith – Singler’s teammate at Duke averaged 21.3ppg last season. We don’t get why there’s not more interest in Smith, so he could end up being a steal.

Geoff Petrie. President of the Sacramento Kings? Yeah him. He balled. True. He played in the NBA. Not only did he play, he was good. Seriously good. We’re not talking Rick Carlisle good (Note – we love Coach Carlisle), we’re talking balling good.

Petrie was a three sport athlete during his days at Springfield High School in Pennsylvania. Plenty of talent, he was fortunate enough to have an opportunity to attend Princeton University where he averaged 18.3ppg in his Tiger career before entering the NBA.

Petrie was drafted eighth in 1970 by the expansion Trail Blazers and signed to a three-year, $150,000 contract. He averaged 24.8 points an outing and was co-Rookie of the Year with Dave Cowens. Petrie was a long-range bomber before the league had long-range bombers. With range out past the three point line (a line that didn’t exist at the time), Petrie was a two time All Star and twice dropped more than 50 points in an NBA game. If you ask anyone who had to guard Petrie back in the day they will all say the same thing… that he was a killer. If not for injuries, he would have been one of the greatest of all time. Furthermore, he was the first NBA player to ditch his Converse & Adidas for a pair of Nikes.

It was late in the fall of 1971 when Petrie started to be grounded… “Tore my ACL in my left knee, never was the same,” according to Petrie. “It really got to me later in my basketball career, because the surgery to repair such an injury was very experimental at the time.”

As the years went on, Petrie’s knee became worse and his game had to change. ”I was taking a lot of anti-inflammatories and having the occasional injections,” Petrie said. “The cutting, the jumping, the planting, I couldn’t do it …what happens is you start to play around with things. By my sixth year, I was really struggling.” In the 1975-76 season, Petrie averaged 18.9ppg (struggling?) and at the close of the season he was traded to the Atlanta Hawks. Petrie never suited up for the Hawks, and instead retired from the NBA.

Over the next several years, watching basketball was tough on Petrie. He dabbled in real estate, managed the office of the Trail Blazers’ team doctor and took over the basketball team at Willamette College in ’83-84 when the coach went on sabbatical. “I missed my prime, and there were times when I thought, This just isn’t right,” says Petrie. He’s asked how good he could have been with a healthy left knee. “That’s not for me to judge, I guess. I was frustrated and was not prepared to stop playing at age 28. It was a difficult time, but the flip side is that I got to start for six years and play a lot when I was healthy. I wish we could have had a little more team success, but I had some individual success. Some of my knee injuries probably went all the way back to 9th grade football. I moved on but would not trade those six years for anything.”

What’s Geoff Petrie’s life now? He’s the President of Basketball Operations for the Sacramento King. Yeah the Kings are in a rebuilding process at the moment but let’s not forget that under Petrie, the Kings have drafted Peja Stojakovic, Jason Williams, Gerald Wallace, Hedo Turkoglu, Kevin Martin, Spencer Hawes, Jason Thompson, Tyreke Evans and Demarcus Cousins. He engineered the Mitch Richmond for Chris Webber trade bringing C-Webb to Sac-town, then two years later traded the overrated Jason Williams to the Grizzlies for Mike Bibby. In a few short years, Petrie turned around a franchise with a 27-55 record to a powerhouse that won an average of 56 games a season from 2001 to 2005. Petrie won the NBA’s Executive of the Year Award in 1999 an 2000 and perhaps may have earned the Kings a ring if not for a team called the Lakers and a guy named Tim.

These are probably things you know about Petrie’s career in the front office of Kings. But we bet you didn’t know he once was one of the NBA’s best, an NBA Rookie of the Year, dropped 50 points in a game and was one of the few powerhouse players to come out of the NCAA’s Ivy League? Now you know…

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We don’t get into the habit of defending Lebron James very often, but all the talk (much of it coming from Deshawn Stevenson) about Lebron ‘checking out’ in this Finals series is all a bit much. Granted, he’s not played at his usual standard offensively. The numbers tell that alone where James’ scoring has dropped to 17ppg down from the 25.8ppg he averaged against Chicago in the Eastern Conference Finals. Hate away, but in the end…..he’s defending well, he’s playing hard, he’s competing. He IS deferring to Wade more, yes. But if we took a poll with Miami Heat fans as to ‘who do you want taking a big shot at the end of the game?’…we are guessing that Dwayne Wade would receive more votes. And we’d agree. So Lebron is deferring offensively to a guy who is a better option? And what’s so bad about that?

Even so, Chris Sheridan from ESPN recently said ‘I asked Lebron if he could break a dollar and he said he could only give me three quarters.’

The Mavs are 3-0 in the NBA Finals against Miami…. when Brian Cardinal plays.

The New York Knicks recently held their free agent camp with Javaris Crittendon and Bonzi Wells both playing extremely well.

Allen Iverson wants to return to the NBA, but he couldn’t even muster a full season in Turkey? Don’t get us wrong, we’d love to see AI back in the NBA but we just don’t know he’s got enough in the tank.

We don’t want Isiah Thomas involved with ANY NBA team, but if it has to be the Pistons to keep him from destoying the Knicks again then we’ll live with that. Reality is, Joe Dumars is a better GM than Isiah Thomas will ever be a coach so the NBA is safer with Thomas in Detroit.

While we are talking about coaches, we would love to see Larry Bird back on the sidelines.

But we’ll settle for Mark Jackson… YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!! Could we be happier?  Probably not…

Portland are in talks with Sacramento &  Toronto in an attempt to move up in the NBA Draft. Apparently the Blazers have Andre Miller on the table with their 17th pick with the plan to move up and nab UCONN’s Kemba Walker.

While we’re on the draft, we’ll go out on a limb and say Kentucky big Enes Kanter is overrated. He has some serious range for a big guy, but when you’re his size you are going to score points in college. We’re hearing top 3 from some places, but we see him more as just outside the lottery.

We won’t dwell on Game 2 of the Finals too much. There’s PLENTY of good journalism on ESPN and other networks to dig into the results of Dallas’ epic come-from-behind win in Game 2 against Miami. But for us… Shawn Marion. Yep, Dirk was amazing in the fourth quarter. Yes, Tyson Chandler was great. Rick Carlisle did a phenomenal job managing the minutes. Especially for Chandler (38 mins up from a post-season average of 31.5) and Jason Kidd (38 mins up from 34) who both looked fresh everytime they were on the floor. But Marion. Shawn Marion. The guy made a tonne of big plays. There were nine times in the game where Dallas were scoreless for more than a minute. Four of those times, Marion broke the drought. Not to mention, Marion was also guarding Lebron James in the fourth quarter (James shot 0-3 in the finalperiod, missing all three of his jumpshots in the final 3:27). Shawn Marion.

Goodbye Shaq, we’ll miss you.

Gilbert Arenas is back on twitter.

Donnie Walsh is out of NY, is Mike D’Antoni next?

Steve Nash was in the crowd for Game 2 in Miami and mentioned afterwards that it was the first live NBA game he’s attended since he was in College at Santa Clara.

We really thought better of the LA Lakers organisation than to hire a coach without talking to Kobe Bryant. Now, let’s be realistic…the Buss family own that team. They can hire, fire, do whatever they please. Kobe is an employee so they hardly need his approval. BUT, out of respect for the guy you are paying $30m to and helped get you 5 x championships…maybe you should have made a call and say ‘Hey Kobe, you like Mike Brown as a coach?’

If Isiah Thomas ends up back in the Knicks organisation, James Dolan should be taken away by the men in white coats to a ‘special hospital’.

Mike Brown will be telling Kobe what to do from the Lakers bench… What do you think about that? We like Coach Mike Brown, but aren’t sure if he’s in the Doc Rivers category (nice guy, nice coach but not great) or the Greg Poppovich category (Coach extraordinaire – see also Phil Jackson). We’re really looking forward to seeing what Mike Brown can do with that Laker team.

There are four types of Dallas fans right now:
1. Fans who love Dallas.
2. Fans who love Dirk, therefore love Dallas but would love any Dirk-team.
3. Fans who are die hard Western Conference fans so at this point in the season, Dallas is their team.
4. Fans who hate Miami and are ordering their Mavs jerseys to wear during the finals as we speak.

Steve Nash, once again showing why he’s one of the best people in the NBA with his genuine support of NBA players having freedom of sexual preferance and his support of gay marriage in the USA. Love your work, Steve.

Jamal Crawford, even at age 31 has to be one of the most sought after guys this offseason.

We still don’t get why the Blazers fired GM Rich Cho. The guy made the biggest mid-season trade of 2010-11, bringing Gerald Wallace to P0rtland. That trade made the Trailblazers SO much better. Granted, they traded away some height but Wallace is a recent All Star who flourished in Portland after the trade. Then, when the season is done….they fire the guy who made it happen? Must be some serious personality conflicts in that front office. 3MW has learned one example of this, that when Brandon Roy complained of court-time late in the season, Cho was pushing internally to fine Roy for his public comments. Unfortunately for Cho, Blazers owner Paul Allen and President Larry Miller saw it differently and veto’d Cho’s attempts to punish Roy for his negative comments.

Back to the NBA Finals with the Mavs & Heat, we’ve got ANOTHER rematch on our hands. No doubt every reporter and analyst will talk of this, but we’re having our say too. Doing the research, these aren’t that rare in the whole scheme of things. 30 teams in the NBA, 15 teams per conference and we still have plenty of rematches in NBA Finals history. We’ll limit it to a 5 year window so we can include the current Finals and go back 40 years… check it:

2011 – Mavs v Heat rematch from 2006 (Heat won in 2006)
2010 – Lakers v Celtics rematch from 2008 (Lakers won the rematch after Boston won in 2008)
1998 – Bulls v Jazz rematch from 1997 (Bulls won both finals series)
1989 – Pistons v Lakers rematch from 1988 (Pistons won the rematch after LA won the 88 Finals)
1987 – Lakers v Celtics rematch from 1985 (Lakers won both finals series)
1986 – Celtics v Rockets rematch from 1981 (Boston won both finals series)
1985 – Lakers v Celtics rematch from 1984 (Lakers won the rematch, Boston won in 1984)
1983 – 76ers v Lakers rematch from 1982 (Sixers won the rematch, Lakers won in 1982)
1982 – 76ers v Lakers rematch from 1980 (Lakers won both finals series)
1979 – Bullets v Supersonics rematch from 1978 (Seattle won the rematch, Washington won in 78)
1973 – Knicks v Lakers rematch from 1972 (New York won the rematch, LA won in 1972)
1972 – Knicks v Lakers rematch from 1970 (Lakers won the rematch, NY won in 1970)

Draw your own conclusions on that one and let us know here at 3 Man Weave.