NBA Draft: Where will J. J. Hickson and Ty Lawson Land?

With the draft quickly approaching and since I live in ACC country I thought I would take a look at where two intriguing prospects from this area (Raleigh-Durham), J. J. Hickson and Ty Lawson, may end up going.  For what it is worth both Yahoo! Sports has Lawson going to New Orleans at 27, NBADraft.net has him going to Memphis at 28, ESPN’s Chad Ford originally had Denver taking him at 20 but has since dropped him out of the first round, and SI’s Ian Thomsen has him going to the Pistons who own the 29th pick. 

Of the 4 Ford’s forecast of him going to Denver and Thomsen’s pick of him going to Detroit make the most sense to me on Lawson.  For the life of me I cannot think of a reason why NO would spend a top pick on Lawson when they already have Mike James and Janerro Pargo who can back Paul up at the point.  Ty Lawson is strictly a PG so why draft someone who is only needed for 10-15 minutes a game?  They are better off finding combo guards who can play the point in a pinch or for short stretches of time as Paul is going to be on the floor 36 to 40 minutes almost every night.

Why would Memphis have any interest in Lawson when they just drafted Mike Conley, Jr., traded for Javaris Crittenten, and have Kyle Lowry under contract?  Why add a 4th young PG to the mix when they already have 3 who are 22 and younger to begin with and they would be better served finding a vet who can mentor the younger guys?

Detroit makes sense simply because Chauncey Billupsand Lindsay Hunter are both on the wrong side of 30 and Araon Afflalo and Rodney Stuckey are really better scorers than they are distrbutors.  The only reason I can think of why Detroit would shy away from Lawson would be due to his wild inconsistencies running the halfcourt offense while at UNC.  It could be argued that Quentin Thomas was better at running the halfcourt offense than Lawson was this past season.  Given the age of guys like Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace, Billups, and McDyess the Pistons tend to like to pace themselves somewhat on offense and not run as much.

Denver makes the most sense for Lawson if he is being slotted as a back third of the first round pick simply because his skillset is a perfect fit for an up-and-down the floor kind of team and he would help take some of the ballhandling duties away from Allen Iverson.  His lack of a consistent jump shot also makes him a better fit on a team that likes to run whenever possible and does not rely on its halfcourt offense to score the bulk of its points.

As for Hickson Yahoo! has him going to Detroit, NBADraft.net has him going to Boston with the last pick of the first round, ESPN has him going to Memphis at 25, and SI does not have him being drafted in the first round at all.

Of the Hickson scenarios the only one I wonder about is Boston.  They already have two young players who are similar to Hickson in Leon Powe and Glenn Davis and the Celtics really need to find some quality perimeter help for Pierce and Allen. 

Detroit seems like a good fit as long as he is willing to defend. With Rasheed and McDyess getting up there in years the Pistons are going to need to look at who is going to fill their shoes within the next couple of years. Maxiell is a nice player but is more of a defensive/rebounding presence and Hickson could give them some frontcourt scoring punch if he keeps his head on straight and does not wash out of the league after a couple of years.

Memphis is probably the best fit for Hicksonthough.  The Grizzlies are in desperate need of someone who can hang and bang under the boards and give them the toughness they never had with Pau Gasol.  The Grizzlies would be getting someone who has lottery pick ability but just needs another year or two of seasoning before he is truly ready for the prime time of the NBA.  Fortunately for him he would not be walking into a situation where the team needs him to score 15-20 points per game and would just need him to rebound and block shots while guys like Mike Miller and Rudy Gay remain the focal point of the offense.

It should be interesting to see where these two players end up.  Personally I thought they should have stayed in school another year.  Hickson had stretches during the season where he looked completely unmotivated to the point where Head Coach Sidney Lowe removed him from the starting lineup.  Is this a character concern of his or was he just marking time so he could put his name in the draft?  As for Lawson he really did not progress the way a lot of the local media around here thought he should have and only gave a minimal effort on the defensive end at times and really struggled against teams who were able to dictate tempo and slow the game down.  Both guys likely would have been lottery picks if they had come back to school for another year of seasoning.