Goodbye for now

A couple of weeks ago, I was on my freshly created Twitter, scrolling through tweets of the N BA and MMA writers I was following, looking for articles to read. One of the writers, John Krolik, tweeted, “Wanted: One Draft Expert.” Intrigued, I clicked the link, read the ad and decided to apply. I was two weeks from graduating with a journalism degree and needed all the experience I could get. Lo and behold, after sending Krolik links to my articles in the school paper and writing a sample profile on Jimmer Fredette, I was hired for my first writing gig.

I’ve always wondered what it would be like to work for a sports team in some technical capacity, like scouting prospects or breaking down video of opponents. Not surprisingly, I found I actually enjoyed breaking down a player’s tendencies by watching film of him.

It’s a different way to watch a game, focusing on only one player rather than keeping track of the ball. You see strengths and weaknesses that you’d never otherwise notice, and you quickly begin to see why scoring is the most overrated part of basketball by the casual fan: that’s all he’s paying attention to. He doesn’t see things like whether the player fights through screens or boxes out when a rebound is in the air (no and no – good luck Sacramento).

As we know now, the Cavs went with Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson as their building blocks of the future. Personally, I thought they should have drafted Derrick Williams because I thought there was a good chance Brandon Knight would be available at four. Thompson certainly has potential though, and if he pans out, this draft will be a huge win for the Cavs assuming Irving is as advertised. All that matters is that the Cavs add three impact players with these two plus next year’s presumably lottery pick. If they do that, they’ll be in great shape going forward.

So I got published by an ESPN-affiliated site and I had fun doing it. I didn’t bring as much zealous passion to table as Kevin (sorry, not a Cavs fan!), but I hope you guys came away from my series of draft profiles with some valuable insight on the college and international players the Cavs were considering drafting.

As for me, I just earned a degree six years in the making (haha, I know) and I think I’m going to indulge myself in a lazy summer. I’m planning on spending it playing pickup basketball, going out with my friends and earning a few dollars playing in live poker games again for the first time since I took school seriously. Perhaps I’ll even job hunt a little bit.

I have no clue where life is going to take me in the next 10 months or so, which is about when John will probably be ready to fire up some new draft profiles on a 2012 class that looks to be pretty stacked. If I haven’t found gainful employment to take up my time and John wants me back, perhaps I’ll return to scout another crop of young ballers for you guys. Until then, go Cavs because I feel a little attached to this franchise now after writing for you all :)