The 2011 NBA Draft is complete and the Chad Ford has handed out his grades for each team's draft. Ford gave the Sacramento Kings an A and he gave the Golden State Warriors a B. In looking at his analysis, it might be a little difficult to reconcile his Kings grade. He loves the draft picks but hated the trade that the Kings made to move back in the draft. It's a tough comment to make given that they needed to unload Udrih to get Fredette, although he does think Fredette could work as a bench spark plug:
Jimmer Fredette was the perfect fit on a team that needed his shooting ability. (I would say the same thing if the Kings would've stayed at No. 7 and taken Fredette.) At a minimum, Fredette will come in and be a sharpshooting sparkplug off the bench, but he could be much more.
As for the remaining picks:
I like the Tyler Honeycutt pick, as well. Honeycutt has a lot of untapped talent, a high basketball IQ and good passing ability, which should allow him to stick in the league.
Isaiah Thomas has value as the No. 60 pick -- he's tough, he can get to the basket and he can play the point.
In assessing the Warriors draft, Chad Ford gave the Ws a B for their selections of Klay Thompson, Jeremy Tyler and Charles Jenkins. He didn't go higher because he believed there were players with higher ceilings the Warriors could have grabbed with the 11th pick of the draft. He likes Thompson's ability to shoot the ball, which is the same reason Jerry West and Larry Riley settled in on Thompson from the get-go.
As for the other two Warriors picks:
I did really like their second-round selection of Charles Jenkins, who can be a major scoring threat off the bench. Their other second-rounder, Jeremy Tyler, has lottery size and talent ... but is he mature enough to handle the rigors of the NBA? He's going to be a project.
For more discussion and analysis of the Warriors, head on over to Golden State of Mind to get in on the action.