Second Round Theft. Celtics & Raptors Guilty

With so much hype around Derrick Rose and Michael Beasley many of us forget who was chosen past the top 3. Those of us hardcore enough have memorised the entire lottery and can produce stats on cue at boring dinner parties (we know who we are). But for the most part the second round is a total after thought.

Cue two picks from this years draft who barring injuries for one and a total lack of exposure for the other would have been locks for the top 15.

With 41st pick the Indiana Pacer select........Nathan Jawai from Australia. Jawai is one of those out of nowhere picks. He has only been playing for 4 years and grew up in the remote North Queensland outback. Better known for it snake that it's power forwards. But this guy is a gem. A 7-5 wingspan, incredible nimble feet under a 6-11 285 pound frame built to hurt people. Packaged of to the Raptors in the O'Neal trade Toronto have quickly signed him to a 2 year deal.

With 47Th pick the Washington Wizards select......Bill Walker from Kansas State. Coming out of high school Walker was being compared to Vince Carter. The comparisons where not an understatement. He was an amazing athlete, world class and similar to Carter has been cut down by injuries. I remember watching the draft thinking how crazy team late in the first round where passing up on this guy. If the body recovers this guy could be anything. The Wiz traded Walker to the Celtics in exchange for Cash considerations. To put it all in perspective Walker was more highly regarded than Michael Beasley when recruited to Kansas State.