In certain years, the NBA draft is mostly about one player who will transform a team - Shaquille O'Neal or Patrick Ewing, Yao Ming or LeBron James.
The 2005 draft, which will be held tonight at the theater inside New York's Madison Square Garden, is mostly about one position - point guard. As a result, the future of many teams will be changed for the better.
After Utah center Andrew Bogut and North Carolina forward Marvin Williams are announced as the first two picks, no fewer than five point guards are expected to be taken in the first round.
Three of them - Deron Williams of Illinois, Chris Paul of Wake Forest and Raymond Felton of North Carolina - are sure to be lottery picks. Jarrett Jack of Georgia Tech, Roko Ukic of Croatia and Monta Ellis, a high school player from Jackson, Miss., also could be first-round choices.
"This is a tremendous guard-heavy draft up top," said Kenny Williamson, director of scouting for the Charlotte Bobcats, whose team could take Deron Williams or Paul. "I don't think there's been this many quality point guards since the year Andre Miller, Steve Francis and Baron Davis came out [in 1999]."
Said Tony Barone Sr., scouting director for the Memphis Grizzlies, whose team has interest in Jack: "I think it's a deep draft period, and it certainly is a deep draft in relation to the numbers of point guards who have a chance to make it in this league."
The list is seemingly endless.
Along with the potential first-round picks, there's a passel of point guards who could be taken in the second round: Washington's Nate Robinson, Marquette's Travis Diener, Florida's Anthony Roberson, Atlanta area high school star Louis Williams and Maryland's John Gilchrist.
"Even guys who didn't make it to Chicago [for the NBA's pre-draft camp] are going to be considered," said Ryan Blake, who runs the league's scouting bureau with his father, longtime talent guru Marty Blake. "There are more point guards available; you just don't know if they're going to be good enough.
"What's going to be interesting is to see when it goes past the top three [or four] point guards - Felton, Williams and Paul and maybe Jack, if someone likes him - you might have a lot going in the second round and you might not have that many."
Blake said of the point guards that went to Chicago, Diener was the one who seemed to be the most intriguing.
