The era of the rather competent NBA GM is still upon us, but thank goodness Michael Jordan and Larry Bird are still in front offices.  While they're two of the greatest players of all-time, they're proving to be two of the worst personnel guys of all-time.  I think the theme of this draft, and this has been said from Simmons' column to FreeDarko, is that the teams were just in the wrong order. 

Rose going to the Bulls first was fine, or if you put them back in the bottom of the lottery where the odds had them, then he can go to the Heat like the numbers said he would.  Beasley to the Grizzlies, Mayo to the Sonics, Love to the Grizzlies, Gallinari to the Knicks, Gordon or Westbrook to the Clippers and so on and so forth.  I still don't think all of the players taken at the top of this draft are totally settled yet, although it's possible Riley just throws out a top heavy team of Wade, Marion and Beasley just to see what happens for a season before Carlos Boozer or Elton Brand come down to South Beach in 2008.

I was going to do a running diary of the night's events, but it's tough to do in a crowded living room with only five minutes between picks and flipping over to the Pirates game and America's Best Dance Crew during the limited commercials.  Here's a few very belated thoughts on the draft that was.:

• The Derrick Rose pick is the smart move here for a ton of reasons.  A few of my good friends are Bulls fans, and we've been looking since 2005 at the data on 82 Games that states pretty clearly that Kirk Hinrich isn't as good as people think, and you can find evidence of that elsewhere on the internet or just by watching Chicago games.  It's true that none of the young, exciting front court players on the Bulls - plus the elder statesman, Drew Gooden - have a back to the basket game, but you don't need it with a point guard like Rose slicing into the lane and tossing up alley oops to Tyrus, Joakim and whoever else wants the easy hoop.  Fan Hinrich, Nocioni, Gordon and Thabo around the perimeter and you've got a potent, up and down offense that knows how to play defense from the time the taskmaster Scott Skiles ran things.  This isn't an indictment of Michael Beasley at all; just consider it an endorsement of Rose.  In the NCAA tournament, he went head-to-head with prospective pros or guys considered quality college players and destroyed them.  Neitzel, Augustin and Collison all were chucked to the side by a freshman, who other than his eating habits, seems about perfect.
• According to Hollinger's numbers over at ESPN, Beasley is the best rated college prospect since 2002, which is pretty damn impressive.  He was surrounded by young, inexperienced teammates and the inconsistent, oft-injured Bill Walker, but still put up huge numbers in a pretty tough conference and got to the second round of the NCAA's.  A lot of the questionable character things people bring up seem pretty harmless, as if all 19 year olds were supposed to have live squeaky clean, innocent lives.  As much as Riley didn't want to draft him, you can be sure he'll be keeping a very close eye on him to avoid any sort of off-court troubles.
• Poor Ovinton J'Anthony Mayo thought he would be in Miami or Los Angeles, or at the very least Seattle, but spent his draft night resigned to a fate in both Minnesota and Memphis.  I did love his suit and glasses combination, though, as if he was trying to channel his inner Lester Freamon.  Not sure if he's a Wire fan, but if so, that combined with his first step and three point shooting range make him one of my favorite rookies already.  Sadly, I'll never get to see him play because he's in Association purgatory.
• I've gone back and forth on Love over the past few days, and I honestly just don't know.  If he sheds some of the weight and is able to get up and down the floor, a lot of my concerns will be alleviated, as I don't expect him to put his back to the basket and score like a lot of people were criticizing him for being unable to do against Memphis in the Final Four.  He's got an outside shot, great court vision, defensive intensity and a winning pedigree, although you have to wonder how much Ben Howland's painfully slow, junk offense protected him over the course of the season. 
• Poor Darrell Arthur.  Tumbles down the board, then gets traded a trio of times over night.  The Wizards could have definitely used him, but instead they take another freaking inside project that may or may not ever develop.  Good thing they're not a winning team just a piece or two away from title contention.  Oh, wait. . .
• For some reason, I can't help but think of Aaron Brooks every time I try to envision the Stanford center.  He's not going to be an All-Star, but he'll be a serviceable big guy to toss into to toss into the rotation.  He's got some polish, so this isn't some quest for the Next Andrew Bynum, but instead just a decent big man projected to maybe go a little higher than he should in a thin middle of the lottery.  Going tenth to the Nets is perfect, and Charlotte is absolutely silly for passing on him for D.J. Augustin unless they're getting another young, cheap seven-footer in a deal for Raymond Felton.  Their loss is the Nets' gain.
• Speaking of the Nets, a lot of people's poor decisions was New Jersey's game.  I'm not sure I like giving up Richard Jefferson for Chairman Yi and the corpse of Bobby Simmons, but I loved Ryan Anderson and Chris Douglas-Roberts going into this draft, and New Jersey got both of them.  While I tip my hat to GM's for passing on DeAndre Jordan for so long, I also wonder what CDR was saying in interviews that led him to fall the entire way out of the first round after being the best player on the best team for most of the season.
• The Nuggets, who desperately needed a point guard, must have thought Mario Chalmers would be off the board when they picked at twenty, so they traded it to the Bobcats.  Woops.  Hopefully they're just putting pieces together for a blockbuster, but since they already passed on one such trade (Billups and Prince for Anthony), I doubt they'd do it again.
• As far as post-draft stuff not to miss, Simmons' running diary is an annual tradition and FreeDarko's summary also has some great lines ( JR Giddens is "The next ex-Kansas swingman to get stabbed in Boston?").