'Tis the Season

With the NBA Draft impending and free agency coming up, I was thinking of some scenarios I'd like to see play out, either for entertainment or practical purposes. So here we go.

I'd like to see the Indiana Pacers draft Butler's Gordon Hayward with the #10 overall pick tonight. GM Larry Bird has a reputation (deserved or not) of favoring/picking up white players, an idea only solidified when he picked UNC's Tyler Hansbrough last year. Hayward is easily the best white player in this draft and both wouldn't be a reach and could realistically fall to the 10 spot. The Pacers are also his hometown team, so it would be a feel-good story all around. Maybe the most realistic scenario I'm going to list so I'm crossing my fingers.

I'd like to see the Los Angeles Clippers trade the #8 overall pick to Chicago for Luol Deng and the #17 overall pick. This trade was floating around last night but was pretty much killed today. It's unfortunate, because the Clips' most glaring hole is at the SF position and Davis-Gordon-Deng-Griffin-Kaman would be a solid starting five for the other LA team. The #17 pick would be good enough to add a rotation player (despite the Clippers' horrific draft history), but for now, it looks like they'll try to fill their need by picking up a swingman at #8 (likely Wake Forest's Al-Farouq Aminu but also possibly Hayward or Nevada's Luke Babbitt).

I'd like to see the Clippers sign LeBron James. This would be by far the funniest possible outcome (on par with the Minnesota Timberwolves drafting more point guards) and actually would make a lot of sense on all sides if not for the ownership of Donald Sterling.

I'd like to see the Lakers shore up their bench. Aside from sixth man Lamar Odom, the champions had very little depth. I'm pretty excited about the rumors floating around, namely that they're looking to add another guard (possibly Raja Bell or Steve Blake) and a big man (Drew Gooden and Brad Miller among others) in free agency. That would definitely be an improvement over the two-headed monster (for opponents at Staples, for the Lakers on the road) of Shannon Brown and Jordan Farmer as well as the bigs Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga.

I'd like to see the Lakers land the dream combination of Byron Scott and Chris Paul. This might be more unrealistic than James going to the Clippers, but honestly it's too much of a game-changer for me not to entertain it. An idea was kicked around with Phil Jackson retiring, Scott taking over as head coach and Paul and Emeka Okafor coming over in a trade for Odom, Andrew Bynum, and Sasha Vujacic. Actually nearly any scenario that gets Vujacic off the Lakers would be nice.

Should be an interesting night and few more days leading up to the fabled Summer of '10.