In the 2006 NBA draft some team is going to make J.J. Redick a lottery pick, in all likelihood a very high lottery pick. The reasons that some team will make this pick are obvious. He has arguably the smoothest most pure shooting stroke at the college level in possibly the last fifteen years, His stroke can be measured only against some of the truly great shooters in college basketball history. In the college game, the purity of his stroke is on a level that only ballers like Dennis Scott, Glen Rice and Steve Alford have experienced. With that being said, why shouldn’t a lottery team rush out and make him their top draft pick?

People overlook it year after year at draft time, but the reason is a simple one. Being a star at the college level does not automatically translate to stardom at the professional level. Lets open our minds for a few minutes and project J.J. Redick at the NBA level. At 6’4" playing shooting guard, he is going to be matched up night after night against the greatest athletes in the world. They’ll all be quicker, taller and stronger than him. He’ll be matched up against the likes of Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, LeBron James and Rip Hamilton, all superior athletes who won’t allow him to get his shot off on offense and who he wouldn’t have a prayer of containing on the defensive end.

His cause would be helped tremendously if he could give his future NBA team some minutes at point guard, but unfortunately he hasn’t shown the play making skills or the ball handling necessary to run the point for an NBA team.

With that being said, I don’t necessarily believe that J.J. Redick will be a bad NBA player, but he is without a doubt NOT worthy of a lottery pick. He is however worth a late first round pick in the 20 to 30 range. I see his future in the NBA being more along the lines of a Steve Kerr on the low end and a Vinnie Johnson at the upper end. Which if expectations are kept at realistic levels isn’t really that bad.

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