Elliot Williams

Philadelphia - Hollis Thompson, Brandon Davies, Elliot Williams, Daniel Orton and Lorenzo Brown: Given extended run-outs at the backup guard spots. both Brown and Williams have underwhelmed, shooting 33% and 32% from the field respectively. Davies also has struggled, and Orton has fouled far too much to be reliable, yet both they and Hollis Thompson (who has started for half of the season as a three-and-D specialist) have featured regularly in the rotation. At least two of these players will likely be waived, but certainly no more than three - of the four, only Thompson is the guaranteed survivor.

Pick 22: Portland picks next, and Stu Scott can't help but remind us that Kevin Pritchard is being fired after this. In fact, the firing is manipulated by Scott's scriptwriter into making Pritchard seem like a victim, a martyr, a man who did no wrong and who merely cops the flack for the failings of others. But who was it that released the story of the firing early, so that it was out in time for the broadcast and overshadowed what Portland did? Paul Allen or Kevin Pritchard? I vote B. And frankly, we knew this was coming for about two months anyway. It's not business, Sonny, it's strictly personal.

In his last significant act, Pritchard drafts Elliot Williams. Rudy Fernandez just sulked some more, because his role as the athletic backup two just got marginalised.

The Williams pick gives Jay Bilas the opportunity for another monologue. If all the on-camera personalities tonight are paid by the word, Jay need never work again. Additionally, in a change of operational procedure from the way draft night usually unfolds, tonight's broadcast is being daubed with a series of long, slow camera zooms onto the draft board. In the case of Elliot Williams, we also get to see the fingers of the man whose job it is to put those things in. I wonder what he does the rest of the year.