Despite rumor after rumor, the Phoenix Suns stood pat, and kept the number 15 selection in the first round of the NBA Draft on Thursday. With that selection, they chose Stanford big man Robin Lopez, who was rated by most experts as the 2nd best 7-footer named Lopez in this year’s draft. Brooke Lopez was drafted 10th overall by New Jersey.

Seriously though, the Suns did improve their interior defense by picking Lopez. He’s big, 7-foot, 255 pounds, and enjoys playing defense. The more I’ve thought about it, this is not an awful pick (although I’m afraid of Stanford players making the jump to the pros…more on that later.) I think the Suns needed a point guard, an athletic 3, or a consistent shooter to fill gaps at the shooting guard position, more than a backup to Shaquille O’Neal at this point. But Lopez wants to play in Phoenix. And we’ve seen how rare that sentiment has been lately among NBA Free Agents.

In the 2nd round, the Suns drafted Malik Hairston out of Oregon, but dealt him to San Antonio along with a future second round pick and cash, for Slovenian point guard Goran Dragic. Dragic is a 6′4″, 200 pounds, left-handed point guard who averaged 9.7 points and 3.1 assists in 12 games in the Euro league this past season. ESPN’s draft thumbnail video of Dragic conjured up images of Manu Ginobili, but DraftExpress.com says his best NBA comparison is Jason Hart. Does that excite anybody? Didn’t think so. The Suns may have found their backup point guard, but Dragic is under contract for another year in Europe, but a buyout could be in the works.

I’m one of those people who hates giving out grades on draft day. You can’t tell how good these players are until they’ve been in the league, and have become acclimated to the style of play in the NBA.

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