2018 NBA Draft Thread

[Magicfan1987 266]

2 hours ago, All Eyes On Me said:

Knowing that saying this is a little putting the cart before the horse, but Bamba reminds me of a young Dwight Howard, just longer. His first few years all he’ll do is dunk and defend, what he does after that will be on him and our developmental team.

completely agree

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

2 minutes ago, Magicfan1987 said:

wait you like Carter over Mikal Bridges? He's my dark horse WeHam favorable pick

I think Mikal will be really good. Not sure about his star potential

[Mike1989 68]

I hear a lot of Magic fans say they want Mohamed Bamba, but is anyone not concerned that in the conference finals centers of that style are almost non-factors? 

Rockets: Clint Capela played 24 minutes, while the other starters all played over 40 minutes each. Their sixth man, Eric Gordon, played 35 games, and Gerald Green chipped in with 12 minutes. For the most part Capela has been marginalized.  

Warriors: They don't utilize a traditional big. Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell play center at times, but both play reduced minutes compared to their main four starters who played at least 39 minutes.

Cavaliers: They have been using Tristan Thompson,  but his role has fluctuated throughout the play offs due to him not being able to shoot. 

Celtics: They are the only team with a starting center that stays on the court and plays heavy minutes because he can play defense, score and shoot. 

So are we potentially setting ourselves up to select a player that might not be able to stay on the court if we do end up making it to crunch time in the play offs? 

Some will point to Rudy Gobert playing over 30 minutes for the Jazz, but time will tell whether their approach using two bigs (Gobert and Favors) can prove successful for them in delivering a championship to Utah.

I can see the defensive potential of a front court that features Isaac, Gordon and Bamba, but offensively things could be a struggle because two of them (Isaac and Bamba) don't really project to be power scorers. If they hit double figures on a regular basis that would be useful. So if we go down that route we'll need to grind out results and wear teams down through elite defense, unless of course we put together a back court that can score and help out defensively as well. I'll be honest the Bamba selection fits the profile of what this front office look for, but I'm not convinced that in today's NBA you can win with the kind of front court we'll likely have if Isaac and/or Bamba don't develop offensively. 

[Soul Bro 1,419]

5 minutes ago, Mike1989 said:

I hear a lot of Magic fans say they want Mohamed Bamba, but is anyone not concerned that in the conference finals centers of that style are almost non-factors? 

Rockets: Clint Capela played 24 minutes, while the other starters all played over 40 minutes each. Their sixth man, Eric Gordon, played 35 games, and Gerald Green chipped in with 12 minutes. For the most part Capela has been marginalized.  

Warriors: They don't utilize a traditional big. Kevon Looney and Jordan Bell play center at times, but both play reduced minutes compared to their main four starters who played at least 39 minutes.

Cavaliers: They have been using Tristan Thompson,  but his role has fluctuated throughout the play offs due to him not being able to shoot. 

Celtics: They are the only team with a starting center that stays on the court and plays heavy minutes because he can play defense, score and shoot. 

So are we potentially setting ourselves up to select a player that might not be able to stay on the court if we do end up making it to crunch time in the play offs? 

Some will point to Rudy Gobert playing over 30 minutes for the Jazz, but time will tell whether their approach using two bigs (Gobert and Favors) can prove successful for them in delivering a championship to Utah.

I can see the defensive potential of a front court that features Isaac, Gordon and Bamba, but offensively things could be a struggle because two of them (Isaac and Bamba) don't really project to be power scorers. If they hit double figures on a regular basis that would be useful. So if we go down that route we'll need to grind out results and wear teams down through elite defense, unless of course we put together a back court that can score and help out defensively as well. I'll be honest the Bamba selection fits the profile of what this front office look for, but I'm not convinced that in today's NBA you can win with the kind of front court we'll likely have if Isaac and/or Bamba don't develop offensively. 

Good post 

[Tank Vogel 191]

Picking Bamba is entirely predicated on him developing offensively.

If Capela could score outside of lobs and putbacks and wasnt a 50ish shooter from FT he could play more this series. Ditto TT who is a worse player, although they won a title with him already against non-KD GS.

Warriors have Draymond. They dont count.

Also, you dont worry about a historically great team when you are building a lottery team. The East is going to go through teams like Boston, Philly, and Milwaukee soon. You have Porzingis, possibly JJJ in Atlanta, Markannen, Drummond, Myles Turner etc. KAT, Jokic, Gobert, Capela, Ayton. Wendell Carter somewhere. You need bigs

[Mike1989 68]

2 minutes ago, Tank Vogel said:

Picking Bamba is entirely predicated on him developing offensively.

If Capela could score outside of lobs and putpacks and wasnt a 50ish shooter from FT he could play more. Ditto TT who is a worse player, although they won a title with him already against non-KD GS.

Warriors have Draymond. They dont count.

Can we afford to draft another project on the offensive end? 

We already have a project with Jonathan Isaac, that would mean we would have two athletic and lengthy players in our front court that could be liabilities at the offensive end if they don't develop as predicted. I don't doubt they can make contributions defensively, but in today's NBA teams need to have players on the court that can shoot and score, while playing acceptable defense. 

It would interesting to see what we could do if we did go against the grain and tried to win a championship based on elite defense, but considering teams are scoring over a 100 points per night it would be very difficult to win a best of seven series based on defense alone. We would need to have a scoring back court and Gordon would need to become a more consistent shooter and scorer as well if we put two defensively minded and offensively limited players on the court. 

I can see the appeal of Bamba but his selection worries me if he doesn't develop offensively because in today's NBA he would be riding the pine for lengthy periods of time unless we decided to go against the grain. 

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

1 minute ago, Mike1989 said:

Can we afford to draft another project on the offensive end? 

We already have a project with Jonathan Isaac, that would mean we would have two athletic and lengthy players in our front court that could be liabilities at the offensive end if they don't develop as predicted. I don't doubt they can make contributions defensively, but in today's NBA teams need to have players on the court that can shoot and score, while playing acceptable defense. 

It would interesting to see what we could do if we did go against the grain and tried to win a championship based on elite defense, but considering teams are scoring over a 100 points per night it would be very difficult to win a best of seven series based on defense alone. We would need to have a scoring back court and Gordon would need to become a more consistent shooter and scorer as well if we put two defensively minded and offensively limited players on the court. 

I can see the appeal of Bamba but his selection worries me if he doesn't develop offensively because in today's NBA he would be riding the pine for lengthy periods of time unless we decided to go against the grain. 

This is my main concern. Gordon can't dribble past cones and Isaac isn't any better.

I think we have something with that Gordon-Isaac tandem, just have to build well around them

[HeHateMe 697]

28 minutes ago, Mauro Pedrosa said:

This is my main concern. Gordon can't dribble past cones and Isaac isn't any better.

I think we have something with that Gordon-Isaac tandem, just have to build well around them

Bamba/AG/Issac would be a disaster. I don’t see the fit in today’s nba for a guy like Bamba unless he develops some sort of offense which he just is so raw at. And more often than not it seems like these types of prospects don’t develop much offense. 

Id comfortably draft Carter over Bamba. 

[Jason Funderburker 111]

I don’t see the point in handwringing over Bamba’s fit in the NBA. We are years and years out from competing in the level of those elite teams, and by that time who knows how the elite teams will be constructed. Utah already looks to be on track to a high level team with a Bamba-like centerpiece 

[HeHateMe 697]

1 hour ago, Jason Funderburker said:

I don’t see the point in handwringing over Bamba’s fit in the NBA. We are years and years out from competing in the level of those elite teams, and by that time who knows how the elite teams will be constructed. Utah already looks to be on track to a high level team with a Bamba-like centerpiece 

Ehhh Mitchell is their centerpiece though. The elite scorer with superstar potential that we don’t have.

Stick Bamba on a team with a bunch of bad shooters who can’t create their own offense and struggle in the half court—I wouldn’t expect it to work. Now if the plan is to completely gut the roster let AG walk and build around Issac/Bamba, bottom out next year and draft a guy like RJ Barrett then sure, by all means draft Bamba and I’m on board. 

[Jason Funderburker 111]

4 hours ago, HeHateMe said:

Ehhh Mitchell is their centerpiece though. The elite scorer with superstar potential that we don’t have.

Stick Bamba on a team with a bunch of bad shooters who can’t create their own offense and struggle in the half court—I wouldn’t expect it to work. Now if the plan is to completely gut the roster let AG walk and build around Issac/Bamba, bottom out next year and draft a guy like RJ Barrett then sure, by all means draft Bamba and I’m on board. 

That is definitely the piece of the puzzle we are missing, and why I would go for guys like Porter or Sexton over Bamba

[Mauro Pedrosa 1,031]

Schroder being an ass might make the Hawks take Young at #3