2014 Draft Thread

[Justin Jaudon 221]

It's been a while since I have posted on here, but I thought I'd throw a couple of things out there, because I feel strongly about a couple of players in the upcoming draft.

 

For one, I think there is only one guaranteed All-Star in this draft: Jabari Parker. Embiid must stay healthy and develop offensively; Wiggins must show he can dribble, shoot somewhat consistently, pass, think, basically anything more than jump and have the hand-eye coordination to not miss the rim on a dunk. Don't get me wrong. I think both are fairly safe picks to be decent players; they're too physically gifted not to be. But both of them have major things to work on (Kansas just doesn't develop players well for the NBA anymore). Parker needs to be a better passer, but everything else he does offensively is stellar for his position. Defensively, he needs as much work as Wiggins' and Embiid's offensive games combined, but I don't think you even care about that when a guy is as gifted as he is offensively. You can hide bad defense, a la Larry Bird or, more recently, Kevin Love. There are ten wings not starting in the league who are better defenders than Wiggins will ever be, and likely ten bigs who will never sniff an All-Star game who are as good on D as Embiid projects to be. There might be ten guys in the whole league with what Parker can bring you offensively. He projects to be that good - he's already a top twenty offensive player in the league. Offensively, no one really has any clue what either of the Kansas guys will be. Embiid could be the next Olajuwon, so they say, but he could just as easily be Darko Milicic. Wiggins' offensive ceiling, to me, is something like Ricky Davis, while his basement is more like Corey Brewer.

 

But moving on to players Orlando might actually draft:

 

I'm not a huge fan of Dante Exum. If Orlando drafts him, I'll try to hope that Hennigan knows what he's doing; but I'll be skeptical. At this point, it seems like he is all athletic ability. We have no idea of his mentality, Ball IQ, consistent effort on D, anything. He could be Penny, he could be Derrick Rose; he could also be Shaun Livingston (note the trend with all of those players?). If he ends up like Penny or Rose, we then have to hope he doesn't get hurt like those guys did/have. If he ends up like Shaun Livingston, it really won't matter (even before the injury, Livingston was never going to be worth the fourth pick in a stacked draft like this one). I actually think he has more upside than Wiggins, as Wiggins can't dribble, which is a large part of basketball, when you think about it; he also has a lower basement. He could be worse than Livingston. We might be overestimating his Ball IQ considerably, as no one - not the GM's or the scouts or his own father - has seen him against enough elite talent to get a good handle on this. He could be a total flake. We simply don't know, and neither does anyone else. He hasn't been exposed to anything like what he's about to be exposed to, and that scares me.

 

If Orlando drafts Noah Vonleh, I will probably stomp around in a rage for a few days before realizing that I'm going to root for the team no matter what, so let's just hope I'm totally wrong about the guy. I've watched a lot of tape on the guy (I'll admit I haven't watched him play a full game), and even his highlight reels are unimpressive. I hear so many ridiculous comparisons with this guy that I want to scream. NBAdraft.net compares him to Wayman Tisdale/Jamal Mashburn. Jamal Mashburn! Seriously! Someone here compared him to Rashard Lewis! After seeing him shoot a whole 30 college 3-pointers, we're comparing him to Shard? I said I found his highlights unimpressive. Here's why: he can't pass (at all - it's like he doesn't know he's allowed to and wouldn't know what to do if he did). He doesn't have any post moves. Having long arms does not count as a post move, and NBA defenders will keep him off-balance so that his "jump" hook will be all but useless. He is completely un-athletic. In the post, he plays as much under the rim as Randle, despite his size advantage. His "handles" seem incredibly sloppy. I've yet to see a clip of those "handles" doing him any real good. I've seen a few examples of him facing the basket with a couple of between-the-legs, hesitation dribbles, but nothing to suggest anything useful; lateral quickness is necessary to utilize dribbling skills, and I've seen none of that. All I've seen is him following up those fancy moves with a bull-rush to the rim and a lob off the glass against smaller, less talented guys. His 3-pointer is nice-looking. Maybe he could be as good as Rasheed Wallace one day (if he develops heretofore unseen post moves), but that is his offensive ceiling, as far as I've seen. Defensively, he could be great. One-on-one. His team D is nearly as bad as Parker's. His Ball IQ just seems very low overall. There's a rule I have with all players: If they can't pass, they can't play. Even big men have to be able to see the floor and understand what's going on around them, or they will never beat the double-teams. Vonleh seems to know about as much about basketball as my 5-year-old son: the ball goes in the basket, you stay between your man and the basket, you grab the ball after someone shoots. He looks lost every time he has to help on D or move without the ball on O.

 

I did not like Marcus Smart last year, and I was very glad he backed out. I thought he was a good defensive player who looked too slow to be effective offensively in the NBA without a vastly improved jump shot. Damn that speed is deceptive! I kept thinking, "How is he getting to the rim? Just stay in front of his hefty ass." I think I'm the only person who likes him more this year than last. He's not a great shooter. He probably never will be. But he shoots a high percentage inside the 3-point line, and he gets to the foul line. He's a ferocious defender who we know is consistent at that end. His mentality is hard-nosed, pit-bull. He's a fighter, which means he can learn to be a winner. He's a good passer, especially considering he didn't play point guard in high school. He's a very good rebounder for a guard, which is always a great sign of transcendent athleticism. Everyone says his work-ethic is elite. I honestly think this kid has as much upside as anyone in the draft. What's the knock on him? NBAdraft.net said he can't shoot, isn't athletic, and has a bad attitude. 1) he shot 29% from distance at 19-years-old. So did LeBron James. I'm not saying he's going to improve as much as LeBron has, but why is it out of the question? His mechanics aren't terrible; in fact, his main problem is the same as LeBron's: a tendency to start slowly from a low stance rather than just rise up quickly. Even if he doesn't improve much, his other talents will translate to scoring anyway. Derrick Rose is still barely a 30% 3-point shooter, but when he's healthy he's a monster because he gets to the rim and scores or gets to the line. Same with Russell Westbrook. Same with John Wall. Those guys are super-athletic, though. 2) Apparently the scouts at NBAdraft.net were as fooled as I was when they questioned his speed and athleticism. While he doesn't have John Wall's hops, by three inches, all of his other measurables are very comparable. He has length (as good as Wall's and Exum's at 6' 9.25''), speed (3/4 Court at 3.26 to Wall's 3.14), and agility (10.62 Lane Agility to Wall's 10.83). By the way, that 36-inch max vert is a full inch better than D-Wade's out of college; his speed measured better than Steph Curry's or Damian Lillard's; his lane agility measured better than Chris Freaking Paul's! And he outweighs all of the above by twenty pounds of muscle (Wade by 15). So he has elite athleticism for an NBA PG, with an NFL Linebacker's body. 3) His attitude is basically Chris Paul's. LeBron used to act like a baby when he lost (he still kinda does). Elite winners hate to lose, and at 20 they throw **** and kick chairs when it happens. I will absolutely not knock the guy for fighting with some dumb-ass fan spouting racial slurs. Charles Barkley spit on a little girl and threw a guy through a window. Attitude is common among elite athletes, and Marcus Smart kicked one chair. If anything he doesn't have enough attitude. I think Smart's ceiling is D-Wade playing point guard. I honestly don't know anyone to compare to his basement. Eric Bledsoe, maybe.

 

I'll post thoughts on a few others later.

[KRISH10 103]

1403145428[/url]' post='981938']

It's been a while since I have posted on here, but I thought I'd throw a couple of things out there, because I feel strongly about a couple of players in the upcoming draft.

 

For one, I think there is only one guaranteed All-Star in this draft: Jabari Parker. Embiid must stay healthy and develop offensively; Wiggins must show he can dribble, shoot somewhat consistently, pass, think, basically anything more than jump and have the hand-eye coordination to not miss the rim on a dunk. Don't get me wrong. I think both are fairly safe picks to be decent players; they're too physically gifted not to be. But both of them have major things to work on (Kansas just doesn't develop players well for the NBA anymore). Parker needs to be a better passer, but everything else he does offensively is stellar for his position. Defensively, he needs as much work as Wiggins' and Embiid's offensive games combined, but I don't think you even care about that when a guy is as gifted as he is offensively. You can hide bad defense, a la Larry Bird or, more recently, Kevin Love. There are ten wings not starting in the league who are better defenders than Wiggins will ever be, and likely ten bigs who will never sniff an All-Star game who are as good on D as Embiid projects to be. There might be ten guys in the whole league with what Parker can bring you offensively. He projects to be that good - he's already a top twenty offensive player in the league. Offensively, no one really has any clue what either of the Kansas guys will be. Embiid could be the next Olajuwon, so they say, but he could just as easily be Darko Milicic. Wiggins' offensive ceiling, to me, is something like Ricky Davis, while his basement is more like Corey Brewer.

 

But moving on to players Orlando might actually draft:

 

I'm not a huge fan of Dante Exum. If Orlando drafts him, I'll try to hope that Hennigan knows what he's doing; but I'll be skeptical. At this point, it seems like he is all athletic ability. We have no idea of his mentality, Ball IQ, consistent effort on D, anything. He could be Penny, he could be Derrick Rose; he could also be Shaun Livingston (note the trend with all of those players?). If he ends up like Penny or Rose, we then have to hope he doesn't get hurt like those guys did/have. If he ends up like Shaun Livingston, it really won't matter (even before the injury, Livingston was never going to be worth the fourth pick in a stacked draft like this one). I actually think he has more upside than Wiggins, as Wiggins can't dribble, which is a large part of basketball, when you think about it; he also has a lower basement. He could be worse than Livingston. We might be overestimating his Ball IQ considerably, as no one - not the GM's or the scouts or his own father - has seen him against enough elite talent to get a good handle on this. He could be a total flake. We simply don't know, and neither does anyone else. He hasn't been exposed to anything like what he's about to be exposed to, and that scares me.

 

If Orlando drafts Noah Vonleh, I will probably stomp around in a rage for a few days before realizing that I'm going to root for the team no matter what, so let's just hope I'm totally wrong about the guy. I've watched a lot of tape on the guy (I'll admit I haven't watched him play a full game), and even his highlight reels are unimpressive. I hear so many ridiculous comparisons with this guy that I want to scream. NBAdraft.net compares him to Wayman Tisdale/Jamal Mashburn. Jamal Mashburn! Seriously! Someone here compared him to Rashard Lewis! After seeing him shoot a whole 30 college 3-pointers, we're comparing him to Shard? I said I found his highlights unimpressive. Here's why: he can't pass (at all - it's like he doesn't know he's allowed to and wouldn't know what to do if he did). He doesn't have any post moves. Having long arms does not count as a post move, and NBA defenders will keep him off-balance so that his "jump" hook will be all but useless. He is completely un-athletic. In the post, he plays as much under the rim as Randle, despite his size advantage. His "handles" seem incredibly sloppy. I've yet to see a clip of those "handles" doing him any real good. I've seen a few examples of him facing the basket with a couple of between-the-legs, hesitation dribbles, but nothing to suggest anything useful; lateral quickness is necessary to utilize dribbling skills, and I've seen none of that. All I've seen is him following up those fancy moves with a bull-rush to the rim and a lob off the glass against smaller, less talented guys. His 3-pointer is nice-looking. Maybe he could be as good as Rasheed Wallace one day (if he develops heretofore unseen post moves), but that is his offensive ceiling, as far as I've seen. Defensively, he could be great. One-on-one. His team D is nearly as bad as Parker's. His Ball IQ just seems very low overall. There's a rule I have with all players: If they can't pass, they can't play. Even big men have to be able to see the floor and understand what's going on around them, or they will never beat the double-teams. Vonleh seems to know about as much about basketball as my 5-year-old son: the ball goes in the basket, you stay between your man and the basket, you grab the ball after someone shoots. He looks lost every time he has to help on D or move without the ball on O.

 

I did not like Marcus Smart last year, and I was very glad he backed out. I thought he was a good defensive player who looked too slow to be effective offensively in the NBA without a vastly improved jump shot. Damn that speed is deceptive! I kept thinking, "How is he getting to the rim? Just stay in front of his hefty ass." I think I'm the only person who likes him more this year than last. He's not a great shooter. He probably never will be. But he shoots a high percentage inside the 3-point line, and he gets to the foul line. He's a ferocious defender who we know is consistent at that end. His mentality is hard-nosed, pit-bull. He's a fighter, which means he can learn to be a winner. He's a good passer, especially considering he didn't play point guard in high school. He's a very good rebounder for a guard, which is always a great sign of transcendent athleticism. Everyone says his work-ethic is elite. I honestly think this kid has as much upside as anyone in the draft. What's the knock on him? NBAdraft.net said he can't shoot, isn't athletic, and has a bad attitude. 1) he shot 29% from distance at 19-years-old. So did LeBron James. I'm not saying he's going to improve as much as LeBron has, but why is it out of the question? His mechanics aren't terrible; in fact, his main problem is the same as LeBron's: a tendency to start slowly from a low stance rather than just rise up quickly. Even if he doesn't improve much, his other talents will translate to scoring anyway. Derrick Rose is still barely a 30% 3-point shooter, but when he's healthy he's a monster because he gets to the rim and scores or gets to the line. Same with Russell Westbrook. Same with John Wall. Those guys are super-athletic, though. 2) Apparently the scouts at NBAdraft.net were as fooled as I was when they questioned his speed and athleticism. While he doesn't have John Wall's hops, by three inches, all of his other measurables are very comparable. He has length (as good as Wall's and Exum's at 6' 9.25''), speed (3/4 Court at 3.26 to Wall's 3.14), and agility (10.62 Lane Agility to Wall's 10.83). By the way, that 36-inch max vert is a full inch better than D-Wade's out of college; his speed measured better than Steph Curry's or Damian Lillard's; his lane agility measured better than Chris Freaking Paul's! And he outweighs all of the above by twenty pounds of muscle (Wade by 15). So he has elite athleticism for an NBA PG, with an NFL Linebacker's body. 3) His attitude is basically Chris Paul's. LeBron used to act like a baby when he lost (he still kinda does). Elite winners hate to lose, and at 20 they throw **** and kick chairs when it happens. I will absolutely not knock the guy for fighting with some dumb-ass fan spouting racial slurs. Charles Barkley spit on a little girl and threw a guy through a window. Attitude is common among elite athletes, and Marcus Smart kicked one chair. If anything he doesn't have enough attitude. I think Smart's ceiling is D-Wade playing point guard. I honestly don't know anyone to compare to his basement. Eric Bledsoe, maybe.

 

I'll post thoughts on a few others later.

 

 

 

Damn your depressing, maybe we should give the pick away for cash considerations since no one we can draft actually has any talent.

 

 

[COLOMBIANO 118]

It's been a while since I have posted on here, but I thought I'd throw a couple of things out there, because I feel strongly about a couple of players in the upcoming draft.

 

For one, I think there is only one guaranteed All-Star in this draft: Jabari Parker. Embiid must stay healthy and develop offensively; Wiggins must show he can dribble, shoot somewhat consistently, pass, think, basically anything more than jump and have the hand-eye coordination to not miss the rim on a dunk. Don't get me wrong. I think both are fairly safe picks to be decent players; they're too physically gifted not to be. But both of them have major things to work on (Kansas just doesn't develop players well for the NBA anymore). Parker needs to be a better passer, but everything else he does offensively is stellar for his position. Defensively, he needs as much work as Wiggins' and Embiid's offensive games combined, but I don't think you even care about that when a guy is as gifted as he is offensively. You can hide bad defense, a la Larry Bird or, more recently, Kevin Love. There are ten wings not starting in the league who are better defenders than Wiggins will ever be, and likely ten bigs who will never sniff an All-Star game who are as good on D as Embiid projects to be. There might be ten guys in the whole league with what Parker can bring you offensively. He projects to be that good - he's already a top twenty offensive player in the league. Offensively, no one really has any clue what either of the Kansas guys will be. Embiid could be the next Olajuwon, so they say, but he could just as easily be Darko Milicic. Wiggins' offensive ceiling, to me, is something like Ricky Davis, while his basement is more like Corey Brewer.

 

But moving on to players Orlando might actually draft:

 

I'm not a huge fan of Dante Exum. If Orlando drafts him, I'll try to hope that Hennigan knows what he's doing; but I'll be skeptical. At this point, it seems like he is all athletic ability. We have no idea of his mentality, Ball IQ, consistent effort on D, anything. He could be Penny, he could be Derrick Rose; he could also be Shaun Livingston (note the trend with all of those players?). If he ends up like Penny or Rose, we then have to hope he doesn't get hurt like those guys did/have. If he ends up like Shaun Livingston, it really won't matter (even before the injury, Livingston was never going to be worth the fourth pick in a stacked draft like this one). I actually think he has more upside than Wiggins, as Wiggins can't dribble, which is a large part of basketball, when you think about it; he also has a lower basement. He could be worse than Livingston. We might be overestimating his Ball IQ considerably, as no one - not the GM's or the scouts or his own father - has seen him against enough elite talent to get a good handle on this. He could be a total flake. We simply don't know, and neither does anyone else. He hasn't been exposed to anything like what he's about to be exposed to, and that scares me.

 

If Orlando drafts Noah Vonleh, I will probably stomp around in a rage for a few days before realizing that I'm going to root for the team no matter what, so let's just hope I'm totally wrong about the guy. I've watched a lot of tape on the guy (I'll admit I haven't watched him play a full game), and even his highlight reels are unimpressive. I hear so many ridiculous comparisons with this guy that I want to scream. NBAdraft.net compares him to Wayman Tisdale/Jamal Mashburn. Jamal Mashburn! Seriously! Someone here compared him to Rashard Lewis! After seeing him shoot a whole 30 college 3-pointers, we're comparing him to Shard? I said I found his highlights unimpressive. Here's why: he can't pass (at all - it's like he doesn't know he's allowed to and wouldn't know what to do if he did). He doesn't have any post moves. Having long arms does not count as a post move, and NBA defenders will keep him off-balance so that his "jump" hook will be all but useless. He is completely un-athletic. In the post, he plays as much under the rim as Randle, despite his size advantage. His "handles" seem incredibly sloppy. I've yet to see a clip of those "handles" doing him any real good. I've seen a few examples of him facing the basket with a couple of between-the-legs, hesitation dribbles, but nothing to suggest anything useful; lateral quickness is necessary to utilize dribbling skills, and I've seen none of that. All I've seen is him following up those fancy moves with a bull-rush to the rim and a lob off the glass against smaller, less talented guys. His 3-pointer is nice-looking. Maybe he could be as good as Rasheed Wallace one day (if he develops heretofore unseen post moves), but that is his offensive ceiling, as far as I've seen. Defensively, he could be great. One-on-one. His team D is nearly as bad as Parker's. His Ball IQ just seems very low overall. There's a rule I have with all players: If they can't pass, they can't play. Even big men have to be able to see the floor and understand what's going on around them, or they will never beat the double-teams. Vonleh seems to know about as much about basketball as my 5-year-old son: the ball goes in the basket, you stay between your man and the basket, you grab the ball after someone shoots. He looks lost every time he has to help on D or move without the ball on O.

 

I did not like Marcus Smart last year, and I was very glad he backed out. I thought he was a good defensive player who looked too slow to be effective offensively in the NBA without a vastly improved jump shot. Damn that speed is deceptive! I kept thinking, "How is he getting to the rim? Just stay in front of his hefty ass." I think I'm the only person who likes him more this year than last. He's not a great shooter. He probably never will be. But he shoots a high percentage inside the 3-point line, and he gets to the foul line. He's a ferocious defender who we know is consistent at that end. His mentality is hard-nosed, pit-bull. He's a fighter, which means he can learn to be a winner. He's a good passer, especially considering he didn't play point guard in high school. He's a very good rebounder for a guard, which is always a great sign of transcendent athleticism. Everyone says his work-ethic is elite. I honestly think this kid has as much upside as anyone in the draft. What's the knock on him? NBAdraft.net said he can't shoot, isn't athletic, and has a bad attitude. 1) he shot 29% from distance at 19-years-old. So did LeBron James. I'm not saying he's going to improve as much as LeBron has, but why is it out of the question? His mechanics aren't terrible; in fact, his main problem is the same as LeBron's: a tendency to start slowly from a low stance rather than just rise up quickly. Even if he doesn't improve much, his other talents will translate to scoring anyway. Derrick Rose is still barely a 30% 3-point shooter, but when he's healthy he's a monster because he gets to the rim and scores or gets to the line. Same with Russell Westbrook. Same with John Wall. Those guys are super-athletic, though. 2) Apparently the scouts at NBAdraft.net were as fooled as I was when they questioned his speed and athleticism. While he doesn't have John Wall's hops, by three inches, all of his other measurables are very comparable. He has length (as good as Wall's and Exum's at 6' 9.25''), speed (3/4 Court at 3.26 to Wall's 3.14), and agility (10.62 Lane Agility to Wall's 10.83). By the way, that 36-inch max vert is a full inch better than D-Wade's out of college; his speed measured better than Steph Curry's or Damian Lillard's; his lane agility measured better than Chris Freaking Paul's! And he outweighs all of the above by twenty pounds of muscle (Wade by 15). So he has elite athleticism for an NBA PG, with an NFL Linebacker's body. 3) His attitude is basically Chris Paul's. LeBron used to act like a baby when he lost (he still kinda does). Elite winners hate to lose, and at 20 they throw **** and kick chairs when it happens. I will absolutely not knock the guy for fighting with some dumb-ass fan spouting racial slurs. Charles Barkley spit on a little girl and threw a guy through a window. Attitude is common among elite athletes, and Marcus Smart kicked one chair. If anything he doesn't have enough attitude. I think Smart's ceiling is D-Wade playing point guard. I honestly don't know anyone to compare to his basement. Eric Bledsoe, maybe.

 

I'll post thoughts on a few others later.

 

You say this is a "stacked draft" but the you trashed the top players. SMH

[Soul Bro 1,419]

That is an incredibly long post. Too long for me tonight

[MagicFanInNevada 51]

That is an incredibly long post. Too long for me tonight

 

Yeah I feel you bro

[Catman 380]

I read that post up until his criticism of vonleh and then i tapped out. He hasnt watched this guy play enough.

 

Vonleh shoots 3s can play sf and pf and has 7 foot wingspan which elevates his shot and makes it unblockable . So yeah i see a rashard comparison.

[Justin Jaudon 221]

You say this is a "stacked draft" but the you trashed the top players. SMH

 

I trashed Wiggins and Vonleh. I called Parker a guaranteed top-20 offensive player in the league right now. I said Embiid could end up being another Olajuwon (I just doubt he'll be that good, just like I doubt he'll be Darko bad; likely he'll be closer to a slightly less defensively dominant Dwight). I questioned Exum's credentials, which everyone should. His speed and athleticism are undoubtedly elite, and what little we know about him is amazing, except his shot. I said nothing but positive things about Smart. I just don't see the appeal of Vonleh. Even Wiggins I called a safe pick to be solid. I just don't see the super-high ceiling most people do. I didn't have time to write about guys like Randle, who I think will be at least Paul Millsap, or mid-first-rounders like Kyle Anderson, who is so much like Lamar Odom it's silly.

 

If two of these guys maximize their potential as I've discussed it, this will be the best draft since '03. Stacked. If we had a draft with Olajuwon and Rose, or Melo and D-Wade, with Millsap and Odom. That's one hell of a draft.

[Justin Jaudon 221]

I read that post up until his criticism of vonleh and then i tapped out. He hasnt watched this guy play enough.

 

Vonleh shoots 3s can play sf and pf and has 7 foot wingspan which elevates his shot and makes it unblockable . So yeah i see a rashard comparison.

 

It's true, I haven't watched the guy play a full game. I just never tuned in to Indiana this year. I have watched a lot of videos and analyses of him, made by people who get paid to analyze basketball players. My problem with him is that I don't like players with obviously low Ball IQ. Even his advocates admit he doesn't have a good grasp of what to do with his skills. That's not something I like to assume he will develop to All-Star level.

[Mike1989 68]

Earlier today on SC Chad Ford had a mock with Embiid, Wiggins, and Exum going top 3. Then Ford had the Magic drafting Vonleh over Parker, which I thought was crazy. Anyone see a scenario would the Magic would pass on Parker for Vonleh?

 

I don't think that we would. I still believe that if we have the chance to get Parker or Wiggins at #4, then we will draft them. It is debatable what Parker's ceiling is, but most seem to agree that he has all star ability and potential, and that he could be a 20ppg player from day one. So that would give us a go to scorer that could eventually start scoring even more as he develops. I'd take Parker over Vonleh purely because Parker gives us instant production that we can use, whereas Vonleh gives us a player with a high ceiling that he may or may not hit.

 

From here it depends what we do. Can we get the Kings or Hornets to give up their draft pick for Afflalo, or even the Lakers? If yes, then we could address the PF with the #7, #8, or #9 pick if Gordon or Randle is available; and with #12 (if we keep it), we can address the PG position with Payton, Ennis or LaVine. If we came out of the draft with three lottery players that could feasibly be starters from day one , or two starters and one to develop behind Nelson, then we will have had an excellent draft.

 

PG: Nelson / Payton, Ennis or LaVine

SG: Oladipo / Moore / Lamb

SF: Parker / Harkless

PF: Gordon or Randle / Harris / Nicholson

C: Vuc / O'Quinn

 

That line up and rotation is starting to shape up nicely. If Parker is on the board, we should draft him. He will be a nice piece to build around.

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

just watched a bunch of vonleh video....

 

sorry guys i just don't see it YET.

 

despite his measurements he does not jump off the screen, that athleticism? he does not get off the floor quickly

 

his defensive instincts are meh, his help defense is not good, he is exceptional on switching pick and roll, but AROUND the basket he is not a big presence

 

he does seem to have a naturally good jump shot but everything else needs alot of work, he doesn't look as athletic during play, as his combine numbers say he is

[God Hates Otis Smith 153]

It's been a while since I have posted on here, but I thought I'd throw a couple of things out there, because I feel strongly about a couple of players in the upcoming draft.

 

For one, I think there is only one guaranteed All-Star in this draft: Jabari Parker. Embiid must stay healthy and develop offensively; Wiggins must show he can dribble, shoot somewhat consistently, pass, think, basically anything more than jump and have the hand-eye coordination to not miss the rim on a dunk. Don't get me wrong. I think both are fairly safe picks to be decent players; they're too physically gifted not to be. But both of them have major things to work on (Kansas just doesn't develop players well for the NBA anymore). Parker needs to be a better passer, but everything else he does offensively is stellar for his position. Defensively, he needs as much work as Wiggins' and Embiid's offensive games combined, but I don't think you even care about that when a guy is as gifted as he is offensively. You can hide bad defense, a la Larry Bird or, more recently, Kevin Love. There are ten wings not starting in the league who are better defenders than Wiggins will ever be, and likely ten bigs who will never sniff an All-Star game who are as good on D as Embiid projects to be. There might be ten guys in the whole league with what Parker can bring you offensively. He projects to be that good - he's already a top twenty offensive player in the league. Offensively, no one really has any clue what either of the Kansas guys will be. Embiid could be the next Olajuwon, so they say, but he could just as easily be Darko Milicic. Wiggins' offensive ceiling, to me, is something like Ricky Davis, while his basement is more like Corey Brewer.

 

But moving on to players Orlando might actually draft:

 

I'm not a huge fan of Dante Exum. If Orlando drafts him, I'll try to hope that Hennigan knows what he's doing; but I'll be skeptical. At this point, it seems like he is all athletic ability. We have no idea of his mentality, Ball IQ, consistent effort on D, anything. He could be Penny, he could be Derrick Rose; he could also be Shaun Livingston (note the trend with all of those players?). If he ends up like Penny or Rose, we then have to hope he doesn't get hurt like those guys did/have. If he ends up like Shaun Livingston, it really won't matter (even before the injury, Livingston was never going to be worth the fourth pick in a stacked draft like this one). I actually think he has more upside than Wiggins, as Wiggins can't dribble, which is a large part of basketball, when you think about it; he also has a lower basement. He could be worse than Livingston. We might be overestimating his Ball IQ considerably, as no one - not the GM's or the scouts or his own father - has seen him against enough elite talent to get a good handle on this. He could be a total flake. We simply don't know, and neither does anyone else. He hasn't been exposed to anything like what he's about to be exposed to, and that scares me.

 

If Orlando drafts Noah Vonleh, I will probably stomp around in a rage for a few days before realizing that I'm going to root for the team no matter what, so let's just hope I'm totally wrong about the guy. I've watched a lot of tape on the guy (I'll admit I haven't watched him play a full game), and even his highlight reels are unimpressive. I hear so many ridiculous comparisons with this guy that I want to scream. NBAdraft.net compares him to Wayman Tisdale/Jamal Mashburn. Jamal Mashburn! Seriously! Someone here compared him to Rashard Lewis! After seeing him shoot a whole 30 college 3-pointers, we're comparing him to Shard? I said I found his highlights unimpressive. Here's why: he can't pass (at all - it's like he doesn't know he's allowed to and wouldn't know what to do if he did). He doesn't have any post moves. Having long arms does not count as a post move, and NBA defenders will keep him off-balance so that his "jump" hook will be all but useless. He is completely un-athletic. In the post, he plays as much under the rim as Randle, despite his size advantage. His "handles" seem incredibly sloppy. I've yet to see a clip of those "handles" doing him any real good. I've seen a few examples of him facing the basket with a couple of between-the-legs, hesitation dribbles, but nothing to suggest anything useful; lateral quickness is necessary to utilize dribbling skills, and I've seen none of that. All I've seen is him following up those fancy moves with a bull-rush to the rim and a lob off the glass against smaller, less talented guys. His 3-pointer is nice-looking. Maybe he could be as good as Rasheed Wallace one day (if he develops heretofore unseen post moves), but that is his offensive ceiling, as far as I've seen. Defensively, he could be great. One-on-one. His team D is nearly as bad as Parker's. His Ball IQ just seems very low overall. There's a rule I have with all players: If they can't pass, they can't play. Even big men have to be able to see the floor and understand what's going on around them, or they will never beat the double-teams. Vonleh seems to know about as much about basketball as my 5-year-old son: the ball goes in the basket, you stay between your man and the basket, you grab the ball after someone shoots. He looks lost every time he has to help on D or move without the ball on O.

 

I did not like Marcus Smart last year, and I was very glad he backed out. I thought he was a good defensive player who looked too slow to be effective offensively in the NBA without a vastly improved jump shot. Damn that speed is deceptive! I kept thinking, "How is he getting to the rim? Just stay in front of his hefty ass." I think I'm the only person who likes him more this year than last. He's not a great shooter. He probably never will be. But he shoots a high percentage inside the 3-point line, and he gets to the foul line. He's a ferocious defender who we know is consistent at that end. His mentality is hard-nosed, pit-bull. He's a fighter, which means he can learn to be a winner. He's a good passer, especially considering he didn't play point guard in high school. He's a very good rebounder for a guard, which is always a great sign of transcendent athleticism. Everyone says his work-ethic is elite. I honestly think this kid has as much upside as anyone in the draft. What's the knock on him? NBAdraft.net said he can't shoot, isn't athletic, and has a bad attitude. 1) he shot 29% from distance at 19-years-old. So did LeBron James. I'm not saying he's going to improve as much as LeBron has, but why is it out of the question? His mechanics aren't terrible; in fact, his main problem is the same as LeBron's: a tendency to start slowly from a low stance rather than just rise up quickly. Even if he doesn't improve much, his other talents will translate to scoring anyway. Derrick Rose is still barely a 30% 3-point shooter, but when he's healthy he's a monster because he gets to the rim and scores or gets to the line. Same with Russell Westbrook. Same with John Wall. Those guys are super-athletic, though. 2) Apparently the scouts at NBAdraft.net were as fooled as I was when they questioned his speed and athleticism. While he doesn't have John Wall's hops, by three inches, all of his other measurables are very comparable. He has length (as good as Wall's and Exum's at 6' 9.25''), speed (3/4 Court at 3.26 to Wall's 3.14), and agility (10.62 Lane Agility to Wall's 10.83). By the way, that 36-inch max vert is a full inch better than D-Wade's out of college; his speed measured better than Steph Curry's or Damian Lillard's; his lane agility measured better than Chris Freaking Paul's! And he outweighs all of the above by twenty pounds of muscle (Wade by 15). So he has elite athleticism for an NBA PG, with an NFL Linebacker's body. 3) His attitude is basically Chris Paul's. LeBron used to act like a baby when he lost (he still kinda does). Elite winners hate to lose, and at 20 they throw **** and kick chairs when it happens. I will absolutely not knock the guy for fighting with some dumb-ass fan spouting racial slurs. Charles Barkley spit on a little girl and threw a guy through a window. Attitude is common among elite athletes, and Marcus Smart kicked one chair. If anything he doesn't have enough attitude. I think Smart's ceiling is D-Wade playing point guard. I honestly don't know anyone to compare to his basement. Eric Bledsoe, maybe.

 

I'll post thoughts on a few others later.

How about making it twitter sized.

[LaVar 108]

I don't think that we would. I still believe that if we have the chance to get Parker or Wiggins at #4, then we will draft them. It is debatable what Parker's ceiling is, but most seem to agree that he has all star ability and potential, and that he could be a 20ppg player from day one. So that would give us a go to scorer that could eventually start scoring even more as he develops. I'd take Parker over Vonleh purely because Parker gives us instant production that we can use, whereas Vonleh gives us a player with a high ceiling that he may or may not hit.

 

From here it depends what we do. Can we get the Kings or Hornets to give up their draft pick for Afflalo, or even the Lakers? If yes, then we could address the PF with the #7, #8, or #9 pick if Gordon or Randle is available; and with #12 (if we keep it), we can address the PG position with Payton, Ennis or LaVine. If we came out of the draft with three lottery players that could feasibly be starters from day one , or two starters and one to develop behind Nelson, then we will have had an excellent draft.

 

PG: Nelson / Payton, Ennis or LaVine

SG: Oladipo / Moore / Lamb

SF: Parker / Harkless

PF: Gordon or Randle / Harris / Nicholson

C: Vuc / O'Quinn

 

That line up and rotation is starting to shape up nicely. If Parker is on the board, we should draft him. He will be a nice piece to build around.

if smart is available at 7, i believe we go with him.

Their a good chance he goes to the cetics - if the cetics dont trade out.