http://www.chicagotribune.com/sport...s-nba-draft-spt-0627-20140627,0,5985409.story Bulls trade up in draft to net Doug McDermott Coach Tom Thibodeau worked with McDermott last summer with USA Basketball. "If you view him as strictly a shooter, you're not casting the proper light on him," Thibodeau said. "He's a lot more than that. We think he's a complete player. We think he's capable of playing very good defense."
I will join the love-fest to the extent he is a clear lotto talent and better than 16 and 19 availability. Will not join the love-fest if its ammo to be stored if the Bulls don't win a Championship in the next couple of years. I think this was a bold and shrewed move.
What if they don't amnesty or trade Boozer? Aside from using the MLE and BAE and dealing with unsigned (DJ, Kirk) players while avoiding the tax, they may be done. I think he was drafted for need. He's not a one dimensional athletic freak with extra long arms. If the Bulls use the exceptions, re-sign DJ, and nothing more, they're a better team than last year. If LeBron moves on, our path to the finals is less difficult. That's assuming no Rose (he didn't play last year). This is far from shock and awe. If they're keeping boozer, I'd like to see them move Taj for a guy like Afflalo to play SG, move Jimmy to SF.
I'm in on the lovefest. If you wanted to see the Bulls add offense, they used their two mid-first-round picks to take a player with the best offensive credentials in the draft. I've heard and read a lot of angry words about McDermott being a stiff (read: unathletic or simply white). It must be acknowledged that he's no Harold Minor. He's more Shane Battier athletically. In fact, here are the combine numbers: -Battier: 6-9.5 height w/shoes, 6-10.5 wingspan, 29.5 standing vertical, 33.0 max vertical, 10.95 sec agility drill, 3.30 sec sprint -McDermott: 6-7.75, 6-9.25 wingspan, 28.5 standing vertical, 36.5 max vertical, 11.10 sec agility, 3.29 sprint I like this comparison because both players really, really get the game, but neither are "quick-twitchers" and neither are "long." Battier somehow managed to defend 3 positions effectively. Battier was known for his defense when he came out of college. McDermott's one of the all-time great collegiate scorers. I'm also in for the lovefest because it appears that, in finding a way to get McDermott, GarPax got Thibodeau a player he really likes. It was a good night.
McDermott had near zero steals and near zero blocks for his 4 year collegiate career. I think Battier might have done better. It's puzzling to me why we'd draft one of the best scorers in college history only to worry about his defense. I'd rather worry about his offense. If he doesn't give us that, he's a bust and we paid dearly for him.
Basketball people are always going to consider defense in their evaluations. Thibodeau doesn't seem overly concerned about McDermott's defense and that's good enough for me. On offense, few college players have drawn as much attention as McDermott did, but he kept putting up great numbers...and his teams won games. When it comes to rookies, there are few sure things. Still, McDermott is more of a known quantity than most NBA rookies. I think Thibodeau will play him and he'll play well.
If he plays matador defense (wave at his man as he goes past), but puts up 27 PPG on 45% 3pt shooting, he's going to be a superstar in this league. Similar to Harden. I think he'll play defense fine, but he wasn't drafted for his defense.
Trivia question. McBuckets is the second (that I know of) player the Bulls drafted who led the nation in scoring in college. Who was the other?
I'm actually leaning towards a perimeter oriented Michael Beasley who's not an idiot. If you can look past skin color, he's got more of that well rounded 3/4's game who scores from different spots on the court. He's a great shooter, but his 3 pt. shot accounts for less than 30% of his points. Another plus is that I see him being a better fit for the role we tried to shoehorn Korver into. When he was here it looked we were trying to use him as a scorer despite him only being a shooter. It's why he had lower efficiency when he played here. But I can see us devising schemes where we can kind of load up on Doug on offense and he'll be able to handle it. He'll also be a natural fit in our structured, egalitarian offense.
Their very first draft pick (1966, first round, 10th pick overall), Dave Schellhase from Purdue. He was godawful. Like McDermott, he was white.
[video=youtube;Fv474_WMozs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fv474_WMozs[/video] [video=youtube;ZLwWxfkTEI0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLwWxfkTEI0[/video]
Before the draft, I wasn't exactly high on moving up for him. After the draft, I've gone back and watched footage of him. I was impressed with the multitude off ways he can score and create offense for himself.
I was thinking Stacey King. He averaged 26.0 PPG/10RPG his senior year for Oklahoma. I loved the pick.
What position does he play for us? I've not read anywhere that he's nimble enough to guard SFs in college, let along at the pro level.
My post was referring to his offense, not his defense. Those are very good questions......not sure what the answer is. My guess is that whenever he's on the floor either Butler/Kirk/Melo(?) will take the tougher perimeter assignment and Doug will pick up the scraps.
