I like Markkanen a lot. The reason Meyers (and Crabbe for that matter) isn't much of an impact shooter is because he isn't comfortable shooting with a hand in his face and doesn't have the ability to attack close-outs. Markkanen can do both, which makes him a "complete shooter," a term I'm using to mean someone who can not only shoot but has the ancillary skillset to leverage that shooting against live defense. The question is whether he can play enough defense to hold his own. At worst, he's probably a prime Ryan Anderson. The best case is that he has more of a Kevin Love impact on offense and develops the defensive awareness to navigate pick-and-rolls even if he doesn't bring much rim protection. He has the quickness and agility to play in space defensively. I think he'll go in the 5-10 range, so he might drop to Portland. I wouldn't be averse to Portland using one or both of their other first-rounders to move up a bit to get him, if they like his chances on defense.
I agree that it often turns out that way, bigs guarding bigs are slow to close out. But.....when I see wings guarding bigs 24 feet from the basket, they tends to me a lot more effective. Part of the success early stretch 4s had was that their man never went out to guard them because they wanted to stay close to the basket. That has changed. PF's now have to cover a lot of ground. Which is why Leonard is not effective. And I am not sold that Markkanen will be either. (on D)
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I fell pretty much the same way about Markkanen. He can get his shot off against anyone and has a high, quick release. That bodes well for his shooting translating to the NBA. Since we are so godawful at PF, I would not be opposed to drafting two PFs - one a lights out stretch 4 (like Markkanen) and the other a more traditional brute like Caleb Swanigan. Or, if Markkanen is off the board when we pick, reverse the order and go with a stud defender like Robert Williams with our pick and then a stretch 4 like TJ Leaf with the MEM pick. BNM
The reason for the dearth of PFs is because most tall dudes are being made into Cs and most 6'9 dudes are being made into SFs. Blame Draymond.
Because he can't shoot more than 3' from the rim and can't guard PFs who can. Have you given up on Nurkic already? No way in fuck can him and Drummond play at the same time. They would literally be standing on top of each other. We need a PF that compliments Nurkic, not a center than duplicates him. BNM
And in college with teams going small, a lot of 6'9 guys are centers as well. Look at Jordan Bell, he is 6'8" and a very effective center .....for college.
We have given him a shot. Remember when LMA and Lopez left? The center and/or power forward positions were his for the taking. He failed. Again this season, Aminu out with injury, Plumlee traded, he has had opportunities. He failed again. And again. And again. And again.
I say we start Vonleh next to Nurk the rest of the season and see what happens. They might develop some kind of chemistry, Noah might learn a thing or two, and he might start to gain the confidence that is necessary to be successful. We have nothing to lose and possibly something to gain.
I'm worried about the heads of some of our compatriots here on S2 exploding if we were to do that. But I agree we should do that at times, even if it Meyers coming off the bench.
For this season...this is what we have to work with and hopefully develop. If they still suck in June, we definitely without a doubt need an upgrade, and pick one of them to keep as a backup.
There you go. Bell could be our future 4. And Brooks could be our future backup 2 (after we dump Crabbe's salary so we can afford to pay Nurkić). Problem solved.
Of what we have on our roster, Vonleh is certainly the best fit next to Nurkic. At some point Vonleh is going to get tired of getting hit in the head by Nurkic passes and catch one. But seriously, I think Vonleh could pick up things from Nurkic. As much as I like the new energy and hope from the Nurk era, I would still like to see Vonleh start for the rest of the season--even if it costs some games. If he doesn't progress then you reevaluate over the summer.
No new personnel is likely joining the roster this season, so give Vonleh and Meyers extended opportunities to play alongside Nurkic. While Davis is a better player than both, there's little mystery about what he is and adding an extra couple marginal wins the rest of the way isn't much help. The rest of this season might as well resolve some "what would he do if he started a bunch of games?" questions once and for all.
