Exclusive Official 2020 Draft Thread

Dame was...

 

Craft averaged double digits (10ppg) at tOSU and was a bad 3pt shooter. I mean, they’re both white as a comparison, but their games in college are nothing alike. Pritchard is by far the better player in almost every category.

 

He averaged 37 mpg last year out of 40 and you’re on him about conditioning as he handled the ball all game long? 35 mpg his SO and JR seasons, too.

Tough crowd when you’re killing a guy for playing almost the entire game.

 

The most exciting and suspenseful element of the draft might be who we select for the Rockets...

 

Just assuming it was conditioning, I wasn't in the locker room and timeout huddles so there could've been other contributing factors. I just know that Oregon team would go through LOOOOOOOONG stretches of stagnant, awful basketball, and he -- as the PG and leader of the team -- was both a significant reason WHY it stagnated and struggled to ever change that. As I mentioned, there obviously could've been other factors at play, clearly Altman didn't trust anyone else running the team, so that stagnation could've simply been the result of that. To me, great players figure out a way to change weaknesses, whether systemic or personal, Pritchard never did that.

As I've also said, I suppose it's possible that he'll be a fine 5th guard type of player, I just feel like he's grossly overrated by Oregonians and Duck fans who like to compare him to the Ridnours of the world and he's just not that...

 

Meyers at that age was a rookie.

 

Both solid defensively and floor generals. Pritchard is a much better shooter. Craft had elite defensive abilities

 

...or not. By 22, it was his 3rd year in the league.

 

Exactly, well almost....missed it by a couple of years. Zach should be far further along than he is

 

He’s been injured unfortunately.

 

These both can be -- and are -- true.

 

If people feel like writing him off already so be it. I think he has a great skill set and can be one of the premier shot blockers if he puts it all together. It’s too soon to write off a big like that.

 

I want to believe Zach still has greatness -- or at least verygoodness still in him, so you and I are on the same page. My point was that it's probably equally fair to say that he's had to work through injuries throughout his short career and thus has not really had a true and comparable developmental onramp AND when healthy, has also underwhelmed to a lesser or greater degree. The sum of which has been disappointing so far.

I'm not ready to write him off yet, I love what he brings in PnR defense and you can clearly see a skilled and intelligent player at times, but need to start seeing results. He needs to get stronger, he needs to stay healthy, and he probably needs to JUST be a C, or at least a low-post 4.

 

Udoka Azubuike
Per40: 19.8 pts, 15.1 reb, 3.7 bpg, 74.8% fg, 44.1% ft
#1 NCAA fg%.
#2 NCAA Box +/-
#3 NCAA Def Rating
#9 NCAA PER
#16 NCAA bpg
#19 NCAA rpg
#19 NCAA Dbl-Dbl
2020 Consensus All-America 2nd team



I'd be happy taking a gamble on Azubuike at #46.

 

He’s gotten comps to Deandre Jordan, which is pretty funny considering Olshey drafted him.

 

I've posted this before, but it's kinda fun to look at during draft time.

This graphs shows all of the Blazers draft picks charted by career WS. The blue line represents the NBA average Win-Share by draft position.



Let's hope we get an 'above the line' player at #46 this year!

 

You don't have to look much past their FT% to agree with that comp.

 

Not sure if you noticed this but not a single underclassman on last year’s Duck team declared for the draft. It was a mediocre team that Altman coached and Pritchard willed to the regular season conference title. Arizona has 3 first-round picks in this draft alone tonight and possibly 4. I don’t expect Pritchard to be a starter, but he’s better than TJ McConnell who has a niche career off the bench for good teams. Pritchard has legitimate 28’ range off the dribble. I think he’s a solid backup PG. I don’t see the downside unless he’s expected to start. I see a potential Fred VanVleet in a best-case scenario.

 

That’s true. Craft was a much better defender but he didn’t have to be a primary scorer, either, so that was his role. I’m going to go homer and say Pritchard is in the bench rotation for a decent team in two years.