NBA Draft Projection An NBA franchise is buying potential in Ware’s profile. His physical tools are absolute value-risers with his mobility and verticality being the two positives. However, in terms of the intangibles, he has to improve his decision-making and defensive footwork via more reps at the next level. With Ware not turning 21 until after Eastern in the next NBA season, he’s still young for a sophomore. An NBA team that values age will see this as a positive. Ware’s fearlessness combined with his betting on himself by joining a major program in a big-men-heavy Big Ten shows the confidence he has in himself and his development. His help defense and potential to be a versatile pick-and-roll defender combined with Ware’s passing and developing jumper could make him a solid starter for years to come. Ware has to improve these areas as a natural result of his young age, which makes it likely he’ll play G League minutes in the first two years of his NBA career. Based on the pros and cons mentioned in this scouting report, I project Ware to be a lock for the top 20 of the 2024 NBA Draft, with him being able to enter the lottery based on how he’ll perform during team workouts and at the NBA Draft Combine.
According to that, Cody Williams' best feature is his age. And if I was looking for a really good backup PG and he was available second round, would sure take Tyler Kotek
Like you, if Clingan is in, IMHO, Ayton should (or must) be out. Ayton’s skillset is strong … for what he’s good at. Dunking and drawing fouls should be more frequent / His athleticism is in moments with a motor that idles too frequently / His aggression/physicality is too finesse too much of the time. In contrast, Clingan looks to have a better motor and plays a more physical game at a younger age. He is an active playmaker with the ball … and seems to like it. He has some want to on D even on the perimeter. So I don’t mind Clingan at 7. He seems like a guy who will continue to get his FT% up and become a set shot 3pt guy … like Brook Lopez (whose FT% has always been good to really good for a Big) … though it took him 8 years before shooting 3’s. Lopez as his ceiling? I can see that.
Im not seeing it at all. What has made you think he’s going to be a good 3pt shooter? He didn’t make them in college and he was a lousy FT shooter, which is a general indicator that he has no shooting touch. Big men make wide open non contested 3’s in warmups and workouts all the time. That doesn’t mean anything to me. This guy as a prospect and people hyping him have me scratching my head more than any prospect I can think of. I’d way rather go after Ware at 14, if we choose to take a projected center
Clingan is way more Meyers Leonard (and he has nowhere near the touch that Meyers had) than Brook Lopez. This is just getting silly.
Clingan is a good help side shot blocker and a good majority of points were ball handlers breaking down the defense and handing it off to him for the easy bucket
Its took Leonard several years to block shot. Meyers didn't have any natural born talent, Clingan does imo. How good?
Its looks possible that Joe will trade Ayton, Grant, Brogdon, Simons & Thy and go young. Question is when will these guys be traded? by deadline next season or what? Joe's not the get in a hurry type of guy and he has said as much! Going to pile up chips for the time being.
he averaged .3 blocks per game his whole career. And the reason he's not playing now for a team is he lacks Natural Born talent and goofy as hell.
It was said that Meyers could call out the opponent’s O … but it looked like he had a stutter to his reaction time on D. A half-step (or more) late. When he would actually body up a physical center, he was fine. Engaged. But that was reactive to aggression or knowing he had to. Ayton is more athletic than Meyers was but also seems “too nice” too much of the time. Indiana catered to Ware’s strengths (I have read and heard plenty of this view) and got more out of him. Unless his name is Jokic, I don’t want my center as the best player. I just want him to do his job with energy and want to. I’d almost rather the Blazers have Clingan than Ayton even though DA is a 3rd tier center (maybe low 2nd) and Clingan has yet to prove he’s an NBA center. EDIT: As to comp-ish, Poeltl is a good one for Clingan … not a real stretch, there. Adams is one of my favorite brawlers who moved okay, but not a lot else. 8 years in to his career, Lopez shot 3’s — and from hardly at all to 5 per. His D, too, became a known thing over the years. As I said, Clingan’s ceiling IMHO. Poetl moves decently and Clingan has a ton to learn.
The game never came natural to Meyers. He seemed like he was over-thinking/panicing all the time. He was hesitant to even take an open jumper even though he was a good shooter. He could have been a good player with a different brain.
Ayton is only 25 though. If he trades Grant, Brogdon and Simons we'd be looking at not even reaching the minimum salary.
Obviously Portland is taking players back in trade for salary matching. There are only so many exemptions or teams under the cap to absorb contracts.
I don't want to respond to any particular posts here about Myers Leonard. But, I read several stories that he committed to Illinois as a 6'6 shooting guard I believe and reported as a 7'0 shooting guard that they were trying to teach to be a center. I blame Portland for not maximizing his skill set. The kid grew up being a SG. Played the three point line. What did they expect? He was ahead of his time. In this draft he would be the top stretch four akin to Markinnen. Sure, He used the word K_ke playing a stupid video game but the dumbass did not know what the hell it meant as the majority here probably do not. He attended training to learn the true meaning of the word and was forgiven. That has nothing to do with ball, just being young and dumb. Hells bells, Kyrie has some flat earth bullshit in his recent past and nobody is talking about it as Dallas is headed to the finals. That is probably more concerning considering one of the greatest photo's of all time is "The Blue Marble." Says a lot about the school system he attended and Duke University.
