http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=1308 Man, I really regret the Warriors surge at the last few hopeless weeks. We'll be missing out on some Rudy Gay action...
Cross you fingers - the lottery is today at 4 PT, I believe, and we could move up. Either way, though, this draft is so mediocre, any of the top 10 players could be an eventual starter or benchwarmer, it's not like we would have had a chance to get LeBron James or Yao or something.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AnimeFANatic:</div><div class="quote_post">http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=1308 Man, I really regret the Warriors surge at the last few hopeless weeks. We'll be missing out on some Rudy Gay action...</div> Now there's a last name that shouldn't go with the word "action". But, I agree, let's get Gay. Doh.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting AlleyOop:</div><div class="quote_post">Cross you fingers - the lottery is today at 4 PT, I believe, and we could move up. Either way, though, this draft is so mediocre, any of the top 10 players could be an eventual starter or benchwarmer, it's not like we would have had a chance to get LeBron James or Yao or something.</div> I've got a feeling that the best player in the draft is probably in the late first or early 2nd. Because that means the lottery teams lose again and the good teams get a lot richer!
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I've got a feeling that the best player in the draft is probably in the late first or early 2nd. Because that means the lottery teams lose again and the good teams get a lot richer!</div> Powe could be that guy. He's like a more athletic, less refined version of Diogu. We'll see what happens
I would love to see Powe fall to the Warriors in the second round. When you watch him, he doesn't ever seem like he's really dominating, but then you look at the stats at the end of the game and he's got 22 points and 14 boards. What I love about him is all the quotes from other Pac-10 big men about how strong Powe is and hard it is to play against him. As much as I like Diogu, I think drafting Powe would remove the "untouchable" label from Diogu, if not make him expendable entirely. Powe would be the second coming of Carlos Boozer.
Will his knees ever hold out? Kind of sucks to have those injury problems so young in his life. I doubt he'll ever see a full 82 game season. The upside is definitely there if he can find a way to play some small forward. At power forward let's hope he can do battle like Malik Rose, Kenny Thomas, or our own Ike Diogu (who is only 6'8 in shoes).
Ike is alot better than Powe, especially at the NBA level. Firstly, Powe is a tweener and if hes physically capable of playing SF thats where hes going to be in the NBA, Diogu isn't a tweener, hes a pure undersized PF. Their post games are both very good, probably about equal in production in college, Diogu seems to bang around more and create contact to get to the line while Powe seems to use finesse more and can power it in when he wants to. Athleticism is a draw at this point, Powe is naturally a much better athlete but his knees are terrible and have diminished his ability to jump and run as well as he used to. Diogu is stronger and heavier but Powe is more agile. Ike's jumpshot is far superior to Powe's jumpshot, or lack there of, Diogu regularly knocked down college 3's and he even attempted an NBA 3 last season with confidence but he was fouled on the play. Defense goes to Ike, Ike's probably got a bigger wingspan, hes stronger, better shot blocker. Although Ike looks lost defensively at the NBA level hes got better physical tools and potential to play decent defense in the post as a PF. Powe would be a mid-first round pick if it werent for is injury problems, he'd be a good pick in the second round but he won't replace Diogu by any means. Diogu has already proven he can score 20 points a game with ease if hes given 10-15 shots, I'm not so sure that Powe could do that since his offensive game is more limited than Diogu's. Powe could be like Ryan Gomes or Kenny Thomas; good late 1st round or 2nd round pick who can score and rebound well but probably will never be a starter because lack of size (both height and weight) which will hinder their defensive ability.
I agree with Run BJM, I don't think Leone Powe is all that to make Ike expendable, but I see where Wtwalker is going in terms of not relying on a single player to make/break this franchise's inside game. I still think Ike is a better shotblocker and his passing is a lot better (this will become more noticeable once he knows the offense and there are other reliable passing options meaning NO FOYLE OR DUNLEAVY as guys like Claxton, Fisher, Baron often ignore!). Ike maybe short or appear unathletic to some, but we need a prototype player for once. Not one single guy in our roster plays their position the way they are supposed to. I mean, a jump shooting power forward that averages less blocks and points in the paint than our shooting guard who has no dribble, more post game, but no guard-like passing skills, or free throw shot? Then add in Baron who can create and make some difficult shots for himself or difficult accurate passes to others is never healthy, doesn't follow some plays because he has to kill the other guard singlehandedly out of pride i.e. Sam Cassell or some other guard he's dueling with, and he's generally a low %, high risk kind of guy on both ends of the floor. Then there's Dunleavy whose game translates more to a point guard who can't take advantage of his own size mismatch... lord knows he can't do anything with his quickness unless he's playing power forward. Man it's nuts and our older vets are even worse. Sometimes the draft gives us a player that we need, sometimes it doesn't... we always have to go for the B.A.P. which really sucks when its not a player we need and management can't engineer a trade that gives us what we need. So if there's a guy that has a lot of value because he's the best player available by consensus, I sure hope we take it so we can make some deals happen. I like my starters prototypical (with exceptions being made on the swing positions or combo guards doing a good job of creating a shot). The bench should be versatile enough to play three or two positions.
I don't think Powe's knees are shot at all. He tore his ACL in high school and didn't have the money to get a surgeon to do a good job on it, so he tore it again at Cal and sat out a year to fully rehab it. Once Powe came back this year, he never had any problems with his knee and says its actually stronger than its ever been. Now he may have to worry about cartiledge problems later on in his career, but its not like he's going to have the same problems as Keyon Martin. As for now, every doctor that has examined him has said there aren't any problems with his knees. As for his height, whether he's 6-7 or 6-8 doesn't really make a difference. He's still got the same 7-4 wingspan that Diogu does. Run BJM, I'm surprised you think Diogu is the banger of the two. He's got 15-20 pounds on Powe, but Powe was easily the strongest, most physical player in the Pac-10 this year. Diogu has more range on his shot than Powe, but Powe is probably better at the two dribble power drive from the perimeter. To be clear though, I'm by no means saying Powe should be the #9 pick. I do think he's severely undervalued in this draft, but if I were Mullin, I'd sit on my hands and hope he fell the way Taft and Ellis did last year.
I dunno... but regardless, another power guy with low post moves is a welcome addition. An NCAA tournament berth, a conference leading 20/10 in the pac 10 ain't bad. Plus, he's certainly athletic and there's upside. Then obviously there's financial influence in him leaving school to get big money before another serious injury occurs... Knowing this draft and his recent accolades, he could shoot up to the first round like David Lee and Wayne Simien did in last year's draft. I'd like to see how Ike and Powe match up against each other. Obviously, Ike is the better passer, though, maybe a better shotblocker. I think we need those two things in a starting power forward candidate, but maybe Powe or Ike isn't a starter. Who knows. We've barely or haven't seen either at the pro level. An Oakland guy would be a nice addition considering I've wanted guys like GP, JKidd and Paul Pierce to be Warriors.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting custodianrules2:</div><div class="quote_post">I'd like to see how Ike and Powe match up against each other.</div> Well, the only times they played against each other were during the '03-'04 season when Powe was a true freshman and Diogu was a sophomore. Cal won both games, but Diogu was dominant in both (in part this was due to the fact that Diogu was really the only player on a very bad ASU team, while Cal had a number of good players). In the first game Diogu had 31 points and 13 boards to Powe's 16 and 4. In the second game, Diogu had 33 and 7 while Powe had 13 and 11. Comparing stats from their last collegiate year, Diogu averaged 22.6 and 9.8 as a junior while Powe averaged 20.5 and 10.1 as a red shirt (blue shirt for all you Bear fans) sophomore. Pretty similar numbers. Just to show you how similar they are, Chad Ford calls Powe a "more athletic Ike Diogu" in Powe's nba player comparison Oh yeah, and Custodian, I wouldn't say Powe has low post moves so much as he's a tremendous offensive rebounder who is both strong and agile when getting points off put backs. Actually I think he could use a big more finesse in his game. He's not going to be able to over power pf's in the nba the way he could in the Pac-10. But, he did average an insane 10 free throws a game last year. I imagine he wouldn't have any trouble getting to the line in the nba either.
I'd love to get Powe in the second round if we got a swingman in the first round, he was my favorite college player last year but I just think Diogu was better at the college level (at scoring at least). Not that Powe isn't good, its very close but on Cal opposing teams had to worry about other players killing them if they doubled Powe while on ASU Ike was double and triple teamed and just scored anyway. Powe would be a very nice pick in the second round, I would definitely love to have two PFs with a post game who can get to the line and convert. He'd probably be in the D-League for a while until we coud move some of our other bigs though. I can just imagine a frontline in a few years of Ike/Biedrins with Powe/Taft coming off the bench. Very athletic, skilled, well rounded group. If we draft a big in the first round I think we'd be better off picking a swingman like James White, Bobby Jones, or PJ Tucker in the second round because we already have enough bigs, adding 2 rookies would make a massive logjam even if we were to ship off Foyle and Murphy. I like alot of the swingmen in the second round because they are raw but athletic, Pietrus may be gone pretty soon so having another swingman ready when he leaves would be nice. Most of the SG/SFs in the second round are raw but have good defenseive potential or are already great defenders but lack an offensive game.
