With Joel, Oden and LaMarcus on the roster, Hansbrough would never spend a second at back-up center (well, maybe in garbage time, but who cares). All we need is a guy who can back-up LaMarcus at power forward for 10 - 12 MPG. Ideally, I'd like a guy who can rebound, bring some energy, play physical, and not make mistakes. If he can do a little scoring, that's a bonus. I'd still prefer a veteran over a rookie, and there's a few others in the draft I'd rather have (Blair) than Hansbrough. However, if Hansbrough is available at 24, he'd be a good value pick at that spot - and if Freeland stays in Spain, could actually get some minutes at back-up 4. BNM
Chad Ford is a terrible talent evaluator but he's constantly talking to GM's trying to peg who they're going to take. I wouldn't be surprised if his final mock draft wasn't pretty close to how it really is. I still think Rod Thorn will take Blair with the number 11 pick, but I just don't see Hansbrough falling to us now that his stock has been up. And I have stated before that I don't want to trade integral pieces to move up in this draft.
What scares me, is that I keep seeing mock drafts that have us taking (shudder) Chase Budinger. There are few players in the draft less qualified to meet our needs!
Oh I completely agree I was just adressing what someone said about him being our third center, cause unless we get a 4 that can play 5, LaMarcus would be our third center.
Roy had a 40 inch vertical at the draft combine...that's grade A. Not to many athletes reach 40, not even Jerryd Bayless jumped that high, so I'm not sure why he had that rep.
This draft is so not getting me excited at all -- total dearth of great talent, low draft position and likely too expensive to move up to where it would be worthwhile. God I hop KP trades out of the first round.
I'm a talent/BPA over needs guy and hope thats the main philosophy of management's draft day plan. If the team has a need, talent is a tradable commodity. It's a draft day trap to focus on anything but whats available and selecting the nuggets from the gravel. I like Budinger more then some of the guys projected going to PDX @ 24. Dude is a heady athletic wing who can spread the court with a sweet jumper and pass the ball well. If other moves weren't made he probably wouldn't see many minutes next year, but I could see him leapfrogging Travis and Martell for backup wing minutes down the line. STOMP
I'm more into breaking down player's talent into tiers. If player A and B are in tier 3 but B is a position of need, I would have no qualms with taking B. But if player A is clearly a tier above player B then you have to go BPA in that position.
Allow me to clarify. I don't believe in drafting based on *positional* needs. I do believe *skill* needs should be taken into consideration. My take on Budinger, is that he is smaller Channing Frye - 100% finese player and soft as cotton candy. We already have our share of softies with moderate offensive skills.
Being a Arizona Wildcats fan and having watched quite a few games this year he would be a great back-up PF for us. If he bring nothing else he is a good rebounder and hustles his ass off. It all comes down to what it takes to get him.
Ahh. That's right. Hill got there the year before Bayless. Still, you've got to think that would be pretty cool chemistry-wise.
Unless Bayless left after freshman year because he thought Hill was an obnoxious asshole. He didn't. It's a joke. Hill would be intriguing because at his height, he could play some C in small ball lineups, if we were so inclined. Not an ideal situation, but he could if we wanted to, and coudl form a decent 3 man rotation with Oden and LMA in the future. That being said, I don't see it happening.
