Keeping our pick? This might be a Lottery year

Compare how Duren moves to Mark Williams (projected FRP from Duke). Pretty clear why Duren is hyped. Mark Williams much, much better college player though.

 

Paolo and Davis with two great games to start the tourney as well to join Chet/Ivey/Jabari in the fray. Cream rising to the top

 

Day 2: Players of potential Blazer interest

Paolo Banchero (PF): 17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal on 7-14 shooting and 2-4 from '3'. Can certainly fill a stat sheet, but wasn't overly impressed with his efficiency against a weak CSF team. By contrast, teammate Mark Williams (C) 15 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks and 1 steal on 6-7 shooting for the 7' center with a 7'7" wingspan. Very different types of players, but one dominated much more in a game against weak competition.

Jaden Ivey (SG): 22 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist and 2 steals on 6-13 shooting, but a nice 3-6 from '3'. Seems to be able to get pretty much wherever he wants to go.

Johny Davis (SG): The 'other' SG had 25 points, 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block and 2 steals on 8-20 shooting, but 4-10 from '3'. Reminds me a bit of CJ.

Tari Eason (PF): The LSU big man had 18 points, but only 4 rebounds, and 4 turnovers. 5-9 from the field, 1-1 from '3', but added 7-7 from the FT line. Great energy.

Ben Mathurin (SF): 18 points and 5 rebounds, but no assists, blocks or steals. Not as active defensively in spurts and I would like to see and there were some shot mechanics that need to be fixed.

AJ Griffin (SG/SF): 10 points and 6 rebounds with little else. The 48% 3-pt shooting went awry as AJ managed only 2-7 against lowly CSF. Was hoping to see more.

.....oh yeah, and some guy named Jabari Smith (PF): 20 points, 14 rebounds and 4 assists on 6-13 shooting and 4-7 from '3'. One of his missed '3's led to a certain Sportscenter highlight which we've all seen....and you will see again. Teammate Walker Kessler (C) also had a dominant game coming 1 block short of a triple-double with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 9 blocks on 6-11 shooting but only 1-4 from the FT line where he is just a 57% FT shooter. However, that is what I like to see against weaker competition. They both dominated.

One more time....

 

He would have he's gets that high and has great hands. That dunk isnt what everyone is making it out to be. Big guy, ball right to him and runway take off. But Chet would have Posterized that DunK.

 

Having watched the two Baylor games, I liked Sochan, but he's not a lottery pick, IMO. He's a good all-around player who plays hard but I don't see him being the guy who can switch on PnR and defend quality guards with any real ability. He's probably a late 1R guy who can stick and contribute off the bench as a later R1 pick.

 

Baylor literally runs a switch everything scheme with him at times solely because he can defend quality guards. First tweet is R1. Second tweet is today vs UNC.

And basically everything I’ve seen contradicts your late R1 analysis. Not saying scouts are always right but there’s a reason he has been flying up draft boards.

He definitely won’t be late R1. He’s also one of the youngest players in the draft.

 

I’ll add: The draft I saw him in had him at pick 29/30. That’s why I was interested in him. I would’ve easily traded down for him because that is way under his value that I had seen throughout the season.

 

If he develops his shot he would be a great Jerami Grant replacement. Just focus on defense and knocking down open shoots.

Added bonus: much better passer.

 

Here is a pre-draft analysis of Nikola Jokić:

A skilled big man with great awareness and length, the Serbian is appealing as a potential addition to the frontcourt. With great footwork and vision, he makes crafty plays with the ball in his hands.

Jokic's upside isn't too spectacular because he's a below-average athlete, so he'll have to focus on utilizing his skill set and operating as an efficient shooter and passer within a system...

The big downside, though, is his athleticism. He doesn't get much lift off the floor at all, and he doesn't have the speed burst to drive past opponents or stay in front of them laterally.

It's going to give him major problems on defense and limit him to being a role player on offense.

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...raft-2014-highlights-scouting-report-and-more

 

We'll see. I'll stand by my evaluation.

 

Walker Kessler interests me. Think he has the game to reach late lottery?

 

I swear to god if we draft another short scoring guard....

 

I heard this year they're going to draft a short center.

 

Gotta take BPA, if it’s a guard, let the guards battle for minutes, make decisions, and then trade accordingly.

 

We definitely can't do that. We have to auction off our picks for pieces we need if pieces we need aren't there. What the fuck would we do with a short scoring guard? You think that dude is going to beat out Dame and Ant for minutes? No, if one is the BPA when we are scheduled to pick we find out who likes him the most and trade his rights to the team that gives us the best of what we need. With the commitment to Dame to build a contender around him as soon as possible we aren't in BPA mode we're in the mode of building a team that complements Dame and gives him a legit shot at a title. If there's a new GM that wants to trade Dame for a bunch of young BPAs then you're right we take the BPA regardless of how redundant he might be but that's not what we're hearing the direction of our team is.

 

With glass knees

 

We must draft Sam Bowie because we need a center who can guard Kareem....

 

Right, we were a young team then who had a bad draft board. We're in a different position now and I'm still not saying that we just draft for position. I'm saying if the players aren't there that we want at the positions of need that we have, then we trade the pick unless we grade the player available out as being someone we can't pass on. So yeah, if you had MJ graded out as a sure fire all star or the greatest player of all time then you should have picked him. Bowie was rated extremely high in that draft by everyone and there wasn't a Bill Simmons/Anthony Bennett reaction. Most thought we made the right pick.

The draft isn't a perfect science and that's why if the guy that we want and need isn't there we need to trade out of it. I am not in any way saying that we should reach for a guy at a position of need. I just think we can't possibly take another small score first guard. If that's the best player available then we find out who wants him the worst and make the correct trade unless of course that player grades out as being more valuable than Dame or Ant and then we'll just have to trade one or both of them... I don't see anyone in this draft that will give us that problem.

 

No one under 6’5”

No one over 6’10” and white

long athletic freaks is what this team needs