<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Henacy:</div><div class="quote_post">Why are people so shocked to see Hakim Warrick so low? He doesnt have a position in the NBA. He doesnt have the skill or perimeter quickness to play SF. And he doesnt have the size or strenght to play the power. Also he doesnt have the back to the basket game to be effective as a power forward either. Right now all I see Warrick being on the NBA level is an athletic dunker. He is a decent shot blocker. But alot of Gm & Scouts wont draft him because of that. They will just figure that at 6-8 he is only a shot blocker on the college level. </div> AMEN The kid is way to frail and is no where near the size physcially to be a soild power foward anywhere in the L
Like King James said, the list is always changing, after draft camp you get a clearer view of where players will go, but right now nothing is in stone.
Ben Gordon at #12? No way! he's gonna be top 5 .I think these guys overrate too much the HS players. And I think Deng is gona stay at least another year.
Great Orlando at least, it would help out T-Mac alot. But I still haven't heard is Sebastian Going to be in college or the NBA draft? I ready to see him play.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post">'Tis what happens when you're below six feet tall. Still, I think he'll make a good pro.</div>Actually with shoes on Nelson last year in pre-draft camps measured a bit over 6 feet.
I think a lot of people here are making a fundamental mistake when looking at nbadraft.net, and that's that the site doesn't start matching players to teams until after the lottery drawing. Until then they just have a continually updating list of prospects, similar to Mel Kiper's NFL big board and they just match players with teams based on their records. And while the site's information is generally second or third hand, and I would suspect that Chad Ford's opinions on espn insider affect nbadraft.net's player rankings more than any other factor, it is still the best free mock draft site out there. Until the NBA is able to get an age limit, people had better continue to get used to the idea of 18-19 year olds in the lottery and college seniors in the second round. The sad part is that since the NBA had already strip mined american colleges 5-7 years ago, its now euro teenagers in the lottery because they've nearly strip mined europe as well. All that being said, here's my mock draft (I'll update it again after the draft lottery): 1. Orlando: Okafor 2. Chicago: I can't see them keeping it because they've had their fill of high school big men, but no matter what Howard is going #2 3. Washington: Deng (he's a perfect fit here) 4. Charlotte: Livingston (I like Biedrins more, but drafting a euro isn't the way to build excitement for an expansion franchise) 5. Clippers: Gordon 6. Atlanta: Howard (home town prospect) 7. Phoenix: Podkolzine 8. Toronto: Biedrins 9. Philadelphia: Childress 10. Cleveland: Harris 11. Warriors: Perovic 12. Sonics: Nelson 13. Portland: Iguodala 14. Utah: Splitter Okay, first of all, I think Biedrins is going to go higher than 8th, its just that Atlanta will probably take the hometown guy in Smith, and the 5-7 teams are set at pf. Here's the thing though. I'm sure Chicago will trade the #2 pick if Okafor is off the board. Atlanta would love to trade up and get their other home town guy in Howard. Biedrins has supposedly looked awesome recently (apparently the Warriors are very high on him), and #6 to Chicago would look about right. I do think Deng will come out if teams keep saying he's the consensus #3 pick. I can also see Charlotte wanting to trade up to #3 with whatever team gets that pick so they can take Deng. He's clearly better than anyone not named Howard or Okafor, and given Charlotte's unique status as an expansion team, they're the team most capable of making a trade. For example, if Washington has the #3 pick, they could trade Laettner and the #3 pick to Charlotte for the #4 pick and an instant 6.1 mil in cap relief which would allow the Wizards to go after a guy like Okur.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting KingSac:</div><div class="quote_post">Ben Gordon at #12? No way! he's gonna be top 5 .I think these guys overrate too much the HS players. And I think Deng is gona stay at least another year.</div> Deng Turning Pro <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Sources close to the program indicate that Duke freshman SF Luol Deng has decided to enter the draft. Look for an announcement in the next week. Deng had said all along that he would return to Duke for his sophomore season. And up until a week ago it appeared he had his mind made up. </div> <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">8. Toronto: Biedrins</div> He's not going to drop this low, and I would rather TO get a PG than a young center. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">they're the team most capable of making a trade. For example, if Washington has the #3 pick, they could trade Laettner and the #3 pick to Charlotte for the #4 pick and an instant 6.1 mil in cap relief which would allow the Wizards to go after a guy like Okur.</div> Except Charlotte's salary is ony about 30 million, and they want young players, also I think only guys they get from the expansion draft can be waived with no salary hit, and Lattener isnt a guy you want when your team is full of young guys. <u>This is my mock draft</u> 1. Orlando: Emeka Okafor this is seemingly a very obvious choice 2. Chicago: Dwight Howard and trade him I don't think they want anymore highschoolers 3. Washington: Luol Deng - How great would it be to get this guy on Washington, he'd be exactly what they need. 4. Charlotte: Andris Biedrins - It's always good to get a center. 5. Clippers: Shaun Livingston (If declared) - The Clippers still don't have a real PG and this could be it. 6. Atlanta: Josh Smith - Loads of potential and Atlanta just needs players doesn't matter who, also from ATL. 7. Phoenix: Pavel Podkolzine - he can learn behind Lampe next year and we'll see in the future 8. Toronto: Ben Gordon - we need a PG up here in Toronto and bad, hoping he isn't picked before this then we get him. 9. Philadelphia: Andre Iguodala - He'll play as a SF for Philly. 10. Cleveland: Devin Harris - They need a PG for the future, McInnis isn't young. 11. Warriors: Kosta Perovic - they need a big and this would be a good pick. 12. Sonics: Rafael Araujo - The Sonics center's aren't cutting it and he would be good for them. 13. Portland: Josh Childress - DA is slowly becoming an old man, not really but he's cool 14. Utah: JR Smith - Their biggest need is at Center, but I'm thinking the Sonics might snatch Araujo. I'm not sure if Splitter is declaring so I didn't put him in. Things will change after the loterry, and draft camp and all that, but for right now that's kinda where I'm seeing it.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Except Charlotte's salary is ony about 30 million, and they want young players, also I think only guys they get from the expansion draft can be waived with no salary hit, and Lattener isnt a guy you want when your team is full of young guys.</div> You're right, here's the obscure rule in question from espn insider 11/7/03: The Salary of any player selected by an Expansion Team in an expansion draft and terminated in accordance with the NBA waiver procedure before the first day of the Expansion Team's first season shall not be included in the Expansion Team's Team Salary, except, to the extend such salary is paid, for purposes of determining whether the Expansion Team has satisfied its Minimum Team Salary obligation for such Season. (Article VII, Section 4). According to Ford this will allow teams to to trade their draft pick and up to 3 million in exchange for Charlotte taking their player in the expansion draft. So theoretically the Bobcats could draft 29 (or does Minnesota get their pick back in '05?) players, get all the picks in the '05 draft and still not have any money comitted to their '04 salary cap if they waive all 29 players. Sorry for the confusion, I said trade, ironically, because I didn't want to confuse anyone. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">I'm not sure if Splitter is declaring so I didn't put him in. Things will change after the loterry, and draft camp and all that, but for right now that's kinda where I'm seeing it.</div> Chad Ford reported that Splitter is declaring a few weeks ago, it was about the same time Andriuskevicius said he wouldn't.
Good stuff wtwalker. If I can add to the other end of that situation, Charlotte also can only spend 2/3 of it's total cap space in it's first year. So, they also can't go out and grab all the high priced talent left available either, even if they have an owner who's willing to spend like Cuban.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting hagrid:</div><div class="quote_post">Good stuff wtwalker. If I can add to the other end of that situation, Charlotte also can only spend 2/3 of it's total cap space in it's first year. So, they also can't go out and grab all the high priced talent left available either, even if they have an owner who's willing to spend like Cuban.</div> According to the stuff I've read, they can't go over the projected 29.7 when signing free agents, but they can go as high as they want during the expansion draft. Now it's highly unlikely that they'd immediatly approach luxury tax land by drafting a bunch of bloated contracts, but they could. Actually even though they might have 45-50 mil in payroll in year one, since they can receive up to 3 million in cash per trade, if they get the full 3 mil from 5 teams, that payroll dropped from 45-50 to 30-35 in actual payroll, even though their cap number is still 45-50 mil. It won't help them come year two, but if they take a bunch of guys with bloated contracts and two years left on their deals, while those contracts are anchors in '04/'05, they magically transform into blue chip trading pieces around February of '06. Every year there are all star caliber players who no longer fit with the teams they're on, but because of their contracts, the teams can't move them except for expiring deals. If Charlotte is smart, they'll have those players in mind when deciding what players to select in the expansion draft. Charlotte could throw a wrench into every GMs offseason plans, not the least of which is what teams do in the draft.
What did you do? Why did he say good stuff? They don't have to keep the expansion guys and likely will not keep half of those guys, they can use them to get draft picks and money though, thats one good thing. So many deals can be made, its great.
tommahawk you took my words out of my mouth. Ben Gordon and Jameer Nelson would be 5 - 10 pick , Chicago will pick Dwight Howard he is actually a SF-PF they say a PF with skills of a SF...so why not ? Kirk , JC , Dwight, Chandler and Curry? I'll take my chances. Deng will also be a top 10 because he needs the money even tho I think if he stays 1 more year he will be a top 5 for next draft.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> Chicago will pick Dwight Howard he is actually a SF-PF they say a PF with skills of a SF...so why not ?</div> I think Pax specifically said hes going to try to stay away from drafting another highschooler. Plus, if we have the second pick and Okafor is taken, why wouldn't we take Luol Deng over Dwight Howard? I would think he could fill the SF spot better than Howard cause he already had college experience.