Okay, I was just looking at the draft board and I'm really getting excited about this draft. A couple of years ago Shaq got LCL tattooed on his arm, it stood for Last Center Left. Yao's entrance into the leauge meant Shaq needed to go go get an S added to that tattoo so it could stand for Second to Last Center Left (okay...that's not true, but it makes for a good story). Then with the reemergence of Dampier and Ilgauskas, the traditional center may not be a dying breed after all. In fact, it seems like we're headed for a rebirth of centers coming into the league. Kaman looks like he'll develop into a quality center, and Lampe may end up playing a lot of center before his career is over as well. But this year's draft looks like the real influx of talent. Podkolzine Samardziski Perovic Ramos Even if two of them live up to their potential, its been at least 15 years since two all star caliber centers have come into the league the same year. Then there are guys like Arujao, Harrison, and Ha Seung-Jin who could eventually be solid starting centers as well. In fact, Arujao may be the most NBA ready of any center in this year's draft. The thing I'm most excited about though is in looking over the draft board I see 15 guys who will either go before the Warriors pick or I'd be very happy if the Warriors took: Guys who wouldn't fit on the Warriors but should be gone before they pick: Deng Igoudala Childress Josh Smith Guys who would fit on the Warriors but will probably be gone before they pick: Okafor Howard Livingston Biedrins Gordon Harris Guys who would either fit on the Warriors or are just intriguing picks and could/should be around when the Warriors pick Podkolzine Perovic Ramos Samardziski Nelson Splitter Chiriaev The Warriors should end up with a nice selection of big men to choose from. By the way, have any of you seen the new nbadraft.net mock draft? Podkolzine has slipped to 17, Samardzisk is 19, Splitter is 16, and Perovic is 12. I have no idea what they're thinking by having all the big men that low. I'm sure at least two of the big men will be gone by the time the Warriors pick. Also, Chiriaev going #7 is totally contrary to everything I've read. From what I hear, he's the one that's sliding.
I'm not too excited because they are all such young projects. Unless they got the Lebron factor, it's going to be pretty disappointing to draft a project that won't contribute right away, especially when they are still learning the game and a new language. We'll see what happens. If we can pick a sleeper that turns out to be a good center I'll be happy.
^Until the league gets an age limit, this type of draft is what we're going to have to get used to. Guys like LeBron are the exception. For the most part the lottery is going to be about drafting potential stars, not immediate help.
Great news for the Warriors today, Ivan Chiriaev removed his name from the NBA draft. I know some mock drafts had the Warriors taking him at their current position. The franchise has a history of bringing in soft 7 footers and Ivan would have fit right in. At this point I see the Warriors trading the pick or going after a highschool player.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Great news for the Warriors today, Ivan Chiriaev removed his name from the NBA draft. I know some mock drafts had the Warriors taking him at their current position. The franchise has a history of bringing in soft 7 footers and Ivan would have fit right in. At this point I see the Warriors trading the pick or going after a highschool player.</div> While it's true that Mullin was supposed to run Chiriaev's workout, I think the Warriors' interest in Chiriaev was somewhat overstated. Mullin's two favorite players are Dunleavy and Murphy. Beyond that he's very high on the three other young guns on the Warriors: Speedy, Richardson, and Pietrus. So that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for Chiriaev, espeically in a draft with so many big men. The Warriors pick will most likely be one of the following: Andriuskevicius Perovic Podkolzine Samardziski Ramos And if by some miracle Biedrins were to fall, you can add him to the list as well. I definately don't see the Warriors trading the pick unless they were trying to move up for Howard. I'm 90% sure they go for a big man since there are so many in the draft. And as long as I'm assigning percentages, I'd say there's a 9% chance they go after a pg, but that would have to take a combination of Gordon or Harris wowing them in the private workout and then having that guy fall on draft night. Then there is less than a 1% chance they either take a sg, sf, or small pf or they trade the pick. And Shapecity, I'm going to have to disagree with you about the franchise's tendency to draft soft big men. The only one they've drafted since '96 has been Fuller. Foyle and Murphy are definately not soft. Dunleavy's got a bit of a bad rap, mostly because of the way he looks, but if you watch him play, he's a tough rebounder. And, at least under Saint's watch, I don't think the Warriors have brought in soft big men at any greater clip than your average NBA team. Sure Tim Young sucked, but he was a second round pick, and nobody could call my man Bill "OG" Curley soft...
Sorry I guess I didn't clarify the history in regards to drafting soft big men, I meant going after them with trades, drafts, and free agency. Victor Alexander, Manute Bol, Uwe Blab, Les Jepsen, Todd Fuller, Shaun Vandiver, Matt Fish, Chris Webber, Joe Smith, Clifford Rozier Those are few off the top of my head, I'll have to do more research to add to the list.
We dodged a close one if Mullin was even considering Ivan. I'd take him in the 2nd round though if we had a 2nd round pick. Any big man that can spread the floor is a plus. But we need a good, young defensive power forward like Cliff Robinson if we're relying on Murphy for offense.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting shapecity:</div><div class="quote_post">Sorry I guess I didn't clarify the history in regards to drafting soft big men, I meant going after them with trades, drafts, and free agency. Victor Alexander, Manute Bol, Uwe Blab, Les Jepsen, Todd Fuller, Shaun Vandiver, Matt Fish, Chris Webber, Joe Smith, Clifford Rozier Those are few off the top of my head, I'll have to do more research to add to the list.</div> No, you're right about those soft big men, I was just talking about the more recent history. And you can't call my man Les Jepsen soft, he's the hardest man to ever come out of Bowbells, North Dakota, and a very good big man for some of my favorite Iowa Hawkeye teams.
Hey it says on nbadraft.net Josh Smith will fall at the #11 pick. Isn't this guy really a 6'8" shooting guard though? I like the fact it says he can play some pretty awesome defense (we'll see if he can guard nba players and not just high schoolers). If we can't get the center we want, we might as well just draft for a small forward or a point guard and sign some nbdl guys or free agents. Maybe get Etan Thomas, but the Wizards got the cap to re-sign him. Same with the hawks with Joel Pryzbilla. What about Chris Mihm? Boston's probably going to sign Mark Blount and develop Kendrick Perkins so we might get Chris Mihm even though he's not as great defensively as Etan Thomas or Joel Pryzbilla. Then there's Corie Blount who we could use as a really big power forward and have Murphy as the center. Again we should have at least one shotblocker on the floor what about Reuben boumteje boumjte? Oliver Miller? And also these guys could be decent Zaza Pachulia, Zendon Hamilton, Vladimir Stepania. I like Stepania's offensive reboundinga bility and Pachulia's got some good defense although he's really a power forward.
^ The book on Josh Smith is that he's very raw. He showed in the McDonald's allstar game that he's a terrific run and jump player, and he's supposed to have a pretty good jump shot. While he's talented and could develop into a great player in a year or two, his game sounds a little too close to Pietrus for me. I think its probably a moot point though as I'm sure there will be some big men available. Besides, my guess is that Atlanta won't let Smith fall past them since they're desperate for any home crowd draw, he and Dwight Howard have to be the popular choices in Atlanta as the two home town guys. He'd work well in a fast break offense along with Terry and Jackson. As for free agent big men, I'm a big Etan Thomas fan. My only question is whether he's big enough (6'9") to play in the west. But, I guess if Foyle can do it, Thomas should be able to as well.
Yeah unless your Big Ben Wallace, it's hard to compete in the west when you give up 3 inches or more when playing center, but somehow he does it. If we do get a center he better be a defensive stalwart that's capable of blocking shots first and foremost. A scorer second just like Ben. You can always teach scoring, but the defensive attitude has to be there first to make a difference for the team.
