Re: 2012 NBA Draft Prospects I learned from your website that Joe Alexander made the D-League all-star game a year ago with his Texas temmate Sean Williams. Then he went to the Moscow rival of Kirilenko's CSKV team, the Red Wings, and averaged 8 ppg until he got injured in December. He looks like the team doctor. http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=ru&to=en&a=http://www.bcred.ru/command/2011
Re: 2012 NBA Draft Prospects Speaking of Freeland, Chad basically said on Courtside tonight they're working out a contract to bring him over
Re: 2012 NBA Draft Prospects it'll probably be something like Tiago splitters. 3 years 11m with the last year a team option.
Re: 2012 NBA Draft Prospects Finally! Then we can finally see how much of a stiff this big cracker is and move on!
It made RealGM! Now we know it's true! http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/220800/Joe_Alexander_Parts_Ways_With_Krasnie_Krilya
http://basketball.realgm.com/wireta...Quincy_Millers_Knee_Strength_After_ACL_Injury Say hello to your soon to be new Portland TrailBlazer
lol MM, he could actually end up being a really good NBA player, but it is going to take a few years.... So the draft games begin early this year, I expect this to hover\cloud MIller all the way up through the draft as team's position thmeselves for him...kid could be a top 10 talent.... Obviously, any team that takes him better do some serious medical homework on his injury and probably sit him out and bring him along slowly.... I don't think POR should go after him, not with all of the bad luck injury mojo going on here...and IMO there are a lot of other good players w\o such injury concerns out there....
Fixed. And I know that's basically what you meant, since you're more cynical than a Steely Dan album.
Re: THE OFFICIAL 2012 NBA DRAFT THREAD............ Agreed... although it isn't nice to call people fat. And he starts too many posts too.
Probably the best FIFY I have seen to date As for Steely Dan, I remember the absolute horror of 107.5 maybe? changing it's format to classic rock back in the late 80's and playing Rellin in the Years over and over because of technical difficulties. I remember them saying they would never play that song again
Since this is a draft thread...something to consider.... Historically the correlation b\t top high school prospects and elite NBA level talent is pretty strong... This is a subjective list (not mine) but out of the top 10 NBA players currently playing 10) C.Anthony 9) R.Westbrook 8) K.Love 7) D.Howard 6) D.Rose 5) K.Bryant 4) C.Paul 3) D.Wade 2) K.Durant 1) L.James Out of those 10...6 were ranked in the top 5 (Love was #6) by Rivals, Bryant and Wade senior years were before Rivals....Paul was top 15 in his class, Westbrook much lower...The point being that basically 6 out of the top 8 players in the NBA today were top 5 high school recruits coming out of high school... There are no certainties, definitely players bust that were ranked top 5 in high school, without a doubt, but generally speaking the correlation b\t top 5 high school talent and top NBA players is very strong...stronger than anything else I can find...researching back to 2003, and again this is somewhat subjective, but if we were to look at top 5 and top 10 ranked high school players and how they have performed in the NBA to date (or in some cases shown potential to be)...you would have approximately 60% of top 5 high school players being very good to better than average NBA players (or on the path to be or were before injury...some of these things (injury, playing time, development you cannot necessarily predict) and about 45% of top 10 players..... Certain drafts like 2004 where you had a top 5 of D.Howard, S.Livingston, J.Smith, A.Jefferson, R.Gay were very strong (also in that class: Aldridge, Rondo, Afflalo, Lowry, Horford).... 2009 looks strong with Wall & Cousins performing well and Bradley & Favors very young but showing promise, outside of top 5 though very mixed (J.Hamilton, T.Gallon, L.Stephenson, E.Bledsoe, D.Orton)...appears to be not a lot there, Snaer, Yarou, Boynton & Gaddy all still in school but haven't shown a ton Why do I bring this up? b\c in this years draft you have 9 players who were ranked in the top 5 of thier respective high school class...15 ranked within top 10....more than any other year that I could find, heck most years not all of these players declare early, some stay 2-3-4 years...usually you just have a couple coming out in any given year...But b\c of the lockout uncertainty a lot of these players stayed in school... So who are those 9 players? (12' - Andre Drummond #1, 11' - A.Rivers #1, A.Davis #2, MKG #3, B.Beal #4, M.Teague #5, 10' - H.Barnes #2, J.Sullinger #5 09' J.Henson #5... Henson at #5 of a good looking top 5 09' class (Wall, Cousins, Favors & Bradley), but the rest as mentioned looks weak. Barnes (#2) & Sullinger (#5) of a 2010 class that looks promising (Irving #4 (very strong), Kanter (#3) & B.Knight (#6) both show promise). J.Selby was rated #1 and while in league, future does not look good IMO. Also rated in that class and in the 2012 draft are P.Jones (#9), W.Barton (#11), T,Jones (#13). For reference; 2008 (hits) J.Holiday (#2), D.Derozan (#3), B.Jennings (#4), T.Evans (#6), G,Monroe (#8) (misses): BJ Mullens (#1), S.Hopson (#5), Aminu? (#7), Samuels (#9), Warren (#10) 2007 (hits): E.Gordon (#2), D.Rose (#3), K.Love (#6), D.Jordan (#8), J.Harden (#11), B.Griffin (#23) - (misses) M.Beasley (#1), OJ Mayo (#4), Singler (#5) - Jury is out on Hickson (#10) 2005 was weakest IMO with only M.Elllis (#3), A.Bynum (#6) showing as standouts So IMO what this means is that inside the top 5, your odds look good on hitting on a good to potentially great NBA player in most years, not a lot of years in recent memory where the overall class was so weak (particularly in the top 5). Outside of the top 5? Much more of a crapshoot IMO. I look at this and say chances are very good for POR to get a good to potentially very good NBA player with the #6 pick and possibly with the #11 pick as well. I would also look at guys P.Jones, T.Jones & W.Barton as intriguing coming form what appears to be a pretty strong class. Yeah, POR has to do thier homework, scouts\GM"s actually have to make the right call...Not something Chad Buchanan has shown an ability to do...but the potential talent IS there I think there will be several future top NBA talents coming out of this draft, and of course there are usually always a few players lower ranked that surprise....guys like J.Lamb, T.Robinson & D.Waiters come to mind. I think this is a strong 2011 (HS) class, 2010 looks like a a fairly strong class, as does 2009 and Drummond was listed at the top of the 2012 class. Three strong classes, 9 top 5 players, plus 15 other players ranked withing the top 15 of those strong classes, I'd say the odds look good for POR, provided they don't screw it up and reach for need. POR needs to take thier 2 best swings at this top level talent and hope they hit on one of them. I think the odds, based on previous rankings are good that they hit on at least one of them, possibly with both picks if they do thier homework correctly. Like I said before, add a PG thru free agency, if you can get D-Will...fantastic, but most likely you won't, but a guy like Dragic, Brooks, maybe George Hill is more realistic\possible. Go after that elite talent in the draft, heck almost ALL of POR all star players were gathered this way (draft or draft day trade)...THAT is the best way\chance for this team to improve.. Not to mention then if you resign Batum and he DOES develop into a legit #3 or #2, or you do hot a home run and get D-Will then the team is stronger for it...I'd rather go into the draft and swing for the fences with the odds in my favor than basing my strategy on Batum\Matthews growing into a #2 or #3 role or a longshot FA pitch,as I think odds of either of those occuring are not nearly as good. Prepare for the worst (paying Batum big bucks and he is what he is (not a #3), Matthews better as a bench player, LA more a #2 than a #1, No big time (D-Will) FA signing or thru reasonable trade (meaning mid tier FA)....and that way if any of those do happen and you prepared for this draft like you NEEDED to get top talent out of it (and they do, this team is very talent deficient) then you find yourself at worst with some good young talent and mid tier vets arounf them and at best, supercharged and ready for playoff runs. Yeah I know.... tl\dr
Good post.....all for not I am afraid. Chad Buchanan all but said on courtside last night that we will be dealing our picks for vets who can help us win now. Which is sad because it wont help us win enough now and we will be the ever mediocre Trail Blazers
Ya. I don't think he has done a great job either, but I think this direction might be coming from Paul
You mean this quote: http://blogs.trailblazers.com/BroadcasterProfile/BroadcasterBlog/tabid/188/EntryID/3852/BroadcasterID/4/Default.aspx I don't see anything wrong with the idea of using one of our picks as a sweetener in a trade for an established star player. Just like any other asset the Blazers have going into a summer where there's a ton of work to be done on the roster, it would be rather stupid to say that a pick isn't available for the right price. For the life of me, I don't understand the constant attitude taken by many around here that Buchannan and the Blazers' organization are hell-bent on breaking your favorite toy.
