People are speculating that the late first rounder from NY will go to CHI this year to pay off our debt. I agree we are keeping at least one pick though. We have a 2nd rounder as well.
I would have enjoyed being a fly on the wall during practice when Badji was playing. How does he compare to the other center projects in this draft? If he looks at least comparable then I am all for trading it to Chicago. If not, then I would rather draft a big with NY's pick.
Yeah, that's sorta my take as well, Badji may be seen as good or better of a prospect then let's say Derrick Lively who might be available near the 23 pick, if that is what Cronin/Schmidt think then the 23 pick could easily be gone back to Cho or elsewhere
One key Q is whether Badji is equal to or greater than Lively as a prospect? I think this is where Schmidt's analysis really comes into play
I'm not acknowledging that tall French guy from overseas. Won't look at any film or highlights. The massive reverse jinx at play here.
Badji would only be a good prospect if he were to actually play for the Blazers, and he hasn't yet, and likely never will.
I don't think the second rounder will be traded. I feel like we need some depth at backup big and PG and at our second round pick there are going to be a lot of upperclassmen at both positions that could be immediately ready to help off of the bench. I think if our first round pick lands anywhere but 1 we will trade it and I think it's a virtual certainty that we will trade the Knicks (23) in order to put a package together to get Dame an all-star who is either 1b to him or even a 1a guy that makes Dame 1b despite the fact that it will be Dame's team.
I'm doing more and more research and really don't see much star potential after Scoot. What am I missing here about this draft? If Shaedon went to UK as originally planned, I think he coulda been the 2nd or 3rd pick in this draft. Hell, he's younger than the Thompson twins and only 7 months older than Wemby.
Agreed. I actually think this is a mediocre draft (outside of Wemby). I'm really not even sold on Scoot. I do like Leonard Miller as a late 1st round gamble (ie - Knicks pick), but otherwise there isn't much to be excited about with this draft class.
I want to see what comes out of the combine and predraft workouts. But really leaning more towards the trade strategy for our pick if it falls below 1.
When are those? Is there anyone besides Wemby that isn't 2-3 years away like Dame has requested? This was second try, btw. 7'5" is soooooo tall.
The combine will be on may 16-18 I think dame have had bad experience in regard to our first round picks not being ready. Collins took at least a year, Simons took 3-4 year, Sharpe is taking at least a year, little have never officially arrived, Swanigan never did much, even took CJ awhile to get going. We have been swinging at upside on guys who didn’t start in college like Collins, little, simons, and Sharpe. But this last draft showed that if you were a starter in college you are more likely to be ready. Banchero, smith, mathurin, Ivey, Murray, Sochan, duren, the Williams, Kessler, griffin, Eason, nembhard all showed that they were ready
Shaedon would have gone higher than all of them including Scoot. He was a higher ranked recruit. So for the U.S. he was the guy and still looks like he would have been the guy. Wemby obviously would have had higher value but we got lucky that Shae was ambitious and slipped to us at 7. I am positive that all of us are missing something about some of these guys that are going to go high and one or two of them that we don't see the star potential in will pop and then there will probably be someone who isn't high on any of these draft boards that ends up being really good to great.
I think giving a contract to Skylar Mays fixes the backup PG. He showed me enough against top talents that he can actually play now.