Evans has freakishly long arms (7-3 wing span) and is currently 10th in the country in steals per game. Calipari says he could develop into a DOPY candidate one day, but Cal sometimes goes above and beyond praising his players.
We're currently slated for the 7th pick. With any luck OKC will keep playing well and pass us up allowing us to rise to the 6th pick. Toronto is right on our asses though. Seems like Jeff Teague, Stephen Curry, Brandon Jennings, Greg Monroe, Earl Clark, and Al Farouq Aminu are expected to be around. None of them get me too excited. Aminu, Clark, and Monroe seem like nice prospects but do we really need more lanky, weak, raw SF/PF types? I guess BPA is always good. Those other PG prospects seem to have major flaws as well and I'm not a fan of them. We're in a strange position because we have Monta, Marco, Jack, Morrow, Mags filling up the backcourt. Do we need a PG? Nellie claims Monta and Jack are the 1 and 2 for next year. Does having Marco rule out drafint a SG? Do we need a SF- is Randolph an SF long term? Should we keep stockpiling bigs with Beans locked at C and Wright/Randolph at PF? I guess I just answered my own question- since there's no position we need more than any other (PG is a need but like I said Monta is allegedly the PG of the future and I don't like these prospects at pick 6-8) then we should just draft BPA regardless of position and who we currently have. I still really like Evan Turner at our first round pick. Other guys I like later in the draft are Johnnie Flynn, Patrick Patterson, Tyreke Evans (hes slated to go pretty low, haven't seen much of him but maybe he'd be a good pick at 6-8?), Damion James, Eric Maynor (this one's for JRay lol), Sam Young, Jerel McNeal, Tyrese Rice, Jeremy Pargo, Jeff Adrien.
Now that Monta's back, I wouldn't be surprised if GS goes on an irrelevant hot-streak run to finish the season strong -- and with a weak pick. I hope not. But at least it would be momentum for next year. I'd much rather have a good pick than momentum, though, lol.
Like I said, I would want Tyreke Evans. In mock drafts I've seen, we are projected to get Aminu, Curry, or Teague
I just went to see St. Marys play on Friday night with my boys and got a lot of Patty Mills. He's quick, handles well, and looks good on his jumper. I watched JKidd in high school (as a soph!) and I had a feel that he was special, because of his intensity and control of the game. Mills? At No.8? Not so much. However, maybe. He played well in the Olympics and is a PG. He tried to put on full-court pressure too. I guess anybody is better than Crawford.
Yeah, I wouldn't take him in the mid-lotto. Hes exciting but a 6'0 PG who isn't a freakish athlete and playing in a mid-major conference who's shooting 40% FGs and 3.7 apg to 2.9 TOs. I'd rather have Johnny Flynn.
I just saw Griffin. He'll be a good fit on the Warriors. I'm happy with Beans and Wright, but Griffin has the mid-range J, can play some center and get to the free throw line (needs to improve his FT%). Rubio, if he comes out (unlikely), Griffin, or Brandon Jennings (does anyone on the W's even scout Euro players?).
The season can't end soon enough. The Warriors are playing well now, they might actually move up instead of down. They're now ahead of Toronto, and could move ahead of New York and Indiana with a few wins. They might end up getting the 11th pick or 12th pick, even, instead of the 6th or 7th the way some people projected a few weeks back.
Chances of us landing Griffin are slim to none. I haven't seen much of him this season but I'm not sold on him. Hes a real freak athlete and crashes the glass hard, two good attributes. Seems to have a good head on his shoulders but seems a little unpolished for a top overall pick. Looks closer to 6'7 than 6'10 to me though. Potential is there- hes got Amare-esque athleticism. I just don't think hes as big as Amare and I don't know if he has the touch around the rim and jumpshot like Amare does. Guys who I wouldn't mind drafting assuming we end up at 7-8; Tyreke Evans and Greg Monroe. Evans has Brandon Roy type skill and potential on offense but his defense is also pretty sick. Monroe has crazy potential and great skill for a big. I know what you're thinking, these guys seem redundant with our current roster and you don't want to wait for yet another college freshman to develop into a player. My answer to that would be that you've got to take the best available talent at your draft choice regardless of position or NBA-readiness. I also tend to like drafting these uber-talented freshman who also produced well in college. They often fall to a position where we can draft them (i.e. outside the top 5-7) yet if they stayed in college a few more years they'd be considered as top picks. Look at Brandan Wright, he averaged 15/6/2 blk as a freshman for UNC and was considered a top 3 pick up until the draft when his stock dipped and we got him at 8. Project out his improvement from his freshman season to a soph season at UNC and he could have easily be picked top 3 with Beasley and Rose last year. He should be a junior in college right now but hes starting for us and playing pretty well. Had he stayed he would have been way out of our drafting range but because he came out early we were able to land a future top 3 pick type talent at 8. What about Randolph too? How would he have done under Trent Johnson? How good would that LSU team have been had he stayed? I doubt he would have been around anywhere near 14 in this coming draft had he stayed. Even think about Monta- we got him in the second round but what if he went to college and tore it up for a season then left? Yeah, you have major potential to get burned if you go with the high potential guy but I'd rather take that risk than take an Ike Diogu, Shelden Williams, Joakim Noah, Brandon Rush, Corey Brewer, Emeka Okafor (considering he was drafted behind Dwight), Rafael Arujo, Antoine Wright, etc. who are supposed to be locks to contribute and help your team right away but end up being busts/disappointing. We need a star, not a guy with a low ceiling but who allegedly has a higher chance of making it and contributing immediately.
Anyone else see my boy Tyreke do work on Mizzou yesterday? His team lost but it wasn't for his lack of effort. I gotta say I think he's faster than he looks. Doesn't have an explosive type of athleticism but hes very smoothe can weave through defenses really well. He was blowing by a fairly athletic Mizzou team but he always just looks like he in slow motion. Never forces it. Hes gonna be a nice pro. 6'6 with long arms, likes to play D, has PG skills, crafty with the ball. Today is gonna be awesome too. Arizona-Louisville; Jordan Hill, Budinger, Earl Clark, Terrance Williams. Lots of NBA type talent and if Hill stays out of foul trouble I think this will be a really fun game. Then Syracuse-Oklahoma, one of my favorite players in the country, Johnny Flynn goes up against Blake Griffin, Willie Warren, Taylor Griffin. Should be a great game. Kansas-Mich St. is another awesome game, I picked Mich St. to win it all this year (I'm not that confident but I didn't want to pick a 1 seed lol). Sherron Collins, Cole Aldrich, Sutan. And then finally Gonzaga-UNC. Gonzaga is real good this year and I like how they match up with UNC. You're talking Heytvelt, Daye, Pargo vs. Hansbrough, Lawson, Ellington, etc. Today is gonna be aweseom. I have the Zags, Wildcats, Spartans winning. I can't call the OU-Syracuse game! My head tells me the Sooners take it but I want Flynn to have a big game and lead Cuse to victory. Godamnit I love March.
I ove Tyreke as well. At first I thought he had a chance of staying one more year, but after that proformence his stock definably went up. His jumper is still needs a lot of work though.
Interesting bit of info from Bucher via TK: http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawaka...ur-more-years-left-on-his-contract/#more-4004 Bucher said it so its probably not true. Hes projected mid-late first round so we'd have to trade down for him. Makes more sense to go after Tyreke though IMO. They're similar physically and both have that ability to play PG. Tyreke is 19 though and has proven to have a go-to scoring type ability. Terrance Williams is a senior and while hes a solid player in college I can't see him being anything more than a nice role player in the league. Like I said, Evans has that PG ability plus go-to scoring ability a la Brandon Roy. Terrance Williams just doesn't have that potential.
