Our draft wasn't anything close to what some other teams did. I find it hard to give it an actual grade. If we'd have gotten one of the top 10 players picked, then maybe I could. So my grade is incomplete. We may not know how good a draft this was until two seasons from now. We don't generally play rookies lots of minutes the past few seasons.
Honestly, I'd never heard of the guys. You can see what they wanted to do. But I have no way to judge whether they did it well. Snell does seem to have the tools and skill set to play an important role down the line as a three point shooting defensive 2/3. You hope he learns from K. Leonard, his classmate in HS, and Jimmy Butler, and puts in the work to make it a reality. Go Bulls!
I didn't watch enough college ball to make an evaluation. All I can say about Snell is that I'm not crazy about the form on his jumper but at least he's the right size. That's more than I can say for the Cavs' selection of Anthony Bennett. Who the hell drafts two tweeners with high draft picks in the span of five years? (Okay maybe the Bulls did that with Fizer and Thomas .) But seriously, I love the article on RealGM titled "Anthony Bennett Sees Himself As Stretch Power Forward." I sure as hell hope so because basically at 6'7", 7'1" you're an averaged sized small forward.
Did you see this article from a couple of years ago (http://hoopspeak.com/2012/01/blake-griffin-cant-reach-his-defensive-potential/)? Reaches and Wing Spans of Starting PFs Okay, this list is somewhat jacked because standing reach isn't an accurate measurement of length. A lot of players don't fully extend for the measurement because they want to make it seem like they can jump really high (vertical leap is measured by subtracting standing reach from the highest point a player can touch on a jump.) But if you mentally substitute a player's height for standing reach and envision length there is a striking correlation (causation) between length and defensive abilities. The hard hat lunch pail guys? Yeah they're basically all around 6'10", 7'3"+. All those guys who supposedly don't try on defense? Yeah they're all about 6'9", 7'1" or less. It seems to me like it's all about length. Find me a good man defender who doesn't have a superb wingspan? Bennett will never be a good defender no matter how hard he tries. Same with Kevin Love, Blake Griffen, Milsap and Stoudemire.
I'm not convinced, SST. Seems to me really good defense is about using your feet to stay in front of your man, getting a hand in the guy's face when he shoots, denying a pass to your man when he doesn't have the ball, boxing out when the shot does go up, etc. These things require effort and focus, which get harder to do with fatigue. Long arms do help, of course. An extra 6" blocks more of the passing lanes, reaches from further away, etc. Enough to peg the great defenders and weak ones?
At the risk of being unnecessarily nostalgic, Unseld was absolutely awesome and Denny's right. Unseld was essentially a perfect square with legs...big shoulders and a spectacularly wide ass. And damn! He knew exactly how to use that body. Also the best I've ever seen at the fast break lead pass. Damn, he was good.
