Derrick Byars, the SEC player of the year from Vanderbilt. The kid can flat out play. He is a wing with exactly the same tools that we are looking for. On nbadraft.net he is at 19, but at Draft Express he is 31. Most mocks I see have him around 23-27. If he is still left at Phoenix's pick and if they are still looking on selling their pick, let's buy it and get this guy. I bet he skyrockets up the draft boards during the workouts though. He is the exact player that we need right now. I'm almost as high on him as I was on Brandon Roy at this point a year ago. (when Roy was projected to be taken around 10-12). Swish can attest to how I was raving about Roy before he skyrocketed up last year. I've seen him live and on TV for multiple games. He has the total package. He was owning Corey Brewer(and we know how high people rate his defensive skills) in the game at Vandy and the first half of the first game in Gainesville. I would have mentioned him earlier, but I forgot he was a senior last year. Here's his nbadraft.net profile.... http://www.nbadraft.net/admincp/profiles/derrickbyars.html and here's his DraftExpress profile.... http://www.draftexpress.com/viewprofile.php?p=1009 For those of you that haven't seen him play, here is a highlight reel. Invalid Video Link You will see him abusing UF a lot in the Vandy home game. It shows his shot and shows some of his athleticism, I wish it would have shown more of his defense, but it's still pretty good. Here is a defensive play during the tournament to basically allow Vandy to get into the Sweet 16..... Invalid Video Link
I'm all for it. Something tells me that this guy will be a steal if he is drafted at the places mock drafts are saying. I'd love to add him to our team.
Sounds like a solid acquisition. I'm always a fan of swingmen and the Magic should be able to groom him into a more fully-fledged perimeter player with all the shots he could get from the outside.
Gators!! you beat me to it. I was thinking the same thing. I watched a handfull of vandy games, and this guy is the real deal. He makes amazing smart decisions like knowing when to shoot,pass, and has great court vision. Also plays with a lot of passion, and loves when the crowd gets into it. Loves to push with momentum on his side. Overall just has a nice feel of the game and im sure you have seen plenty of him gators since your an SEC man. The only thing is....we really dont need this position wise. We have Ariza, Hedo and maybe Hill for next season. Would this guy even play or will he be the next jj and get garbage time? I love this guy but he just doesnt fit our needs. Unless he plays shooting guard but what will happen to jj then?
I would much rather have this guy then JJ. I don't know why anyone wouldn't. He's 3 inches taller, he's waaaaaaaaaaay more athletic, he plays very good defense, he is a better playmaker, but he can't shoot as good(but still is a good shooter in his own right), and he can play both wing positions rather than just SG. Please tell me why you would rather have JJ? He would also jump Bogans and hopefully we move Dooling to PG, so this guy would likely be #3-4 in our rotation. Hedo, Ariza, Hill(possibly), Byars, Bogans, JJ would be my rotation. Then you consider we might get a FA wing and that pushes it back a little more. Not to mention he is probably better than our holy boy Ariza. He hustles, is extremely athletic, plays very good defense(probably not as good as Ariza), but HE CAN SHOOT! I'm assuming we ship a couple of these guys out of here though(like Bogans/Dooling and possibly Turk) which would open up more wing spots. I really don't think we will be as log jammed as people think. This guy would be an upgrade in our wing positions. Long term plans if we don't sign a FA and Grant Hill only plays 1 season max, I can see him playing ahead of Ariza and starting in the near future. If we do get a wing this offseason and sign Grant Hill, then we likely won't have a need for a SG/SF and this will be irrelevant. I can see the rotation being FA, Byars, Hedo, Ariza, JJ in 2-3 years. You can never have too many athletic wings that play defense and can shoot though. With Dwight, Darko, and Jameer having Otis Smith's blessing I would assume wing would be the way we would go if we ended up trading up.
Well, they have us in the 2nd round taking Brandon Rush. That's crazy. I mean he's also good. I've seen this guy from Vanderbilt play before. He's pretty nasty.
<div class="quote_poster">CLos Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Well, they have us in the 2nd round taking Brandon Rush. That's crazy. I mean he's also good. I've seen this guy from Vanderbilt play before. He's pretty nasty.</div> Brandon Rush has withdrawn from the draft because of an ACL injury.
