With the season winding down, I thought I'd make a thread to focus on the upcoming June draft. The Bobcats have improved their win total every year (18/26/28 so far this year), but have not been good enough to be in the playoff race yet. 2007 is going to be a great draft and their a lot of options for the Bobcats. Starting in the #1-3 range: Greg Oden - 7'0|280 lbs.|Ohio State - 15.4 PPG, 9.5 RPG, 3.3 BPG Positives: Oden is only 19 years old, has tons of potential, and has great size and athletic ability. Can run the floor well for a big man. Great defensive player, good at altering shots and shot blocking. Good rebounder, but could be better for someone his size. Decent FT shooter for a center. Once fully developed, will be a hell of a player. No doubt the best center prospect to come out in years. Negatives: Has recently shown he can get into foul trouble very quickly. Not offensively developed enough to score 17-20 PPG right away in the NBA. Has had a lot of hype surrounding him since high school, so their will be lofty expectations when he goes to the NBA. Kevin Durant - 6'9|225 lbs.|Texas - 25.8 PPG, 11.1 RPG, 1.9 BPG, 1.9 SPG Positives: As athletic as they come. Great jumping ability and a freakish wingspan. Good jumpshooter already, should be able to hit the NBA 3 when he enters the league. Can score in the post or face up and drive past his defender. Good rebounder, should be able to average 5-7 RPG when he gets to the NBA. Has shown a willingness to shoot the ball in the clutch. Not afraid to take any shot. Is only 18 years old right now (will be 19 when his the season starts, assuming he comes out). Everyone can only imagine how good this kid is going to be when he's 25. Negatives: Athletically, he has all the tools to be a good defender, but he needs to put a 100% effort on defense. Doesn't seem to be tremendously quick laterally which has hurt his perimeter defense. Since high school he has added weight, but a little more would help his post game in the NBA. Although he averages 11 RPG, not praticularaly good at boxing out. Is going to have realize he can't rely soleley on athleticism on the next level for defense and rebounding. Brandan Wright - 6'10|210 lbs.|North Carolina - 14.7 PPG, 6.2 RPG, 1.8 BPG Positives: Great athletic ability, has a very long wingspan, can run the floor and is a good finisher on the break. Good rebounder who uses his long arms to grab rebounds. Good face up game, has a quick first step and can blow by his man. Good help defender with his quickness and leaping ability. Good basketball IQ for someone his age (19 years old). Negatives: Adding weight is probably his most glaring problem. Needs to add at least 10-20 pounds or he is going to get destroyed in the post in the NBA. Still needs to work on his perimeter game. His FT% shooting needs improvement. Needs to work on his back to the basket skills.
I think we're guarenteed to get the Toronto pick now. It's going to be in the 20-23 range. Unless we get a lot of help from the lottery we aren't going to get a top 2 pick which is where we need to be. Durant is the exact player we need. top of the line scorer who can lead the team. Where ever we go we need to go big with the first pick IMO With the 2nd first rounder we need to address our SG need. Marcus Williams is an option and even though it's highly unlikely because of our experiences with his brother, theres Brandon Rush. If we get lucky we could open next year with Raymond/Williams/Gerald/Durant/Okafor Morrison, Carroll, and Primoz off the bench Gerald and Durant would be interchangeable on offense and defense. PLAYOFFS!
Bobcats you swagger jacker, copyin my style. Haha kidding. I think Wright is the one we have the most legit shot at(unless we get lucky and snag #1, then we pick Oden), and we should definitely shoot for Marcus Williams or Alando Tucker if you're right about that pick nutmeged. But why do I have the gut feeling that they'll select Joakim Noah?...I hope not.
<div class="quote_poster">Smitty Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Bobcats you swagger jacker, copyin my style. Haha kidding. I think Wright is the one we have the most legit shot at(unless we get lucky and snag #1, then we pick Oden), and we should definitely shoot for Marcus Williams or Alando Tucker if you're right about that pick nutmeged. But why do I have the gut feeling that they'll select Joakim Noah?...I hope not.</div> The Bobcats would be taking 5 steps back if they made that pick.
<div class="quote_poster">Bobcats Wrote</div><div class="quote_post"> The Bobcats would be taking 5 steps back if they made that pick.</div> Yeah, I know. But you know how Bernie likes picking winners. But hopefully MJ gets on him..and we go with Wright*cough*both from UNC*cough*.
Assuming we can't get Oden or Durant, I would like to draft Brandan Wright with a 3rd or 4th pick and get someone like Thaddeus Young or Nick Young with the 22nd pick. Our roster would look like this going into free agency: PG - Raymond Felton/Brevin Knight SG - *Matt Carroll/*Derek Anderson/Thaddeus Young SF - *Gerald Wallace/Adam Morrison/Thaddeus Young PF - *Walter Herrmann/Sean May/Brandan Wright C - Emeka Okafor/Primoz Brezec/Ryan Hollins **Free agents
<div class="quote_poster">Bobcats Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Assuming we can't get Oden or Durant, I would like to draft Brandan Wright with a 3rd or 4th pick and get someone like Thaddeus Young or Nick Young with the 22nd pick. Our roster would look like this going into free agency: PG - Raymond Felton/Brevin Knight SG - *Matt Carroll/*Derek Anderson/Thaddeus Young SF - *Gerald Wallace/Adam Morrison/Thaddeus Young PF - *Walter Herrmann/Sean May/Brandan Wright C - Emeka Okafor/Primoz Brezec/Ryan Hollins **Free agents</div> Wow, Thaddeus Young at #22? The guy's a friend of mine, so I'm kind of biased, but I never expected him to slip out of the lottery. It's amazing how you can go from a projected top five pick to a projected #22 pick after an above average freshman season. People's perception of him were just blurred because they had Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, and Brandan Wright shoved down their throats all season long. To put it in perspective though, Young, at 18 years of age, led Georgia Tech in scoring over several NBA prospects years older than him. He had his inconsistencies. Any freshman will, but how about the last ACC game he played, against Wake Forest? 30 points on 10-19 shooting - not bad for a freshman. Or two games before that against North Carolina? 25 points on 10-18 shooting - not so bad either, is it? In any other year, his freshman season would have been viewed as being great, but he unfortunately got stuck in the Durant/Oden/Wright class. Last I talked to him he was thinking NBA, which is a shame, because if he stuck around another year he'd be back in that top three conversation, guaranteed.
Yeah, I don't think Young is going to be available at 22 and he and Gerald are similar players that probably wouldn't go well together. We need a 2 guard sticking, two 3's on the court at the same time (Gerald and Morrison) didn't work and we were more succesful with Carroll and Gerald matched up. Herrmann's not a FA either BTW, his contract has a team option for next year which we'll definitly keep. Primoz is though
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Wow, Thaddeus Young at #22? The guy's a friend of mine, so I'm kind of biased, but I never expected him to slip out of the lottery. It's amazing how you can go from a projected top five pick to a projected #22 pick after an above average freshman season. People's perception of him were just blurred because they had Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, and Brandan Wright shoved down their throats all season long. To put it in perspective though, Young, at 18 years of age, led Georgia Tech in scoring over several NBA prospects years older than him. He had his inconsistencies. Any freshman will, but how about the last ACC game he played, against Wake Forest? 30 points on 10-19 shooting - not bad for a freshman. Or two games before that against North Carolina? 25 points on 10-18 shooting - not so bad either, is it? In any other year, his freshman season would have been viewed as being great, but he unfortunately got stuck in the Durant/Oden/Wright class. Last I talked to him he was thinking NBA, which is a shame, because if he stuck around another year he'd be back in that top three conversation, guaranteed.</div> Thats pretty kool, I'm a big Thaddeus Young fan. Tell him he has a fan down here in Australia, lol. I hope to see him come out this draft, I would be very pleased if we drafted him, although I think that is highly doubtful. The draft sites are saying he'll go fairly late, but I thought he would be a lock to be in the top 10.
<div class="quote_poster">Voodoo Child Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Wow, Thaddeus Young at #22? The guy's a friend of mine, so I'm kind of biased, but I never expected him to slip out of the lottery. It's amazing how you can go from a projected top five pick to a projected #22 pick after an above average freshman season. People's perception of him were just blurred because they had Kevin Durant, Greg Oden, and Brandan Wright shoved down their throats all season long. To put it in perspective though, Young, at 18 years of age, led Georgia Tech in scoring over several NBA prospects years older than him. He had his inconsistencies. Any freshman will, but how about the last ACC game he played, against Wake Forest? 30 points on 10-19 shooting - not bad for a freshman. Or two games before that against North Carolina? 25 points on 10-18 shooting - not so bad either, is it? In any other year, his freshman season would have been viewed as being great, but he unfortunately got stuck in the Durant/Oden/Wright class. Last I talked to him he was thinking NBA, which is a shame, because if he stuck around another year he'd be back in that top three conversation, guaranteed.</div> Well, I'm pretty sure you know I'm a Thad Young fan too. Every year their is a player that no one expects to slip that actually does. Last year it was Marcus Williams. A year before that, absolutely no one expected Gerald Green to last until the 18th pick. I don't think he has hurt his stock at all, but I'm predicting that he will be one of the players that will fall. I mean, can you imagine Brandan Wright and Thaddeus Young on the same team in 5 years?
Kevin Durant is ours Im just so glad the Bucks are basically now guarnteed a top 5 pick. Its a very very deep draft and everybody will get a good player out of this. I just hope we dont pick up Noah, I dont like that guy. You Bobcats have a pretty good record, what is it 29 wins or something? Us Bucks are more likely to get a higher pick than you. I really hope we get Brandon Wright, Oden or Durant. Any one of those I would be extremley happy with. Or even Julian Wright, he is also a great player. If you guys got the number 1 pick, I seriously think you would take Durant. You already have a defensive force in Okafor, and you need a good SF. But I doubt you would get the number 1 pick anyway. Just focus on who is going to be available at the 4th/5th pick.
We have 30 wins and I think we would go with Durant as well. We need a #1 sscoring option and Durant would give us that. Gerald could play the 4 on offense since he's better there and Durant could play the 3 while they switch on defense. Oden wouldn't be a bad consulation prize though, but our pick is dropping like crazy since every bad team is tanking and we aren't
You should of seen how much we tanked yesterday. We kinda make it to obvious. We left Curry open for 3 on purpose, he nailed the shot and Knicks win in overtime. We are making our tanking way way to obvious now. Both Durant and Oden are good players, so it wouldnt really matter which one you guys get. Durant would just be a better fit for you.
