I think we are gunning for the draft 1st then trying to swing a trade or land a free agent 2nd... And this draft is actually pretty well suited for our teams needs. Obviously if we land #1 somehow then it's Ben Simmons hands down and you move people as necessary to make room for him. Beyond that #1 pick there are mostly PF's and SF's and a couple centers. yeah there is a C or 2, but even then we could take a center and slide Plumlee to PF. I guess my thinking is this, with our starting lineup it would be hard to upgrade Dame, and PLumlee is looking very solid IMO. But the other 2 spots, I'm ok with each of those guys starting if one of the 3 doesn't matter which gets pushed to the bench because of a better starter. Example, I'm fine with CJ and Vonleh starting if Aminu is pushed to the bench by Brandon Ingram. Or Fine with Aminu and CJ starting if COnleh is pushed to the bench by Labissiere.... Or CJ pushed to bench by Murray.... etc...etc...
At work I watched UCLA beat Gonzaga the other day and their 6'9 260 lb forward Tony Parker was a beast...he owned Sabonis in the paint and scored, hustled and just impressed the hell out of me.
Have Aminu and Harkless keep working on their 3 point shots and I think we can win with them holding down the SF spot. I think a bigger weakness is in the paint.
If Harkless can become a triple threat -- corner three/drive to the basket/defense -- then yes, Harkless can be our SF. I think he can.
I didn't realize this was an old thread and I wondered why some of you were talking about landing the #1 pick as if it was going to be easy.
I think our biggest problem is at C. A SF/PF combo of Harkless and Aminu gets you quality 3pt shooting from both forward spots. That's critical to our ability to win as we did. They also both play defense while the other 3 aren't so good at it. Someone has to play D... Harkless and Aminu are not elite players, not on the level of Dame... If you can upgrade either spot, go for it. We get little (but efficient) offense from our Cs, and the defense isn't all that great. Festus Ezili looked like an all star against the two. Breaking news: he's not an all star They do bring rebounding and hustle and basketball IQ. And Davis is best suited as a PF, IMO. I think Aminu is underestimated by some. He's probably in the top 3rd of guys in the league who can play both forward positions.
I like Horford a lot better. And I'd love to see Meyers Leonard given a shot at C. I bet he'd be comfortable at the spot, he can play D and rebound there just fine, and he gets you another 3pt shooter.
Whiteside and Plumlee/Davis in the frontcourt would be an offensive disaster. You can only play Plumlee and Davis at PF if they're next to a C that can at least shoot from 15 feet.
