Ford's Mock #3: Bucks take Gallinari

[LUKE23]

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008 ... aft-080602

Haha, Bucks can move to Vegas if this happens.

[Nowak008]

Take that Luke. Not sure why you hate him so much. Quickness isn't everything.

[Matches Malone]

I'd rather have Joe Alexander at 8 than Gallinari.

[LUKE23]

Take that Luke. Not sure why you hate him so much. Quickness isn't everything.

Take what? That Ford has him as our pick in #3 of his 7 mocks? Ok...

Quickness isn't everything, but defense is pretty close, and he doesn't have it (along with being a sub-par rebounder).

There will be better players available at 8.

[MajorDad]

these mocks look more and more as if we are better off trading down or just trading the pick completely.

[carmelbrownqueen]

Ford has no idea what to think.. it's hard to figure out what direction the Bucks are going to go in.

[carmelbrownqueen]

I think Gallinari could end up going a little earlier than 8 to NY or might end up falling lower than expected.

[fam3381]

Ford has no idea what to think.. it's hard to figure out what direction the Bucks are going to go in.

For that reason I'm more interested in who he has going ahead of us and who he projects to be available to us. I'd probably prefer Randolph or Westbrook, both of whom go after our pick. Though I don't hate Gallinari as much as some people.

Love goes fifth while Lopez (9th) and Jordan (14th) fall past us. I'm really hoping the latter two guys work their way back into the top seven. And I'm just going to assume the Kevin Love ship has sailed...he doesn't have a workout yet with us either.

[LUKE23]

I hope NY takes him, that would drop Westbrook to us guaranteed.

Minny and NY are the wild cards right now, IMO.

Beasley/Rose will go top 2
Seattle will take Mayo if he falls, otherwise Bayless
Love will go to Memphis
Clippers will take a guard (Gordon if he's there, otherwise Westbrook)

Ideal situation is Minny taking Lopez and NY taking Gallinari. The more guards that have a chance of falling to us, the better, that is where the talent in this draft is.

Hopefully, we see something like this:

Rose
Beasley
Lopez
Mayo
Love
Gallinari
Bayless

leaving us with the choice between Gordon and Westbrook. I think Minny wises up and takes Mayo though.

[Nowak008]

-= original quote snipped =-



Take what? That Ford has him as our pick in #3 of his 7 mocks? Ok...

I only said that because you hate him so bad.

Quickness isn't everything, but defense is pretty close, and he doesn't have it (along with being a sub-par rebounder).

He is going up against grown men at 19, once he grows up a bit he will be a better defender. Even if he is not that great of a defender, Westbrook is just as bad on offense, Randoph is not very skilled, all of these guys holes in their game. I find it curious that only Gallinari gets discounted because of his hole.

What I like best about Gallinari is that he has proven that he is a very good basketball player and has big upside. At worst he will be Dunleavy (circa this year) at best he could be Dirk. There is a lot to like about his game.

[LUKE23]

-= original quote snipped =-



He is going up against grown men at 19, once he grows up a bit he will be a better defender. Even if he is not that great of a defender, Westbrook is just as bad on offense, Randoph is not very skilled, all of these guys holes in their game. I find it curious that only Gallinari gets discounted because of his hole.

What I like best about Gallinari is that he has proven that he is a very good basketball player and has big upside. At worst he will be Dunleavy (circa this year) at best he could be Dirk. There is a lot to like about his game.

Much rather have a guy with NBA ready defense than a guy that is bad on D and is not a sure thing on O either in regards to going against NBA caliber athletes.

Gallinari is not going to be able to score off the dribble against NBA SF's. Watch his clips, he is barely getting by the small forwards guarding him in the Italian league. His game in the NBA is going to be jumpshooting, a la Turkoglu.

With Westbrook, at least his athletic ability and his defense jump off the screen at you. With Gallanari, nothing but his jumpshot looks impressive, and he is not going to be able to guard NBA 3's. Does this team really need another player without hopes of defending?

Worst case Dunleavy best case Dirk huh? I will wager he doesn't even have as good of a season as Dunleavy did this year (19.1/5.2/3.5 on 48%) once in his career.

[cam2win]

I love these mocks, not that I expect them to listen to every interview or read every article all NBA team's GMs have. But seriously, Hammond basically squashed picking the Italian Toni Kukoc emphasizing his lack of defense.

[Enrique]

Woelfel said on Sparky's show that he expects Gallinari to go to NY. Supposedly D'Antoni loves him. I'm not sure what to make of him. I'm not sure how anyone could love or hate him based on a couple of video highlights.

[bigballajohn]

for once i agree with Ford. i think the bucks would be really lucky to have a guy like gallinari on the team. we need a guy who doesnt always want to shoot first

[fam3381]

Woelfel said on Sparky's show that he expects Gallinari to go to NY. Supposedly D'Antoni loves him. I'm not sure what to make of him. I'm not sure how anyone could love or hate him based on a couple of video highlights.

D'Antoni played with Gallinari's father for Olimpia Milano and coached there before coming back to the NBA, so he has a ton of connections to the Italian game and Gallinari in particular (he hasn't coached DG however).

That said, Ford mentioned something a few weeks ago about some Suns sources claiming that D'Antoni wasn't particularly impressed after watching some tapes of Gallinari during the season (before he moved to NYC). It's Walsh's pick, but I doubt he takes a guy that D'Antoni hates. Still, it's not exactly clear what he thinks of DG, though you'd think D'Antoni's Italian connections would help Gallinari's case.

[paulpressey25]

Here is the quote from Ford today:

"...However, a Suns source told me that D'Antoni wasn't a huge fan of Gallinari when he was shown some tape during the season, which has made me seriously reconsider that forecast...."

I guess I wouldn't be too mad if Hammond truly felt this guy was BPA at #8.

But the odds are against this guy becoming much of anything IMO.

[ReasonablySober]

I love these mocks, not that I expect them to listen to every interview or read every article all NBA team's GMs have. But seriously, Hammond basically squashed picking the Italian Toni Kukoc emphasizing his lack of defense.

Still, at this point, you have to take everything with a grain of salt. First, many NBA executives confessed the obvious: They still don't know who they'll take. Second, the misinformation game was being played at a high level in Orlando.

I'm sure more than a few people told me things that were just flat-out untrue.

If Hammond is hoping a guy drops to him, he's not going to have a good word to say about him before the draft.

[Chuck Diesel]

We don't need any more stinking argentineans in the NBA.

[LUKE23]

I'm at the same place now that I have been for the past few weeks. I want one of Westbrook/Gordon/Love/Randolph and I don't see a huge talent gap between the four, but I also think there is a dropoff after those four are off the board.

We are guaranteed one of those four guys too, unless a guy like Bayless slips, which is very unlikely.

[livestrong4ever]

So we are going to draft anther guy who sucks playing defense. He will fit in great with SS!