Official Speculation Thread

[fendilim]

I have a good feeling this thread will cover the Draft Lottery

[shadrock]

Continuing a convo from tge previous thread:

See thats the problem. Everyone is simply believing the espn hype machine on him and not watching how he plays. In my opinion hes not "just too good". He goes against everything a modern nba offense is trying to be (stretch 4, fast, defense) and is exactly what you dont want it to be (unathletic, high volume, no defense, no passing, can't stretch the floor). Add to this the fact that his strength (post scoring) is going to see the biggest hit when he comes up against nba caliber bigs (struggles all year against long and athletic bigs) and the fact that his steal rate is non existent and it gets a bit scary.

Vonleh is going to be well ahead of him. So is Smart, Ennis, Stauskas.

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I watched plenty of Kentucky basketball this year, that was my own opinion, not ESPN. Besides, ESPN is probably the last place I go for NBA draft coverage, can't stand Chad Ford. Anyways though, you can certainly argue whether or not his game will translate well in the NBA, something I'm not even completely convinced on either, but that's not the question, the question is if he will fall out of the top 10 and I just don't see it. He was "too good" of a player this past year for that to happen, and someone in the top 10 will take him because of that, despite the question marks. There are guys like this every year, Cody Zeller, Thomas Robinson, Tristan Thomas, all power forwards who were drafted high despite the question marks about their game translating in the NBA because of how good they were in college.

Oh and he's definitely going before Ennis and Stauskas, two players I really like I might add, although I do think Smart goes before him.

Also, not trying to defend ESPN, but any mock draft around this time of year has a pretty decent idea about the top talent in the draft. These people talk to scouts and teams, they know who's high on peoples boards, so the fact that every mock draft out there has him going top 5 should be a pretty good indicator that scouts like him. Does it mean he can't fall, of course not, but it also means a lot of people like him as at least a top 10 talent on their board, if not higher.

Cheers for the response and I respect your opinion. I guess we will just have to wait and see how it all shakes out! One thing I want to add regarding the mock drafts and the contact the columnists have with scouts and teams. Dont underestimate how much of a dogfight this is. I can absolutely guarantee that no gm or front office guy would EVER give out their teams plan for the draft, in particular to a media guy. They would instantly lose all leverage. Just look at how far wrong the info was last year with Bennett #1 and Noel #6. The media guys may hear things but its never the right things. There are so many factors at play and misdirection plays a big part.

For example, if you have the #1 pick and know who the #2 team wants, make them believe you will take him first and then all of a sudden you have trade leverage to get more assets. This happens the whole way down the list. Its all a big mind game.

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[Blue_and_Whte]

So which spec thread are we posting on?

Official (Speculation Thread Pt. LXIX Knicks #1 Edition)

[BadMofoPimp]

Mods will combine these two threads so it won't matter too long which is posted in.

[MaceWindu]

In before the merge?

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