Next year's draft weak? What's was so good about last years?

[624]

Derrick Favors: 6.4ppg and 5.2rpg

Those #'s along with 52% shooting are pretty damn good for a 19 year old playing 18mpg.

This...let him develop.


He's the youngest player in the league and was drafted as a raw project.


If you expected more you were kidding yourself.

[erudite23]

^ Agreed. Aldridge and Noah are another two guys who "only" put up 9/5 and 7/5 rookie seasons in less minutes, but had good advanced stats for rookies (15.5-17 PER) and then broke out later. I see Wall and Cousins are flashing superstar potential. Other guys like George, Monroe, Davis have been very good for rookies.

I think Davis in particular is getting underrated. This is a guy who was thought as a possible top 5 guy most of last year. Then when he dropped to 13 it made his rookie season under the radar. He's averaging 10.9 rbs and 1.8 blks per 36. Here's the list of rookies who's put up a rebound and blk rate like him, with a min 20 minutes: http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... rder_by=ws Davis has the same rebound and blk rate as rookie Dwight Howard. I'm not saying he'll be a star. But 14 10 and 1.5 on good %s wouldn't surprise me at all and those guys are hard as hell to find. He's also a great kid with a good basketball IQ and a team player. He's a really nice prospect. I think he could've gone 5 or 6 without question and people would be more excited about his upside. His rookie year is in that Aldridge Noah zone of looking just decent in raw stats, but 11/11/2 60% per 36 and 16.5 PER is pretty damn sick for a rookie. Just like Noah's 11/10/2 and Aldridge's 15/8/2 per 36s as rookies.

15-16 PER as a rookie like Davis, Monroe, George means it's very likely you're going over 18 when you develop. And 18 PER+ players are what everyone wants and usually "name" players. I think Davis, Monroe, George will be 18 PER+ players while Turner, Favors, Udoh, Hayward will prove they got picked too high. I like Wes Johnson as a future 3pt sharpshooter and defensive guy every team needs. Another guy who's underrated is Patrick Patterson. He hasn't got many minutes but is a 16 PER player in his limited role. He's finishing, rebounding, never turning it over. I always thought he was underrated pre draft. He's an athletic PF who's got a great face-up shot. That's not good enough for top 10? He could be someone's Paul Millsap

Not that I disagree on Davis....but aren't you a Raps fan? And you're preaching to the choir, there. He was the guy I wanted at #9 instead of Hayward, and I've been following him closely all season. He's exactly what I hoped he would be for us in his rookie year. I can't say how jealous I am.

Also, have to disagree with you on Favors. He's coming along fine so far, and he's two full years younger than Davis is. He's been quite good in limited play for us, and I think he'll finish this year pretty close to 15ish in PER. He's gradually working his way up the ladder with every game, and just put up 16 and 8 in just 25 minutes tonight. The dude has great ability. Just need to be patient.

[bill curley II]

Favors is going to be fine. Probably not an yearly 20+ scorer but he'll have an impact on the defensive end and his athleticism is always going to present a problem to opponents.

Problem with this year's draft is that the top 2 bigs, Sulli and Williams, are not defensive factors and probably never will be. You have to be really really good offensively (think Amare or Blake) to be a star on your team when you're a poor defensive big.

I can't picture Irving coming out either after his injury unless he's come out and said something. Which means the first guard is.. Kemba? Jimmer? Burks? That's mid-late first talent at best in a normal draft.

The only big guy I could see being a star is Perry Jones, but he's shown virtually no production, and that's basically based on his size and athleticism. I like the Morris twins but they don't have the athleticism or size to dominate in the nba, but I would say both are capable of being good rotational bigs. Other than that, I see two short PF's near the top of the draft, a few Euros, a guy that was ineligible this year, a few perimeter guys that never learned to pass, and a couple overrated UNC forwards in the lotto.