2016 Draft Thread

[No-Man]

Watching the Providence Villanova game over the weekend to see how dominant Kris Dunn can be, Ben Bentill really stood out as a 6'9 235 lb forward. He had a disappointing freshman year and worked very hard to improve his body and game. He's a scorer more than anything else. He's not a 3 point shooter yet, but I think he will be - as his FT shooting is outstanding, and he loves to shoot. He doesn't appear to put a lot of energy in on defense. I see him as an instant offense 3rd forward. Because of his bleh frosh year, he could possibly slip to the Wiz 2nd rounder if he comes out this year.

He looks like a less athletic Terrence Jones

[No-Man]

Btw, yes Brice Johnson is proving me and others wrong and might be worth considering with our 1st rounder. 3 blocks and 3 steals the other day are things he didn't used to do. But none of these guys are stretch bigs.

Yikes, no, I am a big Brice fan but he is a borderline 1st rounder in a weak draft like this year's, no way in consideration with a top20 or late lotto pick.
He is basically Brandan Wright, he is a big that has not the strength or the length to play C, neither can he defend on the perimeter or stretch the floor shooting from outside.
His potential is a smallball back-up C, playing good pick&roll defense, playing in transition, chasing boards, finishing and hitting the midrange, involved offensively through heavy pick&roll offense and with floor spacers around him (again see Brandan Wright and how he thrived in Dallas with Dirk and exceptional pick&roll perimeter players) he is a system player but his upside is not good enough for a lotto pick.

[No-Man]

Hmm...Hield vs Grayson Allen

My take - Allen's a better long-term prospect, but he needs to get stronger and will take a couple of years. I'm impatient, so I lean towards the guy who can step in and play from day 1. I guess, Denzel Valentine has to be considered, too.

All of these guys continue to shine, but I'm more convinced that Hield would be the guy who could step in and be a quality starter from day 1. Valentine's a great college player who does everything, and he's listed at 6'6 220 with a 6'10 wingspan, but when I watch them play, Hield looks bigger - even though he's listed at 6'4.5 215 with a 6'8.5 wingspan. And Allen just lacks strength - but he's young, so eventually he might get it, though he has the shortest length of the 3. No doubt, Valentine's the most well-rounded, but he's not an explosive athlete. Hield's ability to shoot is off the charts, and he's not just a high percentage 3 point shooter, he's an extra high volume 3 point shooter that has to be covered tight whenever he's within 25 feet of the basket. Beal could learn from him - Hield is always looking a step ahead and is ready to shoot when he catches the ball. He also sees the court, so if he's doubled, he's a step ahead ready to pass. There's no hesitation. Last night he scored 30 points on 12 shots. And he's doing this with the other team geared to stop him.

Grayson issue is with ballhandling, something difficult to improve, he has problems creating space for his shots and penetrating against fast and strong opponents, he has crapped his pants against big teams with strong defenders.
Having said that, as a combinatory G from thebench is not that big of a deal he is a hellacious shooter with hops, that can create with screeners next to him, plus he is a tenacious defender with great activity.
He is a better prospect than Hield and Valentine.

[Dark Faze]

On the biggest stages he's still found ways to get to the rim despite the fact

[No-Man]

On the biggest stages he's still found ways to get to the rim despite the fact

sure, forcing the issue, stumbling around, dribbling way too much and losing balls+notfinishing well, I am not saying that he is Stauskas, he is a better athlete and defender, but Grayson is not a star project either, he is similar to Bobby Sura.

[Ruzious]

Btw, yes Brice Johnson is proving me and others wrong and might be worth considering with our 1st rounder. 3 blocks and 3 steals the other day are things he didn't used to do. But none of these guys are stretch bigs.

Yikes, no, I am a big Brice fan but he is a borderline 1st rounder in a weak draft like this year's, no way in consideration with a top20 or late lotto pick.
He is basically Brandan Wright, he is a big that has not the strength or the length to play C, neither can he defend on the perimeter or stretch the floor shooting from outside.
His potential is a smallball back-up C, playing good pick&roll defense, playing in transition, chasing boards, finishing and hitting the midrange, involved offensively through heavy pick&roll offense and with floor spacers around him (again see Brandan Wright and how he thrived in Dallas with Dirk and exceptional pick&roll perimeter players) he is a system player but his upside is not good enough for a lotto pick.

Brice has gotten significantly bigger than I thought he'd be - and he's probably 10 or so lbs heavier than Wright ever got - and I'm a Wright fan. If Wright could add 10 or so good lbs, he'd probably play a lot more, but you're right about him benefiting from playing with Dirk. I don't think this a real strong draft late lotto, so Brice has a shot at it. With a lot of these bigs coming out, how far they go in the NBA is going to depend on how well they develop their jump shots.

[No-Man]

Still, Brice is not as long, he has a 6'11 wingspan is not going to cut it in terms of protecting the rim, hell even Wright cant really do much other than using his length when it comes to body opponents, and he has massive length compared to Brice.
Brice would've 0 shot in late lotto if I were the one drafting and I love the kid.
Late 1st round sure.

[Ruzious]

Watching the Providence Villanova game over the weekend to see how dominant Kris Dunn can be, Ben Bentill really stood out as a 6'9 235 lb forward. He had a disappointing freshman year and worked very hard to improve his body and game. He's a scorer more than anything else. He's not a 3 point shooter yet, but I think he will be - as his FT shooting is outstanding, and he loves to shoot. He doesn't appear to put a lot of energy in on defense. I see him as an instant offense 3rd forward. Because of his bleh frosh year, he could possibly slip to the Wiz 2nd rounder if he comes out this year.

He looks like a less athletic Terrence Jones

Yeah, best case - he could become a Luol Deng type of player.

[No-Man]

Ufff thats a difficult take, he is not agile/fast precisely, cant see him playing SF ever, he is more of a face-up C as of now, if he keeps adding range and bulks-up he could play some sort of role like that.
I'd say that he could be an early 2nd rounder but I wont be surprised if he elects to stay in Providence.

[payitforward]

Btw, yes Brice Johnson is proving me and others wrong and might be worth considering with our 1st rounder. 3 blocks and 3 steals the other day are things he didn't used to do.

DR's current mock ranks him #41, which means we'd have a legitimate shot of nabbing him in R2 -- if we had a pick. Kennedy Meeks is at #43. Both those guys look like bargains at those spots.

Atlanta has our pick, unfortunately, acquired in the brilliant move* by which we got Jordan Crawford and the opportunity to whiff on Chris Singleton.

* In fact, it would have been a brilliant move -- if we'd picked Kenneth Faried or Tobias Harris or Reggie Jackson or Jimmy Butler or Nikola Mirotic or Donatas Motiejunas or Chandler Parsons or even Jon Leuer. And if we'd traded Crawford when he had any value at all.

[Ruzious]

Btw, yes Brice Johnson is proving me and others wrong and might be worth considering with our 1st rounder. 3 blocks and 3 steals the other day are things he didn't used to do.

DR's current mock ranks him #41, which means we'd have a legitimate shot of nabbing him in R2 -- if we had a pick. Kennedy Meeks is at #43. Both those guys look like bargains at those spots.

Atlanta has our pick, unfortunately, acquired in the brilliant move* by which we got Jordan Crawford and the opportunity to whiff on Chris Singleton.

* In fact, it would have been a brilliant move -- if we'd picked Kenneth Faried or Tobias Harris or Reggie Jackson or Jimmy Butler or Nikola Mirotic or Donatas Motiejunas or Chandler Parsons or even Jon Leuer. And if we'd traded Crawford when he had any value at all.

NBA draft.net has Brice going 10th, so it'll be interesting to see which site is closer on him.

Yeah, that wasn't necessarily a bad trade, but using that pick on Singleton killed it. That draft (Vesely/Singleton) was the last straw with Grunfeld.

[JAR69]

Btw, yes Brice Johnson is proving me and others wrong and might be worth considering with our 1st rounder. 3 blocks and 3 steals the other day are things he didn't used to do.

DR's current mock ranks him #41, which means we'd have a legitimate shot of nabbing him in R2 -- if we had a pick. Kennedy Meeks is at #43. Both those guys look like bargains at those spots.

Atlanta has our pick, unfortunately, acquired in the brilliant move* by which we got Jordan Crawford and the opportunity to whiff on Chris Singleton.

* In fact, it would have been a brilliant move -- if we'd picked Kenneth Faried or Tobias Harris or Reggie Jackson or Jimmy Butler or Nikola Mirotic or Donatas Motiejunas or Chandler Parsons or even Jon Leuer. And if we'd traded Crawford when he had any value at all.

NBA draft.net has Brice going 10th, so it'll be interesting to see which site is closer on him.

Yeah, that wasn't necessarily a bad trade, but using that pick on Singleton killed it. That draft (Vesely/Singleton) was the last straw with Grunfeld.

Didn't we give up that pick in the Oubre trade last year?

[Ruzious]

Ufff thats a difficult take, he is not agile/fast precisely, cant see him playing SF ever, he is more of a face-up C as of now, if he keeps adding range and bulks-up he could play some sort of role like that.
I'd say that he could be an early 2nd rounder but I wont be surprised if he elects to stay in Providence.

I think you're probably overrating Deng more than underrating Bentill. The NBA's going smaller and smaller with PF's. If Deng was a rookie in the NBA now, he'd likely be playing 4 more than 3. I see Bentill in a system where the 3 and 4 are interchangable. He's a scoring forward more than a SF or PF.

[No-Man]

Ufff thats a difficult take, he is not agile/fast precisely, cant see him playing SF ever, he is more of a face-up C as of now, if he keeps adding range and bulks-up he could play some sort of role like that.
I'd say that he could be an early 2nd rounder but I wont be surprised if he elects to stay in Providence.

I think you're probably overrating Deng more than underrating Bentill. The NBA's going smaller and smaller with PF's. If Deng was a rookie in the NBA now, he'd likely be playing 4 more than 3. I see Bentill in a system where the 3 and 4 are interchangable. He's a scoring forward more than a SF or PF.

Sure, but Bentil is not in the same stratosphere as an athlete as Duke's Deng was.
Luol has had physical issues and has played a ton of minutes and he is washed-up now, but he was a much better F prospect, in terms of versatility.

[No-Man]

NBA draft.net has Brice going 10th, so it'll be interesting to see which site is closer on him.

.net is a joke, to a degree DX is bad too, but they are at least respectable, .net is just a place to laugh at.

[Dark Faze]

eh

i mean draft express has Skal going 6th

DE has always been the more organized site with the best stuff, but in terms of pure mocks I've actually preferred .net

[Ruzious]

NBA draft.net has Brice going 10th, so it'll be interesting to see which site is closer on him.

.net is a joke, to a degree DX is bad too, but they are at least respectable, .net is just a place to laugh at.

Remember I said "best case". When I say that, it means everything has to go right for it to happen.

And when I compare him to Deng, I'm not comparing Deng when he was a prospect - since we have an entire career of Deng to compare. Maybe others think it through differently.

[No-Man]

eh

i mean draft express has Skal going 6th

DE has always been the more organized site with the best stuff, but in terms of pure mocks I've actually preferred .net

they are both jokes in terms of Mocks, at least DX has some good scouting notes and database.

[Ruzious]

DR's current mock ranks him #41, which means we'd have a legitimate shot of nabbing him in R2 -- if we had a pick. Kennedy Meeks is at #43. Both those guys look like bargains at those spots.

Atlanta has our pick, unfortunately, acquired in the brilliant move* by which we got Jordan Crawford and the opportunity to whiff on Chris Singleton.

* In fact, it would have been a brilliant move -- if we'd picked Kenneth Faried or Tobias Harris or Reggie Jackson or Jimmy Butler or Nikola Mirotic or Donatas Motiejunas or Chandler Parsons or even Jon Leuer. And if we'd traded Crawford when he had any value at all.

NBA draft.net has Brice going 10th, so it'll be interesting to see which site is closer on him.

Yeah, that wasn't necessarily a bad trade, but using that pick on Singleton killed it. That draft (Vesely/Singleton) was the last straw with Grunfeld.

Didn't we give up that pick in the Oubre trade last year?

Actually, I think you're right. It was the 2016 and 2019 Wiz 2nd round picks sent to Atl in the Oubre trade. http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2015/06/26/wizards-get-kansas-sf-oubre-in-draft-day-trade-with-hawks/29310253/

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

NBA draft.net has Brice going 10th, so it'll be interesting to see which site is closer on him.

.net is a joke, to a degree DX is bad too, but they are at least respectable, .net is just a place to laugh at.

He doesn't post on RealGM any more but I think Dat2U is consistently better than either one of them overall.

I sometimes come up with players that eventually pan out after undrafted; or who, as a second round pick turn into a stud.

I think DX depends too much on scouting videos now. Their print pre-analyses were much better in the past IMO.