DRAFT NIGHT 2022! General league/team thoughts

[MartinToVaught]

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Rim protection, rebounding - solid pick.

[ejftw]

Moussa Diabete

Can't be too mad.

[ejftw]

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[KL2]

It’s not a bad pick. He should get tons of playing time for ACC.

Only interesting thing left now is if they pick up any undrafted guys.

[ejftw]

Damn, was going we'd snatch Isaiah as a udfa

[esqtvd]

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needs body fat lol

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[Ballings7]

Luv the Moussa Diabate pick for this team

Should be a great fit off the bench in time (or soon?) with his size, athleticism, defensive versatility, energy, and floor stretching potential (rim threat + jumpshooting).

Good "need" pick for this team in the front court.. should bring a different element thats been missing.

Won't have pressure to have to do a lot, but can focus on just playing his role and getting better.

[ejftw]

Wonder if Diabete can show enough to get the spot Zu minutes

[Wammy Giveaway]

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And it's Diabate, not Diabetes, nearly made a naming mistake as I was pronouncing his name for the first time.

He's a small forward in a power forward's body. Cuts like a small forward, runs the court like a small forward after a rebound. Scores like a center, usually off of dunks and post-ups. Has super huge defensive potential: thanks to his lateral quickness, long arms and court awareness, he can go iso, preventing shots via contests or blocks (though he's more of a contester than a blocker), and can negate scorers of cutting opportunities, allowing for help defense. With Michigan Wolverines, he has started 26 of 33 games, making him a capable role starter, but I actually see Diabate as a role player, a defensive specialist who will come off the bench and provide defensive awareness. Can theoretically be used against other superstar small forwards - weird when Clippers already have a plethora of small forwards on the team.

I thought Diabate was a draft and stash guy, use the pick but put him in the cupboard so as to not add him to the Clippers 2022-23 season salary. They could see him as the next DeAndre Jordan-type player, needing a couple years to develop and refine his game, just without the highlight reel plays and lob-jams. Listed as a power forward, but could end up being a centward (forward-center hybrid).

Bad shooter, though. He should stick to rimshots (ba-dum-pss) and free throw shooting. Boy, opponents are gonna pull the Hack-A-Shaq on him a lot, had a 0.619 free throw percentage in the 2021-22 Wolverines season.

"Let's go bub" - Cal Dodd, Wolverine, X-Men: The Animated Series

[KL2]

Undrafted guys going so fast I can’t keep up.

[esqtvd]

At least he's only 20 not 22 like Fi--a wasted FRP. Not feeling this one at all except to say that drafting another 2/3 would demoralize the ones we already have. #44 got a better buzz but would be redundant here.

https://www.nba.com/draft/2022/prospects/ryan-rollins


All I can say is that--absent some trade being disclosed later--it looks like nobody had any interest in our pick and we had little interest in anyone drafted later. Ballmer literally spent millions scouting this draft but sometimes all your tests get is a null result.

So throw a dart at the dartboard, send the kid to G-League and hope something good happens in a year or two. He seems to be able to protect the rim some and still close out to the 3-point line to contest a Jokic. And even run the floor a bit. 10-15 mpg on a playoff team might be his ceiling but that ain't bad...

[TrueLAfan]

That. Was. A. Really. Boring. Draft.



Night.

[og15]

At #43, you never know. Could be a guy that sticks in the NBA, or could be a guy that's done in a year or two, really impossible to know, but physical tools wise, looks good at least.

[clipsfever]

Not buying a pick(s), we have more/all of our season's allotment of Ballmer bucks to grease trades? (There's a limit as to how much cash you can add into transactions per season, correct?)

[TrueLAfan]

Well, I figure we were/are watching to see who picked who, and who traded who. And there were some interesting developments.

1. Kemba to Detroit to ... probably buyout. The Knicks cleared cap space for a run at Brunson. Detroit (who made out like bandits on draft night, imo) picked up Kemba's salary and get the pick that became Jalen Duren. Detroit's fine in backcourt; Kemba's going to be on the buyout market (very) soon. Some writers are already putting the Lakers out there as a destination.

2. Banchero and Carter and Wagner and... Banchero is ready to play now. He will play now. Alongside Wendell Carter, the Magic have a young, complete frontcourt duo that does everything at least pretty well and nothing badly. Add in Franz Wagner, who was terrific last year and spent about a thirds of his minutes at the 4, and his brother Moe who is/was a totally capable backup, and the Magic are 80-85% of the way to a really, really good frontcourt. Except...that leaves out Mo Bamba, Chuma Okeke, Robin Lopez, and Jonathan Isaac. They were overloaded in the frontcourt before the draft; now it's worse. Some/many people have to go.

Those are first things I see in terms of draft post-mortem related to us.

[Ballings7]

Taking a flyer on Isaac would be interesting if he became available somehow

imagine, healthy:

Norm (Mann)
PG
Kawhi
Isaac
Covington (Batum)

Would be pretty killer and very versatile on both ends of the floor. If Isaac could come in and accept being a supporting player but high in the rotation.

[nickhx2]

literally doing nothing is better than having that psycho on the team

[nickhx2]

should be noted that the john collins/atl split is surfacing again, so kicking the tires on offers could be worthwhile.