Official #2 Pick Thread - Ford #7: Parker

[-Jragon-]

One thing that's making me lean Wiggins is FG percentage. They both shoot the same % from the field and from 3 so why am I believing that Parker is far superior on O. Plus you get the added benefits with Wiggins defense and athletic ability. Did Wiggins dunk enough to keep his FG percentage so high or does Parker shoot too many dumb shots like Barry Chuck? Or does Wiggins just have a decent shooting touch that will develop

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[-Jragon-]

Jabari Parker's is slightly higher 47% to 44% but Wiggins TS is slightly higher 56% to 55% Wiggins slightly higher in assists. I really hope Hammond knows things we don't that clarifies who will be a better player. Maybe they both end up stars

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[nodeal]

Do you guys look 7 yrs into the future when making this decision? do you feel both players would have the same desire to play in MIL after 7 yrs? or do you feel one is more likely to bolt 1st chance they get?

If embiid went #1 how likely is this scenario. Even if MIL prefers Jabari they can still pull this off. MIL just drafts and trades wiggins to PHI for #3 #32 & #39 plus they get parker on the cheaper contract? Parker + #32 + #39 or Wiggins?

[Buckrageous]

Do you guys look 7 yrs into the future when making this decision? do you feel both players would have the same desire to play in MIL after 7 yrs? or do you feel one is more likely to bolt 1st chance they get?

If embiid went #1 how likely is this scenario. Even if MIL prefers Jabari they can still pull this off. MIL just drafts and trades wiggins to PHI for #3 #32 & #39 plus they get parker on the cheaper contract? Parker + #32 + #39 or Wiggins?

Bucks have enough 2nds, 3 already. If the Sixers arent coming off of #10 they'll stay at #3.

[Badgerlander]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/ ... story.html
Jabari Parker draws raves for his scoring prowess

By Baxter Holmes

According to NBA scouts and executives, Parker, the son of former NBA player Sonny Parker, is also the safest pick in the draft.


“In terms of a basketball player and a human being, I think it’s all first class,” said an Eastern Conference scout. “I think he gets on the court next year and averages between 14-17 points per game, 2-4 assists, 6-8 rebounds. I see this Carmelo Anthony/Grant Hill hybrid.

“I don’t think you go wrong with him. I think there’s very little risk, for sure.”

The comparisons between Parker and Anthony, the New York Knicks star forward, have been there for years.

“The first time I saw him, the name Carmelo just starts screaming at you,” said an Eastern Conference executive.

Such a comparison exists because of Parker’s size and scoring versatility.

“He seems to have a knack for scoring, just a type of guy that if you give it to him in the post, the mid-post, the free throw line facing [the basket], the 3-point line facing — if you put him in any situation, he can get you a bucket,” the executive said. “That’s a pretty rare ability.”

A Western Conference scout called Parker “the most skilled player in the draft, most complete player in the draft.”

The scout added, “He’s going to be a guy that’s going to play in the league 12-15 years. He can come in right away and produce for you. He does a lot of things very, very well.”

A Western Conference executive described Parker as a natural scorer.

“He works along the baseline better than any young player that I’ve seen in a long time,” the executive said. “He has a great feel along the baseline. He’s a natural scorer. He’s got a terrific in-between game with pull-up jumpers. He has extended his range. He’s a really good fundamental jumper.

“Probably among all the players, and depending on what team he goes to, of course, and his playing time, but he will have the biggest impact. He’s going to be able to come in and score right away.”

That’s not to say that there aren’t concerns about Parker. There are questions about his weight and conditioning. Simply put, scouts and executives say that he could be in much better shape, and he reportedly has worked toward that end since the college season ended.

“The thing everybody talks about is his body, and that I worry less about just because he’s going to be, for the first time in his life, focusing on that exclusively — just basketball, just doing that, from now on,” said one Eastern Conference executive.

There have been weight and conditioning concerns about Anthony, too.

“Everyone jokes that Melo has never been in great shape,” said another Eastern Conference executive. “He always has that doughy look to him. I think Parker might have a similar body to that. That’s OK. The way those guys score, and they’re sneaky athletic.

“Jabari, he’s the type where he can kind of gather on two feet and then do something that you’d never expect him to do, and it’s pretty amazing.”

Parker has also been compared with another forward with good size who is sneaky athletic and can score in a variety of ways: Celtics icon Paul Pierce.

“I think he has much quicker feet than Paul Pierce, which is where the Carmelo Anthony name comes in,” the Eastern Conference executive said. “But he is a very crafty set-shooter. I think he’ll have a little bit better perimeter game than Melo, closer to Paul Pierce. Maybe a hybrid between those two guys.”

Said a Western Conference scout: “His first step off the dribble is Paul Pierce-like in Paul Pierce’s prime with athletic explosiveness so far beyond what Pierce ever had.”

Pierce and Anthony are stronger and more athletic than they appear, and Parker appears to be the same way, which should bode well for him.

“You’re talking about two guys that are small forwards their whole career, and as their athleticism slows down, they’re becoming power forwards, and not many players can do that — and I think Jabari is the same way,” said one Eastern Conference executive. “For an undersized Duke team, he was playing everything from [small forward through center]. I think that he’ll be in that same kind of mold.”

As talented as Parker is, he also possesses what one Eastern Conference scout described as a “killer instinct.”

“What I like about him is when they lost to Arizona in December in New York, he was playing hard, and Brandon Ashley was covering him, and then when Aaron Gordon got on him, he was chasing the ball, demanding the ball,” the scout said.

“[Parker] wanted to go at him because he knew he was the marquee matchup. I like that about him, that he wants to compete. Because usually those star guys are ‘Just let me get my 20 and go home,’ but he kind of wants to get his 20 and put his foot on your throat, which is good.”

But for as good as Parker’s offense is, his defense is just as bad.

“If Coach K couldn’t get him to defend, I don’t know who will,” the scout said.

An Eastern Conference executive said, “Defensively, he’s about as bad as there is” on the top of most draft boards.

“He really does not put an emphasis on it at this point,” the executive added. “He’s such a good player. He has such a high basketball IQ that I could see it coming and he seems like a very team-orientated player.

“And usually, just in my personal opinion, bad defensive players are sometimes selfish players because they don’t think about how their lack of defense is actually hurting the rest of their team, and Jabari doesn’t seem like that selfish of a guy.

“I could see where if he realizes and learns the value of defense, I could see where he’ll put more emphasis on it. I think if he would’ve stayed one more year at Duke, I think Coach K would’ve instilled that in him a little bit more.

“That’s going to be the big concern: Who can he guard? But at the same time, everyone says that about Melo, that he doesn’t defend anybody, and the guy is a perennial all-NBA threat.

“I think it could be a very similar scenario to that, where [Parker] is just so good offensively that it makes up for any lack of defense that he has.”

[Badgerlander]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2014/ ... story.html
Andrew Wiggins has what it takes to succeed in NBA

By Baxter Holmes

the son of former NBA player Mitchell Wiggins and former Olympic track and field sprinter Marita Payne-Wiggins. Their athletic DNA is apparent to anyone who watches Wiggins play.

Said one Eastern Conference scout: “He doesn’t run. He gallops. He glides. He flies.”


Said one Western Conference scout: “As a basketball athlete, he is on a LeBron James/Russell Westbrook level.”

Said an Eastern Conference executive: “He runs and jumps as well as any of the athletes that we have in our league now.”

Known by some as the “Michael Jordan of Canada,” the 6-foot-8-inch swingman entered Kansas as the nation’s top recruit and, after his freshman season, is the likely No. 1 overall pick in the June 26 draft.


Wiggins likely won’t fall past the third overall pick, and many scouts and executives believe he could end up being the best player in this draft.

“[Kansas center Joel] Embiid has a chance to take his game a long way, [Duke forward Jabari] Parker is, I think, closer to what he’s going to be, but Wiggins is a little bit unknown — how good can he be?“ asked one Western Conference executive. “The sky is the limit. He could be the best of all of them. That wouldn’t surprise me at all.”


An Eastern Conference scout added that “Wiggins has the greatest upside of anybody in the draft.”

The scout continued, with a hint of skepticism, “Will he ever reach that potential? That will totally be up to him. How bad does he want it? How bad does he want to put his fingerprints on the game consistently?”

Wiggins is described as a versatile defender who can guard multiple positions, is a good free throw shooter, and an improving 3-point shooter with an offensive game that’s still developing.

But the questions of passiveness linger because even though Wiggins is a world-class athlete, with a reported 44-inch vertical leap to go with a 7-foot wingspan, he at times has lacked the so-called “killer instinct” that NBA types want.

“If you saw him play, there were certainly times when he disappeared on the floor,” said a Western Conference scout.

At Kansas, Wiggins set the school’s freshman scoring record with 597 points, averaging 17.1 per game. He was more productive toward the end of the season, when Embiid, the team’s other freshman star, was sidelined with a back injury.

Wiggins then scored a Kansas freshman-record 41 points at West Virginia, becoming the only Division 1 player to have at least 5 steals and 4 blocks in a 40-point game in the last 15 seasons. He also scored 30 points against Oklahoma State, dominating Cowboys guard Marcus Smart, a likely lottery pick, in the process.

“Those last few weeks when Embiid went down, Wiggins was [expletive] spectacular,” said an Eastern Conference scout.

But Wiggins always seemed capable of more, which left everyone wanting more. “He’s always deferred. He’s a consummate teammate,” said another Eastern Conference scout. “He’s never, ever wanted to step on guys’ toes and I think that has to change for him to be great, great.”

Given the volume of games Wiggins will play in the NBA, his willingness to defer is a concern, said one Eastern Conference executive.

“That’s one thing that will scare me a bit, just because you have 82 games in this league and he’s going to go to a team that’s not going to win right away, and it’s the middle of February and he’s out in Minnesota or Milwaukee and you’ve got a game and it’s like, will he get up for those?” the executive asked.

Dealing with such questions isn’t new for Wiggins. They’ve followed him for years. Perhaps most notably, a Sports Illustrated article in 2013 pointed out red flags, such as his questionable work ethic and motor. It also noted that his recruitment had been run by his father, “an unemployed former NBA guard best remembered for a two-year suspension for testing positive for cocaine,” the article stated.

On the same day the article was posted online, Wiggins, then playing for Huntington Prep in West Virginia, scored a career-high 57 points to go along with 13 rebounds and 4 blocked shots in a 111-59 win.

“After that article dropped, I knew I had to respond,” Wiggins said

[jwalsh52]

So we are going for the 8th seed again.

[Badgerlander]

So we are going for the 8th seed again.

?

[JEIS]

Still want Wiggins over Parker.

I think it would be like having Michael Redd all over again. Very good scorer, very good guy... no d. I don't think I want to watch that.

[Badgerlander]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft/mo ... NBAMock8.0
Chad Ford Mock Draft 8.0

2 Jabari Parker Milwaukee Bucks
The Bucks have been very busy. Last week, GM John Hammond and assistant GM David Morway flew to California and did private workouts with Parker and Andrew Wiggins and dinner with Joel Embiid. Then they flew back to Milwaukee and had Dante Exum work out on Saturday. Parker then came into Milwaukee for a physical on Monday and is set to have his his first full workout. Embiid and Wiggins are scheduled for workouts in Milwaukee later this week. The Bucks are the only team to get all four players in for workouts.

The truth is, the Bucks like all four players and can see all of them as fits. Embiid especially intrigues, but the Bucks, like everyone else, are still waiting to get the physical. If Embiid is gone or if the physical is a problem, I believe Parker has the slight lead over Exum and Wiggins. Not only is Parker the most NBA-ready of the prospects, but the team was impressed with his maturity and desire to play in Milwaukee. But this one is still very much up in the air. The Bucks would really like a point guard and think Exum would be a perfect partner for Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Wiggins' athleticism just dazzled them in Santa Barbara. I'm not sure how the Bucks go wrong here. They're going to have a very tough choice.