YES!YES!YES! Nate Wolters in Second Round

[Ayt]

Would you trade Wolters for Jimmer?

Great question. Not as good as Michael Redd for Joe Johnson, but still good.

I don't know. But I know that neither guy is going to move the needle.

I certainly wouldn't. Jimmer is useless as an NBA player. Yi's chair could go all Baddy Chuck on him for 55.

[buckboy]

What Wolters did in the second half was outstanding given the circumstances and how he looked in the first half. Great job on his part and looks like a nice draft pick.

That said, his ceiling is Steve Blake.

No.

Not really even close.

Edit: sorry, I see this was already covered.

As far as trading him for Jimmer..........**** no.

[Wooderson]

+1 to YES!YES!YES!

[xTitan]

Jimmer?? Paleaseeeee those that know me know I luv the basketball iq......Nate way better than jimmer

[blazza18]

Lets just hope we keep him well hydrated.

[msiris]

Lets just hope we keep him well hydrated.

Lets hope they do not trade him for a 2 month rental.

[JoeHova]

I hope Nate does well but this reminds me a little bit of when people thought comparing Marcus Haislip to Rodney Rogers was a huge insult to Haislip. If Wolters becomes Blake, that's pretty good. Blake's played 11 years in the NBA and had a few good seasons. Having his career is nothing to be ashamed of (although his play/effort in Milwaukee was definitely shameful).

I'm not saying Wolters is Haislip or that we shouldn't hope that he's better than Blake. I'm just saying that getting a useful NBA player in the draft is a win, even if the guy doesn't become a star.

[randy84]

He reminds me of John Stockton without the assists. John Stockton always looked slow and unathletic, but he was a son of a b*tch on defense and he had solid all around offensive game.

PS - I just wanted to get in on the white guy from a small school comparison.

[bullox]

Steve Kerr, Fred Hoiberg, Mark Price, Alaa Abdelnaby...

wait.

[Johnlac1]

He reminds me of John Stockton without the assists. John Stockton always looked slow and unathletic, but he was a son of a b*tch on defense and he had solid all around offensive game.

PS - I just wanted to get in on the white guy from a small school comparison.

Stockton looked slow and unathletic????? You mean like those times when he was outquicking Jordan and stealing multiple passes and steaming past all the other players on the floor? Stockton was very athletic. But you maybe you meant that he just looked unathletic and actually was very athletic. The statement that Stockton was unathletic is one of the biggest canards concerning NBA players ever. If Wolters was as quick and fast as Stockton, we'd be looking at a sure future all-star. He's not. But neither was Steve Nash the player you should be comparing Wolters to.

[Ill-yasova]

It would be nice to get a highlight reel from this game.

[emunney]

Stylistically and the way he moves on the court reminds me of Stockton. He's doesn't have the explosive first step Stockton had, and he's not a special passer like Stockton. But he's not too slow and he's a pretty good passer. And his ball handling looks like a significantly above average NBA skill. Kid's got some moves. Too soon to tell what we have here, but you have to love what you've seen so far.

[bizarro]

Stylistically and the way he moves on the court reminds me of Stockton. He's doesn't have the explosive first step Stockton had, and he's not a special passer like Stockton. But he's not too slow and he's a pretty good passer. And his ball handling looks like a significantly above average NBA skill. Kid's got some moves. Too soon to tell what we have here, but you have to love what you've seen so far.

It's interesting, isn't it. He definitely doesn't have that first step but we've seen he has a patented shimmy shake of his upper body that really throws off the defender and almost acts as a surrogate quick first step. That shimmy allows him by his defender and then his strength and handle take over. He's a stocky 6'4". I'd say he's close to 200 right now. I'm hopefully optimistic we struck gold here.

[theFireBlanket]

The Bucks have seemed pretty high on Nate this whole time, whether or not he was going to play much this year. Hammond & Drew had him going in the first round. Bob Bender talked him up in summer league. Alex Boeder posted an article focusing on his stellar college PER, with a graph of past guards drafted after avg. a 30+ PER.

http://www.nba.com/bucks/features/boeder-130724

Sharon Curry-Drew put up a photo of the Wolters workout before he was drafted. Something that I noticed after the buzz about her role with the North Carolina team, John Henson and LDII were on, looking at her tweets. Then during camp she retweeted two practice vines, one of Mayo and another of Wolters.[tweet]https://twitter.com/DrewCrew3/status/385437146540040192[/tweet]

[emunney]

I hope Nate does well but this reminds me a little bit of when people thought comparing Marcus Haislip to Rodney Rogers was a huge insult to Haislip. If Wolters becomes Blake, that's pretty good. Blake's played 11 years in the NBA and had a few good seasons. Having his career is nothing to be ashamed of (although his play/effort in Milwaukee was definitely shameful).

I'm not saying Wolters is Haislip or that we shouldn't hope that he's better than Blake. I'm just saying that getting a useful NBA player in the draft is a win, even if the guy doesn't become a star.

Good post. We can at the same time hope Wolters is better than Blake and recognize that Blake wouldn't be a bad get for the investment.

For the record, I don't think he's much like Blake. I'm going with poor man's Stockton. YMMV on exactly how poor. As for potential level of impact, rather than Blake, how about George Hill? That's not too outlandish, is it?

[paulpressey25]

I hope Nate does well but this reminds me a little bit of when people thought comparing Marcus Haislip to Rodney Rogers was a huge insult to Haislip.

And indeed that was sort of my point. Possible Nate is a player with a 10-year career like Blake. The challenge is that you can see Nate becoming this fan favorite and moving in the to starting role the next two years. However come 2015 people on this board will say that while they like Nate, we need a better PG to move to the next level.

What invariably happens with players like this, is that they help elevate the Bucks to Herb Kohl's gold standard of "competitive" and in the process Herb and cronies forget that the team is going nowhere. In the meantime the community celebrates this type of player and the longtime deadwood in the front office feels like mission accomplished.

Nothing against Wolters. I hope he does amazing and keeps going. This isn't a bad thing. But it could end up being a "Bucks thing". As noted earlier, I feel the same about Middleton.

[Johnlac1]

I hope Nate does well but this reminds me a little bit of when people thought comparing Marcus Haislip to Rodney Rogers was a huge insult to Haislip. If Wolters becomes Blake, that's pretty good. Blake's played 11 years in the NBA and had a few good seasons. Having his career is nothing to be ashamed of (although his play/effort in Milwaukee was definitely shameful).

I'm not saying Wolters is Haislip or that we shouldn't hope that he's better than Blake. I'm just saying that getting a useful NBA player in the draft is a win, even if the guy doesn't become a star.

Good post. We can at the same time hope Wolters is better than Blake and recognize that Blake wouldn't be a bad get for the investment.

For the record, I don't think he's much like Blake. I'm going with poor man's Stockton. YMMV on exactly how poor. As for potential level of impact, rather than Blake, how about George Hill? That's not too outlandish, is it?

Poor man's Stockton is a pretty good description, but poor man's Nash is a more apt comparison considering Wolter's lack of speed . I could say he'll never be a star, but Nash didn't look like a star his first four years in the league. I don't think anyone who saw Nash in college or his first years in the league ever thought he'd attain the heights he did. Wolters actually has more athletic ability than Nash, but that isn't saying a lot. It's doubtful Wolters will ever reach Nash's stature, but stranger things have happened.

[emunney]

I hope Nate does well but this reminds me a little bit of when people thought comparing Marcus Haislip to Rodney Rogers was a huge insult to Haislip.

And indeed that was sort of my point. Possible Nate is a player with a 10-year career like Blake. The challenge is that you can see Nate becoming this fan favorite and moving in the to starting role the next two years. However come 2015 people on this board will say that while they like Nate, we need a better PG to move to the next level.

What invariably happens with players like this, is that they help elevate the Bucks to Herb Kohl's gold standard of "competitive" and in the process Herb and cronies forget that the team is going nowhere. In the meantime the community celebrates this type of player and the longtime deadwood in the front office feels like mission accomplished.

Nothing against Wolters. I hope he does amazing and keeps going. This isn't a bad thing. But it could end up being a "Bucks thing". As noted earlier, I feel the same about Middleton.

Oh, it's already very much a Bucks thing. We acquired 4 former lotto picks this summer and they're all being outplayed by former 2nd rounders. Doesn't get any more Bucks than that.

[crkone]

While perusing nba.com/stats I came across Naters' shooting stats.



His shooting at the rim is pretty stellar and his short mid-range is pretty good too. Looks like he just needs to work on getting his long range shooting back up to his college days, you know if he ever plays again.

[Ruzious]

Steve Kerr, Fred Hoiberg, Mark Price, Alaa Abdelnaby...

wait.

Hey, Abdelnaby doesn't fit

...because he went to Duke.

I think you meant Kevin Fitsnoggle.