2020 NBA Draft prospects

[Jedzz]

The only concern I have right now with Avdija as top5 pick is the fact that he cant finish with left hand. Even this video confirms it.

Watch on YouTube

He finishes with left when called for :15 and :32. Zion was way more left hand dominant in college than what Avdija has shown. Obviously Zion is more athletic, but Deni is more skilled.

The one at :32 still kinda blows my mind. Not many players finish that with a dunk.

In one of those Gruden camps, whatever that guys name is, Avdija says he finishes with whatever hand fits/needed at the last second. Says he doesn't care or preselect one. Looks like he can use either to me. I think he's more direct, but I'm still getting a Layman vibe at the net though. Will we see it only once a game or will this guy be aggressive all game? That might be hard to tell from all his low minute international games. But if he's driving and throwing it down a top that might be interesting.

Questions I can't answer yet until someone tells me.
Looks like the Bjelica thing where he was the best on his team so he played the tall Luka role running an offense. Can he play off ball just as aggressively? I remember them talking about a change to start handling more defensive roles, but I didn't hear if he also played more off ball on that one team that "needed him on defense more". Bjelica wasn't allowed to Point forward much here. With our guard heavy team and little experiments like this year with Culver at PG, etc, I don't know how much anyone with any height is going to get much of that here unless they actually are Luka good at it.

Does anyone know if he's ever been injured at all, or injured a lot, missing games? Does he fight through the nagging stuff? Will turf toe take him out of a 5 months of games?
Can he be trusted to shoot a 3?

[Jedzz]

Read on Twitter

Always said that Giannis-type ability would move him up to No. 1 to play alongside Towns. These are the types of moves I'm talking about. Some people have brought up the Philadelphia Phailure, but remember that Towns moves better than Horford and Wiseman moves better than Embiid.

Jesus, you people are easy to please.

"OMFG he just did a CROSSOVER! You see that?! He's totally Giannis! Hall of Fame confirmed, no doubts! And...he even likes KG? The stars have aligned! It's fate! TAKE WISEMAN!"

This is going to be a long couple of months...

Longer. I heard they are pushing the draft back further. Now they dont even think the next season will be until 2021. rumors anyway. If the draft ends up in November, we might be looking at a brand new set of hyped three at the top by then. never know. All Haliburton has to do his come out of his basement and show people on instagram he was able to put on 18 pounds this summer and people would flip. Hope he's pounding down the calories and proteins. I want to see hyped madness last minute.

[Klomp]

Read on Twitter

Always said that Giannis-type ability would move him up to No. 1 to play alongside Towns. These are the types of moves I'm talking about. Some people have brought up the Philadelphia Phailure, but remember that Towns moves better than Horford and Wiseman moves better than Embiid.

Jesus, you people are easy to please.

"OMFG he just did a CROSSOVER! You see that?! He's totally Giannis! Hall of Fame confirmed, no doubts! And...he even likes KG? The stars have aligned! It's fate! TAKE WISEMAN!"

This is going to be a long couple of months...

I never went that far, nor would I. I was just pointing out that those were the types of things needed for me to believe the front office would draft him to play alongside Towns. If just a big man with no real skill to him (a la Whiteside or Jordan), I think we would pass because of the system and already having Towns.

Does this cement the pick? Of course not. But I do think more and more that there's a real possibility of it.

[Klomp]

In one of those Gruden camps, whatever that guys name is, Avdija says he finishes with whatever hand fits/needed at the last second. Says he doesn't care or preselect one. Looks like he can use either to me. I think he's more direct, but I'm still getting a Layman vibe at the net though. Will we see it only once a game or will this guy be aggressive all game? That might be hard to tell from all his low minute international games. But if he's driving and throwing it down a top that might be interesting.

I'll have to go back and check for that.....you talking about his sitdown with Mike Schmitz?

[Jedzz]

In one of those Gruden camps, whatever that guys name is, Avdija says he finishes with whatever hand fits/needed at the last second. Says he doesn't care or preselect one. Looks like he can use either to me. I think he's more direct, but I'm still getting a Layman vibe at the net though. Will we see it only once a game or will this guy be aggressive all game? That might be hard to tell from all his low minute international games. But if he's driving and throwing it down a top that might be interesting.

I'll have to go back and check for that.....you talking about his sitdown with Mike Schmitz?

Yes that is the one.

[Klomp]

Questions I can't answer yet until someone tells me.
Looks like the Bjelica thing where he was the best on his team so he played the tall Luka role running an offense. Can he play off ball just as aggressively? I remember them talking about a change to start handling more defensive roles, but I didn't hear if he also played more off ball on that one team that "needed him on defense more". Bjelica wasn't allowed to Point forward much here. With our guard heavy team and little experiments like this year with Culver at PG, etc, I don't know how much anyone with any height is going to get much of that here unless they actually are Luka good at it.

He probably will never be asked to run the offense. That "second SF" position in Minnesota includes a lot of opportunities to catch and shoot or catch and drive. Those are opportunities for his playmaking ability to show up in the NBA. Bjelica would've looked a lot better in this system.

In many ways, I still believe Avdija would be the best system fit of anyone in the draft. Wiseman has a chance, but I still believe the team would be stretching the system somewhat by selecting him.

[Jedzz]

My point isn't to say that any prospect in this draft is Player A or Player B. I'm just saying draft prospect evaluation is hard. We can count on players to improve areas, but it doesn't always happen. However, doesn't necessarily doom that player for NBA failure either. We like to focus on 3-point shooting. But there's far more to being an NBA player than that one category.

Obviously there is far more to these players and there is even room for players you never want shooting on some teams.
But we are talking about this team, with the Rosas plan to make this work with Towns and Dlo, with 35-40 threes/g. How can this not be a front burner requirement on this team, now? More than that, historically this is a team that maybe has never had enough or at many times any trustworthy shooters. There are ample reasons for hardly ever winning here but this has got to be near #1.

The last two top draft picks for this team have shown struggles with shooting. One is a high effort defender slowly adding a drive/cut/net game. The other is too young to know yet what he's going to focus on. Both are inconsistent even on warm shooting days so far. Now we are going to pass on shooters again?

I look at Murray and others from past drafts and this guy can shoot, was known as a shooter in college. But he's leading an offense in the playoffs now also taking it to the net with graceful finishing moves. Examples like this are out there if we can stop steering away from players just because they have an ability to shoot from outside. It's up to the team to find them where ever they fall in the draft. They have two frps this time if they want.

Juan Hernangomez was shooting 25% this season before the trade with an additional season below 30%.
James Johnson at the time of the trade was shooting 35%, his career-high to that point.

I'm not saying that it's not important or that it's suddenly thrown out the window. But there's more to evaluating players than by their shot, whether in this system or not. I do not believe it's a firm requirement, as the trade deadline showed.

Two different pictures to me on this.

That had to be just a great job by Rosas and crew to find and target players around the league that might shine in roles they planned for them here over where they were and what was being asked of them there. But those players all had a number of NBA seasons under their belt. They could go back and find the games they showed positive numbers in and see what the situations were that worked and try to project that here if it fit. Ultimately much more valid substance to base their decisions on.

I'll constrast that with same crew drafting Culver and thought he was even remotely ready to play PG and shoot in this league and basically hurt his value at the start of his career by letting him shoot himself into holes with too many minutes in the 3 for 40 offense. All they had was a couple college seasons to go off, but he had high minutes both seasons and claimed he was the teams playmaker. Yet he never averaged even 4 assists either season (1.8 and 3.7), his second season his 3s dropped to 30% as attempts went from 3 to 4/g, his FT% wasn't great. They should have known better than to rush him. I think the starts at PG so early were a massive mistake, same with allowing him to shoot 3s much. Should have kept him passing and playing defense and collecting rebounds, kept it simple. Maybe year two he will get over it if they let him keep it more simple.

How will they evaluate the next players they choose in the draft and once they get them inhouse? Will it be starts too soon no matter what? I don't need instant gratification. I would be happy to see a top rook playing 16 mins a game all season and cementing his confidence on simple tasks outlined for them. Build on that in year two. If they are a positive player as a rookie playing off bench it helps the team a lot.

[TwolvesFanRome]

Who could be a steal at #17???

[shangrila]

Read on Twitter

Always said that Giannis-type ability would move him up to No. 1 to play alongside Towns. These are the types of moves I'm talking about. Some people have brought up the Philadelphia Phailure, but remember that Towns moves better than Horford and Wiseman moves better than Embiid.

Jesus, you people are easy to please.

"OMFG he just did a CROSSOVER! You see that?! He's totally Giannis! Hall of Fame confirmed, no doubts! And...he even likes KG? The stars have aligned! It's fate! TAKE WISEMAN!"

This is going to be a long couple of months...

I never went that far, nor would I. I was just pointing out that those were the types of things needed for me to believe the front office would draft him to play alongside Towns. If just a big man with no real skill to him (a la Whiteside or Jordan), I think we would pass because of the system and already having Towns.

Does this cement the pick? Of course not. But I do think more and more that there's a real possibility of it.

It's a crossover in a scrimmage. It's not as game changing as you're making it out to be.

[shangrila]

Read on Twitter

Always said that Giannis-type ability would move him up to No. 1 to play alongside Towns. These are the types of moves I'm talking about. Some people have brought up the Philadelphia Phailure, but remember that Towns moves better than Horford and Wiseman moves better than Embiid.

Jesus, you people are easy to please.

"OMFG he just did a CROSSOVER! You see that?! He's totally Giannis! Hall of Fame confirmed, no doubts! And...he even likes KG? The stars have aligned! It's fate! TAKE WISEMAN!"

This is going to be a long couple of months...

Longer. I heard they are pushing the draft back further. Now they dont even think the next season will be until 2021. rumors anyway. If the draft ends up in November, we might be looking at a brand new set of hyped three at the top by then. never know. All Haliburton has to do his come out of his basement and show people on instagram he was able to put on 18 pounds this summer and people would flip. Hope he's pounding down the calories and proteins. I want to see hyped madness last minute.

No, it'll be a 6 second clip of Haliburton making a shot off the dribble. Everyone will cream themselves and wonder how we could ever even consider picking anyone else. Then a week later Vassell will dribble around some cones and everyone will proclaim he's Kawhi. Of course they'll weasel their way out of being held to that by stating that they never technically said that, instead they said he'll be the same skillwise and have the same impact and career. Totally different, to be sure. And so on down the list until we end up back at the top and suddenly everyone loves Wiseman, Edwards and Ball again.

And round and round we'll go...

[BadWolf]

Wiseman can say he models his game after KG as much as he wants, but he's a very different type of player as far as we know.
Playmaking, positioning, hands and BBIQ in general seem to be his biggest weaknesses. And those were strengths for KG. He should focus on being DAJ with range and improve from there.

[Neeva]

Who could be a steal at #17???

I would be happy with one of kira Lewis jr, Maxey, Cole Anthony, Bolmaro, Maledon or Terell Terry. This is a guard heavy draft.

I think I am going with Anthony or Lewis Jr.. I like these guards more or about the same as Garland who went 5 last year so I do not get why there are people who say this is the worst draft ever just because there is no super hyped up player at the top like last year.

I also would not mind Pokusevski or McDaniels even though they won’t help right away.

[KGdaBom]

Read on Twitter

Always said that Giannis-type ability would move him up to No. 1 to play alongside Towns. These are the types of moves I'm talking about. Some people have brought up the Philadelphia Phailure, but remember that Towns moves better than Horford and Wiseman moves better than Embiid.

Jesus, you people are easy to please.

"OMFG he just did a CROSSOVER! You see that?! He's totally Giannis! Hall of Fame confirmed, no doubts! And...he even likes KG? The stars have aligned! It's fate! TAKE WISEMAN!"

This is going to be a long couple of months...

He looked good on it. I enjoyed watching it. Does it prove future greatness? No of course not. Your kind of grumpy.

[KGdaBom]

Wiseman can say he models his game after KG as much as he wants, but he's a very different type of player as far as we know.
Playmaking, positioning, hands and BBIQ in general seem to be his biggest weaknesses. And those were strengths for KG. He should focus on being DAJ with range and improve from there.

A Deandre Jordan who can make FTs and shoot a bit would be quite a good player. Wiseman can be even better than that IMO. He has potential to be more like KG.

[Klomp]

It's a crossover in a scrimmage. It's not as game changing as you're making it out to be.

Well of course it's just a crossover in a scrimmage. I'm not claiming that he's going to be crossing up Giannis and AD any time soon. But it's a start.

When I look at prospects these days, I don't really care who is guarding them. Damian Lillard and Steph Curry fell in the draft in part because "they didn't play anyone." What I care about is how they look doing it. The eye test starts everything. Fluidity is huge for me, and is noticeable whether defended by a practice dummy, some average Joe in a scrimmage or Kevin Garnett. This is a big part of what caused me to go all in on Zach LaVine back in 2014 well before the draft and well before most anyone here. Everyone else was stuck on Gary Harris, but I was firmly in the LaVine camp because of what I could see as his potential.

I'm not to the point to where Wiseman is the unquestioned pick. But I posted both in this exchange and a while back what I believed I needed to see in the eye test in order for me to think he could fit in this scheme next to Towns. The handles were a big part of it, and these videos the last month or so from him show me that either he's been working on them or they were always tools in his toolbox.

I still think drafting him would be stretching the scheme just a little bit, but he's at least entered the conversation for the pick in my mind.

[Domejandro]

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