Prospect Watch Thread

[cpfsf]

Pick Watch: As of 2/16
Minnesota: 2
Memphis: Not yet
Utah: 18

Utah pick
top 16 2011, top 14 2012, top 12 2013, top 9 2014. Minnesota can swap picks in 2014 if they didn't get anything. If Minnesota doesn't swap picks in 2014, they get Utah's second round pick

Memphis pick
top 14 2011, top 12 2012, top 10 2013, top 9 2014, top 9 2015. If no pick is received by 2015, Minnesota gets cash.
______

Wake up, there's more basketball to talk about

I didn't get to see any games today, but here's the rough rough rough draft summary for the night.

Barnes: 14 points 4 rebounds 2 assists
Jones: 11 points 8 rebounds 4 assists <--- 7 turnovers

Next years rookie class is loaded with international guys. Rubio, Kanter, Vesely, Valanciunas, Motiejunas, and maybe even Vazquez. Kanter, Vesely, Valanciunas, Motiejunas are ranked in the top 7 in DX's 2011 Mock Draft and are all in the top 10 in NBADraft.

[hotshotschamp]

Terrence Jones freshman Kentucky had a monster game with 25 and 12

Alec Burks had a nice game with 20 points in the Colorado win.

Jared Sullinger had like 18 and 14 I do believe.

[big3_8_19_21]

John Henson had 17 boards and 7 blocks

[shangrila]

I like how Perry Jones' position is listed as NA. He's just that good.

Terrence Jones also had 2 assists, 3 steals, 2 blocks and no turnovers. That's one hell of a debut. He might be nice as a 3/4 off the bench on this team.

John Henson also had a monster night. 10 points, 17 rebounds and 7 blocks. North Carolina could go places if he and Barnes can play like this consistently.

Some good guard play tonight as well. Tyshawn Taylor with 17 points, 10 assists but 6 turnovers. Jacob Pullen had 20 points, 5 assists and 3 steals.

[shangrila]

Should we discuss who we think the team should draft in this thread? Or is it just for listing stats of prospects?

[sisibilio]

If you're looking for an athletic center, Valanciunas is your man.

[cpfsf]

Should we discuss who we think the team should draft in this thread? Or is it just for listing stats of prospects?

I think it can cover all those things. Pretty much whatever you want to say about international or college basketball.

[cpfsf]

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16595108?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

The Minnesota Timberwolves are counting on signing their top draft pick from two years ago, Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, for next season and already are building a fast-paced offense for him.

With that in mind, a center worth watching is 6-foot-9, 235-pound athletic Patric Young, 18, a freshman at Florida. The Wolves are expected to end up with a top-five pick in June's draft. Young is much quicker than current Wolves centers Darko Milicic and Nikola Pekovic.

— NBA scouts like the upside of 6-7 University of Minnesota Gophers sophomore forward Rodney Williams a lot.

Never heard of Patric Young. Skimmed DX and NBAdraft and don't see anything. Carney is actually getting a lot of love by scouts though. I might watch a few Gopher games because of it.

[AQuintus]

Here's Young's DX page: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Patric-Young-5746/

Sounds like a solid prospect.

[Esohny]

http://www.twincities.com/ci_16595108?source=most_viewed&nclick_check=1

The Minnesota Timberwolves are counting on signing their top draft pick from two years ago, Spanish point guard Ricky Rubio, for next season and already are building a fast-paced offense for him.

With that in mind, a center worth watching is 6-foot-9, 235-pound athletic Patric Young, 18, a freshman at Florida. The Wolves are expected to end up with a top-five pick in June's draft. Young is much quicker than current Wolves centers Darko Milicic and Nikola Pekovic.

— NBA scouts like the upside of 6-7 University of Minnesota Gophers sophomore forward Rodney Williams a lot.

Never heard of Patric Young. Skimmed DX and NBAdraft and don't see anything. Carney is actually getting a lot of love by scouts though. I might watch a few Gopher games because of it.

Rodney Williams is a nice prospect, not sure how he'd fit with our glut of wings though. He's not like Barnes at least, where you take him if you have the chance and figure the positions/rotations out later.

[shangrila]

Williams looks like a smarter Carney. He's still raw but could replace Brewer, I guess.

Young isn't a centre. He's only 6-9, i mean that should have been enough. If we get a top 5 pick I'd be looking at Jonas Valunciwhatever for an athletic centre or Fab Melo if we end up with a 6-8 pick.

I think we're at a point now where we can look at guys that are a little raw and develop them around the core of Rubio, Johnson, Beasley and Love. I've already mentioned Melo, but two guys I've liked are Wally Judge and Iman Shumpert. Judge is a high energy athlete that'd be a nice change of pace coming off the bench behind Love while Shumpert is a 6-4 combo guard that has the tools to defend 3 position and, when motivated, is one of the best defenders in college. Their offence is raw but I think i'd rather the team start taking chances on developing guys like this now that the core is somewhat assembled instead of continuining to go with the Hayward's and Ellington's of the draft.

[Klomp]

Interesting kid to keep an eye on: http://www.nbadraft.net/players/lucas-nogueira

[cpfsf]

I wish there was a way to make a free account on SI or ESPN (as much as I hate logging into sites) just so I can view the games that I care about. I don't care about most of the games they post and most of my time is spent trying to find the content I want to see.

Anywayyyyy

Irving 17 points 4 rebounds 9 assists

Well, we could always flip him. Another guy from Duke that I'm really going to be watching is Seth Curry (Stephen Curry's brother for all you Bieber fans who don't pay attention to these things).

I'll update the pick watch on the first post

[big3_8_19_21]

Huh, Ralph Sampson put up 20 points, 13 boards, 3 blocks and a 3.

Anyway, not many legit 7 footers in this draft that are worth talking about. Fab Melo has done exactly nothing (according to the box scores) in his first 2 games.

Seth Curry put up 14 points and made 3 threes in his Duke debut.

Nolan Smith with 22 points, 4 boards, 6 assists, 2 steals, 2 made 3's, 67% FG.

Kyrie Irving with 17 points, 9 assists (only 1 TO), 2 steals, 1 block, 3 made three pointers

Jared Sullinger: 19 points, 14 boards

STAT LINE OF THE NIGHT:
Chris Singleton: 22 points, 11 rebounds, 10 steals, 6 assists, 4 steals (5 TO's)

[cpfsf]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news?slug=mc-afterthebuzzer111210

NBA scouts project the 2011 draft to be lean on top talent, and the pool of prospects could be even more shallow if some college underclassmen and international prospects don’t enter the draft for fear of a potential lockout. One scout likened this year’s class to the 2006 draft, when the Toronto Raptors took Andrea Bargnani(notes) with the No. 1 pick. That draft has so far produced just two All-Stars: Portland Trail Blazers guard Brandon Roy(notes) (No. 6) and Boston Celtics guard Rajon Rondo(notes) (No. 21).

North Carolina freshman swingman Harrison Barnes could go as No. 1 pick in 2011 and has the potential to be a difference-maker for an NBA team. But scouts are projecting few others.

“This is a bad draft,” one scout said. “There will be a lot of players there, but no one special.”

Unfortunately I agree with this. I think it's basically 3 talented prospects with Irving, Barnes, and Perry (in no particular order) and than a huge talent drop off after that.

I recommend reading the rest of the link. They offer a brief summary of the top 10 prospects.

[shangrila]

I don't think it's that bad. For instance, I think more European players will declare regardless of a lockout so they can capitalise on the weak American group and I could honestly see some of the Americans trying to do the same. I mean, it's not like they can't go back to college during the lockout. All it means is they won't be playing college ball.

[Foye]

I would like to take a flyer on a Center prospect with the Memphis or Utah pick (or trade up - maybe he turns out like Roy Hibbert then - or BJ Mullens ) if we don't think there's someone who will develop into our starting Center with our own pick by the time we draft.

[shangrila]

This draft is weak on centres though. There's Valunciunis, Montiejunas and Kanter who look like top 10 picks, then it drops off to absolute projects like Fab Melo who realistically won't declare if his season continues like this. It's not even the lockout, it's just a weak big man draft.

I still like Valunciunis with our pick though. He seems to be almost everything this team needs from a centre.

[sisibilio]

This draft is weak on centres though. There's Valunciunis, Montiejunas and Kanter who look like top 10 picks, then it drops off to absolute projects like Fab Melo who realistically won't declare if his season continues like this. It's not even the lockout, it's just a weak big man draft.

I still like Valunciunis with our pick though. He seems to be almost everything this team needs from a centre.

Motiejunas is not a center despite being 7 ft, maybe in 5-6 years if he gains some weight he could end up playing spot up minutes there like Pau Gasol but short term he's definitely not the answer.

[hotshotschamp]

the 6"11 265 lb Kanter would look great in a wolves jersey...

Btwn Kanter and Love they would never miss a rebound.

He would give us a physical presence we need down low who can actually play.

flynn/rubio --- Wes johnson----B-easy------Klove------Kanter

Lets hoop