College/Draft #6 - NCAA Finals + Draft Leadup W/ Knicks In The Top Seed!!!

[dakomish23]

Would you trade for a 2nd top 5 pick in this draft?

We have the assets / prospects to possibly get a deal done.

this is not the draft to want to get a 2nd pick in the top 5. It's Zion then a massive drop and I mean massive drop.

The reason you don’t want to do it also the reason why you might be able to get one.

Why would somebody trade one in a strong draft? Last year’s draft was loaded and produced the best top 5 since 96.

If you’re going to get an extra top 5 pick, this is the easiest year to do it.

[SmoothLefty21]

Here's my take: Cam in a lot of ways is like Knox with better Defense.

Based on their college seasons, he's a poor man's Knox. I do agree that their games are similar but Reddish is simply a worse version offensively. He's worse off the dribble and around the rim, which is really alarming since Knox has a long way to go there. Defensively he's unquestionably better than Knox.

.445/.341/.744 with a TS% of .556, .509 inside the arc - Knox
.356/.333/.772 with a TS% of .499, .394 inside the arc - Reddish

A lot of folks worried about Knox's offense prior to the draft. Statistically, he looks like MJ compared to Reddish. There's no reason to not worry about Reddish's offense. His shot looks good (it's not as pretty/flawless as many say) and he can create mid-range looks for himself; that's about the extent of his appeal on offense.

[god shammgod]

you can't trade for a 2nd top 5 pick anyway because you can't add the salary.

[SmoothLefty21]

Agree with you on this... which is why I think a return to Duke would help him tremendously. The worse thing he can do is leave while his confidence is lagging, stock has somewhat gone down and many questioning his validity as a top 5 pick.

The worst thing he can do is return to Duke. If he's given the keys to the car and proves to everyone that he does, in fact, suck at playing basketball, then he's screwed. Nearly every Cam supporter out there says a big reason for Cam's struggles were because of the fit problems this year. If he goes back next year and is the primary playmaker (which I think is a laughable idea, anyway) and has another bad year, his stock is going to plummet.

Right now he has "mystery" and "potential" on his side. He could turn into this, he could turn into that. Right now, it seems he's a lock for the Top 10. Take the money and run.


As for Hunter, I wish we could do FA first because I'd have no problem taking Hunter at #5 if we knew we had KD & Kyrie. An older rookie who's a jack of all trades is a great role player to add to those two.

While I see your point - I respectfully disagree, if he's as good as almost everyone suggests - then this was just an off year and another year of 'seasoning' will do wonders for him. Personally I look at what another year did for Hunter & Morant and say I'm confident another year could do the same for Cam. Not to mention Donovan Mitchell. Plus, to your point about potential - he'd still be looked at as having upside.

The way I see it, it's like this - I think he'll go #5 or #6... let's say he goes #5, isn't his 3 year rookie salary around 15 million?

But if he stays just one more year and proves he's worthy of let's say the #2 pick, isn't his 3 year salary around 20 mil? Wait just one year for an additional 5 million in total salary... I don't know what his personal life is like - as the money may be needed for him & family. But if money is not an issue - personally, I think a year would do wonders for him.

Well, sure if he's as good as some people think he is then it'd make sense. If he's not though, if he has a similar season to what he had this year, then he could lose out on quite a bit of money. The flip side to your scenario is that he looks poor again next year, front offices think less of his potential, and he goes late lottery next June.

[taj2133]

The worst thing he can do is return to Duke. If he's given the keys to the car and proves to everyone that he does, in fact, suck at playing basketball, then he's screwed. Nearly every Cam supporter out there says a big reason for Cam's struggles were because of the fit problems this year. If he goes back next year and is the primary playmaker (which I think is a laughable idea, anyway) and has another bad year, his stock is going to plummet.

Right now he has "mystery" and "potential" on his side. He could turn into this, he could turn into that. Right now, it seems he's a lock for the Top 10. Take the money and run.


As for Hunter, I wish we could do FA first because I'd have no problem taking Hunter at #5 if we knew we had KD & Kyrie. An older rookie who's a jack of all trades is a great role player to add to those two.

While I see your point - I respectfully disagree, if he's as good as almost everyone suggests - then this was just an off year and another year of 'seasoning' will do wonders for him. Personally I look at what another year did for Hunter & Morant and say I'm confident another year could do the same for Cam. Not to mention Donovan Mitchell. Plus, to your point about potential - he'd still be looked at as having upside.

The way I see it, it's like this - I think he'll go #5 or #6... let's say he goes #5, isn't his 3 year rookie salary around 15 million?

But if he stays just one more year and proves he's worthy of let's say the #2 pick, isn't his 3 year salary around 20 mil? Wait just one year for an additional 5 million in total salary... I don't know what his personal life is like - as the money may be needed for him & family. But if money is not an issue - personally, I think a year would do wonders for him.

Well, sure if he's as good as some people think he is then it'd make sense. If he's not though, if he has a similar season to what he had this year, then he could lose out on quite a bit of money. The flip side to your scenario is that he looks poor again next year, front offices think less of his potential, and he goes late lottery next June.

this was from 2 days ago cam reddish was with agent rich paul at lakers game vs the jazz in los angles.

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[Juco24]

The worst thing he can do is return to Duke. If he's given the keys to the car and proves to everyone that he does, in fact, suck at playing basketball, then he's screwed. Nearly every Cam supporter out there says a big reason for Cam's struggles were because of the fit problems this year. If he goes back next year and is the primary playmaker (which I think is a laughable idea, anyway) and has another bad year, his stock is going to plummet.

Right now he has "mystery" and "potential" on his side. He could turn into this, he could turn into that. Right now, it seems he's a lock for the Top 10. Take the money and run.


As for Hunter, I wish we could do FA first because I'd have no problem taking Hunter at #5 if we knew we had KD & Kyrie. An older rookie who's a jack of all trades is a great role player to add to those two.

While I see your point - I respectfully disagree, if he's as good as almost everyone suggests - then this was just an off year and another year of 'seasoning' will do wonders for him. Personally I look at what another year did for Hunter & Morant and say I'm confident another year could do the same for Cam. Not to mention Donovan Mitchell. Plus, to your point about potential - he'd still be looked at as having upside.

The way I see it, it's like this - I think he'll go #5 or #6... let's say he goes #5, isn't his 3 year rookie salary around 15 million?

But if he stays just one more year and proves he's worthy of let's say the #2 pick, isn't his 3 year salary around 20 mil? Wait just one year for an additional 5 million in total salary... I don't know what his personal life is like - as the money may be needed for him & family. But if money is not an issue - personally, I think a year would do wonders for him.

Well, sure if he's as good as some people think he is then it'd make sense. If he's not though, if he has a similar season to what he had this year, then he could lose out on quite a bit of money. The flip side to your scenario is that he looks poor again next year, front offices think less of his potential, and he goes late lottery next June.

While probably a mute point with Taj's post... I agree with your synopsis so I guess the question would have been -- Should he take a gamble on himself?

If he has a monster season.. probably the #1 pick! And gain millions!

Replay of this season... back to where we are today or maybe worse (particularly with one less excuse).

[HEZI]

I see Hunter maxing out as a Jeff Green type in terms of offense. His defense is really good so I still see him becoming a valuable role player that can do a little bit of everything so in terms of offense and defense value I think he could eventually reach RoCo level.

[shtolky]

I don't subscribe to the notion that this is a one person draft with meh talent after. Sure, Zion is the clear #1, but that doesn't mean he will be the only stud in this class. It's easy to look at the list of players now and say it's Zion, maybe Morant and RJ and not much else, but that ignores history. 2010 Cousins, Hayward, and PG were taken 5, 9, and 10 respectively. Wes Johnson and Evan Turner were taken ahead of Cousins. Ekpe Udoh and Al Faruq Aminu were taken ahead of Hayward and PG. Derrick Williams, Vesely, Biyombo were taken ahead of Kemba, Klay, and Kawhi. Kidd Gilchrist and Thomas Robinson taken ahead of Lillard. I could go on and on. Whatever pick we get, scouting becomes the key. Do they just taken the guy who is expected to be taken at that slot, or do they do their due diligence. That being said, give us the top pick so it's an easy choice.

[HarthorneWingo]

Hunter and KD covering the 3-4 spots interchangeably would be pretty awesome. Add in Mitch’s coverage... could be special.

If Irving comes too, you got a team around him that can defend and hide some of his deficiencies. Maybe you could trade a fat package for Beal as well to play the “2”.

Even if we fall to 4 and don’t get Irving/Durant, just gotta stick the course. Select Hunter, keep gaining assets.

My lineup next year if everything fails for us:

Ntilikina
Dotson
Knox
Hunter
Robinson

They will lose a ton, but build build build!

I likey

Besart has competition. lol

[magnumt]

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--Mags

[awy]

hanlen's been working with rj for 4 years and he still can't shoot or use his left.

[King of Canada]

hanlen's been working with rj for 4 years and he still can't shoot or use his left.

He can't be working too hard

[Knicksfan1992]

hanlen's been working with rj for 4 years and he still can't shoot or use his left.

He's also 19 years old and has gotten incrementally better since he's been a teenager. Give the kid a break.

[shtolky]

hanlen's been working with rj for 4 years and he still can't shoot or use his left.

He's also 19 years old and has gotten incrementally better since he's been a teenager. Give the kid a break.

Please, it's obviously easy to average 23, 8 and 4 as a 19 year old in college. Scrub. No improvement in his future.

[HEZI]

hanlen's been working with rj for 4 years and he still can't shoot or use his left.

He's also 19 years old and has gotten incrementally better since he's been a teenager. Give the kid a break.

Right! What was his starting point is what matters. And people act like he's got a broke shot. He's a lefty and his shot looks fine to me.

[SmoothLefty21]

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--Mags

I've been saying this the last few weeks but I view this as a negative. This kid has had the ideal youth development; he's had access to stuff that almost no other HS players have had and he still has all kinds of weaknesses. That gives me huge caution when it comes to his ceiling. A lot of prospects never have access to that until they hit college or the pros and they use it to take another leap in their development. We're probably not going to see that with Barrett since he's had access to it all along.

[Da_Mane_Man]

knicks should care about nba readiness not age. they need to compete soon.

for the knicks age only matters for projected rate of improvement btw, so someone with a lot of experience and high level of prep/coaching like RJ would not benefit from the age stuff as much as a more raw/inexperienced player.

yeah. we're talking about signing a 30 year old and a 27 year old. whether a kid is 22 or 19, doesn't really make a difference for our timeline. This is all presuming we don't turn around and trade the pick for AD altogether.

[Da_Mane_Man]

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--Mags

I've been saying this the last few weeks but I view this as a negative. This kid has had the ideal youth development; he's had access to stuff that almost no other HS players have had and he still has all kinds of weaknesses. That gives me huge caution when it comes to his ceiling. A lot of prospects never have access to that until they hit college or the pros and they use it to take another leap in their development. We're probably not going to see that with Barrett since he's had access to it all along.

you definitely have a point, but there is probably something to be said for the maturity a person gains when they turn 25, 25, 26. Hell, your brain doesn't stop developing till your mid 20's anyway. It could be a case where all this pro development he's had since he was young starts to really show here in the next few years. sort of a hockey stick curve.

[god shammgod]

i'm still an rj believer. well, at least more than everyone else not named zion.

[magnumt]

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--Mags

I've been saying this the last few weeks but I view this as a negative. This kid has had the ideal youth development; he's had access to stuff that almost no other HS players have had and he still has all kinds of weaknesses. That gives me huge caution when it comes to his ceiling. A lot of prospects never have access to that until they hit college or the pros and they use it to take another leap in their development. We're probably not going to see that with Barrett since he's had access to it all along.

On the flip side:
• He's producing what he's producing as NOT the #1 option.
• He plays within the system and can score very versatile.
• He's not the 2-way Wing Vam or Culver or Hunter can be. But, he's also more consistent so far than ANY of them has been.



--Mags