Draft prospects @ 10

[No-Man]

Right now if the Blazers keep the pick, probably the best pick would be Carter-Williams, but, I'd consider trading Matthews and picking Oladipo or Robinson III for his role.

[whatchaknow]

Right now if the Blazers keep the pick, probably the best pick would be Carter-Williams, but, I'd consider trading Matthews and picking Oladipo or Robinson III for his role.

Oladipo PLEASE!! Guy is an absolute terror on D and i think he can be one of few guys who can anchor a D from the perimeter. Not to mention he has DWade type explosiveness, i mean how many guys at 6'4 can grab a ball off the ground and explode up for a monster jam?

I actually like Mclemore and Smart more but i think they will be gone before we can pick. Oladipo im sure will rise like crazy after the tournament and people see his measurables

[The Sebastian Express]

I am also leaning toward Oladipo as well. REally hope he doesn't rise out of our range.

[Sabzi]

Oladipo blowing up. Headed for Top 5 pick.

[call.me.dude]

Oladipo blowing up. Headed for Top 5 pick.

Top 10 for sure if he can keep this up. Even if I loved him as a player before, I didn't think he had this in him. How much he improved, especially his ballhandling, is amazing.

He's every bit as good a prospect as a Demar Derozan.

[GreenRiddler]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6gb2LnmVC7M[/youtube]

Could be great if he falls in our range of 8-12. A 19 year old Marcus Camby.

[GreenRiddler]

I like Oladipo, but it depends on where we pick, he is a bonafide rotation guy/ starter. He doesn't have much upside, if Mccullom or Len or Goodwin are on the board I'd say no.

[whatchaknow]

I like Oladipo, but it depends on where we pick, he is a bonafide rotation guy/ starter. He doesn't have much upside, if Mccullom or Len or Goodwin are on the board I'd say no.

Why do you think he doesnt have much upside? Look how much he has improved since his last year. His jumpshot, ball handling, and decision making can all improve. Then you look at defensively he does everything great, I think he could already come in and be a premier defender in the league.

Ive really cooled on Len (consistency) and Goodwin (attitude) but i wouldnt mind Mccollum

[call.me.dude]

I like Oladipo, but it depends on where we pick, he is a bonafide rotation guy/ starter. He doesn't have much upside, if Mccullom or Len or Goodwin are on the board I'd say no.

Why do you think he doesnt have much upside? Look how much he has improved since his last year. His jumpshot, ball handling, and decision making can all improve. Then you look at defensively he does everything great, I think he could already come in and be a premier defender in the league.

Ive really cooled on Len (consistency) and Goodwin (attitude) but i wouldnt mind Mccollum

Exactly. He has proven to be a very hard on and off the court. And the things you can't teach he already has: Athleticism, physicality, hustle/winning mentality, solid BB IQ (play within himself on offense and defensively seems to be one step ahead of the offense).

[GreenRiddler]

I like Oladipo, but it depends on where we pick, he is a bonafide rotation guy/ starter. He doesn't have much upside, if Mccullom or Len or Goodwin are on the board I'd say no.

Why do you think he doesnt have much upside? Look how much he has improved since his last year. His jumpshot, ball handling, and decision making can all improve. Then you look at defensively he does everything great, I think he could already come in and be a premier defender in the league.

Ive really cooled on Len (consistency) and Goodwin (attitude) but i wouldnt mind Mccollum

He is a really "safe" pick for the Lotto. Like a Tyler Zeller vs. Meyers Leonard scenario, you take the young er guy who has the higher ceiling even though the former is gonna be better for the Latter, which is a good pick for reloading teams like us, but we are already wing heavy. we have 2 SG/SF in Wes and Nic.

[GreenRiddler]

Oladipo blowing up. Headed for Top 5 pick.

Which is insane since he's ranked ahead of guys like Shabazz and Zeller, he is not a better prospect than them.

Edit: Most of it is hype though cause Indy is playing well.

[whatchaknow]

I like Oladipo, but it depends on where we pick, he is a bonafide rotation guy/ starter. He doesn't have much upside, if Mccullom or Len or Goodwin are on the board I'd say no.

Why do you think he doesnt have much upside? Look how much he has improved since his last year. His jumpshot, ball handling, and decision making can all improve. Then you look at defensively he does everything great, I think he could already come in and be a premier defender in the league.

Ive really cooled on Len (consistency) and Goodwin (attitude) but i wouldnt mind Mccollum

He is a really "safe" pick for the Lotto. Like a Tyler Zeller vs. Meyers Leonard scenario, you take the young er guy who has the higher ceiling even though the former is gonna be better for the Latter, which is a good pick for reloading teams like us, but we are already wing heavy. we have 2 SG/SF in Wes and Nic.

We are definitely not wing heavy, we have 2 quality wing players. Nobody else on our wings should even get playing time on a playoff quality team. I dont think at this point we look for need, we gotta go for bpa. And i think having a guy with Oladipos aggressiveness and and athleticism would be a huge addition. I would relate the kind of stuff he does are like what Eric Bledsoe brings for the Clippers.

[GreenRiddler]

We are definitely not wing heavy, we have 2 quality wing players. Nobody else on our wings should even get playing time on a playoff quality team. I dont think at this point we look for need, we gotta go for bpa. And i think having a guy with Oladipos aggressiveness and and athleticism would be a huge addition. I would relate the kind of stuff he does are like what Eric Bledsoe brings for the Clippers.

Yea but he isn't BPA if he is at say 9 or 10. and in that case we already have Wes and Nic so we don't need him, we need a pts off the bench guy. Or a Big.

[Sabzi]

Oladipo blowing up. Headed for Top 5 pick.

Which is insane since he's ranked ahead of guys like Shabazz and Zeller, he is not a better prospect than them.

Edit: Most of it is hype though cause Indy is playing well.

Tidbit from Chad Ford chat yesterday:

Yes. He's moved into the Top 5 on our Big Board and for the first time, I've had a couple of GMs tell me that they like him more than Ben McLemore. They are in the minority right now ... but still. What a rise. In all my years of covering the draft, I've never seen a player improve as much as I've seen him improve in such a small period of time. He has weaknesses, but major, major upside. If he continues to improve, I don't think it's out of the question he could be the No. 1 pick in June. He's not there yet, but he's special.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/47144


He's not far behind if that is your stance currently.

[The Sebastian Express]

Sabzi,

You are a noted advocate for advanced statistics. How do you feel that translates over to the college game? Do they hold the same weight as in the NBA? Or are they lesser in value due to the weaker overall competition?

[whatchaknow]

We are definitely not wing heavy, we have 2 quality wing players. Nobody else on our wings should even get playing time on a playoff quality team. I dont think at this point we look for need, we gotta go for bpa. And i think having a guy with Oladipos aggressiveness and and athleticism would be a huge addition. I would relate the kind of stuff he does are like what Eric Bledsoe brings for the Clippers.

Yea but he isn't BPA if he is at say 9 or 10. and in that case we already have Wes and Nic so we don't need him, we need a pts off the bench guy. Or a Big.

So if you had a big board with all the prospects included what would it look like? Heres what i got..

Noel, Mclemore, Smart, Bennet, Shabazz, Oladipo, Zeller, Porter, Len, Burke

Safe to say if Oladipo is there (according to my list) he would be the bpa. Obviously im not a NBA scout or GM but thats just from what ive seen. I would love to get an idea of what other people think as far as overall prospects though. Im sure im higher on Burke and lower on Zeller than most

[Sabzi]

Sabzi,

You are a noted advocate for advanced statistics. How do you feel that translates over to the college game? Do they hold the same weight as in the NBA? Or are they lesser in value due to the weaker overall competition?

I certainly spend a fair amount of time taking them into consideration with college players but the diversity of the conferences and programs does make it more difficult for myself to put as much stock in those numbers translating. Mostly just looking for red flags and then using the old eyes to look for tendencies, strengths & weaknesses such as the lack of dimensions Shabazz has displayed to this point.

[GreenRiddler]

I really like Willie-Cauley-Stien coming out of Kentucky and he could come out, since Noel went down. He is a good big man prospect.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZQak7FmZms[/youtube]

[call.me.dude]

We are definitely not wing heavy, we have 2 quality wing players. Nobody else on our wings should even get playing time on a playoff quality team. I dont think at this point we look for need, we gotta go for bpa. And i think having a guy with Oladipos aggressiveness and and athleticism would be a huge addition. I would relate the kind of stuff he does are like what Eric Bledsoe brings for the Clippers.

Yea but he isn't BPA if he is at say 9 or 10. and in that case we already have Wes and Nic so we don't need him, we need a pts off the bench guy. Or a Big.

So if you had a big board with all the prospects included what would it look like? Heres what i got..

Noel, Mclemore, Smart, Bennet, Shabazz, Oladipo, Zeller, Porter, Len, Burke

Safe to say if Oladipo is there (according to my list) he would be the bpa. Obviously im not a NBA scout or GM but thats just from what ive seen. I would love to get an idea of what other people think as far as overall prospects though. Im sure im higher on Burke and lower on Zeller than most

1) I can't say I disagree about that being the top 10 guys (also agree about Burke being underrated and don't like Zeller as well).

I also love Oladipo but considering Millsap and maybe Splitter are the only good FA big men that are desirable and that we could actually afford/get (and I can't say I'm very confident we can even get one of those two) I also wonder whether it might make more sense to draft a big man rather than Oladipo? After all we have good SG/SF duo and Oladipo doesn't really bring anything we absolutely lack (not saying he wouldn't bring great things).

I'm not sure about this. Apart from Noel (duh), I think you have take Bennett if he's there (which I doubt). But what about Len, Zeller or even Austin/Plumlee/Gobert?

2) I think there's no way one of Noel, McLemore or Smart slips down to where we'll pick. Not saying they will go 1-3, Smart could very well even be outside of the Top 5 but I just don't see them slipping that far. Still, I felt the urge to put together some draft + FA scenarios for all of the guys you mentioned
Some pretty nice combinations IMO especially when you compare it to our current bench. They would really improve our team. I have to say though, I'm not sure whether we could actually get guys like Splitter, Jack, Redick, T. Allen and obviously Pek.

Noel + Evans/Jack/Redick/(T.Allen+Maynor)
McLemore + Millsap/Splitter/Pek + Maynor. We would eventually have to trade Wes which would suck. But getting McL is not likely anyways.
Smart + Millsap/Splitter/Pek
Bennett + Evans/Jack/Redick/(T. Allen+Maynor)
Oladipo + Millsap/Splitter/Pek + Maynor
Zeller + Evans/Jack/Redick/(T.Allen+Maynor)
Len + Evans/Jack/Redick/(T.Allen+Maynor)
Porter (not sure about him) + Millsap/Splitter/Pek + Maynor

+ a 4th big for most of these scenarios
Obviously Pek (or Pek @ at most 9-10 million to be precise) is in all likelihood a pipedream but it's nice to think about it.

Burke: Too good to be buried behind Lillard
Shabazz: Would take away too many minutes from Wes. I would rather not have to eventually trade away Wes because of this chucker. To be fair, I haven't seen him play in a while and his stats have improved.

P.S.: If we can't get one of the FAs I mentioned above (not counting Maynor obviously), we're screwed.

[DeBlazerRiddem]

Good post dude. In addition to the names you mentioned, how do you feel about Austin, Polythress, Gobert and Goodwin?

Do you think there are 12 players worth taking with our pick?