Draftexpress moved Lopez up to 4

[london sonic]

wolves fans dont seem to have much faith in mchale and hoiberg after viewing their board.I must admit im quite happy with presti . i think he will come up trumps this draft and add a nice piece or pieces this draft.wait and see.

[kjtruong]

not entirely sure what happened to the draft thread...

ESPN mock 6.0 has us taking Westbrook at 4 which we already had in mind or trading up for Beasley, which we already had in mind too. We also take Weaver @ 32.

Also ESPN related, they did a projected 3 yr PER and charted stars and flops based on a bunch of stuff...check it out if you're remotely curious. But Westbrook rated horrible as a wing and a point, which is concerning. Bayless and Mayo didn't do too great either, but were both better than Westbrook. Beasley was by far the highest ranking player. Check espn for more, they did frontcourt and backcourt versions.

Unrelated...all that talk you see about TJ Ford and Rasho for JO...I was actually thinking about it last night before bed but I didn't want to get up to post it. I guess the news beat me to it.

[girlygirl]

To me the Sonics already have Brook Lopez on their roster. Goes by the name of Nick Collison. Nick is a little bit smaller than Lopez, but he is also a much better rebounder, a better defender and might even be as good of an offensive player, if given 30+ MPG on an every game basis.

Lopez isn't a great athlete and he seems rather soft. He's much polished offensively than the Petros, Swifts and Senes o the world, but I think the Sonics would be silly to take Lopez over Bayless or Westbrook.

[sonictecture]

There are worse things than a 7'-0" version of Nick Collison. If the knock is that Lopez doesn't project to be a future star, then the same can be said for the majority of other prospects in the range.

[Slate]

Did any of you guys catch th two draft specials tonight?

One was on NBA TV and had Jonathan Givony as the lead analyst.

The other was Espn.

Both had Brook Lopez at 4, does this mean Presti has cooled on Bayless?

What is the opinion of this board Bayless or Lopez?

[nwsports253]

maybe the bobcats want westbrook, maybe that lets mayo fall to us if the heat dont take him at #2

[HeavyP]

No one ever knows what Presti is thinking. I wish I still had inside info with the Sonics like I used to, but now no one knows anything. I really think we're going to trade this pick or take Westbrook. But everyday I wake up feeling completely different about what we're going to do.

[BBen]

There are worse things than a 7'-0" version of Nick Collison. If the knock is that Lopez doesn't project to be a future star, then the same can be said for the majority of other prospects in the range.

I couldn't agree more. Watch Brook in the tournament (http://www.ncaasports.com/mmod/player/) and you can watch him demolish Marquette. While I think Love looked better overall in the tourney when you compare the structures of the offenses and the guard play from UCLA to Stanford it's hard to justify picking Love over Lopez. UCLA was just a great passing team with very unselfish guards in a post oriented system based on Love (by the way, I don't see why people like Westbrook so much). Stanford's guards tried to create for themselves and then had Lopez as a bail out go-to option (always doubled or fouled). When you realize just how poor the guard play was however, it's amazing that the Cardinals advanced even to the sweet 16. A lot of credit does need to be given to Robin of course, but he never had plays called for him and was not a focal part of their offense. Boy it's hard to watch that offense actually, Trent Johnson did NOT deserve pac-10 coach of the year, he just looked good because his team came out of nowhere due to B Lopez being a more mature player this year.

Edit: By the way I detest the argument about B Lopez's fg% since he shot 50% last year, didn't play vs non-conference patsies and had guards that NEVER created opportunities for him. Every play it seemed like their guards either took a shot or said "here Lopez, catch the ball, good luck vs the other team!"

[Downtown]

I have to ask myself how much better might Lopez turn out to be than Roy Hibbert? I don't think it would be a big stretch to get Hibbert by way of a trade using the #24 and a couple of the second round picks to move up a few spots.

I'm not down on Lopez but I question whether he is #4 material. But I also question whether Jerryd Bayless is #4 material as well so take it with a grain of salt.

I still say go for broke to get Beasley if you can keep both Durant and Green out of the deal.

And I still think trading down with either Charlotte or New Jersey might be the way to go, but no further than #10. After the threesome of Rose, Beasley, and Mayo I see a large cluster of players that all have the same chance of turning into solid NBA players. I just don't see a big gap within that grouping of Lopez, Gordon, Bayless, Westbrook, Alexander, Galanari, Love.

[revprodeji]

New rumor...

Bobcats are dicussing with the timberwolves about a swap

#3 for #9 and morrison

interesting

Other than the original B-rate article there has not been any talks about this situation.

What I do know is that the wolves have called the bobcats to figure about the availability of Okafor. I am not sure if there is anything with legs on this, they might just be checking all their options.

Knowing how a moron could write for our local papers I am sure they knew we called Char and they assumed we would jump at any wally-like shooter.

Needless to say, there will be a coup if it is morrison.

oh, and the fans are not as anti-mchale as someone mentioned above. We know he has been thru a lot, and has had some horrible luck. But he is a decent guy to have in the front office. Also, Hoiberg is handling much of the draft issue.