Xatticus wrote:retrobro90 wrote:jake_swivel wrote:
That’s the only foreseeable draft day outcome that would leave me annoyed.
Lol I'd be pretty excited about it
He doesn't look like a lottery talent to me. The physical tools are good. His mobility isn't good enough to project him as anything more than a drop defender. I don't like his positional awareness. All he can do offensively is camp in the dunk spot. I think it's pretty damning for a prospect when you have to hype up their catch radius. He does seem to be very unselfish though, which is always a plus.
I think his stock is buoyed by the dearth of frontcourt players in this draft.
Last year was the year to go get a big if we wanted one. Duren and Williams were there when we picked and both were better prospects. They were pushing other guys like Kessler, Koloko, and Kamagate well down the rankings. We took Jaylin in the second round instead, which tells me that Presti doesn't really value what Lively provides.
I'm expecting Coulibaly if he is there, which I'm fairly certain he will be.
If there is one criticism I'd have for Presti, it is that he doesn't mask his intentions very well. He falls in love with a guy and then overdrafts to get them in. All of creation knew he was taking Holmgren and Poku. That's not to say that it has always leaked out or that the reports that we have heard are accurate, but I'm less skeptical of such reports when it comes to Presti.
I'm hoping for Hendricks, but I'm doubtful.
Agree about the center stuff. I don't see any good big worth a lotto pick. I badly wanted Duren and thought he was going top 10 or 12. Williams was fine too. but to be honest I barely watched Lively and I'm reading a lot of good stuff about him so who knows.
Not sure I agree about Presti not masking his intentions...of course we learned Presti kind of players but reports made so many mistakes over the last few years...we were supposed to go after Bouknight/Kuminga and Sengun in 2021 (Sengun felt to #16 and Presti passed on him while most NBA experts were certain he was a Prest kind of player). I remember some random europeans that were supposed to be selected in the 2nd round by the Thunder and went undrafted.
Nobody knew about Mann, JDub or Dieng. Dieng was the kind of player we thought Presti could draft because he's his type but "nobody" knew he was following him in France since he was a kid. Several Thunder reporters thought we were gonna move up some spots for Sochan (he looks like a presti guy). Well maybe Presti tried, we will never know.
The Poku story to OKC was leaked for sure...that was a weird one. It was kind of obvious that Chet was a Presti kind of player too but nothing leaked...Jabari himself thought OKC was gonna draft him. The fit was just too obvious for us to draft another player.
I might be wrong but I think the Coulibaly stuff is smokescreen. No reason for him to show up in Monaco to show other GMs who his guy is (he might decide to draft him at 12 or even later in the draft but I don't think he's his first option).