Official 2013 Draft Thread - Part III

[queridiculo]

Exactly, the sad part is that it's not only a scary proposition, it's happened time and time again during Grunfelds tenure.

[Rafael122]

Thunder would be a good trade target seeing as how they will have 2 first round picks.

I really don't see the Thunder giving up any of their picks for marginal NBA talent in the final year of their contracts.

Very much like the Spurs, Oklahoma understands that the draft is an opportunity to add complimentary players, and to upgrade the overall talent of their roster while committing a minimum amount of salary.

For small market team with limited external revenue opportunities like Oklahoma that's the only way to remain competitive, and they will continue to follow that model.

I see them packaging their picks to move up, or deferring their selection to next year by acquiring picks for the 2015 draft before involving them in a deal for other NBA players.

They're nearing the luxury tax, and their owner isn't or has not shown a willingness to pay it. So you either have a guy with a $3 million starting salary, with increases every year, or you can trade out, get cash, a cheap contract on its last year, and maybe a second round pick that can be used to stash a player.

[queridiculo]

Oklahoma has plenty of salary cap flexibility. They have Martin coming of the books and could conceivably use their amnesty clause to rid themselves of the Perkins deal.

Given their MO I'd be willing to bet money that they aren't going to part with a first rounder to purge salary.

http://www.nba.com/2012/news/11/13/ster ... index.html

Oklahoma has roughly $68m committed to salaries in 2013-14, with nearly $3m in non-guaranteed contracts.

If the cap really jumps to $69m next year, it would push the luxury tax threshold to $84 million.

[edit]

Nevermind, didn't realize the NBA announced that the salary cap will remain the same for 2013-14.

Still, even given those numbers, Oklahoma has enough flexibility to sign two first round picks given the space they have and the non-guaranteed contracts they can purge.

[Dark Faze]

Just realized Seraphin has a TS % of 47.

How in the world is that possible for a guy who gets minutes at PF/C primarily? Wow. Is that league worst?

[GhostsOfGil]

Just realized Seraphin has a TS % of 47.

How in the world is that possible for a guy who gets minutes at PF/C primarily? Wow. Is that league worst?

Wudup Ves

[queridiculo]

Seeing two Wizards there is bad enough, but realizing that Seraphin has been marginally more efficient than Vesely blows my mind.

[pancakes3]

It's shouldn't be much of a revelation that our bench is comprised of d-league talent when Martin and Temple are actual d-league call-ups. Singleton and Vesely would be d-league talents if we didn't need so desperately to validate their draft stocks, and A.J. Price was 9 picks away from being undrafted - effectively a d-league talent.

[queridiculo]

Sadly Temple actually fits the bill of a role player, while Grunfelds rookie haul isn't even fit for that moniker.

[MikeTheKid]

On the bench talk, once you get past the first round, you really shouldn't be looking for diamonds in the rough, but for guys that can fill a specific role.

Chandler says HI

[SUPERBALLMAN]

I was just thinking about how horrible or bench is.

Our top 6 players: Wall, Beal, Webster, Ariza, Nene and Okafor are rock solid (when healthy). Those guys, if they were backed by an average crew of bench players, would win 50 games. Unfortunately, our bench is absolutely terrible. Think about it. Other than Booker, everyone on our bench could be replaced by a D-Leaguer and nobody would notice the difference. (Booker is better than a D-Leaguer, but not by all that much. He should be a 10th or 11th man, not our 7th best player.)

EG needs to dump Singleton, Vesely and Seraphin as soon as possible and try to reload with 2nd round picks and minimum salary vets. Just about anybody would be better than these guys. (I wouldn't be opposed to keeping Seraphin as a project, but we can't rely on him.). Basically, we need to acquire a 7th, 8th and 9th man. Booker can be our 10th, Temple our 11th and Seraphin our 12th.

EG really needs to figure out how to acquire another pick in this draft, preferably a late 1st. Can we trade Singleton + our NY 2nd rounder pick + $3M cash to get a pick in the mid 20's? I'd love to take a high quality 3rd guard with our lotto pick (Burke), a defensive big with the late 1st (Dieng or Withey), and a stretch four with our high 2nd (McDermott or Ryan Kelly)

Nate, we seem to be on the exact same page. To me the value of this draft is the number of quality bigs available in the 2nd half of the 1st round.

With the 1st pick I am focused on Porter or Burke. IMO these two are at the top in terms of skill and mental toughness. High character and max effort players who will come in and fit right in to what this team is trying to do.

Then the move to make to make this a truly successful draft is to acquire another 1st to get one of these centers. Dieng or Withey would top my list. Some package from assets including our trade exemption, cash, our later 2nd round pick, Singleton, Vesely, Seraphin, Satoransky could be used.

With our 2nd rounder (somewhere around 38) I would focus on a stretch 4... either McDermott, or Erick Murphy if he's gone. I don't know if anyone has brought up Murphy, a 6-10 PF from Florida, former teammate of Beal, and shot 45% from 3 last year in a good conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufHfSnUVnY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILtEAoMfvw


If we can come away with something like Burke, Dieng, McDermott, that would be a haul IMO. Mature high BBIQ players that will come in and immediately boost our bench with starter upside down the road.

[Nivek]

On the bench talk, once you get past the first round, you really shouldn't be looking for diamonds in the rough, but for guys that can fill a specific role.

Disagree. The 2nd round is a great place to take a chance on a player with potential but some warts or questions. The salary is low, expectations are low, and there's no guaranteed money so any contribution is gravy. The second round is exactly the spot to take a guy like Arenas or Blair or whoever. It might not work out, but it might.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

How about a trade with Utah??

They have picks 17 and 21. DX actually has Dieng and Withey at those 2 picks in their mock.

I'd do Vesely or Singleton with Seraphin and our late 2nd rounder for their 17.

[popper]

I was just thinking about how horrible or bench is.

Our top 6 players: Wall, Beal, Webster, Ariza, Nene and Okafor are rock solid (when healthy). Those guys, if they were backed by an average crew of bench players, would win 50 games. Unfortunately, our bench is absolutely terrible. Think about it. Other than Booker, everyone on our bench could be replaced by a D-Leaguer and nobody would notice the difference. (Booker is better than a D-Leaguer, but not by all that much. He should be a 10th or 11th man, not our 7th best player.)

EG needs to dump Singleton, Vesely and Seraphin as soon as possible and try to reload with 2nd round picks and minimum salary vets. Just about anybody would be better than these guys. (I wouldn't be opposed to keeping Seraphin as a project, but we can't rely on him.). Basically, we need to acquire a 7th, 8th and 9th man. Booker can be our 10th, Temple our 11th and Seraphin our 12th.

EG really needs to figure out how to acquire another pick in this draft, preferably a late 1st. Can we trade Singleton + our NY 2nd rounder pick + $3M cash to get a pick in the mid 20's? I'd love to take a high quality 3rd guard with our lotto pick (Burke), a defensive big with the late 1st (Dieng or Withey), and a stretch four with our high 2nd (McDermott or Ryan Kelly)

Nate, we seem to be on the exact same page. To me the value of this draft is the number of quality bigs available in the 2nd half of the 1st round.

With the 1st pick I am focused on Porter or Burke. IMO these two are at the top in terms of skill and mental toughness. High character and max effort players who will come in and fit right in to what this team is trying to do.

Then the move to make to make this a truly successful draft is to acquire another 1st to get one of these centers. Dieng or Withey would top my list. Some package from assets including our trade exemption, cash, our later 2nd round pick, Singleton, Vesely, Seraphin, Satoransky could be used.

With our 2nd rounder (somewhere around 38) I would focus on a stretch 4... either McDermott, or Erick Murphy if he's gone. I don't know if anyone has brought up Murphy, a 6-10 PF from Florida, former teammate of Beal, and shot 45% from 3 last year in a good conference.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufHfSnUVnY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jILtEAoMfvw


If we can come away with something like Burke, Dieng, McDermott, that would be a haul IMO. Mature high BBIQ players that will come in and immediately boost our bench with starter upside down the road.

I concur -- this draft is vital and acquiring another late first rounder is paramount to not sucking again next year. Watching our bench is liking getting a root canal without anesthesia. Let's hope EG can recoup some credibility assuming he's not fired before he draft.

[dandrews]

How about a trade with Utah??

They have picks 17 and 21. DX actually has Dieng and Withey at those 2 picks in their mock.

I'd do Vesely or Singleton with Seraphin and our late 2nd rounder for their 17.

I think Utah would hang up the phone. Vesley, Singleton, and Seraphin have zero trade value. You can't just package up all your garbage and send it to a team for a pick just outside the lottery.

[sfam]

How about a trade with Utah??

They have picks 17 and 21. DX actually has Dieng and Withey at those 2 picks in their mock.

I'd do Vesely or Singleton with Seraphin and our late 2nd rounder for their 17.

I wouldn't be too shocked if the Utah FO has access to the same data we do. If so, they'd know we'd trade these three for a salami sandwich even without the mayo. So why would they give up their #17 for this?

[nate33]

How about a trade with Utah??

They have picks 17 and 21. DX actually has Dieng and Withey at those 2 picks in their mock.

I'd do Vesely or Singleton with Seraphin and our late 2nd rounder for their 17.

As others have said, Utah wouldn't do it. The key is to find a luxtax paying team with a late pick who would rather not take on the guaranteed salary of a 1st round pick. Just give them the NY 2nd round pick plus cash. We can offer them Singleton or Vesely or Seraphin if they want, but my guess is that it wouldn't be much incentive - particularly if the premise for them is to save money.

On second thought, OKC might have some interest in Seraphin as a cheap post defender if they amnesty Perkins. Seraphin is frustratingly turnover prone on offense, but he's a pretty solid defender who costs next to nothing. The main issue with Seraphin is that he cannot be a focal point of the offense because he doesn't make decisions well against a double team. If he plays on a team with all the weapons OKC has, he might actually be a pretty effective player on offense as well when he is only dealing with single coverage against backups.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

21?

[SUPERBALLMAN]

That does make sense Nate. Also Wizards have that trade exemption, so they can also use that to take back a player w/ salary to acquire a pick, like they did in the Hinrich trade for seraphin.

[popper]

How about a trade with Utah??

They have picks 17 and 21. DX actually has Dieng and Withey at those 2 picks in their mock.

I'd do Vesely or Singleton with Seraphin and our late 2nd rounder for their 17.

I think Utah would hang up the phone. Vesley, Singleton, and Seraphin have zero trade value. You can't just package up all your garbage and send it to a team for a pick just outside the lottery.

Darn it.

[mhd]

Cheap Rookies have intrinsic value as cheap labor for 5+ years. With so many teams having cap space, no teams will really be looking to dump bad contracts. I think the Wiz stand pat and take BPA.