General (Non-Wiz) Draft Discussion

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Doesn't belong in the draft thread, but the Wizards should give Morris Almond a look at SG. He's the anti-Nick, doc.

[doclinkin]

Doesn't belong in the draft thread, but the Wizards should give Morris Almond a look at SG. He's the anti-Nick, doc.

Then we trade for Chris Bosh and have an unbeatable blog combination. Yeh, I haven't given up on Mo'Money either. He doesn't have a great handle, and may look more like a SF in playstyle (tough to crack that line-up in Utah with AK-47 and Harpring at the 3) but I still think he'd look nice next to Gilbert, hitting open shots.

Back to Harden. If he works out, slims up a little I can see him as a peak-career Aaron McKie. Better outside shooting, better rebounding. Solid roleplaying guard. That's not a bad thing by any standard.

[closg00]

Katz ESPN draft update.

NBA decision-makers said Florida State senior guard Toney Douglas could be a surprise draft pick. Douglas had a sensational senior season and was in the chase for ACC Player of the Year honors before losing out to Lawson. He led the Seminoles to the NCAA tournament and is expected to be a hit in workouts.

The most popular answers to the question of which player will be a high-value, late-first-round pick were Louisville senior Terrence Williams and Pitt senior Sam Young. Both players proved to be leaders this past season and could have made a claim to Big East Player of the Year, an honor shared by Young's teammate, sophomore DeJuan Blair, and Thabeet.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/ind ... =katz_andy

[doclinkin]

Katz ESPN draft update.

NBA decision-makers said Florida State senior guard Toney Douglas could be a surprise draft pick. Douglas had a sensational senior season and was in the chase for ACC Player of the Year honors before losing out to Lawson. He led the Seminoles to the NCAA tournament and is expected to be a hit in workouts.

The most popular answers to the question of which player will be a high-value, late-first-round pick were Louisville senior Terrence Williams and Pitt senior Sam Young. Both players proved to be leaders this past season and could have made a claim to Big East Player of the Year, an honor shared by Young's teammate, sophomore DeJuan Blair, and Thabeet.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/blog/ind ... =katz_andy

Yeah I liked Toney Douglas. Defensively tough, all-court baller. I just never figured him to be available by the Wiz' 2nd rounder, and not top 5 material. Ditto Sam Young, though he doesn't quite have the same handle.

I love Terrance Williams-- if we didn't have Dom McGuire. And Javaris Crittendon. They're three sizes of the same player. You could have a tough strong rebounding back court with these three players-- neither team would score all game...

[Brenice]

It shows the quality of the wizards starting lineup and the fact that this is not a great draft that only Griffin, if picked by washington, would merit starting, and even Griffin starting is debatable. There is room for improvement in the starting lineup, but no matter who they end up with, they will have quality depth at every position. I'm not for trading the #1 pick at all. I would take the Blake, Rubio, or Thabeet. I would let Etan and Mike James contracts come off the books which would make room for extending Haywood.

[pancakes3]

bears mentioning that on DX, Buddinger has slid to 22nd overall, Calathes down to 30th, Paddy Mills to the 2nd round, and JODIE MEEKS TO 47th.

Jodie Meeks is the second coming of Ben Gordon and he's a mid-2nd rounder? DRAFT HIM NOW. he may be 2 inches short of prototypical size, i remember gillespie praising him as a really solid defender as well as a scoring dynamo.

[nate33]

Doesn't belong in the draft thread, but the Wizards should give Morris Almond a look at SG. He's the anti-Nick, doc.

Let it go, CCJ.

[tkunit]

Doesn't belong in the draft thread, but the Wizards should give Morris Almond a look at SG. He's the anti-Nick, doc.

Let it go, CCJ.

At least the man is loyal

[nate33]

Proof of CCJ's foresight is that all of his predictions haven't come true yet.

[closg00]

Hoopsworld latest mock. It will be interesting to see if the media blackout will have any effect on a players stock-level.

This year the pre-draft process returns to Chicago with a new name - The NBA Draft Combine 09 - and will feature "light skill drills" and "workouts" and will be completely closed to the media. The NBA will host media sessions at a nearby hotel, but the days of the media being able to give a first-hand recount of how the players looked next to each other are gone. Does anyone else see NBATV programming written all over this?

Another interesting wrinkle is that more time in the two-day "combine" will be allocated for teams to meet with players individually. The word is teams had grown frustrated with the "excuses" given for why certain players would not meet with certain teams; now there is more opportunity for teams to at least get a sit down with a player even if their agents may not want the player in that particular situation.

http://www.hoopsworld.com/the_draft/FullMockDraft.asp

[Dat2U]

Wow, Hoopsworld has JRue Holiday as the 4th pick in the draft.

Let me just say one thing about this kid. He's NOT the next Russell Westbrook. He may be solid, or even very good down the line but he's not a freak like Russell Westbrook was in terms of athleticism. And while he was a more than solid defender at UCLA he was pretty much invisible offensively. He really should have went back to school. I view him as somewhat of a project who won't contribute right away.

[pancakes3]

I love the fact that Jrue Holiday and Demar Derozan are being hyped up. The fact that jonny flynn is surging the draft board bumps guys like Danny Green, Jodie Meeks, and Nick Calathes to the 2nd round where we have the pick of the litter.

nbadraft.net is garbage. rarely updated, and missing key players in favor of internationals. Meeks, Calathes, and Jack McClinton are nowhere to be found.

DRAFT JODIE MEEKS

[dobrojim]

the only really attractive features I see about Holiday are size and youth.

Since we've already got Critter, we've no need for him. I seriously doubt
he goes in the lottery, and possibly not even the first rnd.

[Rafael122]

Someone will fall in love with Holiday's upside though, so I'm not surprised, or wouldn't be surprised if he's taken that early. Our 2nd round pick though...if we skip over Summers and Danny Green to take some foreign guy, I'm gonna be pissed.

[closg00]

OKC already working-out 14 players in-advance of the draft, don't you love it? I can't wait until we get new ownership.

[Rafael122]

Why? The first round pick is the most important. We're probably gonna trade the 2nd round pick.

If we get the top 2 pick...we'll work out Griffin and Rubio and that's pretty much it. I think that's what Chicago did last year with Rose and Beasley.

[closg00]

Why? The first round pick is the most important. We're probably gonna trade the 2nd round pick.

If we get the top 2 pick...we'll work out Griffin and Rubio and that's pretty much it. I think that's what Chicago did last year with Rose and Beasley.

We have a high 2nd round pick, what if we trade down in the draft and have 2 picks in the low teens & 20's? will we be ready? The more educated we are about available talent the better.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Proof of CCJ's foresight is that all of his predictions haven't come true yet.

Ahh, but I like my percentages and I'm not giving up the fight on Morris Almond.

To think, two years ago folks were saying JR Smith is a bum and not better than DeShawn Stevenson.

Folks were laughing about Novak being a bust.

Folks said Shelden Williams and Alexander Johnson were better prospects than the guy who played in the terrible conference, Paul Millsap.

I am going to give Almond one more year before I say I missed totally. I already concede he's not anywhere near as good as I thought he'd be. However, in his first D-League season he had 51 and 53 point games to average 25.6 ppg. This season, he averaged 23.9 ppg on .521 shooting.

http://www.nba.com/dleague/playerfile/i ... ris_almond

Right now, I'm pretty convinced he'll be back in the league doing well with another team and I'll be revisiting this one in the not-too-distant future, nate.

[VictorPage44]

If we wind up with picks 3-5, why does everyone want to trade the pick? Is cap room really worth it? Devin Harris worked out well in what was considered a weak draft. I think this time around we should hold onto the pick. James Harden is a very good SG, who could be outproducing someone like hinrich in his rookie season. Harden can pull up for the three, beat guys with his first step, and finish very similar to gilbert. His college stats back up the comparison:


Harden:
Season Averages
SEASON MIN PTS REB AST TO A/T STL BLK PF FG% FT% 3P% PPS
2007-2008 34.1 17.8 5.3 3.2 2.6 1.24 2.1 .6 2.1 .527 .754 .407 1.63
2008-2009 35.8 20.1 5.6 4.2 3.4 1.25 1.7 .3 2.8 .489 .756 .356 1.56

Arenas:
MIN FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG TPG BPG SPG PPG
99-00 Arizona 32.1 45.3 29.2 75.0 4.1 2.1 2.6 0.3 2.1 15.4
00-01 Arizona 29.0 47.9 41.6 72.4 3.6 2.3 2.8 0.2 1.8 16.2

[ZonkertheBrainless]

There very likely will be a future all star in the 3-5 pick. Unfortunately, nobody knows who it is, that's the problem, and we're done gambling on young guns, we need help now. The benefit to the team of trading the 3-5 pick for a young, starting two with above average defense is higher than the benefit of rolling the dice on the 3-5 pick.