2019 NBA Draft Prep

[Spud2nique]

Williamson has been standing under the basket all game pointing for a lob. When asked to do anything but putbacks he's looked like an UDFA.

Barrett plays D like Jabari Parker and he's got about 20 shots already.

Reddish has that Wiggins mentality. Just happy to be out there.

I agree Reddish seems mentally unaware but I still can’t deny the NBA skill.

Man, I dunno Zion shot well and put up 22 and 7. Why expand ur game when it’s not necessary against GT.

Ps Is Vrankovic the son of old school dad?

[atlantabbq99]

Bennie Boatwright, the center that Travis Schlenk wants...

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6'10, new age center, who can run, who can shoot and is one of the better passing big men in college basketball today. He is also an upper classmen, which the Warriors seem to like to draft. He could be had for the Hawks in the 2nd round.

[MaceCase]

If the Hawks draft 5th and come away with Reddish that would be great. I know he's disappointed for the most part this year, but I think his game translates as an NBA wing scorer maybe better than any player in the draft. Shouldn't have gone to Duke, should've gone somewhere he could be featured. Reminds me of Wendell Carter in that regard, another guy who has looked better in the NBA as opposed to at DUke where he was in Bagley's shadow.

If you want to play with other star recruits you go to Kentucky. Cal at least has his teams balance their scoring out creating a meritocracy that can swing from game to game. K OTOH just lets whomever is on the court figure out who takes the most shots on their own and if he's lucky, both the strongest personality and strongest talent will be one and the same.

[MaceCase]

Williamson has been standing under the basket all game pointing for a lob. When asked to do anything but putbacks he's looked like an UDFA.

Barrett plays D like Jabari Parker and he's got about 20 shots already.

Reddish has that Wiggins mentality. Just happy to be out there.

I agree Reddish seems mentally unaware but I still can’t deny the NBA skill.

Man, I dunno Zion shot well and put up 22 and 7. Why expand ur game when it’s not necessary against GT.

Ps Is Vrankovic the son of old school dad?

It's one of those weird sports taboos where it's frowned upon to do it because "sportsmanship!" and "always respect your opponent!" but then it's also expected that you try out a few things you've been working on in the gym during a LFX.

[Jamaaliver]

Read on Twitter

Note: The mix from No. 4 all the way down to the end of the lottery is wide open. There genuinely is no consensus. That’s not to say there aren’t talented players in this draft. Rather, it is simply that this is an eye-of-the-beholder draft because many of the players in that range are projects or have serious flaws.

5. Atlanta Hawks — Jarrett Culver, Texas Tech

Culver fits a lot of what Atlanta has looked for in the Travis Schlenk era in addition to filling some useful holes. He’s a shot-making wing at 6-foot-7 with length and terrific basketball IQ. He’s not the most athletic guy in the world, but he has enough to get by and become an NBA starter. Defensively, he’s not elite, but he’s good within Texas Tech’s complicated, changing-game-by-game man-to-man scheme. Additionally, he’s shown terrific growth in each of the last three years of his career. He’d be a terrific fit next to Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and John Collins within the Hawks’ young core.


8. Atlanta Hawks (via DAL) — Keldon Johnson, Kentucky

The Hawks acquired this pick as part of the Luka Doncic-Trae Young trade last season. This selection wouldn’t exactly be sexy, as Johnson isn’t a particularly explosive athlete by NBA standards. He projects more as a fifth-starter type on the wing as opposed to a potential star. But there’s a lot of reason to believe that he’ll reach that upside. He’s a hard worker and tough on-ball defender with size at 6-6. His energy and motor are contagious, and his skill level has grown to match that over the last year. I don’t know that he’s quite a consistent jump shooter yet, but he’s hit 38 percent from 3 this season while averaging 14.7 points as Kentucky’s best offensive option.

[atlantabbq99]

Read on Twitter

Note: The mix from No. 4 all the way down to the end of the lottery is wide open. There genuinely is no consensus. That’s not to say there aren’t talented players in this draft. Rather, it is simply that this is an eye-of-the-beholder draft because many of the players in that range are projects or have serious flaws.

5. Atlanta Hawks — Jarrett Culver, Texas Tech

Culver fits a lot of what Atlanta has looked for in the Travis Schlenk era in addition to filling some useful holes. He’s a shot-making wing at 6-foot-7 with length and terrific basketball IQ. He’s not the most athletic guy in the world, but he has enough to get by and become an NBA starter. Defensively, he’s not elite, but he’s good within Texas Tech’s complicated, changing-game-by-game man-to-man scheme. Additionally, he’s shown terrific growth in each of the last three years of his career. He’d be a terrific fit next to Trae Young, Kevin Huerter and John Collins within the Hawks’ young core.


8. Atlanta Hawks (via DAL) — Keldon Johnson, Kentucky

The Hawks acquired this pick as part of the Luka Doncic-Trae Young trade last season. This selection wouldn’t exactly be sexy, as Johnson isn’t a particularly explosive athlete by NBA standards. He projects more as a fifth-starter type on the wing as opposed to a potential star. But there’s a lot of reason to believe that he’ll reach that upside. He’s a hard worker and tough on-ball defender with size at 6-6. His energy and motor are contagious, and his skill level has grown to match that over the last year. I don’t know that he’s quite a consistent jump shooter yet, but he’s hit 38 percent from 3 this season while averaging 14.7 points as Kentucky’s best offensive option.

Culver is the complete opposite of what the GSW and TS would draft. He is basically another Tyreke Evans.

[Jamaaliver]

^No. He's a limited player. But he's a good, hard working, humble devout Christian kid who we'd be lucky to have in the locker room.

Anyone who's around him speaks immediately And repeatedly about how much his faith and his family define everything he is.

[atlantabbq99]

^No. He's a limited player. But he's a good, hard working, humble devout Christian kid who we'd be lucky to have in the locker room.

Anyone who's around him speaks immediately And repeatedly about how much his faith and his family define everything he is.

[personanongrata]

^No. He's a limited player. But he's a good, hard working, humble devout Christian kid who we'd be lucky to have in the locker room.

Anyone who's around him speaks immediately And repeatedly about how much his faith and his family define everything he is.

That's nice and all, but we need a baller.

[kg01]

Soooo, I got a close look at Little vs GT last night. I'd initially wanted him with our own first but now .... nah. Dude gives me Marvo vibes and there's not a chance I'd advise us to use our pick on a guy who can't start for his college team.

I get it. "Ohhhhh he's a team player. Comin' off the bench! Ohhhh babbbbyyy, blah, blah ..."

Allright Dookie V, stop yellin' at me.

That's cute and all but there's a huge, gargantuan leap from 6th man in college to the alpha-level player we need. If we end up acquiring another non-lotto 1st, that's the highest I'd take Little now.

Looked like a guy needing multiple college years but, due to circumstance, will probably come out anyway. Not a shooter or scorer really. Didn't strike me as a plus defender either. Not surprising his stock is dropping.

Looked like a poor man's Taurean. Yikes.

[kg01]

^No. He's a limited player. But he's a good, hard working, humble devout Christian kid who we'd be lucky to have in the locker room.

Anyone who's around him speaks immediately And repeatedly about how much his faith and his family define everything he is.

I like Culver and appreciate what you mention about his faith. However, folks said similar things about Dwight Howard as a prospect.

Again, I certainly appreciate it but I don't really accept it as an automatic 'plus'. Hopefully we just vet each guy properly and let the chips fall where they may. I'm a Christian dude but certainly recognize that you don't necessarily have to be religious to be a good dude.

[Jamaaliver]

^i was just pushing back on bbq's recent criticisms that Culver was a selfish player in the vein of a chucker/knucklehead like Tyreke Evans.

If anything, he like Huerter with better handles.

He may not be a huge difference maker, but no one will regret adding him to their locker room.

Sent from my RC555L using RealGM mobile app

[observer1995]

Culver does look like a Schlenk-y player imo. I don't know much about his attitude, but if we're worried about being a shots hog, then we wouldn't have taken Trae Young (who has been showing after a horrible start that his reality wasn't really what he was at Oklahoma). The players that look like that are guys that are able to shoot, handle the ball well, and make plays.

If we're not in on the Zion sweepstakes, I would be happy with taking him. The only thing here is that his upside isn't particularly high, but I think with him you're getting a guy that definitely can be a 15/5/3 type with possibly pretty good efficiency (the FT% gives me a bit of pause on the shot though). And if you want to gamble on upside, I'd go Keldon Johnson. There's the possibility with Cal's system that there is upside untapped with him.

I actually really liked what tankathon's draft showed for Atlanta. It was Culver and Hayes. To me that's safety and a high ceiling based off what I know on Hayes.

[EazyRoc]

Culver is absolutely the kind of player we are looking to add. Why wouldn’t he be ? We want shooters/passers/defenders right ? He checks all boxes.

[atlantabbq99]

Culver is absolutely the kind of player we are looking to add. Why wouldn’t he be ? We want shooters/passers/defenders right ? He checks all boxes.

Culver is not a good shooter (which is the one thing TS wants), he shoots 65% from the free throw line, and 34% from three, which is the same shooting percentage as Markelle Fultz and Justice Winslow.

As for defense, its sub-par. He tends to give up big numbers to the other team's best perimeter player.

Culver is not super athletic, but he has good size and PG skills. He is not Ben Simmons and he is not going to shot 40% from NBA three, but could be Tyreke Evans, but i think he is more of John Salmons, which is maybe a 10 year career but never an all star.

[kg01]

Culver does look like a Schlenk-y player imo. I don't know much about his attitude, but if we're worried about being a shots hog, then we wouldn't have taken Trae Young (who has been showing after a horrible start that his reality wasn't really what he was at Oklahoma). The players that look like that are guys that are able to shoot, handle the ball well, and make plays.

If we're not in on the Zion sweepstakes, I would be happy with taking him. The only thing here is that his upside isn't particularly high, but I think with him you're getting a guy that definitely can be a 15/5/3 type with possibly pretty good efficiency (the FT% gives me a bit of pause on the shot though). And if you want to gamble on upside, I'd go Keldon Johnson. There's the possibility with Cal's system that there is upside untapped with him.

I actually really liked what tankathon's draft showed for Atlanta. It was Culver and Hayes. To me that's safety and a high ceiling based off what I know on Hayes.

Speaking of tankathon, I had to walk away from that site yesterday. I kept doing the lottery simulator and I swear 10 of 12 iterations had us at like the 8-10 pick and DAL's pick between 1-4. I was internally-screaming, "That doesn't even make sense you stupid sonofab*$@)@!!"

When kg04 crawled into my lap and started banging on my keyboard, I knew I had set a bad example that day.

Do better than I did, Hawkfan-parents.

[atlantabbq99]

^i was just pushing back on bbq's recent criticisms that Culver was a selfish player in the vein of a chucker/knucklehead like Tyreke Evans.

If anything, he like Huerter with better handles.

He may not be a huge difference maker, but no one will regret adding him to their locker room.

Sent from my RC555L using RealGM mobile app

Since when did I ever say Culver was a selfish player?! He is averaging 7 assist a game, he is just a bad shooter, and i think sub par defender. Tyreke averages 6 assist in the NBA and is already on this 10th year in the NBA, and was a starter for 80% of the games he played so far (just never close to being an all star). Since when is Evans a bonehead?!

[hawkmanreturns]

Culver does look like a Schlenk-y player imo. I don't know much about his attitude, but if we're worried about being a shots hog, then we wouldn't have taken Trae Young (who has been showing after a horrible start that his reality wasn't really what he was at Oklahoma). The players that look like that are guys that are able to shoot, handle the ball well, and make plays.

If we're not in on the Zion sweepstakes, I would be happy with taking him. The only thing here is that his upside isn't particularly high, but I think with him you're getting a guy that definitely can be a 15/5/3 type with possibly pretty good efficiency (the FT% gives me a bit of pause on the shot though). And if you want to gamble on upside, I'd go Keldon Johnson. There's the possibility with Cal's system that there is upside untapped with him.

I actually really liked what tankathon's draft showed for Atlanta. It was Culver and Hayes. To me that's safety and a high ceiling based off what I know on Hayes.

Speaking of tankathon, I had to walk away from that site yesterday. I kept doing the lottery simulator and I swear 10 of 12 iterations had us at like the 8-10 pick and DAL's pick between 1-4. I was internally-screaming, "That doesn't even make sense you stupid sonofab*$@)@!!"

When kg04 crawled into my lap and started banging on my keyboard, I knew I had set a bad example that day.

Do better than I did, Hawkfan-parents.

Tankathon is only useful for how fast they update their "underverse" standings. Their Lottery simulator is str8 up garbage.

[Jamaaliver]

Since when did I ever say Culver was a selfish player?!

Jan 17th:

Watching Iowa Sate @ TT.. Culver is so good. I wish he was unleashed more on this team.

I think we were watching two different games, because I thought that Culver looked horrible and got out played by Shayok. I posted this on the draft board that i'm not a fan of Culver and watching him tonight, it was so frustrating watching him shoot free throws and jack up alot of bad and selfish shots

[atlantabbq99]

Culver does look like a Schlenk-y player imo. I don't know much about his attitude, but if we're worried about being a shots hog, then we wouldn't have taken Trae Young (who has been showing after a horrible start that his reality wasn't really what he was at Oklahoma). The players that look like that are guys that are able to shoot, handle the ball well, and make plays.

If we're not in on the Zion sweepstakes, I would be happy with taking him. The only thing here is that his upside isn't particularly high, but I think with him you're getting a guy that definitely can be a 15/5/3 type with possibly pretty good efficiency (the FT% gives me a bit of pause on the shot though). And if you want to gamble on upside, I'd go Keldon Johnson. There's the possibility with Cal's system that there is upside untapped with him.

I actually really liked what tankathon's draft showed for Atlanta. It was Culver and Hayes. To me that's safety and a high ceiling based off what I know on Hayes.

15/5, ya you basically just gave Tyreke Evans' career as Culver's future.

Exactly, poor free throw shooting doesn't translate well to the NBA, especially when it comes to hitting NBA threes.