RealGM

Eh hes a black kid playing in greece ... come on now

That is excatlt the point. With his limited BB experience but natural talents he has a huge upside!

Kid looks good, i hope he decides to play a year or two in the NCAA like what Hakeem and Deng did. the competition on the tapes look bad, but if he can play a year or two under coach K or Roy Williams, it would help him more than if he signed with a euro team.

I just watched a u18 game with him playing. I think if we're in rebuild mode, we may want the move up in this years draft to get this kid!!!.

geeman wrote:I just watched a u18 game with him playing. I think if we're in rebuild mode, we may want the move up in this years draft to get this kid!!!.

I totally agree. I think he can be elite.

NeZoRiL wrote:

geeman wrote:I just watched a u18 game with him playing. I think if we're in rebuild mode, we may want the move up in this years draft to get this kid!!!.

I totally agree. I think he can be elite.

No need to move up unless his stock just booms before the draft. I feel the Falcons wasted a 3rd round pick just to get Trufant who would have been there at 30. Giannis is a nice talent, and I honestly thought he would fall to the early portion of the 2nd round, but as I too have seen watching his u18 performance, he will be a definite first round pick. With that said, there's no need to move up unless he really impresses scouts in workouts. Grabbing a promising center should still be our main goal, so we need to make sure we still have both of our picks to grab a center and possibly grab a wing with a lot of upside.

Geaux_Hawks wrote:I feel the Falcons wasted a 3rd round pick just to get Trufant who would have been there at 30.

Off-topic, but i've read numerous reports that Minnesota was set to use one of their 1st round picks on Trufant before ATL would get a shot at #30.

Jamaaliver wrote:

Geaux_Hawks wrote:I feel the Falcons wasted a 3rd round pick just to get Trufant who would have been there at 30.

Off-topic, but i've read numerous reports that Minnesota was set to use one of their 1st round picks on Trufant before ATL would get a shot at #30.

Even if they were, and the Falcons didn't want Rhodes, then they should have traded down and picked up something extra in the 3rd or 4th. We still could have got Alford in the 2nd(who imo was slept on and is better), and picked up Carridine possibly.

Fair enough. But I get the feeling Trufant was the single player Dimitroff definitely wanted in this draft.

So much so, he'd already made arrangements to trade with St Louis (and his former protege).

Dimitroff likes a certain kind of player (experienced, strong character, hard working, pedigreed, smart) and Trufant met all of these criteria more than some of the other (highly rated cornerback) prospects.

It burns my biscuits, cause we could have held up at 30 and gotten Alex Ogletree in the 1st round and Alford in the second. Our linebacking core is pretty ordinary outisde of Weatherspoon.

Dimitroff also stated he didn't think Alford would be available at pick 62.

Jamaaliver wrote:Fair enough. But I get the feeling Trufant was the single player Dimitroff definitely wanted in this draft.

So much so, he'd already made arrangements to trade with St Louis (and his former protege).

Dimitroff likes a certain kind of player (experienced, strong character, hard working, pedigreed, smart) and Trufant met all of these criteria more than some of the other (highly rated cornerback) prospects.

It burns my biscuits, cause we could have held up at 30 and gotten Alex Ogletree in the 1st round and Alford in the second. Our linebacking core is pretty ordinary outisde of Weatherspoon.

Dimitroff also stated he didn't think Alford would be available at pick 62.

I agree. Those are the guys you look for, but Trufant wasn't that special of a corner. His speed and family pedigree is what got him a first round ticket.

The same thing happened with Baker. Houston ended up taking Duane Brown, who was more athletic and versatile, and has gone on to be a pro bowler and 1st and 2nd team all pro tackle, but they only took him because they wanted Baker, who we traded up for. I would have been fine with waiting it out and let either one drop to us in the 2nd. At least then we would have still had 3 2nd's to play with. I wanted Desean Jackson that year.

geeman wrote:I just watched a u18 game with him playing. I think if we're in rebuild mode, we may want the move up in this years draft to get this kid!!!.

Mavs fan here. Would you trade both 1sts for our pick, 13th overall?

Darren wrote:

geeman wrote:I just watched a u18 game with him playing. I think if we're in rebuild mode, we may want the move up in this years draft to get this kid!!!.

Mavs fan here. Would you trade both 1sts for our pick, 13th overall?

In a word, no.

A longer explanation is that it's unlikely, but if someone we REALLY wanted (say Steven Adams) fell to 13, then it's POSSIBLE that we'd do something like that, but it's extremely unlikely.

Darren wrote:

geeman wrote:I just watched a u18 game with him playing. I think if we're in rebuild mode, we may want the move up in this years draft to get this kid!!!.

Mavs fan here. Would you trade both 1sts for our pick, 13th overall?

F*** no. You want us to trade 2 back to back picks to move up 4 picks?

On topic this kid reminds me of an unpolished Luol Deng. Could be a good pick.

Geaux_Hawks wrote: I agree. Those are the guys you look for, but Trufant wasn't that special of a corner. His speed and family pedigree is what got him a first round ticket.

Seeing how impressive his rookie eason was, are you still unimpresed with the Desmond Trufant pick or has he made you a fan?

He definitely exceeded my expectations. He's been named Defensive Player of the Year by some publications, named to the All Defensive Team, and named as a top 100 player in the league after only a single season.

Were the Falcons justified in going after the kid considering the early success he's experienced?

Did you really have to bring that up? I mean I never said I didn't like the kid. Just saying that we could have stayed put and still grabbed corners. Alford still has potential to be better and say what you want but Mathieu was arguably having a similar if not better season as Trufant before injury.even if trufant didn't make it to our pick, there were good players available still if TD and co were doing their homework. At the end of the day, I think we could have kept our 3rd and gained something else. I honestly mocked bhakiatari in my mocks to us. Yes I am impressed with trufant through..

Geaux_Hawks wrote:Did you really have to bring that up?

YES!

And Thanks for your input!