A couple of bigs I like.
Adem Bona (we've already talked about him a little bit) and Dereck Lively.
Here's a sick play from the other night by Bona. Look at how quick and how fluid he moves here. And also how much urgency/determination he shows as he sprints up the floor and blocks the shot.
Bona is a little bit quicker.
But Lively is 3" taller (Lively is 7'1", Bona is 6'10") and Lively is a year younger. Because of those 2 factors, I have Lively just barely ranked higher.
But they both have the potential to be REALLY good rim runner, lob threat, rim protector bigs.
And they've shown flashes of other stuff too - Lively hit a lot of 3's in HS and in AAU. Bona showed some impressive flashes facing up from the FT line or even 3 pt line, putting it on the floor and taking it to the rim. So they both have some untapped potential, stuff that hasn't been shown as much so far in college.
Both likely to go late 1st or early 2nd round. So we may have to trade up to get them, or perhaps 1 of them is still there if we pick in the 33-40 range. Then again, I did see a mock today that had us taking Bona with the 60th pick (although I believe that pick is being traded to OKC..) but just shows, Bona could still be there later in the draft.
With either of them, you just develop them as g league guy / end of bench guys for a year or 2. Then after that you should have yourself a good backup big man, with the potential to possibly become the starting center during games rob is out with injury - or perhaps if by that time we have traded Rob..
We haven't drafted a big since Rob, 5 yrs ago. With his continued injury issues and Al turning 37 soon, I wouldn't hate it if we take a big man with whatever our highest pick ends up being in this draft.
Lively, Bona, James Nnaji, Jackson-Davis, Coleman Hawkins, Sanogo, etc. There's some good bigs who could be available in the 2nd round.
If we come out of this draft with Bona or Lively, C's fans should be happy.
