Darrell Arthur....a King?

[RIPskaterdude]

I wouldn't be completely disappointed if we picked Arthur, however, I see alot of KT in him (since both are undersized PF's)...

[Crimson King]

^^ Not as undersized, and Arthur is much more athletic and could be a good shotblocker. I don't see a lot of KT in him, if anything.

Probably on that top 12 list, we'd pass on Alexander, who looks like a very good fit for the Blazers.

But I'm still not sure if DeAndre Jordan is not worth the risk, specially if we select Arthur, who isn't a safe pick at all.

[chriswebb86]

^^ Not as undersized, and Arthur is much more athletic and could be a good shotblocker. I don't see a lot of KT in him, if anything.

Probably on that top 12 list, we'd pass on Alexander, who looks like a very good fit for the Blazers.

But I'm still not sure if DeAndre Jordan is not worth the risk, specially if we select Arthur, who isn't a safe pick at all.

I honestly could see us taking Alexander. From reading the Bee it sounds like he had an amazing work-out and Geoff has been known to take guys based off how they work out.

[pillwenney]

Joe Alexander looks to be moreso a bit out of range with how his stock has risen. Still definitely like him a lot as a hybrid foward, though.

Really, the only team that I could see him probably going to ahead of us is Milwaukee, but I think there's a pretty good chance he goes there.

But if he doesn't I think there's definitely a good chance he falls to us.

[Smills91]

Guys, DeAndre Jordan SUCKS. He has NO skills and no work ethic to develop any skills. This isn't football. Yes it's nice to have the physcial attributes to assist in making plays, but it's the ACTUAL SKILLS that make the plays. The combination of the two is lethal, but give me an unathletic SKILLED player over an athletic UNSKILLED player ANY day of the week. Jordan will BUST. I'd hope we could trade down to nab Arthur(maybe with Toronto at #17) and pick up another asset like a SAR/Ford swap in the process.

[Ballings7]

I wouldn't be completely disappointed if we picked Arthur, however, I see alot of KT in him (since both are undersized PF's)...

Arthur is already taller and longer than KT, and will get bigger as a whole as he matures. He's also a lot better athlete and will be noticably better offensively and defensively than KT. Also plays with a lot more energy than KT.

Kenny Thomas hasn't come up in my mind once, watching Arthur play with consistency since January 2007.

[Crimson King]

Guys, DeAndre Jordan SUCKS. He has NO skills and no work ethic to develop any skills. This isn't football. Yes it's nice to have the physcial attributes to assist in making plays, but it's the ACTUAL SKILLS that make the plays. The combination of the two is lethal, but give me an unathletic SKILLED player over an athletic UNSKILLED player ANY day of the week.

We're talking about Jordan or Arthur, not Jordan or Love .

[BMiller52]

Guys, DeAndre Jordan SUCKS. He has NO skills and no work ethic to develop any skills. This isn't football. Yes it's nice to have the physcial attributes to assist in making plays, but it's the ACTUAL SKILLS that make the plays. The combination of the two is lethal, but give me an unathletic SKILLED player over an athletic UNSKILLED player ANY day of the week.

We're talking about Jordan or Arthur, nor Jordan or Love .

Arthur has far more skills than Jordan. He is a good shooter, he has a bunch of post moves, and he's a good passer.

[Smills91]

Guys, DeAndre Jordan SUCKS. He has NO skills and no work ethic to develop any skills. This isn't football. Yes it's nice to have the physcial attributes to assist in making plays, but it's the ACTUAL SKILLS that make the plays. The combination of the two is lethal, but give me an unathletic SKILLED player over an athletic UNSKILLED player ANY day of the week.

We're talking about Jordan or Arthur, nor Jordan or Love .

Arthur has far more skills than Jordan. He is a good shooter, he has a bunch of post moves, and he's a good passer.

My point exactly, and Love actually appeared more athletic than Arthur in the combine results. Whether that's true or not is contingent on that particular day and how things progress going forward.

[Smills91]

Interesting article, here's a blurb I wanted to go over with ya'll:
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft200 ... ter-080620

Potential lottery picks
Darrell Arthur, Kansas, 15.82; Marreese Speights, Florida, 15.02

Players in the 15s are solid pros more often than stars, but these guys still should be useful pieces worthy of a high-to-mid first-round pick.

I can't tell you why Kansas played him only 24.7 minutes per game, but the numbers say Arthur is the third-best big guy in this draft. There are concerns that he might be a tweener, but he was a good college scorer who blocked shots.

Speights has only one full college season under his belt, but he's a huge post player who might be more of a factor in the NBA game than he was in college. But he would have been better off joining the league about 10 years ago, when it featured a more post-oriented, half-court game.

I think one of these guys will be our pick. I think Arthur is the more sure thing, but I think Speights has the higher bust/boom potential. And honestly I think he'll BOOM in the NBA in the right situation. I'll be content with either, but I really like Speights' ceiling.

[Ballings7]

I can't tell you why Kansas played him only 24.7 minutes per game, but the numbers say Arthur is the third-best big guy in this draft. There are concerns that he might be a tweener, but he was a good college scorer who blocked shots.

Just to clear a few things there...

Because Kansas was a deep team in both positional areas (Jackson, Kaun, Aldrich) and Arthur got into foul trouble pretty regularily.

Arthur's not a small foward, big wing-player, really. He's an athletic, skilled PF who's going to get bigger.

He also played high-level positional defense.

But he would have been better off joining the league about 10 years ago, when it featured a more post-oriented, half-court game.

lol at this

That's a key, key element to being a legitimate winning-style team, a title contender, and ultimately winning a championship. Always will be. No matter how much speed-ball, flash, athletic scoring, perimeter-oriented big men - biased people, want it to change.

I guess this guy didn't pay much much attention the playoffs. Especially the latter rounds.

Hell, their beloved Lakers wouldn't be the team they were and are going to be without their half-court offensive game.

It doesn't just relate to big men, either, of course, because of wing-men like Wade, LeBron, Kobe, Pierce, who are all quite skilled and effective in the half-court.

What is it with ESPN/the media and their iffyness towards defense and half-court basketball? Out of hope, desperation, and preference, are they trying to brush it off, ignore it, and continue to put emphasis on things that are a present factor - but not to the point where most of those aspects they sway to, are not what really dictates how teams contend and win titles in this league? Just very strange to me.

If you're into the game enough, you'll enjoy, be interested, recognize, and appreciate other parts of basketball outside of athletic scorers, high-scoring games, dunks, and run n' gun type of teams.

Bottom line is, if you can't play that well in the half-court, or don't have an above-average inside offensive game? You have a pretty serious flaw, and usually won't do that much, or be a top team (in relation to the playoffs).

[AnDrOiDKing4]

In Petrie i trust.

[Cruel_Ruin]

In Petrie i trust.

Yup.

If Geoff picks Arthur, then he sees something in him. Arthur showed enough over the year to make me happy with picking him.

I don't see the Kenny comparison at all. Kenny is a good rebounder, but he lacks size and length. Arthur, as of right now, isn't a good rebounder, but has length if not size, and terrific athleticism.

I'm just not into Speights at all.

[Krle_12]

In Petrie i trust.

Yup.

If Geoff picks Arthur, then he sees something in him. Arthur showed enough over the year to make me happy with picking him.

I don't see the Kenny comparison at all. Kenny is a good rebounder, but he lacks size and length. Arthur, as of right now, isn't a good rebounder, but has length if not size, and terrific athleticism.

I'm just not into Speights at all.

Arthur has length?!

He is not even a legit 6'9 in SHOES! How is that having length for a legitimate PF in the NBA?! Thats tweener territory.

Speights on the other hand at least has length (6'11 in shoes) AND size for a PF.

[KingInExile]

"Length" involves more than height, it also considers wingspan and reach. Arthur's wingspan and reach are high for his height and consistent with guys 2-3 inches taller. Speights' measurements are unknown because he bailed on the predraft camp (I consider that an attitude flaw that goes against him...gives credence to concerns with his work ethic and motivation).

Also, the fact that Speights has not worked out with the Kings (according to all available sources), there is no reason to think he's even on Petrie's radar. Speights will not be a King...not via this draft, at least (if ever).

[BMiller52]

In Petrie i trust.

Yup.

If Geoff picks Arthur, then he sees something in him. Arthur showed enough over the year to make me happy with picking him.

I don't see the Kenny comparison at all. Kenny is a good rebounder, but he lacks size and length. Arthur, as of right now, isn't a good rebounder, but has length if not size, and terrific athleticism.

I'm just not into Speights at all.

Arthur has length?!

He is not even a legit 6'9 in SHOES! How is that having length for a legitimate PF in the NBA?! Thats tweener territory.

Speights on the other hand at least has length (6'11 in shoes) AND size for a PF.

Speights is probably only 6'9''-6'10'' in shoes considering college teams list heights WITH shoes on and always exxaggerate measurements.

[Ballings7]

"Length" involves more than height, it also considers wingspan and reach. Arthur's wingspan and reach are high for his height and consistent with guys 2-3 inches taller. Speights' measurements are unknown because he bailed on the predraft camp (I consider that an attitude flaw that goes against him...gives credence to concerns with his work ethic and motivation).

Also, the fact that Speights has not worked out with the Kings (according to all available sources), there is no reason to think he's even on Petrie's radar. Speights will not be a King...not via this draft, at least (if ever).

Yup - very well said.

[Krle_12]

"Length" involves more than height, it also considers wingspan and reach. Arthur's wingspan and reach are high for his height and consistent with guys 2-3 inches taller. Speights' measurements are unknown because he bailed on the predraft camp (I consider that an attitude flaw that goes against him...gives credence to concerns with his work ethic and motivation).

Also, the fact that Speights has not worked out with the Kings (according to all available sources), there is no reason to think he's even on Petrie's radar. Speights will not be a King...not via this draft, at least (if ever).

And all those mesurements Arthur is average in.

Speights might not have been at the camp but he was measured in the private workouts and measured out to be a legit 6'11 in shoes and measure out great athletically. I have read that somewhere and will try to find the link to support those claims. There was also a story where Speights and Thompson were on their way to Sacramento for a workout after their stops in Utah. Just because there is no official announcement from the Kings it doesn't mean that we haven't worked him out. Speights was also a part of the multi team workout that we were involved with. He might well not be our pick but I sure as hell hope Arthur is not one either. He is a tweener and average NBA player at best. The last thing we need is a tweener forward that can't rebound if his life depended on it. At least Mikki Moore has some height!

EDIT: I found where I read about Speights

He also measured out very well. He was 6-foot-9¾ in socks and 6-foot-11 in shoes. He has very long arms that allow him to play even larger than he is. He also showed very good leaping ability and showed good lateral quickness for a big man.

http://www.kingsfans.com/forums/showpost.php?p=546795&postcount=1

[KingInExile]

Links to posts on another forum are hardly credible.

[SactownHrtBrks8]

Speights isn't as tall as made out to be. He is the same size as Joe Alexander, from what i could tell when they stood next to each other working out