College players thread/ Draft Related thread

[horaceworthy]

If Foye can defend the SG position and continue playing as well as he is on the other end, then I don't have a problem with him playing SG. It's unconventional, but height on the perimeter doesn't matter as much as people make it out to. Most guys heights are a bit inflated, so Foye's mostly going up against guys that are around 6'4" or 6'5", which he can handle. There's also been an increase in the amount of minutes NBA teams employ smaller backcourts since the advent of the handchecking rules, which helps. It's also not like there are a ton of perimeter players with decent post games these days that can exploit a height mismatch (plus Foye's strong and explosive enough to mitigate some of that mismatch anyway).

It'd be great if Randy could learn the PG position full time, but I'm not sure that it's essential. It would be nice to get a big PG like Calathes or even the newly minted (as a PG at least) Tyreke Evans, but I have no problem with Foye at SG as of now.

[the_bruce]

Foye is way better at guarding 2's. To me he seems to have problems defending quicker guards.

[horaceworthy]

I think it's more that he has to defend the pick and roll less at SG than at PG. Aside from maybe Cardinal, our bigs don't do that good a job helping out the PG, and that's really the key to defending that play.

[zauchary]

Foye is way better at guarding 2's. To me he seems to have problems defending quicker guards.

i think tonight's game put an end to this myth, as he shut down paul who was giving telfair fits all night.... if only we were able to make that switch earlier in the game.

also, i think terrance williams of louisville should get a look at pg. it has been said that Paterno wants him there but he likes his rebounding ability too much.... his confidence is getting so much better, giving us a glimpse into his potential.
4.9 assists 9 boards and 2.2 steals a game.

[hotshotschamp]

holy cow

So i'm watching Eric Maynor on espn 2, he's an impressive player, pg from Va Commonwealth. He's a very smart player, rarely turns it over, great passer, good body control and shot.

I know he's not from a big program but this kid looks to be a future nba player, and a good one at that.

[Worm Guts]

With the emergence of Foye and Carney, I'm starting to wonder if the Wolves should target Mullens. The perfect compliment to Love and Jefferson would be big, athletic, have a jump shot, and nice hands to catch Love's sweet interior passes. Mullens is the only guy in the draft with potential for all of that.
I think he'd take a couple of years to develop and we'd be spending a lottery pick on a backup, but big, skilled, athletic bigs are hard to find and we'd still have plenty of assets to look for perimeter help.

[PeeDee]

I've learned from being a T'Wolves fan, that you can't put all your eggs in one basket. Even though Carney has come on this year, I still wouldn't hesitate to take a 2-3 if that was the BPA. In the range we'll likely be picking, Mullens is a reach. And if we're going to gamble on 'potential' I'd stay away from bigs altogether. It's much easier to learn a wing position in the NBA than blossom into a quality big.

I like Aldrich better than Mullens at this point, and it's not really close.

I think we should start keeping an eye on Austin Daye. He seems to be over his injury and has been playing really well lately. Check out his last few games:

http://www.timberpups.com/Austin_Daye.html

Granted, it hasn't been against great competition, but if he panned out a 6-10 sf with a jumper and weakside de ability would look great on this roster. I'll be looking to forward to his performances against better competition down the line.

[hotshotschamp]

I really like Cole Adrich's game as well. He's a very polished big man, good mid range shot, good on the block.

He may never be a star, but I can see him being a good D presence and a 15 and 10 guy.

[Worm Guts]

I've learned from being a T'Wolves fan, that you can't put all your eggs in one basket. Even though Carney has come on this year, I still wouldn't hesitate to take a 2-3 if that was the BPA. In the range we'll likely be picking, Mullens is a reach. And if we're going to gamble on 'potential' I'd stay away from bigs altogether. It's much easier to learn a wing position in the NBA than blossom into a quality big.

I like Aldrich better than Mullens at this point, and it's not really close.

Aldrich is a better player than Mullens right now, and I agee it's not close but Mullens has so much more potential than Aldrich and it's not close.
Mullens has the potential to be a guy that we need and is hard to find, and that's something I would take a risk on.

[PeeDee]

I understand the mentality, but how often has the "big with potential" panned out? I can think of one... I can think of A TON more that haven't.

I just hate floundering lottery picks. I can see taking a chance on him after a certain pick and depending on who is still on the board.

[hotshotschamp]

I agree his potential is big.....but could go either way..

I think Aldrich is a guy who is going to be very good and the downside is a lot less. Nothin wrong with a 150 and 10 type center. Esepcially when we don't need another scorer.

[Worm Guts]

It's not so much his offensive potential that intrigues me, it's mainly about what his size could do for The defensively. Even if he sucks, he's always going to be 7'1 270 (or whatever) and that's going to add an element to the team.
At 2 and 3 the Wolves have Miller, Gomes, Brewer, Foye and Carney. There's still room to improve but there isn't going to be much playing time for a young player to develop if he's not a stud right away.

[deeney0]

The Wolves have problems with quicker guards - I'm not sure it's quite accurate to single Foye out until we've got someone punishing the Tony Parker types for taking it to the hole.

I don't count on Miller being here long term anymore. Gomes may, but he's not a reason to not draft someone. When this team is ready to actually compete, Gomes (if he's still here) should be no more than the 7th or 8th man. Carney and Brewer might be redundant, but it's hard to say at the moment. Maybe Corey will never get his speed back, which wouldn't bode well for him. 2/3 might be crowded right now, but I'd still rather take someone there than a question mark big.

[Worm Guts]

There's also the cap room factor. It's going to be easier to find an impact free agent at the 2 or 3 (joe johnson, marvin williams) than the 5.
Alot of it does depend on what you think of Mullens and the other guys available at that spot.

[deeney0]

There is that factor, of course. But we have our front court of the future set already, undersized as it is, like it or not. It's 1-2-3 that aren't set in stone, and that's the major reason I think that's where the focus needs to be, not a backup 5.

[Worm Guts]

There is that factor, of course. But we have our front court of the future set already, undersized as it is, like it or not. It's 1-2-3 that aren't set in stone, and that's the major reason I think that's where the focus needs to be, not a backup 5.

There's still 20-30 minutes per game available in the front courts, and size is a huge need. I was also going off the premise that Foye was set at the two, which may be premature. My concern is if we take a 2 or 3 and don't hit a home run, we're not improving anything, not even depth. If we take 7 footer or a point guard, the guy has some room to grow.

[Devilzsidewalk]

ideally I'd love to get a guard that can score and a physical SF in the draft and field offers for Gomes/Miller

[Worm Guts]

I'm looking at drafting Mullens and signing a Joe Johnson giving us lineup of
Foye
Johnson
Brewer
Jefferson
Mullens

with Love, Carney and whoever else coming off the bench. Maybe I'm just too focused on proper size and athleticism, but I think that's a linuep that works.

[Devilzsidewalk]

I like the idea of drafting a young stud bigman, but more as a trade chip so we can pull a (for example) Miller/Mullens for your star whatever on your underachieving team kinda trade when the time is right. You need those young bigmen prospects to get teams' attention. Use a couple picks to fill holes, and use a couple to get the most intriguing young athletic prospect available for future trade considerations when consolidating the roster. Especially if we bring Carney back, which I really want to do right now. I think the core is Jefferson, Foye, Love, Carney if we can get him for a good price, and maybe Brewer. The rest of the guys we have to seriously look at packaging for upgrades. And I think we have to do at least one before the deadline because I'm telling you, it's gonna be a mistake to trade picks away this draft for futures or money, the Wolves have the opportunity to draft some prospects and those are our lotto tickets to success, they have to take advantage. Even a great team like the Suns has gotten burned throwing picks away, a team like the Wolves can't mess it up. We have too many role players, but you don't build around role players, the draft picks - even late ones - are more valuable for a team like ours just on potential alone. Its such a key draft, I don't like the vibe I've gotten from random articles that late 1sts are throwaway picks. There's always a "why didn't we take that guy?" pick in that range and beyond.

[deeney0]

I don't see Love coming off the bench, and I don't want to count on being able to sign a Johnson type.