WizarDynasty wrote:you are not going to find two way players who are above average on both sides of the ball in free agency and teams normally don't trade these guys unless there is really something wrong with them.
The only way you find a two way player with great worth ethic..is in the draft. There is a reason teams traded both jamison and butler. Neither player is an above average two way player. It would be nice to figure out which players in the draft will turn out to be above average two way players. Above average on offense and an above average man to man defender with a great work ethic. These players almost never exist in free agency, and you almost never see a team trade a player like this in his prime.
So you best bet is to get him in the draft. This team needs one at the s/f position let's just hope we get him.
I assume you're speaking in the abstract about our sports fishermen deficit. You almost sound like you have someone in mind when you go over your laundry list of qualities you want. But I'm sure you would have said something about it before now, so there probably wasn't any rhyme to your requirements, they sound like a joke, a dream too...
Al Farouq-Aminu, it's a pun sort of. Nevermind.In response to Doc's request for preliminary list of options at various positions:
Point GuardJeff Teague is going to be a pretty good score first point guard. His jump shot works a lot better when he doesn't have to deal with a defender contesting it, but he has touch and in this case he needs it to keep defenders honest rather than as a foundation for his game. He could stand to get his hand on some Tony Parker footage because he relies pretty heavily on drawing fouls when he gets inside. He's a bouncy guy but he's a little too short to just jump over people.
Stephen Curry isn't the shrimp he's sometimes made out to be. OK, he is pretty skinny actually, but he's a decent (not great, but not bad) athlete. Keep in mind it was a big deal when J.J. Redick dunked in-game at Duke, and he just barely could, Steph can get up a little. I don't foresee Nashdom for the kid but I think Mike Bibby's career (perhaps minus the 8+ assist seasons) is possible.
Sometimes it's okay to use a draft pick on a guy who you know is going to be a solid backup, and
Darren Collison is one of those guys. Four years in college have allowed him to work out exactly what he can and can't do as a player. I like him a lot more than I do Lawson.
Eric Maynor has completely lost his touch from beyond the arc over the past couple of weeks but he's another guy I trust to be a ten year player in the NBA. He doesn't bring quite as much perimeter shooting to the table but he's bigger and (you can take this as a positive or a negative) hasn't had the help Collison has in college, and has some of Collison's experience playing under a microscope.
Patty Mills is a good player but doesn't make much sense to me as a complement to Gilbert.
Shooting GuardI'm not quite as in love with
James Harden's game as is Doc, but I appreciate his intelligence and his ability to read and adjust correctly. If you hooked up some sort of dream anthropomorphizer to Bob Knight's brain and whispered "shooting guard" in his ear while he slept it would probably spit out somebody kind of like James, maybe with less facial hair.
I do really like
Evan Turner as a player for his multidimensional game and his defensive ability. At 6'7" he should be able to defend twos and threes while acting as a secondary ball handler on offense. Get him a reliable three point shot and that sounds like John Salmons, having skipped the terrible Philly portion of his career during which I assume he got himself mixed up with Willie Green.
Watching
Chase Buddinger I always come away impressed with his overall skill level and I'm sure he'll be a valuable offensive role player at the next level. On the other hand I very rarely come away impressed by his athletic ability, which I'm assured is still all there and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing that he doesn't seem to use it.
The opposite is true when I watch
Danny Green. I had always assumed he was a big time athlete until I started hearing talk about how good he looked for someone who didn't have much athletic ability. He's a good shooter in any event and I was very confused by Bill Raftery's lament over the loss of "Carolina's only good perimeter defender in Marcus Ginyard" until I remembered Bill Raftery.
I do not enjoy watching
Tyreke Evans play but I do not deny that his game will readily translate into NBA effectiveness.
I'd argue that being part of so many five guard lineups this year has actually helped
James Anderson by forcing him to use his size and athletic ability as rebounder and defender (well as a rebounder anyway). He's still a very solid shooter. I like
Ellington about as much, both I tend to think will be serviceable but not exceptional NBA players.
Between my natural aversion to Duke prospects and his total lack of guard skills prior to this year I don't think I should be evaluating
Gerald Henderson.
Small ForwardAl-Farouq Aminu certainly has all the talent in the world, but I don't know yet where that talent is ultimately going to leave him. I think he's already in a bit of a positional gray area, though he has the quickness to prevent him from becoming a defensive negative as a small forward. I'm not sure he isn't still growing anyway, and might end being more effective at power forward (think Andrei Kirilenko) anyway, this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
DaJuan Summers is clearly talented and has the physical ability to take advantage of it but I never get the same read on the kid twice. I can't foresee a situation where we're in a position to draft him anyway, but I'll root for him.
Earl Clark is way too good to be as bad as he is. At this point he might be better off sticking to power forward, or locking himself in a gym with a shooting coach for a year.
I'd still take a late first/second round look at
Austin Daye without any hesitation at all. He's way way way too talented to be around that late and the fact that I'm even able to entertain hopes that he'll drop is evidence that he should stick around for another year in college.
If we're looking for a stashable European in the second round
Omri Casspi would be a very good choice. He's a bit like Andres Nocioni, he has good size for a small forward and he's a nice athlete. While he's not quite as hefty as Noc both guys give a lot of effort fueled by pure hatred. A member of the jackass crazy foreigner club (Noc, Ginobili, Andres Biedrins, Sasha Vujacic), not the softee jump shooter association.
Power ForwardWe don't really need another take on
Blake Griffin, he's number one on my board as well.
I'm keeping
Greg Monroe and
Jordan Hill pretty even right now and if it comes down to a choice between the two on draft night I think I'd be satisfied whichever way we went. Actually I wouldn't be surprised if both of these guys are a little better than they appear. Hill seems to have some skills that aren't really used in Arizona (a mid-range jumper) and Greg needs to realize that court balance is a virtue because it creates high percentage shots, and when you're eight of nine it's okay if Jessie Sapp has to wait a game to get his looks. I do, however, look forward to moans of "oh no not another soft big man" if we draft Monroe (his on-ball defense is pretty good).
Blair is another guy I have to excuse myself on, even if I watch him while repeating "Paul Millsap" over and over I have trouble. Wonderful rebounder. I actually have less trouble with
Patrick Patterson, but I think I tend to assume Millsap is a better athlete than he actually is.
Donatas Montiejunas would be another nice guy to stash if we want a second rounder who we don't have to pay right away. He's not likely to make it beyond the tail end of the first round, though I guess there's always a chance that the lack of restriction on second round contracts will appeal to a guy like that and he'll maneuver his way out of the first. I wouldn't blame you if you're a little leery of European big men at this point.
CentersI wonder if guys as tall as
Hasheem Thabeet just can't consistently run with an uptempo offense because he is SLOW up and down the floor but you'll see him hedge and get back defending a pick and roll and it just boggles the mind how quickly he can cover ground. I like his mid-range jumper (he'll easily be the tallest guy in the league who actually jumps when he shoots) and being so big might almost help him defensively in a sense because he doesn't have to do all of the jumping and running out of position to provide help defense. Having to move around and stay with his man outside of the paint will be an adjustment. I'm a little tempted to say he'd be worth working out a way to keep if we aren't looking at Griffin but somebody else is going to be knocking down our door to trade up for him at this rate, and that's probably the smarter choice.
I see a lot of the potential in
BJ Mullens but I'm not heartbroken that we're not going to be the team to see if he manages to fulfill it.
Cole Aldrich is a much safer bet and could be a very solid defensive center on a good team, but again, center isn't where we're looking to improve.
-Ed