Official Raptors 2011 NBA Draft Thread, Part 2

[Double Helix]

I think Terrence Jones has to be considered a top 6 lock at this point. He's young, he has a solid all around game and a competitiveness that I think scouts and GMs are going to like. All that said, I'm still having a hard time imagining him as an impact SF despite his strengths. His athleticism seems Jalen Rose-esque to me and I don't mean that in a good way.

I know people have thrown out the Lamar Odom comparison but Odom seems a lot lankier and freakish as a result. Here are some 6'7-6'9 SF types with solid rebounding ability. Maybe these names will give us a better idea of the kind of player Jones might be in the NBA.

- Caron Butler (less athleticism)
- Paul Pierce (Less of a one-on-one/iso creativity and a lower ceiling)
- Jamal Masburn (less passing and more shot blocking)
- Shawn Marion (less athleticism/ability to work without the ball/more ball reliant)
- Marvin Williams (more competitive and driven to stand out?)

Anybody else? Would anybody want a player like that playing alongside Demar Derozan if we ended up hitting some draft lottery bad luck and ended up selecting 5-7. Not exactly franchise-altering but probably a solid consolation prize if we don't get lucky with the ping pong balls. I think I could live with that heading into next season. I actually prefer him to Kanter and Sullinger worries me, though I suppose you take him if he's there and think about trading down.

I know everybody keeps mentioning Kevin Love with Sullinger but I also see shades of Zach Randolph on the medium end and dare I say it... Michael Sweetney as the worse case scenario. I'm less excited about him as an impact pro PF as most seem to be. I must be missing something.

[Kaizen]

....

[Rude Boy 1]

Or Terrence Jones?

[5DOM]

Probably Terrence Jones

[Double Helix]

Probably Terrence Jones

Yeah, a bit of a mental lapse there... Went back and re-edited.

[Rude Boy 1]

I'm glad people here are starting to put their ego aside and judge players based on their play not because they've been on their jock for a few months or because of the hype machine. Harrison Barnes is by no means a top 5 worthy pick, I could think of at least half a dozen players that I would love to have over him. The hype machine has gotten into too many peoples heads, he looks every bit like a Marvin Williams clone.

My board has been altered slightly

Kyrie Irving (will remain at the top of my list unless its determined his injury is career threatening)
Terrence Jones
Derrick Williams
Jared Sullinger
Kemba Walker (makes big shots)
Perry Jones (No real NBA position)
Enes Kanter (although I don't like the fact he hasn't played basketball all year....)
Brandon Knight ( you can't ignore his explosiveness)

[Kevin Willis]

I'm glad people here are starting to put their ego aside and judge players based on their play not because they've been on their jock for a few months or because of the hype machine. Harrison Barnes is by no means a top 5 worthy pick, I could think of at least half a dozen players that I would love to have over him. The hype machine has gotten into too many peoples heads, he looks every bit like a Marvin Williams clone.

My board has been altered slightly

Kyrie Irving (will remain at the top of my list unless its determined his injury is career threatening)
Terrence Jones
Derrick Williams
Jared Sullinger
Kemba Walker (makes big shots)
Perry Jones (No real NBA position)
Enes Kanter (although I don't like the fact he hasn't played basketball all year....)
Brandon Knight ( you can't ignore his explosiveness)

You really should have Leonard in there as well. I don't know what else he has to do to be considered in the top 7 -8.

Everything else seems about right. Hamilton isn't bad either.

[Rude Boy 1]

Leonard is okay but doesn't really strike me as a lottery pick. He doesn't really do one thing well he does a lot of things okay. Granted I don't watch any San Diego state games but from what I've read on him he looks like a mid teens flyer.

[Kevin Willis]

Leonard is an Amir/Haslem type player at the SF so I don't know how to value that. But... his last three years he's grown a lot each year to become one of the more productive players in college basketball. If you factor in his high motor and tremendous work ethic, he can easily be a steal of the Davis/Derozan kind. He doesn't need plays called. He boards. He hustles. He can hit the J. He's decent at defense.

You're right that he's not as sexy as your other picks. I'm really starting to warm up to Brandon Knight too. He's not a Rose type guard but his potential is showing and I like watching him play.

[So Clutch]

I think picking one of these PF/SF tweeners may actually help us quite a bit, assuming they can defendthe SF position. Everyone's worried that these tweeners don't quite have the perimeter game and outside shooting ability to be effective on offense. Even still, I believe it would give our team some much needed versatility as well as balance out the positional deficits we have due to the out-of-position skill-sets that some of our players have.

People always **** their pants whenever people suggest playing Andrea at SF because, as we know, that experiment failed horribly due to Drea's inability to defend NBA SF's or anybody with more mobility than a hippo, for that matter. However having one of these PF-sized forwards with SF-like mobility will allow Andrea to continue to play his perimeter game on offense, whilst allowing us to have another big body for interior scoring and offensive rebounding under the rim (something our current SFs like Weems, DeMar, Kleiza aren't too useful for). Yet on defense, our defensively-inept Andrea can continue to guard his lumbering C counterparts, and our tweener can take the quicker wing forwards.

These kind of subtle role changes from offense to defense would help us patch up some of the holes our team has, namely rebounding and inside offense. Our interior D would, however, continues to rest in the hands of Ed Davis or whatever big body we can acquire to put beside Andrea.