Official Raptors 2011 NBA Draft Thread, Part 3

[Kevin Willis]

No to Perry. He's never really shown himself to be anything more than potential. Baylor is not having a great season. He didn't have great teams in high school.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - he's Tyrus Thomasish in his physical ability but lack of skill and he's McGradyish in his inability to make his team considerably better. I would prefer Barnes.

Nice article though, gives some insight to the going ons of college basketball.

[dagger]

No to Perry. He's never really shown himself to be anything more than potential. Baylor is not having a great season. He didn't have great teams in high school.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - he's Tyrus Thomasish in his physical ability but lack of skill and he's McGradyish in his inability to make his team considerably better. I would prefer Barnes.

Nice article though, gives some insight to the going ons of college basketball.

What exactly has Barnes showed except being a 40% jump shooter?

[Kevin Willis]

No to Perry. He's never really shown himself to be anything more than potential. Baylor is not having a great season. He didn't have great teams in high school.

I've said it before and I'll say it again - he's Tyrus Thomasish in his physical ability but lack of skill and he's McGradyish in his inability to make his team considerably better. I would prefer Barnes.

Nice article though, gives some insight to the going ons of college basketball.

What exactly has Barnes showed except being a 40% jump shooter?

Oh, I'm not that big on Barnes. That's why I'm saying I would rather take him than Perry Jones. At least Barnes is part of a winning program and has a history of winning. Plus he has just as much 'potential' as Perry and I think has a better chance of realizing it than Perry due to his work ethic.

[DreamTeam09]

That was a very long and good read. Baylor just isn't that good of a team, it all shouldn't be put on him for their poor record. I'd love to see PJ, TJ, and HB in a private workout. If PJ could defend them, I'd easily take him.

[5DOM]

TJ vs. Barnes - TJ is more nba ready.
Kanter vs. Valanciunas - Kanter is more nba ready.

Rebounding is a skill that translates and both TJ and Kanter are better rebounders.

Barnes and Jonas have more potential. If they reach it you have an athletic rebounding center and a well-rounded swingman. It's just a matter of flavour at this point until someone seperates himself from the other.

How do you know Kanter is more NBA ready and a better rebounder than Valanciunas? Kanter hasn't played in a year and they said he wasn't even that consistent against high schoolers.

[McFurious1]

TJ vs. Barnes - TJ is more nba ready.
Kanter vs. Valanciunas - Kanter is more nba ready.

Rebounding is a skill that translates and both TJ and Kanter are better rebounders.

Barnes and Jonas have more potential. If they reach it you have an athletic rebounding center and a well-rounded swingman. It's just a matter of flavour at this point until someone seperates himself from the other.

How do you know Kanter is more NBA ready and a better rebounder than Valanciunas? Kanter hasn't played in a year and they said he wasn't even that consistent against high schoolers.

Kanter is more nba ready he scored 34 points in the 2010 nba submit against pretty much this draft class. Jonas is just coming on the map but needs more development (strength, fouls).

[TheDunc]

Count me in on the Perry Jones bandwagon. The guy is a physical freak of nature with a very good head on his shoulders. He has a great work ethic though, hes already improved alot. Hes scored more at baylor then in high school.

We need to draft the player we think might be something special. so if kyrie irving and derrick williams are off the board. I would take a chance on Perry Jones. He is basically Anthony randolph but with a good head on his shoulders. Randolphs main problem was always his attitude.

Perry can handle the ball, he can jump over you, he can shoot the ball from mid range. He has all the tools to be a very good rebounder and shot blocker. Give him some time and like derozan we might see this kid improve and become something special. We shouldnt be drafting him to be the next tmac or durant cause that is far fetched. But in a weak draft, ill be happy if we get a player like him.

Can he play the 3? who knows at this point but we arent good enough to start pick and choosing. We need to collect the best talent there is and then decide after if we should trade them or not.

[TheDunc]

Im a big Ed davis fan but i get the feeling he doesnt want to stick with the raptors. Which is why i think we should trade him for a pick and a player. With that pick we NEED to grab Tristan Thompson. Hes going to be a good player and hes canadian! no worries about him sticking around.

[Rhettmatic]

sa (atx)

what's the ceiling for Tristan Thompson? How high would he go if he came out this year?

Chad Ford (1:58 PM)

He's been on the rise the past month. He's a bit undersized which hurts him a bit. But lately he's been Texas' best player. Teams love the motor and the ability to work the offensive glass. As David Thorpe says, he's a beast. We have him No. 12 on our Big Board right now. More teams I talk to, more I'm convinced he might go in the Top 10. He may not be a star in the NBA, but scouts feel that what he's doing right now in college he could do in the NBA and that's a big plus.

[TheDunc]

sa (atx)

what's the ceiling for Tristan Thompson? How high would he go if he came out this year?

Chad Ford (1:58 PM)

He's been on the rise the past month. He's a bit undersized which hurts him a bit. But lately he's been Texas' best player. Teams love the motor and the ability to work the offensive glass. As David Thorpe says, he's a beast. We have him No. 12 on our Big Board right now. More teams I talk to, more I'm convinced he might go in the Top 10. He may not be a star in the NBA, but scouts feel that what he's doing right now in college he could do in the NBA and that's a big plus.

Right on cue. My thoughts exactly, good athlete,good rebounder, good defense, improving offense. Hes just an overall good player who will only get better. I was hoping to pick him up with a 15-20 range pick but i guess he will be in the lottery

[5DOM]

TJ vs. Barnes - TJ is more nba ready.
Kanter vs. Valanciunas - Kanter is more nba ready.

Rebounding is a skill that translates and both TJ and Kanter are better rebounders.

Barnes and Jonas have more potential. If they reach it you have an athletic rebounding center and a well-rounded swingman. It's just a matter of flavour at this point until someone seperates himself from the other.

How do you know Kanter is more NBA ready and a better rebounder than Valanciunas? Kanter hasn't played in a year and they said he wasn't even that consistent against high schoolers.

Kanter is more nba ready he scored 34 points in the 2010 nba submit against pretty much this draft class. Jonas is just coming on the map but needs more development (strength, fouls).

Except that the only player he went up against worth mentioning was Sullinger who shot 10-14 himself. And that was only one game (which happens to be the only game on youtube).

[DreamTeam09]

Thats great for TT. I'd say they are boosting about him in the top 10. I think he could declare this yr and get picked in the 1st round. Hes prolly more of a 20-30 pick than a top 10 pick. I think he should stick around next yr and see if he can dominate on the regular. That would be the best for him, theres nothing for him to gain by coming out this yr.

[TheDunc]

The draft class is stronger next year so he might have a better shot at ending up in the lottery. He had a pretty good year at texas anyways.

[karolis1221]

when this year nba summit going to be?

[Mr.Raptorsingh]

Nice read on Perry Jones.

It sounds as if he has the demeanor of Andrea Bargnani.

[Dr Positivity]

Perry sounds like Vince and Bosh the third. MVP talent, but one of the softest players in the league

I'd still take him 1st. The VC and Bosh picks were still good ones. Ideally they'd be 2nd options to a hungry 1st option. Maybe Demar could be the leader of this team.

[TheRealDeal]

What exactly has Barnes showed except being a 40% jump shooter?

Barnes clearly hasn't lived up to the preseason hype, but more NBA scouts and executives seem to feel that he's come around."When you watch him, really watch him close, I think you gain a major appreciation for his game," one veteran NBA executive said. "He hasn't wowed us the way we expected him to, but his maturity level, his skill set and his overall feel for the game are outstanding. He's better than his box score shows, and I think he's going to go much higher than most people expect him to on draft night. If he has a big game against Duke and in the [subsequent ACC and NCAA] tournaments, he could still go No. 1."

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=nba_draft&id=6181077

[Dr Positivity]

Some quotes from the NYT piece

In midseason, a Baylor practice was interrupted by a scary event — a player suffered a seizure and had to be taken away by ambulance. Jones went to the hospital, as did Drew, two assistant coaches and the team’s athletic trainer. When I asked Jones about it later, he said that he was not really closer with this teammate than with any other, and he did not seem to realize, until I pointed it out, that he had been the only player at the hospital. “I just wanted to know he was O.K.,” he told me. “I didn’t feel like I wanted to leave until they said they were going to sign the forms and release him. He’s like family. If it was me, I would want someone to stay there who was on my team.”

It’s a little hard to imagine Michael Jordan being the sole player at the bedside of a stricken teammate. Sports superstars generally have gladiator personalities. They want to take all that is theirs — the shots, the glory, the money, the women — and then some. If they are too aggressive or greedy, their coaches hope to rein them in. Jones will never wreck a team’s chemistry because of selfishness. He has the physical gifts to be an N.B.A. All-Star, maybe even a historic player, but has a true superstar ever had the soul of a nurse or, for that matter, a peer mediator?

[...]

Fran Fraschilla, another former coach who appears on ESPN broadcasts, who unlike Knight has been an enthusiastic booster for Jones, told me that as much as he loves Jones’s potential, he wonders about his temperament. “Let’s face it,” he said, “most superstars are jerks, or they have that side to them. It goes with the territory. I don’t know if this kid is even a little bit of a jerk.”

[...]

“We all did,” he said. “Pretty much the whole team.” He said they told Jones a version of what he had been hearing since he arrived on campus. No one wanted him to just fit in; they wanted him to dominate.

Ellis, who has earned his diploma and is in graduate school, referred to Jones as “an anomaly” on the basketball court. “Or you could say he’s a freak,” Ellis said. “That’s what we call him sometimes. There’s stuff he can do that a man his size should not be capable of. So as his teammates, we just try to tell him that it’s his responsibility to fully use his talents.”

No one around the Baylor program says that Jones does not play hard, and it has never looked to me that he is dogging it. He runs the court, rebounds, plays defense (though not always well). He exerts himself in practice and is said to be the team’s hardest worker in the weight room. He is a ripped 230 pounds, a “classic basketball body,” Charlie Melton, the team’s strength coach, told me. “He’ll go into the N.B.A. at 235 pounds, 240 at the most.”

[...]

Scott Drew likes everything about Perry Jones and laments that he may never again get to coach someone with his combination of physical gifts and personal character. Drew may, in the end, advise him to stay, but he is unlikely to ask him to do so — especially if Jones ends up as the likely top pick in the draft. “We’d love that to be the case,” he said, “because then we would have done our job as coaches, which is to serve our players as best we can and help them meet their goals and dreams, but if he wanted to come back, we wouldn’t say no.”

One thing's for sure, I don't think it's a bad thing to have a player like Perry on a roster. I'd rather have that than Demarcus Cousins.

But it really seems like nobody would fit this franchise more - and I don't mean that as a compliment. Our history is dominated by enigmatic talents who don't have it mentally. Perry seems like he could top all of them in that category, while still being the 2nd or 3rd best player we've ever had

[Reignman]

What exactly has Barnes showed except being a 40% jump shooter?

Barnes clearly hasn't lived up to the preseason hype, but more NBA scouts and executives seem to feel that he's come around."When you watch him, really watch him close, I think you gain a major appreciation for his game," one veteran NBA executive said. "He hasn't wowed us the way we expected him to, but his maturity level, his skill set and his overall feel for the game are outstanding. He's better than his box score shows, and I think he's going to go much higher than most people expect him to on draft night. If he has a big game against Duke and in the [subsequent ACC and NCAA] tournaments, he could still go No. 1."

http://m.espn.go.com/general/blogs/blogpost?blogname=nba_draft&id=6181077

Man, that quote sums up exactly how I feel about Barnes, his game really is pretty good. He's not going to come out like gangbusters but he has the tools to eventually become the best player from this class. Solid mechanics on his J out to the 3, very good defender, very good rebounder, closer's mentality, killer work ethic and high IQ/character guy.

He isn't ball dominant and can play passively but I think that would work in a team setting, especially one where we have guys who chuck at will, he could fit in very nicely as a glue guy to start his NBA career and then slowly become more dominant as we shed the chuckers.

[Reignman]

Some quotes from the NYT piece

In midseason, a Baylor practice was interrupted by a scary event — a player suffered a seizure and had to be taken away by ambulance. Jones went to the hospital, as did Drew, two assistant coaches and the team’s athletic trainer. When I asked Jones about it later, he said that he was not really closer with this teammate than with any other, and he did not seem to realize, until I pointed it out, that he had been the only player at the hospital. “I just wanted to know he was O.K.,” he told me. “I didn’t feel like I wanted to leave until they said they were going to sign the forms and release him. He’s like family. If it was me, I would want someone to stay there who was on my team.”

It’s a little hard to imagine Michael Jordan being the sole player at the bedside of a stricken teammate. Sports superstars generally have gladiator personalities. They want to take all that is theirs — the shots, the glory, the money, the women — and then some. If they are too aggressive or greedy, their coaches hope to rein them in. Jones will never wreck a team’s chemistry because of selfishness. He has the physical gifts to be an N.B.A. All-Star, maybe even a historic player, but has a true superstar ever had the soul of a nurse or, for that matter, a peer mediator?

[...]

Fran Fraschilla, another former coach who appears on ESPN broadcasts, who unlike Knight has been an enthusiastic booster for Jones, told me that as much as he loves Jones’s potential, he wonders about his temperament. “Let’s face it,” he said, “most superstars are jerks, or they have that side to them. It goes with the territory. I don’t know if this kid is even a little bit of a jerk.”

[...]

“We all did,” he said. “Pretty much the whole team.” He said they told Jones a version of what he had been hearing since he arrived on campus. No one wanted him to just fit in; they wanted him to dominate.

Ellis, who has earned his diploma and is in graduate school, referred to Jones as “an anomaly” on the basketball court. “Or you could say he’s a freak,” Ellis said. “That’s what we call him sometimes. There’s stuff he can do that a man his size should not be capable of. So as his teammates, we just try to tell him that it’s his responsibility to fully use his talents.”

No one around the Baylor program says that Jones does not play hard, and it has never looked to me that he is dogging it. He runs the court, rebounds, plays defense (though not always well). He exerts himself in practice and is said to be the team’s hardest worker in the weight room. He is a ripped 230 pounds, a “classic basketball body,” Charlie Melton, the team’s strength coach, told me. “He’ll go into the N.B.A. at 235 pounds, 240 at the most.”

[...]

Scott Drew likes everything about Perry Jones and laments that he may never again get to coach someone with his combination of physical gifts and personal character. Drew may, in the end, advise him to stay, but he is unlikely to ask him to do so — especially if Jones ends up as the likely top pick in the draft. “We’d love that to be the case,” he said, “because then we would have done our job as coaches, which is to serve our players as best we can and help them meet their goals and dreams, but if he wanted to come back, we wouldn’t say no.”

One thing's for sure, I don't think it's a bad thing to have a player like Perry on a roster. I'd rather have that than Demarcus Cousins.

But it really seems like nobody would fit this franchise more - and I don't mean that as a compliment. Our history is dominated by enigmatic talents who don't have it mentally. Perry seems like he could top all of them in that category, while still being the 2nd or 3rd best player we've ever had

wow, you would take Perry over Cousins? I like Perry and have him in my top 3 in this draft but Cousins is going to be a beast, headcase or not. I see Cousins as the next great big man.