Chicken Littles: Sky done fell! Draft Thread 2011

[spaceman_E]

*coughs* Has this board forgot Antawn Jamison that quickly? The "worst defender in the league" that we were screaming to get rid of and would never win the big one with him at the 4. I'm not saying their games are identical but in a general sense, how is Williams much different? More athletic, better ball handler, ok. Very good, efficient, perimeter oriented big. Undersized, not a great rebounder and an undistinguished defender. Williams looks like a successful NBA player, but how many championships will he win as a no.1 option?

We need to take the best 2-way player and I think that is still Barnes, or possibly Kanter.

[WizarDynasty]

teh question becomes..how dot the wizards stack up against the celtics.

wall= rondo
young=allen
Williams=Pierce
Green=Blatche
Garnett=McGee

Glen Davis=Booker

or

rose=Wall
brewer=young
Deng=Williams
Boozer=Blatche
Noah=McGee

Booker=Gibson
Asik=Yi and Seraphin
Korver/Watson=Crawford


chalmer=wall
wade=young
l.james=williams
bosh=blatche
dampier=mcgee

Williams may get roasted on defense by james, pierce, and maybe deng but he will make up for it on the offensive hopefully by attacking the rim. He should be able to easily abuse deng and pierce in the post. He will get lit up on the perimeter from three on most nights guarding pierce and don't know if he has the foot speed to keep up with a powerful driving lebron james but who can.

[TGW]

*coughs* Has this board forgot Antawn Jamison that quickly? The "worst defender in the league" that we were screaming to get rid of and would never win the big one with him at the 4. I'm not saying their games are identical but in a general sense, how is Williams much different? More athletic, better ball handler, ok. Very good, efficient, perimeter oriented big. Undersized, not a great rebounder and an undistinguished defender. Williams looks like a successful NBA player, but how many championships will he win as a no.1 option?

We need to take the best 2-way player and I think that is still Barnes, or possibly Kanter.

Williams projects to be an average defender at the pro level, while everyone knew Jamison would be terrible as a defender. Right now, he's a good defender at the college level. Unlike Jamison, he works HARD to establish positioning on both ends of the floor. He's made game saving blocks as well. The guy competes on both sides of the floor, and if you find a player that's willing to put the effort in, you will have a good defensive player. I mean, look at Chuck Hayes for example. The guy is 6'6 and guards players 4-6 inches taller than him every game. He does an excellent job defending certain spots on the court, and pushes his man out of their comfort zone. He does a great job on Tim Duncan, and Duncan is much taller. So I don't think you can rule out Williams defensively. Not when he works so hard at it.

[spaceman_E]

Yeah watching DWillz against Duke's legit bigs and watching him basically foul out the TX bigs (4 fouls each for TX' legit frontline defensive scrappers, rendered them passive late game). I'm happy with him with any pick. He's got the sort of big game passion that ignites a team.

1. Duke doesn't have any legit bigs. Singler is an offensive minded 3. The Plumlees have nice size but are simply 5's.
2. Texas clowned Williams. 4-14 shooting with 4 TOs. Towards the end of the game he was even worse. He had a TO, 2 bricked FT's, and a ridiculously lucky 3 point play where he just threw the ball at the hoop.

[dobrojim]

love his BBIQ and competitiveness

love that he shoots from range well

really love that he gets to the line a lot and makes FT when
he gets there.

don't care whether you want to call him a 3, 4 or a tweener.

he can ball

[Ruzious]

Space, Mason Plumlee should have been pretty much the ideal guy to defend him on the college level - a 6'11 defensive-minded athletic player. Williams clinched victory with blocks in 2 games recently (I think one was in the conference tournament), and against Texas, he forced the Texas player to take a bad shot at the very end. That's 3 recent games that he's clinched with defensive plays.

[tontoz]

love his BBIQ and competitiveness

love that he shoots from range well

really love that he gets to the line a lot and makes FT when
he gets there.

don't care whether you want to call him a 3, 4 or a tweener.

he can ball

I don't see why he couldn't be a full time 3 or a full time 4 or play both spots.

[tontoz]

The Hawks have made history.

The playoff-bound Atlanta Hawks appear to be unraveling as they continue to get pounded at an historic pace.

As a result, Atlanta has been blown out at home more often than any team with a winning record in NBA history. The Hawks have suffered five home losses by 20 or more points, including three by more than 30 points. Each ranks as the top total in NBA history for teams with winning records, according to STATS, LLC.

The Hawks (40-32) have lost 14 of their last 21 games and are losing their footing in the Eastern Conference playoff during the freefall. Atlanta finds itself trying to hold off sixth-place Philadelphia, which is just 2 1/2 games behind the Hawks.

“It’s something I’ve been preaching it seems like every day this month, about how to respond to runs,” Drew said. “This game is a game of runs. Teams make runs. You make runs. You respond to it and we just don’t respond to it well at all. It looks like we lose interest, lose confidence. We just don’t handle it well.”

[queridiculo]

I don't quite see him as a natural three, he looks a bit heavy footed for that position. I could never see him being able to match up with the quicker 3s in the league defensively, at the same token, he'd be a matchup nightmare on the other end.

spaceman_E, where I'm at I kind of maintain the position that you draft the most talented guys you can find and basically pray they pan out.

To me Barnes is a safe pick, but I don't see him having the kind of upside that can really take our team to the next level. Given the choice between the three guys you mentioned I pick Williams first, Kanter 2nd and I'd only select Barnes if guys like Sullinger and Jones are already off the board.

Outside of Wall and Young this team is sorely missing scoring options, and from what I've seen from Williams, he looks like the type of guy that can you give you scoring from anywhere within 15 feet.

[RT31]

Barnes plays tonight, so let's see if he catches up to all the Williams love from his big game yesterday. I have to admit, I was drooling a bit last night too. Especially since it was against dook.

I'm still in the Barnes camp for right now though. I think he's a prototype SF build.

[nate33]

The playoff-bound Atlanta Hawks appear to be unraveling as they continue to get pounded at an historic pace.

As a result, Atlanta has been blown out at home more often than any team with a winning record in NBA history. The Hawks have suffered five home losses by 20 or more points, including three by more than 30 points. Each ranks as the top total in NBA history for teams with winning records, according to STATS, LLC.

At some point, teams are just going to stop trading with us. It's like we're the kiss of death or something.

First, we send Jamison to Cleveland for Thornton a pick and cap relief. Jamison immediately crushes Cleveland's championship hopes. They fail in the championship run, Lebron bolts, and Cleveland is left with Jamison's $28M contract. Meanwhile we got a useful swingman in Thornton plus a pick that we combine with our #35 pick in order to draft Booker, who proceeds to post the 4th highest PER among rookies.

Then, we send Haywood and Butler to Dallas. Haywood signs a big contract then immediately flakes out and becomes a 25% shooter from the FT line. He loses the starting C job and has to fight with Ian Mahinmi for scrap minutes. Butler gets hurt and misses half the season.

Then, we rob Chicago in the Hinrich deal - renting Hinrich for $6M while picking up Seraphin in the process. The added cap room didn't really help Chicago much. They lose out in the Lebron sweepstakes so they end up signing Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer to long term contracts. Both players disappoint. They're still looking for a real SG and have been forced to give Keith freaking Bogans the starting job.

Finally, we swindle Atlanta in the Hinrich trade, getting Crawford and a pick. At the time, the pick was slated to be the 23rd pick in the draft. Unfortunately for Atlanta, the Wizards curse forces Atlanta into a freefall. Now, the pick is the 21st pick and looks pretty likely to be the 19th or 18th pick by the end of the year. Oh yeah, and Crawford looks like a legit NBA player and perhaps even a starter in the future.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

If we draft Williams, I'd start him at PF and force Blatche and McGee to fight for playing time at C. Ideally, McGee has a good offseason and takes the starting job because I like the Williams/McGee combo to start (they play well with Wall) and I like the Booker/Blatche combo coming off the bench (run the offense through Blatche against opposing backups).

PG Wall/#33 pick (N.Smith?)
SG Young/Crawford
SF Lewis/#20 pick (T.Honeycutt?)
PF Williams/Booker
C McGee/Blatche
End of bench: C.Martin, M.Evans, K.Seraphin

No, I wouldn't do that. I'd let Williams take the job from Rashard Lewis at SF. Lewis is paid well and seems the type to accept his role. I would trade Blatche if it became apparent he'd have to move from PF to the bench. Under NO circumstances would I displace McGee/Seraphin at C for Blatche, who is inefficient and not a C. My plan would be let Lewis be a team guy off the bench, just like Booker and Seraphin.

nate, I think it is unrealistic to put Blatche coming off the bench for this team. He did so for 4 years behind Jamison/Haywood. He's not going to do it without complaining vehemently. I would trade Blatche.

[fishercob]

I mostly agree. If we're lucky enough to get Williams, I'd look to start him at the 3 and platoon Booker and Lewis at the 4. Lewis could back up the 3 as well, so I'd probably start Shard at the 4 (short term solution obviously, so calm down everyone), and slide him over to the 3 when Booker gives Williams a blow

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The playoff-bound Atlanta Hawks appear to be unraveling as they continue to get pounded at an historic pace.

As a result, Atlanta has been blown out at home more often than any team with a winning record in NBA history. The Hawks have suffered five home losses by 20 or more points, including three by more than 30 points. Each ranks as the top total in NBA history for teams with winning records, according to STATS, LLC.

At some point, teams are just going to stop trading with us. It's like we're the kiss of death or something.

First, we send Jamison to Cleveland for Thornton a pick and cap relief. Jamison immediately crushes Cleveland's championship hopes. They fail in the championship run, Lebron bolts, and Cleveland is left with Jamison's $28M contract. Meanwhile we got a useful swingman in Thornton plus a pick that we combine with our #35 pick in order to draft Booker, who proceeds to post the 4th highest PER among rookies.

Then, we send Haywood and Butler to Dallas. Haywood signs a big contract then immediately flakes out and becomes a 25% shooter from the FT line. He loses the starting C job and has to fight with Ian Mahinmi for scrap minutes. Butler gets hurt and misses half the season.

Then, we rob Chicago in the Hinrich deal - renting Hinrich for $6M while picking up Seraphin in the process. The added cap room didn't really help Chicago much. They lose out in the Lebron sweepstakes so they end up signing Kyle Korver and Ronnie Brewer to long term contracts. Both players disappoint. They're still looking for a real SG and have been forced to give Keith freaking Bogans the starting job.

Finally, we swindle Atlanta in the Hinrich trade, getting Crawford and a pick. At the time, the pick was slated to be the 23rd pick in the draft. Unfortunately for Atlanta, the Wizards curse forces Atlanta into a freefall. Now, the pick is the 21st pick and looks pretty likely to be the 19th or 18th pick by the end of the year. Oh yeah, and Crawford looks like a legit NBA player and perhaps even a starter in the future.

It's as if all the karma Ernie Grunfeld built up from 2007-2009 being very kind to other GMs just came back with several of them being kind to him. It's like he killed them with kindness under Abe but now he's smiling, bringing GM close to him, and after embracing them he's breaking shanks off in backs big time under Ted.

I like Ted Leonsis's Ernie Grunfeld.

[fishercob]

IBTL

[tontoz]

At some point, teams are just going to stop trading with us. It's like we're the kiss of death or something.

I agree with Nate about Williams playing the 4. Lewis was productive at the 3 and i would expect them to draft a 3 going forward if they don't do it with the Atlanta pick. I think Williams can play the 3 also but if Lewis is healthy might as well start him there. Next years draft seems loaded with 3s.

Forget Blatche. Drafting Williams means he is basically a goner anyway.

[tontoz]

Barnes plays tonight, so let's see if he catches up to all the Williams love from his big game yesterday. I have to admit, I was drooling a bit last night too. Especially since it was against dook.

I'm still in the Barnes camp for right now though. I think he's a prototype SF build.

I like Barnes too but i am not sure i would pick him over Williams. Barnes seems far to willing to settle for jumpers and i haven't seen him do much driving to the rim.

[Geaux Wiz]

If we draft Williams, I'd start him at PF and force Blatche and McGee to fight for playing time at C. Ideally, McGee has a good offseason and takes the starting job because I like the Williams/McGee combo to start (they play well with Wall) and I like the Booker/Blatche combo coming off the bench (run the offense through Blatche against opposing backups).

PG Wall/#33 pick (N.Smith?)
SG Young/Crawford
SF Lewis/#20 pick (T.Honeycutt?)
PF Williams/Booker
C McGee/Blatche
End of bench: C.Martin, M.Evans, K.Seraphin

I'd absolutely love that draft, would give us so much versatility. Literally every single player besides Wall, Smith and Young would be able to switch position depending on matchup.

[Illuminaire]

I'm holding off from sending EG thank you cards and a fruit basket until after this draft. Evil EG reigned for too long for me to forget after one good season. =p

[queridiculo]

Regarding Williams, what impressed me in last nights game is how composed the kid is on offense. You really don't see him taking any bad shots, and the fact that he played within himself after torching Duke for 25 points in the first half speaks to his feel for the flow of the game.

He could have easily pressed and tried to put an exclamation point on his game but instead he sat back, took what the defense gave him and helped his team win the game by focusing on his rebounding and defense.

Very impressive performance for a 19 year old.