Official Raptors 2011 NBA Draft Thread, Part 5

[5DOM]

Understand the Knight love, but I'm all for Irving. If we don't win the lottery, I think we should do all we can to trade up for him (hopefully Washington wins it).

[bboyskinnylegs]

here's a video highlighting the recent play from some of the prospects we're looking at (Williams/Kyrie/Barnes/Knight/Walker):

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RDpr-INSVw[/youtube]

[Rhettmatic]

Understand the Knight love, but I'm all for Irving. If we don't win the lottery, I think we should do all we can to trade up for him (hopefully Washington wins it).

I agree with that. I really hope Colangelo is aggressive in trying to move up to get him.

[MrBojangelz71]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, couldn't find it a few pages back. If so, lock it up. If not, I believe it deserves it's own thread simply because of the magnitude of a player that could be available to us on draft night.

While I am on the fence about taking Walker at the 4 or 5 spot this draft, with every game this past month, he tells me we should give him serious consideration. If UConn is trimming down a net by next week, Kemba will be considered as one of the best impact players to ever come out of the college ranks. You just can't ignore that and it might be more of a risk to not take him and watch him kill it in the NBA for years to come.

Anyways, Tim Chisholm gives his reasoning as to why he would be our perfect guard moving forward.

http://www.tsn.ca/nba/story/?id=359655

That's because, mostly, he fits one of the team's biggest needs. While Jose Calderon has done an admirable job as the full-time starter for the Raptors this season (he's fifth in the NBA in assists per game and third in the league in assist ratio), he can't be their long-term solution so long as DeMar DeRozan and Andrea Bargnani are on the club. He's simply too cordial and too deferential. DeRozan and Bargnani need a guard that does more to disrupt the defense so that they can both get easier shots, as neither one is particularly adept at making plays for himself and both need a guard that is willing to shoulder more of the team's offensive burden than either of them. While Walker is hardly a Steve Nash-esque playmaker, his speed and aggressiveness shifts defenses and pulls people into help scenarios, opening up other areas of the floor for his teammates. Plus, he does average 4.5 apg, which is more than Irving, Brandon Knight and Jimmer Fredette, so it isn't as though he's exactly a ball-hog on the offensive end of the floor.

[Reignman]

yeah, I highly doubt anyone will take Knight over Irving if both are available.

I think if we don't get the #1 the only team I want to see win it is Washington, that's the only team that wouldn't take Irving or would trade him if they did. Minny would be the other team but I see them moving Rubio and keeping Irving and I'm guessing they'd want a king's ransom for Rubio which I'd be a little skeptical of giving up.

[AB_21]

Caps lock much?

And he's a shoot first PG. Very talented, and he could be a great PG--but we need a franchise player and I don't see it in Kemba.

[TheRealDeal]

I'm hoping we go into 2012/2013 with some combination of this roster:

PG: Kyrie Irving or Myck Kabongo/Teague/Rivers (if he can play PG)
SG: DeMar DeRozan
SF: Quincy Miller or Derrick Williams/Harrison Barnes/Perry Jones
PF: Ed Davis
C: Andrea Bargnani

6th man: Amir Johnson

By then Jose will be in the final year of his contract, making him a $10M expiring. We could trade him in '12-'13 to a team that wants future salary flexibility and a serviceable PG for the stretch run. Hopefully he'll be playing well enough to net us a pick, another potential starter or 1-2 solid reserves. Bargnani will still be owed 3 years so we could, if possible, trade him for expiring contracts to open up the possibility of signing a big name FA center in the summer of '13.

The only guys we'd come out of the lockout paying are all young & talented. Amir, Kleiza, Bayless, and James Johnson could develop into a pretty strong bench. Ideally we'll end up with Kyrie, DeRozan, Quincy Miller and Ed Davis, who all have star potential. A number of defensive centers would love to play with that lineup, especially since we'd have $$ to spend.

I could see the Kings, T-Wolves, Cavs, Wizards, Clippers & Nets all improving next year. If we don't make any drastic moves this summer then I don't think tanking will be very difficult during a shortened season. Plus we'd keep our cap flexibility. Who knows what the future holds but I'm not ready to draft/not draft someone because Andrea or Jose are here. D-Will might look good next to a great shooting PG, Ed and a defensive 5. Can't wait for the butterflies that the ping pong balls will bring in 1 & 1/2 months.

I really don't think Dwill can play the 3. But I'll wait and see. Anways why no love for Gilchrist?
I have yet to watch Lebryan Nash play. I wonder what his style is like.

Gilchrist is interesting too but a 6'9" SF drawing comparisons to Durant gives me hope that Q Miller could be special. He could end up as the best player on a team featuring DeMar, Kyrie/D-Will/Barnes and Ed Davis. I haven't seen much of the 2012 guys yet but I'm hoping for a few franchise players in the crop. Now that I know how bad we'll be next year, the McDonalds game tomorrow night will be fun to watch. I just hope the new CBA doesn't screw us again with a new age limit for the draft. That wouldn't be fair to our franchise since it would make the 2012 draft one of the weakest of all time.

[MrBojangelz71]

Caps lock much?

And he's a shoot first PG. Very talented, and he could be a great PG--but we need a franchise player and I don't see it in Kemba.

Cut and paste from the main article, so ya. But I will change it to appease the masses

[Reignman]

God, I hope not, I have him ranked as the 3rd best PG in this draft after Irving and Knight.

After a tanking season like this I'd be pissed if walked out with a third-best anything. hell, I'd be upset with a 2nd best as well.

He's undersized, he's not that efficient and he's a junior. On top of that his PG skills went by the way side although I'll concede that his team needed him to score more than to pass.

I wouldn't be happy with Walker as our pick.

[MrBojangelz71]

While Walker is hardly a Steve Nash-esque playmaker, his speed and aggressiveness shifts defenses and pulls people into help scenarios, opening up other areas of the floor for his teammates. Plus, he does average 4.5 apg, which is more than Irving, Brandon Knight and Jimmer Fredette, so it isn't as though he's exactly a ball-hog on the offensive end of the floor.

[fredericklove]

its been posted in draft thread

[sanity]

Could be... but I'm not sure. Kemba's camp seems to be very tied with the Lebron James and co. crowd, so there could be plans to play with him eventually down the road.

[mikero]

Should be able to get a good pick in the top 5 no matter what. If Irving and Barnes are off the table, I would probably look at grabbing a bigman.

[Dr Positivity]

We might have a better chance at getting Irving at 3-5 than it seems. There's a reason Marvin went ahead of Paul. Teams love the physical tools guys and ignore the cerebral ones. Add that to Irving not playing much this year and he could make a stupid fall

The other thing is Washington's in there and would pass on Irving. So there's a real chance the lotto could line up like 1 Cleveland/Minnesota/Sacramento 2 Washington, where the team at 1 thinks Derrick Williams is the surefire #1 prospect (and he might be). Then all of a sudden Irving's down to 3. Or David Kahn who is all in on Rubio as the future could pass on Irving for PJIII or Valanciunas or Barnes. So a situation where the top 3 is Williams, Washington's pick, Kahn's dump pick - Which could push Irving to 4

[bboyskinnylegs]

Quincy is a bit of a question mark after his ACL injury, but yeah, he could very well be a special talent, and go-to option at SF (although to be fair, I see some of the same upside in Perry Jones at SF, although I think Perry's a better athlete and passer while Quincy is the better pure scorer).

Gilchrist could be a player that is very competitive and can really make a big impact defensively (while still being very solid on offense). Imo, he's like the SF version of Ed, and that's a guy you definitely want to build your team with.

[sunny]

if the cba raises the age requirement to 2 years in college, does the 2012 draft become the worst one of all time?

[5DOM]

if the cba raises the age requirement to 2 years in college, does the 2012 draft become the worst one of all time?

Looks like Sullinger could go #1

[sunny]

with the lockout coming, its possible that none of the top guys decide to enter anyways.
Well, Barnes, Williams, Sullinger, is enough talent to make a draft class considerably worse IMO.

[Alfred]

if the cba raises the age requirement to 2 years in college, does the 2012 draft become the worst one of all time?

I would probably commit seppuku.

[Ducksplatt]

It would be interesting if some team, like Brian Burke did with the Sedin Twins, drafted both Morris brothers:

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/21 ... _Difficult