Official Raptors 2011 NBA Draft Thread, Part 8

just23 · Post #21 » by **just23** » Wed May 4, 2011 3:55 pm

The more I think about it, the less I want any of these centers with a top 5 pick. I liked the idea of Jonas at first, but after seeing some video of him I'd definitely pass. He looks like a bust. Kanter wouldn't even take part in a workout with his own teammates which raises a definite red flag. He should be able to dominate all of those guys, so I can only assume he's hiding something at this point which makes me pass on him. He better at least do a private workout for us, otherwise forget him and move on. Biyambo could be anywhere from 18-24 years old it seems. Pass. I'm not that high on any of them, but at this point I'd take Kemba, Knight or TJ and trade one of them along with Bargnani for a center or better small forward. Unless one of them looks better than expected in which case keep them and try and find our star in next years deeper draft.

JumpinJack24 · Post #22 » by **JumpinJack24** » Wed May 4, 2011 3:58 pm

Indeed wrote:We should save the pick for next season, unless they are willing to trade one of Alabi, Ajinca or Kleiza and give us the pick.
I hope BC can trade two of them for next season's pick, since we have similar talent at those backup spots already.

We don't have a 2nd rounder this year (to Det as part of the Delfino trade) so a trade would need to be worked out or find a team willing to sell us one.

Agree this year's team had a bunch of back up bigs that were quite similar but Ajinca, Reggie and Dorsey contracts all expire with the start of free agency. It would be a cheaper cap hit to sign a 2nd rounder (aprox $500-800k un-guaranteed) than it would be to resign any of those three (Joey and Alexis QO +$1MM).

If Benson can gain the weight I envision him and Ed to be our version of Antonio/Oak (or maybe the Davis's combo Indy had in the 90s) if we could get them to develop a bit of a mean streak.

NBADraft.net: http://www.nbadraft.net/players/keith-benson
From this video he looks very active on the glass, has a nice hook shot and can finish in contact

Post #23 » by **Rhettmatic** » Wed May 4, 2011 3:59 pm

Chad Ford thinks Biyombo will ultimately be a top 3 pick:

chadfordinsider Chad Ford
Patience. GMs just want a closer look. I bet after Chicago he's top 3. RT @mhaubs: Surprised Biyombo behind Kemba/BKnight

bboyskinnylegs · Post #24 » by **bboyskinnylegs** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:05 pm

^^ If his athleticism checks out to be on the level that it looks like from his game footage, and there is some sort of reassurance about the age issue, I can certainly see that happening after the combine (especially if Kanter/Val don't measure out as well)

Post #25 » by **Hassassin** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:07 pm

provecy15 wrote:One player who is catching my eye is Jan Vessly. His athleticism is through the roof, he is an above average shooter and is similar to an Andrei Kirilenko. Clearly he is not a 4 he is a 3 and he would give some size to us in that position. If we could trade bargs for a legit center, have amir or ed at the 4 with this either johnson or this guy at the 3 and derozan at the 2...it would look nice. Of course if irving and williams are off the board. He would be by third choice.

He's not going to survive in the NBA as a SF. His future position in the NBA is 4/5 when he fills out a little. He's the same size as Jonas Valanciunas.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QZxGrVco3o[/youtube]

Post #26 » by **5DOM** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:14 pm

Looks more like a 3/4 than a 4/5 IMO. His lateral quickness isnt terrible. In that video Locke(?) posted, he even did a decent job against Flip Murray IIRC

Rapsobsessed7 · Post #27 » by **Rapsobsessed7** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:16 pm

ah Rhet, havent seen you around here in a while, good to have you back.

monopoly · Post #28 » by **monopoly** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:18 pm

Right now, for the raptors, I'd say

1. Irving
2. Williams
3. Kanter
4. Biyombo

Really need more info on Kanter and Biyombo, though

Reignman · Post #29 » by **Reignman** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:24 pm

Rhettmatic wrote:Chad Ford just updated his top 100 prospects... a fair bit of movement:

http://proxy.espn.go.com/nba/draft/resu ... /year/2011

His top 10:

1. Irving
2. Williams
3. Kanter
4. Walker
5. Knight
6. Vesely
7. Biyombo
8. Valanciunas
9. Terrence Jones
10. Tristan Thompson

Pretty good list, I'm down with that with some minor variations until the workouts.

Rapsobsessed7 · Post #30 » by **Rapsobsessed7** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:24 pm

for me its.

- you luck into the top 2: you take either D.Williams or K.Irving. Kyrie Irving is option 1 and Williams option 2 but getting either will really help the future of this franchise.

- you stay at #3: you take Kanter. Skilled big man with post skills who is a perfect fit with Ed and look to trade Andrea for a young PG/SF.

- You move down to #4/5 you take Brandon Knight. I would also consider him with the #3 pick. Im assuming Kanter is good on D and can help cover the rim, if its deemed he cant you take Brandon Knight at #3 and be done with it, if you move down as a result of a team leapfrogging us then its a no brainer.

Getting either Irving/Williams/Kanter or Knight will help this team and make the season of losing we endured worth it. So im not really concerned about the draft.

Reignman · Post #31 » by **Reignman** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:27 pm

Rhettmatic wrote:Chad Ford thinks Biyombo will ultimately be a top 3 pick:

chadfordinsider Chad Ford
Patience. GMs just want a closer look. I bet after Chicago he's top 3. RT @mhaubs: Surprised Biyombo behind Kemba/BKnight

I actually think the opposite, once he's in for workouts his "rawness" might be exposed and I could see him going for the slide.

We'll see, biggest X-Factor in this draft, I can see him going anywhere from top 5 ish to the late teens.

pspot · Post #32 » by **pspot** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:38 pm

Rhettmatic wrote:Chad Ford thinks Biyombo will ultimately be a top 3 pick:

chadfordinsider Chad Ford
Patience. GMs just want a closer look. I bet after Chicago he's top 3. RT @mhaubs: Surprised Biyombo behind Kemba/BKnight

Isn't this kind of psychitzophrenic, I updated my mock draft and put Biyombo 7th but really I think he'll go 3rd

Post #33 » by **5DOM** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:38 pm

I dont think Biyombo's rawness will hurt him a lot. People are probably already expecting the worst, and anything he shows on offense in workouts will be a bonus IMO. His offense from what I've seen is not tragic either. Bad but not so much considering he's still learning

wanker · Post #34 » by **wanker** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:40 pm

Rapsobsessed7 wrote:Getting either Irving/Williams/Kanter or Knight will help this team and make the season of losing we endured worth it. So im not really concerned about the draft.

I'm not concerned with the draft itself, but I am concerned with BC (and company) picking after #2. I'm pretty sure BC will **** the bed on this one.

pspot · Post #35 » by **pspot** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:40 pm

Like a few years ago when Euro players started going higher than they should have with teams trying to find the next Dirk we might be seeing the same with teams reaching on athleticism trying to find the next Westbrook/Ibaka

Truthrising · Post #36 » by **Truthrising** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:42 pm

Rhettmatic wrote:Chad Ford thinks Biyombo will ultimately be a top 3 pick:

chadfordinsider Chad Ford
Patience. GMs just want a closer look. I bet after Chicago he's top 3. RT @mhaubs: Surprised Biyombo behind Kemba/BKnight

Who does he think we are. Rob Babcock? We are not gonna be suckered into taking Biyombo if we have the 3rd pick.

Comeatme_Bro · Post #37 » by **Comeatme_Bro** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:49 pm

Rob babcock was so horrible!! How do you draft the biggest stiff in the draft with a lottery pick and then follow that up with getting literally NOTHING in return for your franchise player? It still pisses me off to this day how such an idiot can get paid millions to make the dumbest decisions.

ATLTimekeeper · Post #38 » by **ATLTimekeeper** » Wed May 4, 2011 4:55 pm

provecy15 wrote:One player who is catching my eye is Jan Vessly. His athleticism is through the roof, he is an above average shooter and is similar to an Andrei Kirilenko. Clearly he is not a 4 he is a 3 and he would give some size to us in that position. If we could trade bargs for a legit center, have amir or ed at the 4 with this either johnson or this guy at the 3 and derozan at the 2...it would look nice. Of course if irving and williams are off the board. He would be by third choice.

I don't buy the KIrilenko comparison at all. He's nothing like him aside from the fact that his body will break after a few years in the NBA. AK47 is a point forward, rabid defender. Vesely is a stretch 4. Can't really handle the ball, doesn't create for others, he's not even that great a shooter. He's got some nice post-moves and is a fantastic athlete, seems to know where to be on the court (except when it comes to grabbing rebounds). The scariest thing is he didn't really improve (physically or skill-wise) from last year to this one. Frankly I think he's just catching hype because he can jump out of the gym. I'd rather make a play for Jonas Jerebko or Thad Young if we want to spend some $.

Post #39 » by **Rhettmatic** » Wed May 4, 2011 5:25 pm

Rapsobsessed7 wrote:ah Rhet, havent seen you around here in a while, good to have you back.

Cheers! I was out of the country for a couple weeks. Here's how out of the loop I've been: I just found out yesterday that Barnes had officially announced he was returning to UNC.

Any other big draft/Raps news happen recently?

ATLTimekeeper wrote:I don't buy the KIrilenko comparison at all. He's nothing like him aside from the fact that his body will break after a few years in the NBA. AK47 is a point forward, rabid defender. Vesely is a stretch 4. Can't really handle the ball, doesn't create for others, he's not even that great a shooter. He's got some nice post-moves and is a fantastic athlete, seems to know where to be on the court (except when it comes to grabbing rebounds). The scariest thing is he didn't really improve (physically or skill-wise) from last year to this one. Frankly I think he's just catching hype because he can jump out of the gym. I'd rather make a play for Jonas Jerebko or Thad Young if we want to spend some $.

Completely agree with your take on Vesely -- and with the fact that I'd rather pursue Thad Young, who posted an 18.4 PER this season and is only two years older than Jan.

I just don't see what Vesely is going to hang his hat on in the NBA. He's an athlete but I haven't seen it translate on the defensive end at all (though I should point out that I've seen him play only a few of times on fuzzy streams, so I'm far from an expert).

Post #40 » by **5DOM** » Wed May 4, 2011 5:26 pm

Rhettmatic wrote:
Rapsobsessed7 wrote:ah Rhet, havent seen you around here in a while, good to have you back.

Cheers! I was out of the country for a couple weeks. Here's how out of the loop I've been: I just found out yesterday that Barnes had officially announced he was returning to UNC.

Any other big draft/Raps news happen recently?

Chris Bosh signed with Miami. We got our pick back so that's a good news