2011 DRAFT blather goes here. Part 3...

[WizarDynasty]

if we don't get Kanter, I definitely think Vesely makes alot of sense. He has the same competitive heart as John Wall.
John Wall has the ball in his hands creating for others 90 percent of the time, the other times you got Dre and Mcgee who are iso. Vesely is outstanding moving without the ball looking for the pass for a score. He knows how to move wihout the basketball. When his feet are set, he has demonstrated in real meaningful games that he can stroke the three. He plays tough, not soft and doesn't take plays off. His length means that can he close out on the three point line and is able to give alot of space to defender and still defend the perimeter. He has one of the greatest ever shot blockers in the making in Mcgee behind him and Vesely becomes the second best shotblocker on our team. He gets to the rim in two dribbles and he has a good basketball iq. He isn't polished but working with wall and his work ethic and attitude will definitely get him there. John Wall's style of play is the reason why Vesely is the next best pick for the wizards. A low post offensive banger that can also defensive rebounder and give us some girth to defender against the stronger post players since McGee and Blatche don't have this type of body is why Kanter works for us. Kanter on other teams probably isn't worth a top five pick anyway. Vesely makes since because we have the unique talent of blazing fast point guard who loves to dish and throw alley oops but also doesn't tke plays off. Vesely for the rest of his career wih the wizards put another player on the court with the same passion for basketball. I see an instant chemistry of Vesely and Wall.
i would wait to see what Leonard's standing reach is and what is vertical is. I just see leonard as replicating what we already have on our bench. the biggest thing with leonard is that he is a proven defensive rebounder which this team has trouble with last year but he reminds me alot of al thornton with a little bit better passing ability and higher defensive awareness but leonard seems more like he has a shooting guards body than he does a small foward's body. He just doesn't have teh length to bother big three;s out on the perimeter. Vesely already matches our longterms needs of a three and d small forward. Vesely has a weak body, doesn't have strong finishing ability in traffic but we don't need a small forward that can create his shot. We need a three and lock down perimeter defense which requires outstanding standing reach and wingspan "aka mcgee blocking 3 point shots". I don't think Leonard has exceptional standing reach or vertical, probably 8'8 standing reach based on where his head is at on alley oops and he doesn't seem like a guy that can finish in traffic because he seem pretty stiff in terms of his aerial coordination. His jumper is also pretty stiff with not much arc and he takes along time gathering himself on a catch and shoot.

I would go with Kanter or Vesely because Vesely matches John Wall and Kanter matches Blatche and Mcgee. Kanter is much slower than blatche and mcgee so he isn't the fast break burn partner to go with Wall but does offer us a change of pace post presence offensively and intelligent meat with size when we face post pounding centers than love throwing their weight around on McGee and Blatche.

[nate33]

When his feet are set, he has demonstrated in real meaningful games that he can stroke the three. He plays tough, not soft and doesn't take plays off.

How can you possibly say that when he averages just 6 rebounds per 36 at the SF/PF position, and he shoots just 50% from the FT line?

I'm just flabbergasted that you have drawn these conclusions.

A low post offensive banger that can also defensive rebounder and give us some girth to defend against the stronger post players

WTF? Have you even seen video of Vesely? Even his "best of" highlights don't show any of this.

[REDardWIZskin]

the words banger and Vesely definitely shouldn't be on the same page...

[DallasShalDune]

Unless the GMs know something I don't, either move up to nab Kanter/Williams or get out. The chance of bust-hood from these guys is too expensive for my taste. I think Kanter is legit--he's an athletic big with size. He can at least be of use. Williams is obviously a legit player--the only question that comes into pay is whether he is a star or not. I can't say the same for the Euros or plethora of PGs in this draft.

[illyasova]

Unless the GMs know something I don't, either move up to nab Kanter/Williams or get out. The chance of bust-hood from these guys is too expensive for my taste. I think Kanter is legit--he's an athletic big with size. He can at least be of use. Williams is obviously a legit player--the only question that comes into pay is whether he is a star or not. I can't say the same for the Euros or plethora of PGs in this draft.

Positive comments of Chad Ford at his tweet about Kanter

http://twitter.com/#!/chadfordinsider

"Enes Kanter impressed GMs here. Looked more athletic than they thought. Marshon Brooks looked great too. Ditto Kenneth Faried"

Seems he is gonna protect his place as a 3rd pick.

[DieHardWizFan]

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

Vesely looks to play with a lot of effort but he has bad hands. As we learned with Kwame you can't fix bad hands...

[nate33]

Here's where I'm at right now:

On Draft Day, when Utah is on the clock, I'd offer our #6 plus their choice of Seraphin or the #18 for the #3. If they accept, draft Kanter and be done with it. If Utah declines the trade, they'll either draft Kanter, Knight or Valanciunas.

I'd sit tight while Cleveland was on the clock. If Cleveland drafts Kanter, I'd call them with the same proposal. I wouldn't make the call until after their pick though. No sense tipping our hand to them.

The same goes for Toronto. If they draft Kanter, we call with that trade proposal. If not, then we draft him ourselves.

Assuming somebody drafts Kanter and nobody takes our offer, we should be sitting with the 6th pick with Irving, Williams, Valanciunas, Kanter and Knight off the board. At that point, I might call whoever drafted Kanter and offer our #6 plus two among Seraphin, Booker and #18. (It would depend upon further evaluation of Kanter.) If I got turned down again, I'd use the full 5 minutes of the allotted time to search for a tradedown scenario. My goal would be to stay high enough in the draft that I could end up with Biyombo or Leonard. That probably means I wouldn't trade down further than #9.

If nothing panned out, I'd draft Leonard at #6.

[LyricalRico]

+1

After all my initial Kanter hate, I think I'm there as well nate.

[WizarDynasty]

His hands as well as his body control in traffic are concerns of mine.

I read a report that indicated that he did have pretty good hands and i have seen him do a nasty double cross with the basketball. You can't do a double crossover without coordinated hands. i do noticed that he shows Jeffries type touch in terms of shooting the ball in traffic but catching alleyhoops moving fulls speed requires alot of hand coordination as well. But his hands and his arm coordination after taking off inside of the free throw line are things i would drill on him and see if how much room for improvement he has.
But he catches one handed alleyhoops, he can shoot the three, he can pump fake from three point line and take to the hole and finish if he doesn't have alot of bodies he has to go through.
I think he has teh work ethic and a guy like a john Wall to play with every day forces you to improve your hands because Wall has vested interest...because it improves his assist total which moves Wall to elite status in the nba. so the unique setting of the wizards is how you have to evaluate each player. Vesely on Minnesota is a nightmare. Kanter in Utah is a huge redundancy with their other bigmen.

Kanter will be terrible for Toronto because he isn't a defensive anchor and toronto doesn't have any one who can fill that role while the wizards have McGee as defensive anchor who lacks the meat that Kanter has on the blocks. However, most teams don't have dominant post player and the ones that do can probably beat kanter. Kanter improves us only because of our holes that our bigs possess but kanter has holes that our bigs fill.

[gesa2]

^^^^
I'm with Nate, but would draft whoever was available of Valuncius or Biyombo at 6 instead of Leonard. I think you have to project offense with all 3, and my 2 at least are big. An offensively limited defensive 3 has a pretty limited role.

[Ruzious]

I hear you guys, but if I'm Cleveland, and Kanter slips to 4, there's a 100% chance I pick him and keep him. He's exactly what they need. I think the ONLY way to get him is to make a trade into the top 3, and Utah is the perfect trading partner, because they don't need someone like Kanter.

[gesa2]

If Cleveland takes Kanter, what about some sort of a trade for Hickson or Varejao? Prob not I guess, Varejao is older than our core, and Hickson wasn't great last year with lots of opportunities.

[GhostsOfGil]

Here's where I'm at right now:

On Draft Day, when Utah is on the clock, I'd offer our #6 plus their choice of Seraphin or the #18 for the #3. If they accept, draft Kanter and be done with it. If Utah declines the trade, they'll either draft Kanter, Knight or Valanciunas.

I'd sit tight while Cleveland was on the clock. If Cleveland drafts Kanter, I'd call them with the same proposal. I wouldn't make the call until after their pick though. No sense tipping our hand to them.

The same goes for Toronto. If they draft Kanter, we call with that trade proposal. If not, then we draft him ourselves.

Assuming somebody drafts Kanter and nobody takes our offer, we should be sitting with the 6th pick with Irving, Williams, Valanciunas, Kanter and Knight off the board. At that point, I might call whoever drafted Kanter and offer our #6 plus two among Seraphin, Booker and #18. (It would depend upon further evaluation of Kanter.) If I got turned down again, I'd use the full 5 minutes of the allotted time to search for a tradedown scenario. My goal would be to stay high enough in the draft that I could end up with Biyombo or Leonard. That probably means I wouldn't trade down further than #9.

If nothing panned out, I'd draft Leonard at #6.

[NbdyBeatsTheWiz]

anybody else seen these reports?

Sam Amico is reporting that the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves are discussing a potential trade for the second overall selection in the NBA Draft.
Amico mentions Danny Granger, Ricky Rubio and Michael Beasley as some of the players being discussed between the two teams, so clearly these two teams are looking to make a major deal. If David Kahn deals the second overall pick and gives up Rubio and Beasley in the same trade, he better receive a haul of talent in return or he's going to face some serious backlash from the fans.

That would shake things up quite a bit, especially around these parts with all our talk of trading up

[nate33]

I'm not so sure that Kanter in Cleveland is a foregone conclusion. Valanciunas seems to get more respect in the mocks than he does on this board. It's possible that Cleveland might view him as their long term center to pair with Hickson at PF (with Varajeo ultimately being traded for picks/prospects).

As of now, I think there's enough of a possibility that Kanter slips to #6 that I'm not ready to sacrifice too much in order to move up to #3. Of course, that opinion may change in the coming weeks as we get more information on Kanter, Valanciunas and others.

[Ruzious]

I'm not so sure that Kanter in Cleveland is a foregone conclusion. Valanciunas seems to get more respect in the mocks than he does on this board. It's possible that Cleveland might view him as their long term center to pair with Hickson at PF (with Varajeo ultimately being traded for picks/prospects).

As of now, I think there's enough of a possibility that Kanter slips to #6 that I'm not ready to sacrifice too much in order to move up to #3. Of course, that opinion may change in the coming weeks as we get more information on Kanter, Valanciunas and others.

Fair enough.

[nate33]

anybody else seen these reports?

Sam Amico is reporting that the Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves are discussing a potential trade for the second overall selection in the NBA Draft.
Amico mentions Danny Granger, Ricky Rubio and Michael Beasley as some of the players being discussed between the two teams, so clearly these two teams are looking to make a major deal. If David Kahn deals the second overall pick and gives up Rubio and Beasley in the same trade, he better receive a haul of talent in return or he's going to face some serious backlash from the fans.

That would shake things up quite a bit, especially around these parts with all our talk of trading up

The beauty of all this is that it doesn't really affect our strategy of going after Kanter. Indy would surely draft Williams at #2, which would leave the rest of the draft picture more or less the same.

The one thing that is interesting is the talk of trading Rubio. If Minny trades Rubio, surely they'd want to have a plan in place to stay high enough in the draft to grab Knight or Walker. Maybe a 3rd team will be involved. Maybe it's us.

[LyricalRico]

The one thing that is interesting is the talk of trading Rubio. If Minny trades Rubio, surely they'd want to have a plan in place to stay high enough in the draft to grab Knight or Walker. Maybe a 3rd team will be involved. Maybe it's us.

Maybe Indy is sending Collison to Minny? Another thing is that Utah could see Minny trying to get back into the top of the lottery for a PG and that means they go ahead and reach for a PG at #3 to make sure they don't lose their guy to the Wolves. Then we are stuck hoping CLE/TOR doesn't take Kanter (or accepts our 6+18 offer).

For the Wolves, I definitely think they need to make a big "consilidate assets for a veteran" trade. But Granger? He doesn't make them a playoff team IMO. I think they'd be better off going after somebody like Bynum if they are giving up the #2.

[nate33]

^^^^
I'm with Nate, but would draft whoever was available of Valuncius or Biyombo at 6 instead of Leonard. I think you have to project offense with all 3, and my 2 at least are big. An offensively limited defensive 3 has a pretty limited role.

Given that Leonard has only one season under his belt, I think there's a pretty good possibility that he develops a decent offensive game at the 3. He won't be Paul Pierce or anything, but I think he could be a pretty solid 3&D forward with serviceable 3-point range and the ability to pump fake and drive.

That said, I can't really argue with you. I wouldn't mind drafting Biyombo at #6 instead of Leonard. Talentwise, they're pretty equal in my opinion. I lean toward Leonard because he fills a greater need.

[illyasova]

http://twitter.com/#!/TheHoopsReport

Enes Kanter on what team he prefers to go to: "I like Minnesota, Washington and Cleveland."