Calipari compares Knight to Stockton

[StocktonShorts]

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsjazzn ... e.html.csp

Long stream-of-consciousness stuff from Calipari here. Even without the Stockton comparisons, reading what he has to say about Knight makes me think he's the guy the Jazz will end up with.

[retiredcoach]

The Stockton comparisons are for marketing purposes.

Calipari has to sell his players. The more players he has that make it to NBA, especially ones that are high draft choices, the easier it is for him to recruit.

His comments are self serving, not an unbiased evaluation of Knight.

Even if everything he says is right on the money, Knight couldn't help the Jazz much for his first 3 years, and he's not the key to the Jazz moving up the playoff mountain.

[gojazzmjsucks]

But we have Harris so we may be able to wait on him to develope.

[retiredcoach]

About the time he's developed, either he'll be a great point guard and want to leave or he won't be any better than Harris and a wasted pick.

Harris will stay because he's been traded around and players get tired of moving. Harris can't get a bigger contract or endorsement money elsewhere.

This is the new NBA. The really good players aren't going to stay with one team for a career. It's one of the problems with the CBA.

If Knight start now, then Harris is a trade opportunity, but Knight isn't close to being ready.

[kamazilla]

Stockton?! That definitely makes me discount his effusive praise of Kanter a bit. Self serving comments, yes.

[StocktonShorts]

If you haven't read the article you should. He's not saying: "This kid will be as good as Stockton", but he's pointing to certain traits that remind him of Stockton (probably in no small part because he's talking to the Jazz beat reporter). Nevertheless this was the part I found most interesting and encouraging:

From beginning to end of the year, he just got better and better and better. What's amazing for Utah is, he's a lot like a John Stockton. In that, hey, you may have a guy right now — Stockton didn't start right away. And what you have is a young man who would be with you for a while, you know what I mean? The biggest thing I can tell you, I've never been around — yeah, I've been around some that have worked as hard as him — but none of them have worked harder, and whatever you think he's going to become, he's going to become. A lot of players in the draft you say, 'Potentially, this guy could be this, that and the other, but we have no idea whether he'll be that.' Well, with Brandon, whatever you think he's going to become, he'll become. I just think over three years, you're going to say 'Wow.' Whoever he gets him.

In this quote the Stockton bit seems to be referencing how Stockton came in behind Rickey Green and had time to develop.

The kind of work ethic and dedication that he's touting here sounds appealing to me, and probably seems even more appealing to KOC and co. We'll see how things go, but at this point I'd put money on the Jazz ending up with Knight by the end of draft night (one way or another).

[HammerDunk]

I think they also need to keep in mind that if it comes down to 2 guys that are equally bpa or whatever, they need to consider if that guy is a big time fame seeker. I don't know what they can look for at this point in their careers to see that kind of thing, but I'm sure they have figured some things out since drafting Deron. There has to be some signs that, "hey this guy is going to want a big market some day" or "hey this guy is humble and would probably love to stay with a small market team for a long time".

If Knight takes 3 years to develop into a very good PG, but would love to stay with the Jazz, then he is well worth the pick. From what interviews I have heard and things he has said about possibly playing in Utah, I have really liked that side of him so far.

[edfmx86]

its set then, we will draft him

Knight = Stockton
Favors = Malone

[DonAZ62]

and Hayward=Hornacek

[retiredcoach]

Would Karl Malone be the number 1 pick in this year's draft if he had declared?

[d-will8]

Obviously, you have to take Calipari's praise for Knight with a grain of salt, but I don't think you can disregard that bit about his work ethic and character. Coaches don't say that about just anyone. It's largely because of those qualities, along with the skills that Knight already has, that I'm leaning towards him as the guy we should take.

You could argue that he doesn't have the potential of Kanter or Vesely, but I think he's the most likely of the three to reach his potential and the least likely not to end up as at least a really solid piece on a winning team. Kanter's reported lack of defensive effort and focus really concerns me, as does Vesely's apparent lack of NBA skills beyond athleticism.

Of course, Knight comes with question marks as well, but with everything I've heard about his work ethic and IQ, I feel more confident that he'll erase those question marks than I do with the other guys. With those traits, along with his leadership abilities and big game and big shot moxie, I just have a feeling he's going to help a team win games wherever he goes. It might take a couple years for him to be ready to start, but I don't see that as a problem. We have the personnel to bring him along slowly and I think you're deluding yourself if you think that there's anybody in this draft who's going to help us "climb the playoff mountain" within the next two years. I think we've got at least one more year before we have a very legitimate chance of even getting to that mountain.

[DBJAZZ2]

The Stockton comparisons are for marketing purposes.

Calipari has to sell his players. The more players he has that make it to NBA, especially ones that are high draft choices, the easier it is for him to recruit.

His comments are self serving, not an unbiased evaluation of Knight.

Even if everything he says is right on the money, Knight couldn't help the Jazz much for his first 3 years, and he's not the key to the Jazz moving up the playoff mountain.

Retired all I've read so far from you is that Knight shouldn't be the pick because he is basically useless for this season and beyond. Now as I self-proclaimed Knight backer I am biased as you seem to be, but I would be curious to hear who you think at 3 is ready to step in and help this team this coming season? Because honestly I don't see one there, so why not take a shot on a guy who works on his game tirelessly and has shown he wants to take the game on his shoulders, making big time plays during winning time? I like that for this team.

[retiredcoach]

I'm not biased about Knight. As I explain below, he's likely to be a good PG someday.

There are two ways the Jazz can go. They can try and get better now or they can show extreme patience and wait 3 or 4 years to show significant improvement.

If the Jazz and their fans can embrace 2 or 3 average seasons with no playoff hopes, then the Jazz can look at players like Knight and Vesely. Knight will be a good PG in 2 or 3 years. How good of course is only speculation. Being a hard worker, having a good attitude and being smart will help, no question, but the final product is still an unknown.

If the Jazz want to get better now, then in my opinion they have a couple of options. They can trade their picks for experienced players that fill the holes at SG and C. Those holes are large and are hurting the Jazz both offensively and defensively. I believe that the Jazz are only about 5 defensive rebounds above their current average per game away from being a winning team, if they have some consistency at the SG. Miles won't provide that.

Trading for an SG isn't much of a problem. The Jazz can do that with the 12th pick and one or so other assets. Trading for a C that can defensively change the game is another issue altogether. It's not going to happen. Those players are very rarely traded, and the cost is high.

If the Jazz decide to use the picks and want to get better now rather than wait and gamble on the future, Biyombo at the C fixes a lot of the defensive issues in the paint and adds to the defensive rebounding. Burks at the 12th pick goes a long way to fix the SG problem. Even Marshon Brooks would help.

Biyombo and Burks may not have as much upside as Knight, which of course is open to debate, but they're much closer to being NBA ready than Knight is.

Let's say the Jazz take Knight. Can they get a C at 12? No. Maybe they can still get Burks for the SG, but they are going to be lousy on defense again, especially against the pick and roll.

Some fans argue that the Jazz should trade Harris, Jefferson, and Millsap. That's nuts. Forget it. Millsap can play the 3 and 4, and he shows up every game. Jefferson is great on offense and will be even better this year. Once Harris is in the regular rotation and knows the offense and teammate tendencies, a lot of Jazz fans are going to be surprised at how good he is.

Right now if I were KOC I would make a deal with a team that really wants a particular player like a Knight and who is drafting in the top 7. I would draft that player, let them draft Biyombo, and do a trade for Biyombo and an SG or SF roster player for the guy picked at 3. It's risky. If someone takes Biyombo before hand, then the strategy fails. Then at 12 I would look to pick up the SF or SG that didn't come in the trade.

I don't think Biyombo is going to be an all-star player, but he's a defensive game changer. The Jazz need that really badly. I've often said that if Mark Eaton hadn't retired before the 97-98 finals, the Jazz would have beaten Chicago. David Robinson was asked on a couple of occasions who the toughest center was that he had to play against. He said Mark Eaton by far. Robinson said that Eaton made him pay for every point he ever scored against him. Eaton never got enough credit for his contributions to the Jazz's success. Biyombo is likely to be another Eaton. No one since Eaton has been very good at protecting the paint. If Shaq had bit***hed slapped Biyombo like he did Ostertag, I guarantee Biyombo would have kicked his ass.

The Jazz have a lot of options in this draft, even though it's shallow in terms of future all-stars. So we'll just have to wait and see which way they go. If they pick Knight, then I hope he can produce consistently sooner than I expect he will be able to. Kanter is another good pick. He can contribute some now on offensive and on rebounding, but his footwork, blocking out and defense need a lot of work. I expect it will take him a couple of years to become an impact player.

If the Jazz keep the 3rd pick, I figure Knight has a 40% chance of being the Jazz pick because of the best athlete KOC philosophy. But it's really hard to handicap the ponies right now. KOC also loves Euro guys.

[reapaman]

I disagree with you retiredcoach. I think knight will be ready to contribute from day one if given enough minutes. Yea he's gonna turn the ball over alot and make mistakes but the guy can flat out shoot and is fearless. The main thing a pg needs to be successful is confidence in his abilities and the guy showed you he has that during the tournament. He showed that he can adapt to different situations and that he's a hard worker. He played smarter towards the end of the season, he cut down his turnovers, showed better control of the offense and started to perform the pick and roll pretty well. Just that clutch gene he showed (no lebrownie) and the cool he had under pressure he showed throughout the season and especially in the tourney is all you can ask for in a potential draftee.

He has better physical tools and is more athletic than Irving plus at least Knight played the full season so I know what he's about and I like it. While no one can be 100% of what knight is gonna be in the as a finished product, we know more about him than Kanter and Irving and I'm not exactly in love with what I seen from those two. As for williams, tweener fowards tend to struggle to adapt in the league, so I don't know about him although he certainly is not bust by any means. Back to Knight, nothing he does is hard to fix plus shooting is usually one of the biggest weaknesses for pg's coming into the league lately and he already got that down. In additon, the pgs coming in lately have been called combo guards and they have all done well for the most part so its nothing he can't overcome And he can always bulk up later, being skinny didn't stop jennings from having a good rookie season. I think he's gonna be more than alright and to me he is the least risky prospect of the one's with a high ceiling in this draft.

[stevebozell]

He also earlier compared Kanter to Malone...he seems to have a thing for us.

[retiredcoach]

Here's a short Sport Illustrated piece on Knight's workouts.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/w ... ook/1.html

[carrottop12]

I hate articles that say crap like this...

What's more, there are rumblings that Utah is less than thrilled at the notion that Knight would even consider dictating the terms with the No. 3 pick (although Turkish center Enes Kanter already did just that in his Jazz workout in Chicago in which Toronto also took part).

He states his claim, then immediately discredits his claim by giving an example that contradicts the entire basis of his argument.

It is crap like this, especially when you never get an inkling of a source that makes pretty much every draft article worthless to read.

[reapaman]

Here's a short Sport Illustrated piece on Knight's workouts.


http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/w ... ook/1.html

Yea it was reported already that his agent (arn tellum) didn't want him to face off against lower rated prospects. Thats common amoung top prospects and he still might participate in the Utah workout against Jimmer, Kemba and Lee on the 15th if he and his agent feels it is necessary but I don't think it is. Memphis in 09 was reportedly turned off on how thabeet refused to workout for them and they picked him anyway. Can't go by random stuff a reporter says because Arn Tellum knows whats he's doing and I'm sure he's giving good advice to Knight.

[BringtheD]

Well, I think it's really bad comparison to make early on for Uta fans because it will be hard for Knight to do everything the way Stockton did; Knight may end up being better at some things, worse at some things. We might never see another player with the brilliance of Stockton at running a team, getting everyone involved, his mentality would be a fresh approach for younger players to take on though.

[retiredcoach]

Biyombo's individual workout wasn't great at the Eurocamp in Treviso. That's not really a surprise. Biyombo is a great defender. His game shines in 5 on 5 play where he keeps the paint guys out of the inside and blocks their shots when they do come in.

His measurements were 6-8 w/out shoes, 7-6 wingspan, 9-4 standing reach, 245 lbs, 4.2% body fat Wow he can almost tie his shoelaces without bending over and he's only six inches short of dunking without jumping. Where does this guy buy his shirts?