Rafael122 wrote:theboomking wrote:Rafael122 wrote:Apparently JV had a secret meeting with the Cavs on Tuesday so there's still hope...who knows...if Kanter drops to 6....that'd be nice wouldn't it?
I think the real key now is the Jazz. My guess is that they will take Kanter and force us to make a trade offer if we want him. That's what I'd do.
Just trade the 6th and 18th for the #3, and then try and buy a pick later in the first round. If you can do that, why not do it. Don't pussyfoot around!
If the Post is to be believed, and some but not all the rumors, we like Kantner, Vesely and Valunciunas, probably in the reverse order of that, and if that's so, than we wouldn't have an interest in trading away a very valuable pick for what we feel is basically a "push" in terms of talent.
Personally I'd be of the same mind, I like all three of those guys for different reasons and believe they're rated as highly as they are for good reason. If Vesely was trash, I think we'd see a lot more alarmist write ups, and he also wouldn't have been so highly rated in last years significantly better draft (I believe last year he was viewed as a guy likely to go between 4 (considered a reach) and at worst 12. He isn't a johnny come lately, he's highly thought of from loads of different sources. There is definitely a view that he needs to improve a great deal to become something special, but there also seems to be a lot of thought that with his motor, and effort at both ends, the work habits will be there, and at worst, he'll be a very valuable big man to have around.
I'm fascinated by the hate, and sort of understand it, there are lots of holes in his game, holes that may never be fixable, but I also look at the other options and I don't like them either. Kantner appears to have a low ceiling, nobody views him as someone who will ever be great, which bothers me, Leonard appears to have the same abysmal issues shooting, and scoring, Valunciunas wont be around for a year, and Bismack doesn't want to know from us, and I've never heard or seen anything to suggest that Morris will ever be anything better or worse than simply solid and/or competent, for some, that's enough, better than bust, better than my hyperbole (dime a dozen), but not remotely good enough to a waste a high lottery pick on in my view, as he's the type a guy that will be available every offseason, at a bit of a cost, but never an exorbitant one, relatively cheap in the offseason free agent market, a type that's always available in any draft, and a guy who was valued for slot 10-18 in a bad draft when 3 of the best 5 prospects were still in it. He's risen up the boards because he's low risk, because he's ascertainable in terms of talent, and because once the guys with high ceilings are gone, he's one where you definitively know what you're getting, and there's value in that, but not a ton of value, especially at the high end of the lottery. I
Personally I'm a fan of Oscar Wilde's line, "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars," and so I'd like to aim high for the pick, rather than simply aim for a guy I think we're just as likely to land at 18, as with Morris. Let 6 be slotted for swinging for the fences, it's the only way you ever win after all, a bunch of Marcus Morris types and Wall will be good enough to win us 35 to 42 games every year for another decade, basically reliving the joys of the eighties. I don't want that, and I'm willing to risk swinging and missing at 6 in a crummy draft on the off chance Vesely or Valunciunas are busts, or more likely, no more than solid euro's on the hope that they could be very special. There's a reason so many scouts are enamored with Vesely, so many reasons why he saw big minutes despite his PER numbers, his awful shooting on a very good european team, so many reasons why he was highly rated in last years draft and this years. I agree that there are alarm bells, but I'm bothered that so many people are looking at only the alarm balls, and none of the reasons why his own team, his own league, and scouts all over the NBA, think very differently than some online bloggers, stat guys, and posters here. Drafting him is in no way the end of the world.
