2012 NBA Draft

[Dat2U]

Barnes at #2 would make me cry. For me, to draft a perimeter player in the top 5, he needs to be able to create his own shot off the bounce. And it's clear, that's not Harrison Barnes' strength.

Harrison Barnes may become a solid player and might even be a good fit considering our roster full of bricklayers, but drafting him very high would be a mistake.

Aside from Davis, who would you take ahead of him.

MKG
Robinson
Sullinger
Drummond

At least for now. Maybe others. A case could legitimately made for mid-to-late lottery but for a top 5 pick I'd look in another direction.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Barnes at #2 would make me cry. For me, to draft a perimeter player in the top 5, he needs to be able to create his own shot off the bounce. And it's clear, that's not Harrison Barnes' strength.

Harrison Barnes may become a solid player and might even be a good fit considering our roster full of bricklayers, but drafting him very high would be a mistake.

Aside from Davis, who would you take ahead of him.

MKG
Robinson
Sullinger
Drummond

At least for now. Maybe others. A case could legitimately made for mid-to-late lottery but for a top 5 pick I'd look in another direction.

I would only select Drummond to trade him for something else. His draft spot should be higher than Barnes' but I don't like Drummond one bit.

In addition to the four names Dat mentioned, I value these guys more than Barnes: Brad Beal, Cody Zeller, Mason Plumlee, Arnett Moultrie, Tyler Zeller, Damian Lillard, Kevin Jones, Doug McDermott, Quincy Miller, Scott Machado, Tony Mitchell, and Tony Wroten.

Le'Bryan Nash and a host of others interest me, too. Jae Crowder and Ricardo Ratliffe interest me. Mike Glover can ball, too. Meyers Leonard seems a bit upright and not a rebounder, but I thought the same about Vucevic from USC last season. Vucevic is doing pretty well for Philadelphia. Leonard will be a solid NBA role player--and that is what I see Barnes being, too. Barnes settles.

I would much rather see the Wizards not draft Barnes in round one, but draft Jenkins in round two.

Barnes is too soft IMO. He doesn't get after it like MKG. I don't want him or Perry Jones III. Drummond is big enough to be okay but he's not a winning baller, either. I think Fab Melo and Festus Ezeli are more competitve than Drummond.

[long suffrin' boulez fan]

^ not sure what to make of Moultre. I look at him and reflexively all I can think is "amnesty him already."

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Count the years. Could Rashard have met that kid's mom ... ? (Uncanny resemblance).

Moultrie is enigmatic, lsbf. My bottom line is he's got height, athleticism and jumper. Red flags are his years at UTEP and perhaps a lack of physicality.

Right now, as I type this the Bulldogs of Mississippi State had their 13-point halftime lead over Kentucky trimmed to 3 ...now 6. I am not watching this one, but i think Moultrie can really help his draft status with some heroics and a win tonight, lsbf.

MSU needs to win to get in the NCAAs, and to give Moultrie a shot at improving his draft stock.

[hands11]

Moultrie is enigmatic, lsbf. My bottom line is he's got height, athleticism and jumper. Red flags are his years at UTEP and perhaps a lack of physicality.

Right now, as I type this the Bulldogs of Mississippi State had their 13-point halftime lead over Kentucky trimmed to 3 ...now 6. I am not watching this one, but i think Moultrie can really help his draft status with some heroics and a win tonight, lsbf.

MSU needs to win to get in the NCAAs, and to give Moultrie a shot at improving his draft stock.

Dee Bost

[REDardWIZskin]

Moultrie has fight in him! anything anti Blatche looks so good right now!! lol ... he's had some mental lapses but with another pick and a Barnes/beal/lamb pick early on i pull the trigger in a heartbeat. I think Cody Zeller will be the steal of the draft assuming he's not a top 10 pick, because he should be.

[Dat2U]

Glichrist >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Barnes

It's not even close IMO. Barnes may be a better perimeter shooter, but Gilchrist does EVERYTHING else at a higher level.

[hands11]

Moultrie has fight in him! anything anti Blatche looks so good right now!! lol ... he's had some mental lapses but with another pick and a Barnes/beal/lamb pick early on i pull the trigger in a heartbeat. I think Cody Zeller will be the steal of the draft assuming he's not a top 10 pick, because he should be.

What does that mean ?

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Moultrie has fight in him! anything anti Blatche looks so good right now!! lol ... he's had some mental lapses but with another pick and a Barnes/beal/lamb pick early on i pull the trigger in a heartbeat. I think Cody Zeller will be the steal of the draft assuming he's not a top 10 pick, because he should be.

Moultrie didn't close as strong as I'd hoped, but he was going against a great UK team.

Kentucky is so good it is scary at times. They are really young and make a ton of mistakes, but at the end of the game you look at the score board and they've won going away after trailing big at half.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Glichrist >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Barnes

It's not even close IMO. Barnes may be a better perimeter shooter, but Gilchrist does EVERYTHING else at a higher level.

+ 1,000,000

It's comparing a more athletic Paul Pierce with less of a jumper to NBA Cal Cheaney IMO.

[hands11]

Zeller was someone I was interested in tracking but after watching Zeller today, he has fallen some in my book.

Now Beal, I was impressed with how strong he is. The kid is more built then I realized.

CJ looked go as well.

[gesa2]

Like comparing Tony Allen to OJ Mayo. Not in the sense of their offensive skill sets of course. But Mayo looked the part of a good NBA player (and he is pretty good). But Allen changed the Memphis team when he got there, made it an in your face, fight you for every possession team. MKG's ceiling is Tony Allen with a better offensive game.

[BarnabyJones]

I see MKG as a Gerald Wallace type player in the NBA.

Rangy/Athletic 6'7 forward who can do everything well.

[rockymac52]

Has there ever been a team with 2 projected lottery picks that is playing as poorly as UCONN is right now?

nbadraft.net and DX both have Drummond going #2 right now. nbadraft.net has Lamb going #5, whereas DX has him going #12.

You'd think if you put 2 lottery picks (and apparently they could both be top 5) on the same team in college that they'd dominate, or at the very least be ranked and/or make the tournament.

In my opinion, UCONN's failures this season serve as a huge red flag for both Drummond and Lamb. They have elite players at the collegiate level in the post and on the perimeter. I'm not that familiar with the rest of the guys on UCONN's roster, but UCONN recruits the best of the best year in and year out, and oh yeah, they won the national championship last year (although to be fair I'm not sure how many of their current players were on that team).

If the two of them together (regardless of the talent surrounding them) can't win in college, how the hell are they going to win in the NBA? Good players often put up good stats in college, but good players always are on winning teams in college (okay maybe not allllllways, but I can't think of any real impact players in the NBA who couldn't even make the NCAA Tournament off the top of my head).

Pass on both.

[rockymac52]

If we can secure a mid-late 1st round pick from another team via trade, I think we should take a serious look at Tony Mitchell from North Texas (not the one from Alabama). I've mentioned him before because I go to Mizzou and he originally committed here but couldn't play last season because of academic issues with the NCAA. Now he's finally playing games with North Texas, and while they don't play elite competition in their conference by any means, he's tearing it up, and you can see how quickly he's improving from game to game.

It remains to be seen if he'll declare for this year's draft, or if he'd prefer to dominate the midmajors for another year to help boost his draft stock, but if he's in this year's draft, I highly recommend giving him a good look if we can get another 1st round pick.

DX has him going 24th overall in this year's draft at the moment. Check him out. http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Ton ... s%29-6229/

He was an elite 5 star prospect, and has incredible size and athleticism. I can't say for sure how intelligent he is or how high his basketball IQ is, but in case anyone is concerned with character problems because of his issues with the NCAA last year, I assure you this wasn't the result of off the court buffoonery, it was purely an academic issue that he got involved in because he was given some incredibly terrible advice from Kansas State's head coach Frank Martin, and unfortunately Tony trusted him.

Thoughts?

[BruceO]

Lamb has utility in mid range and half court and may defend as well essentially being a two way player. My concerns are will he have a three point shot when his numbers suck from college three. Will he rebound well or get to the line with that frame? Will he help the playmaking while he has that asst to TO ratio and they haven't utilized bigs? Will he take us over the top when he hasn't shown so in college?

[hands11]

Has there ever been a team with 2 projected lottery picks that is playing as poorly as UCONN is right now?

nbadraft.net and DX both have Drummond going #2 right now. nbadraft.net has Lamb going #5, whereas DX has him going #12.

You'd think if you put 2 lottery picks (and apparently they could both be top 5) on the same team in college that they'd dominate, or at the very least be ranked and/or make the tournament.

In my opinion, UCONN's failures this season serve as a huge red flag for both Drummond and Lamb. They have elite players at the collegiate level in the post and on the perimeter. I'm not that familiar with the rest of the guys on UCONN's roster, but UCONN recruits the best of the best year in and year out, and oh yeah, they won the national championship last year (although to be fair I'm not sure how many of their current players were on that team).

If the two of them together (regardless of the talent surrounding them) can't win in college, how the hell are they going to win in the NBA? Good players often put up good stats in college, but good players always are on winning teams in college (okay maybe not allllllways, but I can't think of any real impact players in the NBA who couldn't even make the NCAA Tournament off the top of my head).

Pass on both.

This draft isn't overly impressing me compared to last years draft. The difference is mainly more bigs in the top ten.

I guess I am just souring on drafts. Or at least I'm souring on looking at the top 5 picks. I would rather look at draft as a place to add to a good team with players taken later like Brooks.

Time to cash in and build the core of a good team with known experience NBA talent. Then I will get excited about the draft again.

[pancakes3]

This draft isn't overly impressing me compared to last years draft. The difference is mainly more bigs in the top ten.

I guess I am just souring on drafts. Or at least I'm souring on looking at the top 5 picks. I would rather look at draft as a place to add to a good team with players taken later like Brooks.

There are a bunch of reasons why this draft is better than last year's. Also, is banking on adding good players later a good strategy?

[7-Day Dray]

Barnes at #2 would make me cry. For me, to draft a perimeter player in the top 5, he needs to be able to create his own shot off the bounce. And it's clear, that's not Harrison Barnes' strength.

Harrison Barnes may become a solid player and might even be a good fit considering our roster full of bricklayers, but drafting him very high would be a mistake.

Aside from Davis, who would you take ahead of him.

MKG
Robinson
Sullinger
Drummond

At least for now. Maybe others. A case could legitimately made for mid-to-late lottery but for a top 5 pick I'd look in another direction.

MKG is a perimeter player, and he doesn't fit your criteria either. I think Barnes is better at creating his own shot than Kidd-Gilchrist. Yeah, shot-creating isn't Barnes' strength, but he doesn't need to be a guy that dances around on the perimeter with ankle-breaking moves. He has that 1-2 dribble pull-up down pat, some subtle moves that can thrown the defender off like jab steps, and he's show shades of a post game.

If I was picking between Barnes and MKG for this team, I take Barnes.

[The Consiglieri]

Barnes at #2 would make me cry. For me, to draft a perimeter player in the top 5, he needs to be able to create his own shot off the bounce. And it's clear, that's not Harrison Barnes' strength.

Harrison Barnes may become a solid player and might even be a good fit considering our roster full of bricklayers, but drafting him very high would be a mistake.

Aside from Davis, who would you take ahead of him.

Adding my voice to the chorus:

1. MKG
2. Drummond (and trade)
3. Thomas Robinson
4. Bradley Beal
--------------------------------
5./6. J. Sullinger/PJ3

These last guys I'd consider too, i think Sullinger would probably add more to the team, and I know that PJ3 has the higher ceiling in my view, though a much lower floor. These 2 I'd consider, but for sure, I have 5 guys ahead of Barnes at minimum, on my board, and some other guys i have an eye on.

Barnes at 2 would be infuriating. With potential high impact players available, simply going the safe route, when you're as bad as us would just be so immensely disappointing. I'd love to know what the guys Ford talks to really think of him, like in quotes.