Official 2013 Draft Thread - Part V

[TGW]

How about trading the pick and Vesely to the Bucks for Henson and their lottery pick?

The Bucks don't have a lottery pick.

[truwizfan4evr]

Whats the odds Noel drops to us?

[sfam]

What if you took Burke and had a 3gaurd set like GS at atimes (Klay, Steph, Jack)

Wall and Burke aren't good enough shooters to play together IMO. They're streaky and ball dominant/need to take dribbles before they shoot.

Burke can shoot fine without dribbling. He's pretty darn accurate now, and most likely will get better. Wall has gotten better as well. Burke, Wall and Beal would be a great 3 guard rotation. The question is would we get more out of this over a Bennett or Porter?

[doclinkin]

The Bennett thing I would say is a smokescreen except that John Wall advocated for a PF with range. But here's the thing: Bennett would get both Wittman and Ernie fired.

Witt would bench him to play Booker et al whenever he fails to play D, and when the team staggers due to injuries or whatnot Witt would be fired, ruining team chemistry. And Ernie would have another underperforming team with a roster full of lotto picks and nothing to back it up but another tired injury excuse.

If Bennett were healthy enough to wow in workouts, maybe.

I do think he may be able to trim up and play SF if he dedicates himself, and may find himself then with more energy to play at both ends of the court. He's got a bit of freshman babyfat, but quick enough feet to defend outside if he applies himself. You just can't slim down and trim up if you can't work out.

[No-Man]

Burke is going to be the best player of this class by far, and he maybe even would be better than Wall, but you can't take him right now.

But if Orlando, Phoenix and NOLA pass on him,.. he'll mke them regret it, you can bet on that.

It's going to be fun this thing, Bennett vs. Porter all over.

I'd trade the pick, none of them it's the answer for this team.

go for Horford.

[willbcocks]

YES!

The Porter pick this year is like the Beal pick last year. Both guys are perfect fits for their position and perfect next to Wall. Both have great stats across the board. Both are high IQ guys who don’t make a lot of mistakes. And both have a combination of size/athleticism worthy of a lottery pick.

Do they have both great size and great athleticism? No, because if they did they would be superstars.
Wall, Beal, Porter—I love the sound of that. Legit two-way players at the 1-2-3. They will be long and TENACIOUS on D. Wall will be able to break down the defense, and Beal and Porter will be able to make smart decisions or hit open shots. They won’t make the kind of mistakes that cripple teams.

Will they be heavily invested in their wings at the expense of bigs? Possibly. But Porter’s probably not going to get a max deal, and the first max deals for young players under the new CBA aren’t THAT big. We can swing big for defensive bigs in the next few drafts, and maybe we’ll have the opportunity to trade for a stretch four or sign one as a FA.

This team is going to be FUN to watch. Good day to be a Wiz fan. Also, there are other decent options if Porter’s not available, so even if EG screws up the pick, I’m not as worried as I was last year.

ETA: Evan Turner doesn’t fit a position. He’s like a slow tall point guard who can’t shoot or break anyone down and isn’t great on defense. But he can rebound well.

[truwizfan4evr]

Burke is going to be the best player of this class by far, and he maybe even would be better than Wall, but you can't take him right now.

But if Orlando, Phoenix and NOLA pass on him,.. he'll mke them regret it, you can bet on that.

It's going to be fun this thing, Bennett vs. Porter all over.

I'd trade the pick, none of them it's the answer for this team.

go for Horford.

Porter is the perfect fit at sf for us.

[pancakes3]

The thing with Bennett is that baby ain't much of a baby. He's 20. Now it's true that people mature but I can't think of many knuckleheads that buckled down and matured, at least during the tenure of their rookie contract. It takes a couple of years, upwards of a decade to take supremely talented multimillionaires who play a game for a living to get their head screwed right.

I hope that Bennett is a smokescreen but I fail to see why. Neither Cleveland nor the Magic are threats to draft Porter and none of the teams immediately below us have any attractive trade bait.

I know some on this board are narrative-driven rather than stat-heads. I rooted around the internet and found this article about Porter's HS years. Apologies if this has already been linked to:

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/9547 ... -be-a-star

[truwizfan4evr]

The Bennett thing I would say is a smokescreen except that John Wall advocated for a PF with range. But here's the thing: Bennett would get both Wittman and Ernie fired.

Witt would bench him to play Booker et al whenever he fails to play D, and when the team staggers due to injuries or whatnot Witt would be fired, ruining team chemistry. And Ernie would have another underperforming team with a roster full of lotto picks and nothing to back it up but another tired injury excuse.

If Bennett were healthy enough to wow in workouts, maybe.

I do think he may be able to trim up and play SF if he dedicates himself, and may find himself then with more energy to play at both ends of the court. He's got a bit of freshman babyfat, but quick enough feet to defend outside if he applies himself. You just can't slim down and trim up if you can't work out.

He has great size he listed 6 feet 9

[doclinkin]

Plus the way the mocks look right now we could land Nate Wolters for that back-up scoring PG.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

How about trading the pick and Vesely to the Bucks for Henson and their lottery pick?

The Bucks don't have a lottery pick.

Oops.

They have a track record of giving up talent. Between Ilyasova, Sanders, and Henson I think they represent a great way to offload Seraphin, Vesely and Singleton. Trading this pick for any of those guys won't happen but IMO could help a lot.

[EddieJonesFan]

I think Bennett is definitely the pick for you guys. Congrats and good luck.

[doclinkin]

I hope that Bennett is a smokescreen but I fail to see why. Neither Cleveland nor the Magic are threats to draft Porter and none of the teams immediately below us have any attractive trade bait.

The smokescreen would have been murmurs before we landed the #3 pick.

[stevemcqueen1]

http://www.bulletsforever.com/2013/5/20/4348676/anthony-bennett-scouting-report-nba-draft-2013

I'm sorry to say but reading that, Bennett basically sounds like Andray Blatche without the attitude problems. The kid isn't even going to get off the bench if his defense is as bad as Prada says it is.

He never had to try on D. He was treated like a superstar at UNLV - nobody pushed him. His defense doesn't suck, his effort on D did.

He's completely unaware on simple defensive fundamentals. You know who our coach is right? Bennett will be a routine visitor of the Randy Wittman doghouse. And his interview tonight on the lottery show rubbed me the wrong way. I've got a bad feeling about the kid.

Seems like a stretch to criticize him over his interviews.

I agree that he's a bad fit for us personality wise. He's immature and Wittman will not be able to deal with him. We's waste him. The only bigs we can afford to take are uber mature and skilled ones like Zeller and Dieng.

But from what I saw the past season, Bennett was one of the few guys who looked like a legit star. He can dominate and his best is better than Porter's.

I think Bennett is someone you had to watch in real time and in the context of the season to understand why he was a star. The way he could totally take over games, the stunning things he would pull off--he looked like a blue chipper. Most of the rest of the class lacked a similar blue chip quality.

I love Porter, Zeller, and Oladipo as prospects. I think all are good fits for us. But if I weren't picking for the Wizards and were making this choice in a vacuum, I'd be more inclined to go for Bennett or McLemore as BPA types. There were a few games that stood out to me as indelible instances of dominance: Bennett's scoring versus Air Force where he did everything from size up and blow past multiple defenders to nailing like three consecutive threes; McLemore's 30 point games; Noel's 12 block game against Ole Miss where he blocked six shots after his fourth foul. Those performances were incredible when they played at their best level. Blue chip talent.

Porter, Zeller, and Dipo were much more consistently excellent and Zeller and Dipo are elite athletes. But their highs weren't as impressive IMO.

But fit is an extremely important consideration. And I'm thinking Porter, Zeller, and Dipo offer us the best mix of upside and fit at three.

[Rafael122]

Porter had 30 points against Syracuse in their final Big East game against the Orange at the Carrier Dome. Porter was a Player of the Year Finalist. You can't sit there and say their highs weren't that impressive. Porter was impressive enough to get national attention at the end of the year. You mentioned Bennett and his game against Air Force. Air Force. He dominated his conference, he should have. He's playing teams like Air Force.

[Dark Faze]

Bennett won't be the pick. There are too many problems with it.

He's a PF. No doubt. And Ernie has shown too many signs of committing to the core of Okafor, Nene, Beal , and Wall to let Okafor walk. He's not going to draft Bennett to come off the bench. Nene at center and Bennett at PF as starters would change the fabric of our team as a defensive minded one.

Ernie gets the best of both worlds with a Porter pick--it's the concensus pick that every scout and basketball mind is pressuring the Wiz to make, it keeps the veteran core together, and the Wiz get a young starter out of it.

The downside of Bennett is just not worth it.

[truwizfan4evr]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLKl98IkCWg Otto Porter scouting video

[dangermouse]

Nice analysis Dark Faze, I agree 100%.

Porter just seems too logical to pass up. Its a safe pick, but its also a good pick.

[stevemcqueen1]

The Bennett thing I would say is a smokescreen except that John Wall advocated for a PF with range. But here's the thing: Bennett would get both Wittman and Ernie fired.

Witt would bench him to play Booker et al whenever he fails to play D, and when the team staggers due to injuries or whatnot Witt would be fired, ruining team chemistry. And Ernie would have another underperforming team with a roster full of lotto picks and nothing to back it up but another tired injury excuse.

If Bennett were healthy enough to wow in workouts, maybe.

I do think he may be able to trim up and play SF if he dedicates himself, and may find himself then with more energy to play at both ends of the court. He's got a bit of freshman babyfat, but quick enough feet to defend outside if he applies himself. You just can't slim down and trim up if you can't work out.

I've just kind of resigned myself to the thought that I'm going to watch Bennett go off and become an excellent player for some other team. It's like Drummond last year. Good talent but doubt he can make it here because we're terrible at developing raw talent, particularly immature bigs.

BPA is an attractive strategy but you have to build a team and not simply stockpile talent. We might just have to suck it up and pick Porter and not worry about the perceived lack of upside and athleticism just because he is the only option at 3 that works really well for us.

The one thing I absolutely DO NOT want us to do is draft Len at 3.

[stevemcqueen1]

What do you guys think about Porter's outside shooting? Is there any reason to believe that last season was a fluke?

His jumper is ugly. But it goes in. I don't want to nitpick him over his awkwardness because he got the job done anyway and there are many paths to achieve the same results. It's hard to write off some of his awkwardness and athletic limitations though.

He's smart and doesn't take bad shots so it keeps his percentages good even if he passes the buck on scoring.

We've got Wall and Beal to keep him as a 3rd option though.

He also has a nice mid range game, gets to the line, and does a pretty good job transition finishing. So I think his shooting percentages will be good because of how judicious and crafty he is even if he's not as pure a shooter as someone like Beal.