Official 2013 Draft Thread - Part V

[Deeptu McPullup]

Somehow, I'm of a mind that drafting Len at 3 is a disappointment while taking him after a slight trade down to 5 or 6 could be "great value".

That this position might not be an entirely rational one is a distinct possibility.

[montestewart]

Hands are you saying Wittman wants to draft Len?

There's nothing in that interview that said that to me. Wittman clearly admires Len, but to me, its a real stretch to say Wittman showed any preferences in that interview.

No man, it's as clear as reading tea leaves.

[doclinkin]

Somehow, I'm of a mind that drafting Len at 3 is a disappointment while taking him after a slight trade down to 5 or 6 could be "great value".

That this position might not be an entirely rational one is a distinct possibility.

Pretty much where I am with many of the draft picks available in the lotto. I'd be happy with m/any of 'em if they came with some sort of throw-in that made it worth it.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

No, like Zeller or Noel. The dude looks like he's in slow motion.

The dude actually added weight so he could play center.

Noel is so light he will have a hard time playing PF and Zeller is getting projected as a PF as well.

And he was playing on an injured wheel the last two months of the season.

I want my 7-0 center to play center. We have plenty of other players that are fast that can be first down the floor.

You might want to youtube John Wall blocks...

Even Beal chased people down.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpSoQWiPuVI[/youtube]

He needs to be as fast as Hibbert and Gasol, not Zeller and Noel.

7 footers with stress fractures in their ankles should not be going top 5 in the draft.

Just no.

We disagree on his upside and talent, but again - stress fracture on his ankles. And no, I'm not that impressed that he decided to take care of it.

What exactly was this "surgery" for a stress fracture?? Did he have pins put in his ankle? That's what I want to know, because if that's what it was he's gonna have a short career.

You can see when he runs he's very upright and stiff. When he comes down from a dunk he's very straight legged. I just have concerns about his long term durability.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Scouting Report on Anthony Bennett
by Jerry Meyer - 03/07/2012
A dynamic athlete with a great motor, Bennett is a force to be reckoned with in the lane. He is a powerful slasher and tremendous rebounder. In addition, he has three-point shooting range.

Jerry Meyer serves as a national scout and recruiting analyst for Rivals.com. He played at Lipscomb University where be became college basketball's all-time career assist leader. Meyer earned Mr. Basketball honors in the state of Tennessee as a high school junior and senior. He has served as an assistant coach at Vanderbilt and also co-authored the book, "Basketball Skills and Drills."

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Here's a scouting report on Bennett out of high school. Kind of interesting how it contradicts the perception of him now.



http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1154 ... e-kentucky

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Here's a new report from Wiz of Awes on the Porter vs Bennett scenario for the Wizards draft...


http://wizofawes.com/2013/05/24/nba-dra ... y-bennett/

[SUPERBALLMAN]

And here's a good breakdown of Bennett from the point of view of the Pistons...


http://www.detroitbadboys.com/2013/5/10 ... eport-mock

[Ruzious]

I didn't take a lot away from Wittmans interview. He contradicted himself several times. Sounded a little more energetic about Len than anyone else but then goes off and says that he wants a player that can play right away, then says he doesn't like players that get injured prior to playing, then says they need bench help...bah.

I do think Wittman will be a big part of the process though as apparently Flip was in the past but I just couldn't get anything concrete from Randy.

I didn't hear him contradict himself.

When asked if he takes injury into consideration he response was

.. he didn't like it.. then he laughed. Then says you have to take it into consideration. Then went on to say..
its not the greatest situation, but that what the doctors are for... to evaluate that stuff. Lots of times kids come back fine from that.

But not sure why she is even talking to him and he is answering like he has a voice when some here says he doesn't.

That means all things being equal, of course you don't want injuries. Is it a deal breaker. Nope. Not if they can play next year.

Len is not so injured that he won't be playing next year. 4-6 month is the reported recovery time. Should be ready to to start the season or early there after. He is reported to have the boot off by draft night next month.

Len....

“I didn’t really have to do the surgery, but the doctor told me it was going to help me in the long run,” Len said. “I’m just trying to be proactive. Do the right things, be smart about it.

Smart of him to do it. Mature move since it was elective.

Keep in mind he played two months on the bad foot when evaluating him.

As for Noel, he said by Christmas for his ACL. But we all know he is likely to be like Blake Griffin and D Rose and miss the entire year.

More importantly as to what Wittman said is they want someone to provide scoring off the bench as a rookie. And I don't think anyone thinks Len is going to be much of scorer as a rookie - he obviously is a work in progress who had trouble scoring with any consistency at Maryland. That also pretty much eliminates Noel - though I spect he assumes Noel won't be there as an option, anyway.

[Deeptu McPullup]

BTW, the Kevin Pelton chats over on ESPN are always excellent and extended. It's a mix of draft, playoffs and player comparison talk. I skimmed the last one and there were maybe fifteen or more Wizards' related questions along with a good bit of general early lottery prospect talk.

http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/chat/_/id/48060

[WizarDynasty]

Witt would love a low maintenance guy with a non alpha dog personality. Wittman is a poor judge of talent and Witman is alot less objective about the longterm development of this team than us realgms. He looks at the team from the perspective of job security. We look at the team from the perspective of championships. I think Ted weight longterm success alot more importantly than bringing in a player that is tame with a low profile. With Len's poor lower body strength and inability to absorb contact in the post without getting injured, absolutely no way, len with his sweet jumpshot and finesse game can stand up night to night against rigors of nba bigman. Biggest warning sign for a big is that he doesn't have lower body strength and can't absorb contact. We already went through those problems with McGEE.
McGee was traded because he had slow feet and no lower body strength, NOT because he was a bone head.
Len has all the same problems has mcgee. Hates contact, extremely fragile frame that gets injured with lower body contact. Len may be able to do twirling and smooth moves but a bigman ABSOLUTELY most have above average lower body strength and along with quick coordinated feet on defense.
Len has extremely slow feet defensively and doesn't have the quickness to recover on defense and he can't deal with lower body strength, just like McGee.
I think Wittman looks at the team from a job security standpoint. he would love to bring in a player who is low maintenance and has the look of a bigman as well as be a scapegoat. Bringing in an alpha dog player like Bennet or even a Kooky strong willed player like Adams will be alot more challenging from a coaching perspective than to bring in a meek mild Len. Witman was around when Vesely was drafted. How could Witman, as an assistant coach not vehemently objected to VEsely. Because Vesely was passive, and wouldn't ever challenge Management.
I trust Newman but alot of Grunfeld's people are still in the organization so picking up another Len like Player who doesn't excel at the basic stat categories of a bigman is the same mistake grunfeld's team made when they selected VEsely, even though VEsely never dominated his league at the stat categories that a small forward is suppose to dominate at in Vesely's league before the nba. A bigman should be an above average rebounder. Len is not an above average rebounder. Immediately, he doesn't fit the mold of a wizard. He may have some advanced skills like hit a jumper, or even a few nice finesse moves to the basket but red flag is that Len was not above average at defensive rebounding. A prospect should be dominant at the basic stat categories of his position before he came into the nba.
A bigshould always have above average lower body strength. A big should have quick coordinated feet to recover on defense. A bigshould have standing reach above average for his position. Len doesn't meet the two most important---- not above average in college at rebounding. Huge red flag. He doesn't have above average lower body strenghth. Huge red flag. and he doesn't have explosiveness or even quick feet to recover on defense.
I think about Ernie picking up Booker. Booker was explosive but he didn't have body control with the basketball and he didn't have elite length. That automatically made Booker a role player at best and a project.
Len is somewhat coordinated with the ball, has elite length, but isn't explosive and doesn't have quick reactive feet on defense and he doesn't have lower body strength.
the whole point of the lottery is that the top players have the unique combination of explosiveness, body control, length,
the fact that Witman would truly still want Len should be a warning to TEd that Witman should have be given a heavy decision influence building a nearly billion dollar washington wizard franchise. This is our last chip before we have any chance of making a run deep into the playoffs. YOu better pick up a player that you would never have a chance at in free agency or when picking in the early 20's of a draft. You are never going to pick up an explosive athlete that has elite length, highly coordinated with basketball and (and for bigs above average lower body strength) and above average stats at the basics of his position (bigs rebounding and shotblocking are raw stat categories regardless of system) before he came into the league. Plain and simple so let's keep our pretend GM hats on.

[fishercob]

Sheesh. You miss a day on this board and you're 10 pages behind in this thread. Stress.

My preference for Porter over Bennett isn't meant to disparage Bennett. If he's the pick, I'll support him, hope for the best, and likely come around on him pretty quickly. He was highly productive as a frosh and has a varied offensive skill set. His jumper would help us.

6'7" "bigs" look really impressive when they dunk. I recall guys like Malik Rose, Maxiell, even Booker -- when they throw one down in traffic it gets you out of your chair quickly.

It's frustrating that we can't get updated, accurate measurements on Bennett (or Len) because that's a pretty decent chunk of the evaluation process.

[Wizardspride]

More importantly as to what Wittman said is they want someone to provide scoring off the bench as a rookie. And I don't think anyone thinks Len is going to be much of scorer as a rookie - he obviously is a work in progress who had trouble scoring with any consistency at Maryland. That also pretty much eliminates Noel - though I spect he assumes Noel won't be there as an option, anyway.

Actually, I think Len would be a viable scoring option off the bench as a rookie.

And much of his inconsistency can be placed on the Terps PG play....and lack of consistent outside shooting.

Don't get me wrong....I'm not saying he'll be a world beater next season but I think his game is more advanced than people are giving him credit for.

Both myself and Gary Williams think his game is more suited for the pros.

Lack of zone defense etc etc.

[fishercob]

I don't see Len as being much more impactful than your average big stiff white guy. I want someone athletic like Zeller, not a smaller Hibbert.

Athletic like this?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLlQpMpgB14 I

No, athletic like this:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ajwa8j79vd0[/youtube]

It's very frustrating that we can't get full testing numbers on Len. I take the YODA data seriously, and without knowing Len's measurements, the stats don't justify a high pick Len. And yet, his highlights are remarkable.

As you and Deeptu alluded to -- it would be great to net one of these high-upside bigs in some sort of trade back (or trade back up with a second pick) scenario.

[fishercob]

There's a 9 minute Wittman interview over on CSN talking draft:

http://www.csnwashington.com/basketball ... -prospects

FWIW, they featured Porter, Dipo and then Len in video segments with Bennet being mentioned more briefly (Randy said "a guy who's top 10 pick" about Bennet; not sure if that's a poker tell or means anything). Witt seemed fairly animated in discussing Len.

It ain't much, but it's about the only tea leaves that I've seen thus far.

Can't read too much into it but based off that it seems like Bennett is not on their radar.

Not finding it online, but I heard a chunk of Lavar and Dukes on Friday afternoon with Wittman. The main points of the part I heard, as I heard them:

-- The Wizards will not eschew the BPA for need/fit, unless two guys are grouped closely together. He talked about how badly the team needs to build the talent base and how they were unable to weather the storm when key guys went down last year.

-- Moving from 8 to 3 means options. He said something to the effect of "the phone is going to ring a lot more" and that they'd take those calls seriously. He seemed to allude to the fact that trading back to pick up another asset was more of an option than trading out, but that nothing was off the table.

If I find the link to the segment, I will post it.

[Ruzious]

More importantly as to what Wittman said is they want someone to provide scoring off the bench as a rookie. And I don't think anyone thinks Len is going to be much of scorer as a rookie - he obviously is a work in progress who had trouble scoring with any consistency at Maryland. That also pretty much eliminates Noel - though I spect he assumes Noel won't be there as an option, anyway.

Actually, I think Len would be a viable scoring option off the bench as a rookie.

And much of his inconsistency can be placed on the Terps PG play....and lack of consistent outside shooting.

Don't get me wrong....I'm not saying he'll be a world beater next season but I think his game is more advanced than people are giving him credit for.

Both myself and Gary Williams think his game is more suited for the pros.

Lack of zone defense etc etc.

I wish Len well, but I think anyone who watched Maryland throughout the season saw it wasn't just the PG's faults that caused his lack of offensive production. For a guy that big, he was awful at presenting a target to get the ball into. MD had an absurd turnover problem, and he was part of the cause, because he was so bad at securing passes to him. The PG's were bad, but he made them worse. When you look at his skill set, there's nothing he does that Seraphin can't do. And Seraphin has better hands. Eventually, he'll likely be able to do more, but this season - very un likely. Commentators during MD games would even say - he'll go in the lottery, but it's obviously for what he might be several years in the future - as he's simply not ready.

I wonder why these highlight videos don't show him "running" up court. If you can't run, it's a huge disadvantage. Even Tim Duncan can run the court. I don't know if Len can.

[fishercob]

You think Hibbert and Gasol are any more proficient running the floor than Len is or projects to be?

[Ruzious]

You think Hibbert and Gasol are any more proficient running the floor than Len is or projects to be?

Have you watched Hibbert since his rookie year?

[fishercob]

You think Hibbert and Gasol are any more proficient running the floor than Len is or projects to be?

Have you watched Hibbert since his rookie year?

That's my point, Ruz. Len is way further along athletically at his age than Hibbert was. Whether Len pans out as a prospect obviously remains to be seen, but if he doesn't I highly doubt it's because he can't cut it running the floor.

[Ruzious]

You think Hibbert and Gasol are any more proficient running the floor than Len is or projects to be?

Have you watched Hibbert since his rookie year?

That's my point, Ruz. Len is way further along athletically at his age than Hibbert was. Whether Len pans out as a prospect obviously remains to be seen, but if he doesn't I highly doubt it's because he can't cut it running the floor.

That's because Hibbert was a fat slob in college. Len is not a fat slob that's going to be completely transformed if he gets in shape - like Hibbert. Len's going to get bigger - the opposite of what Hibbert did.