'14 Draft Thread - Parker Declares. List your top 4

[trwi7]

I just think it's funny that you guys have already placed Embiid in the Basketball Hall of Fame.

[mlloyd10]

With the draft being deep on big man next year and everyone thinking that we will suck again. I want Exum or Wiggins if we end up #1. Im not going to hate if we get Embiid or Parker.......I Think that we can all agree that the only person that doesn't deserve 1, 2 or 3 is Randle

[Ron Swanson]

I guess I don't get why people are freaked out about him being a 35 mpg starting pg but essentially ok with him as a 6th man combo guard off the bench. Knight is a damn good player who can score and play d. We don't have to build around him but I definitely want him on this team going forward.

Anyone else think he could have a billups like career? He seems like a natural leader who will find a way to get it.

Huge difference between starting point guard and 6th man 3&D guy off the bench. One is responsible for creating and running the offense for a majority of the game, the other has his minutes rationed depending on how hot or cold he might be.

It entirely depends on what role Knight is going to play under the new coaching staff. People get a little too caught up in the traditional "distributor" role of a PG and subsequently downgrade Knight for not possessing great vision.

Mario Chalmers, George Hill, and Devin Harris are some examples of PGs on contending squads who aren't great distributors or have average court vision, and their coaches realize this and create a specific role for them to excel in. This is where having a coach not named Larry Drew will help.

As long as the guy is a willing passer, I don't think your PG has to be Mike Conley or Steve Nash to effectively run the position. The kid's 22 years old, plays good perimeter defense, has a great work ethic, and showed promising growth in a season where everything else pretty much went to ****. I don't see a need to pigeon-hole him in a "bench 3&D guy" role when he's shown the potential to be more than that.

[Zeezprah]

Not weird, just relatively ignorant as it pertains to the stance of a 19 or 20 year old kid. Taking on the mindset of "well they're millionaires, they can do pretty much whatever they want" isn't a justifiable one. If you have a few million dollars in your pocket, and you play for the Milwaukee Bucks, and you have a nice condo on Lake Michigan, and yeah, during the summer, you go do whatever you want for four months, and then you return and get back at it in Milwaukee, and while you're "home," you're dealing with winter, and my oh my, it sucks, and you're with your boy Larry poppin bottles at Apartment 720. During those 8 months, you're checking out your buddy's Facebook, and Instagram, and Twitter feed, and he plays in LA, he spends his off days on the beach with some good looking women, and your other buddy is playing in New York exploring everything that city has to offer, snapping selfies at the Statue of Liberty and in Times Square. You're honestly going to sit there and sit there and say "eh." C'mon.

Do you have any idea how long 7 years is to a kid that age? It's a lifetime.

Winning solves everything, but you have to recognize that if you're not winning, that can create problems for a guy who doesn't necessarily come in ready to embrace the city of Milwaukee.

yea i see what you mean.

i guess it's just a different upbringing too. when i was 19 (i'm still only 23), i would've been thrilled just to have a chance to play anywhere. but maybe that's because i wasn't told i'd be an nba player since i was a young teenager, didn't have people in my ears about marketing potential, and i'm from a smaller-big city like milwaukee instead of a toronto or chicago.

[Badgerlander]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/464421460908724225[/tweet]

1 Milwaukee Bucks
Andrew Wiggins SG/SF
19 years old; 6'8"; 197 lbs.
Kansas, Freshman

Milwaukee will be looking to draft the best talent available here, but it doesn't hurt that they have a fairly glaring hole at the swingman position. With Larry Sanders' situation looking unstable at the moment, they will certainly give Joel Embiid a hard look here as well, depending on the results of his medical examination, as they were forced to start Zaza Pachulia for much of the season. Either way they will need to somehow address their leaky defense, which ranked second worst in the NBA last season.

From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com#ixzz318dBS38a
http://www.draftexpress.com

[sidney lanier]

As long as the guy is a willing passer, I don't think your PG has to be Mike Conley or Steve Nash to effectively run the position. The kid's 22 years old, plays good perimeter defense, has a great work ethic, and showed promising growth in a season where everything else pretty much went to ****. I don't see a need to pigeon-hole him in a "bench 3&D guy" role when he's shown the potential to be more than that.

I agree, and I wouldn't form any judgments about Knight's willingness to pass/distribute based on the season just ended. The Bucks' offense was so often poorly spaced that passing opportunities were limited. I don't think it was so much a matter of the choice of passing to a poor shooter or taking it himself. It was a function of the geometry of the game and not having passing lanes or even many run-of-the-mill pick-and-roll opportunities.

Since this is a draft thread, it might be interesting to think of Knight's college/pro career trajectory, the strides he's already made as a facilitator, and how much improvement he has in him. From DraftExpress:

Finding a Niche for: Brandon Knight
May 6, 2011
Report by Derek Bodner, Video Breakdown by Sebastian Pruiti

Brandon Knight capped off his up and down freshman season with a pair of game winners and a 30 point explosion during Kentucky's run to the Final Four, despite shooting just under 33% from the field in the tournament while committing nearly 3.4 turnovers per game, showing the quandary he places NBA decision makers in.

Those numbers may hide some of the progress Knight was making as the year went on. Knight averaged an astounding 4.7 turnovers per game over his first seven games, struggling both with his ball handling and decision making as he was playing a largely isolation game trying to make the major transition from high school to college. Knight played for a small, academic oriented high school in Florida where he was asked to play a be-all, end-all role in every moment on the court, and adjusting to the rigors of a new system on a team playing an incredibly challenging schedule almost immediately was a major learning experience for the young point guard.

As the year went on Calipari put Knight in more and more in pick and roll and dribble hand off situations, allowing the guard to take advantage of the attention he receives in these situations and generate offense for his teammates, while limiting some of the turnover problems and over dribbling that plagued Knight earlier in the season. Well known as a very intelligent player and person both on and off the court, Knight's basketball IQ improved visibly from game to game and week to week, culminating in his very impressive SEC and NCAA Tournament performances in March.

From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com#ixzz318hMWHbt
http://www.draftexpress.com

I think the potential is there. All he needs is a Karl Malone to his John Stockton. Maybe somebody from the same college he went to.

[worthlessBucks]

I think DX needs to run that page through QA or something. Awful loading that thing.

[jakecronus8]

As long as the guy is a willing passer, I don't think your PG has to be Mike Conley or Steve Nash to effectively run the position. The kid's 22 years old, plays good perimeter defense, has a great work ethic, and showed promising growth in a season where everything else pretty much went to ****. I don't see a need to pigeon-hole him in a "bench 3&D guy" role when he's shown the potential to be more than that.

I agree, and I wouldn't form any judgments about Knight's willingness to pass/distribute based on the season just ended. The Bucks' offense was so often poorly spaced that passing opportunities were limited. I don't think it was so much a matter of the choice of passing to a poor shooter or taking it himself. It was a function of the geometry of the game and not having passing lanes or even many run-of-the-mill pick-and-roll opportunities.

Since this is a draft thread, it might be interesting to think of Knight's college/pro career trajectory, the strides he's already made as a facilitator, and how much improvement he has in him. From DraftExpress:

Finding a Niche for: Brandon Knight
May 6, 2011
Report by Derek Bodner, Video Breakdown by Sebastian Pruiti

Brandon Knight capped off his up and down freshman season with a pair of game winners and a 30 point explosion during Kentucky's run to the Final Four, despite shooting just under 33% from the field in the tournament while committing nearly 3.4 turnovers per game, showing the quandary he places NBA decision makers in.

Those numbers may hide some of the progress Knight was making as the year went on. Knight averaged an astounding 4.7 turnovers per game over his first seven games, struggling both with his ball handling and decision making as he was playing a largely isolation game trying to make the major transition from high school to college. Knight played for a small, academic oriented high school in Florida where he was asked to play a be-all, end-all role in every moment on the court, and adjusting to the rigors of a new system on a team playing an incredibly challenging schedule almost immediately was a major learning experience for the young point guard.

As the year went on Calipari put Knight in more and more in pick and roll and dribble hand off situations, allowing the guard to take advantage of the attention he receives in these situations and generate offense for his teammates, while limiting some of the turnover problems and over dribbling that plagued Knight earlier in the season. Well known as a very intelligent player and person both on and off the court, Knight's basketball IQ improved visibly from game to game and week to week, culminating in his very impressive SEC and NCAA Tournament performances in March.

From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com#ixzz318hMWHbt
http://www.draftexpress.com

I think the potential is there. All he needs is a Karl Malone to his John Stockton. Maybe somebody from the same college he went to.

[Badgerlander]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DraftExpress/status/464441444338765825[/tweet]

[Newz]

Did someone just compare Brandon Knight to John Stockton?

[Badgerlander]

Did someone just compare Brandon Knight to John Stockton?

and Julius Randle to Karl Malone

[engelmartin]

Chad Ford just put up a piece about the top 10 PG prospects in this year's draft. (http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft201 ... -nba-draft) Anyone with insider read it yet?

[midranger]

I think next to a couple wings who can handle the ball adequately to create their own offense and offense for others (Wiggins and Giannis), Knight could be a valuable 3-and-D PG in the mold of those mentioned before (Chalmers, Fisher, etc...)

[Badgerlander]

Chad Ford just put up a piece about the top 10 PG prospects in this year's draft. (http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft201 ... -nba-draft) Anyone with insider read it yet?

yep, couple days old, has one up about wings too, but they are just fluff pieces really

Exum is widely regarded as the best point guard prospect in the draft. In speaking with numerous scouts and executives, all had Exum atop their PG board. That's pretty amazing for a player scouts have barely seen and most GMs haven't seen live. The best glimpse they got was at the 2013 Nike Hoop Summit, and for a few, the under-19s in Prague last summer. Regardless, Exum's size (6-foot-6, 188 pounds), athletic ability and performance in those showcase events lead them to believe he has the highest ceiling. He's not a pure point guard yet and he needs to work on his shot, but he might be the best prospect in the draft based on his ability to get to the basket.

Smart and Ennis are in a tight race for the second-best point guard prospect. Smart has the edge among the scouts and GMs we spoke with, but a significant number of them have Smart ranked considerably lower. (Apparently scouts either love him or hate him.) Smart is tough and a vocal leader on the floor, and he plays with a passion and intensity that many love. Ennis doesn't provoke a strong reaction either way. He's steady and safe and plays mistake-free basketball. Surveying the teams in the lottery looking for a point guard, it appears that Smart is the likely favorite to go second, but Ennis could surprise.

The next two point guards on our list are the upside picks. LaVine came off the bench as a freshman at UCLA and didn't even play point guard, but his shooting ability, athleticism and size (6-5, 180) for his position intrigue pro scouts. Payton didn't play against the strongest competition, but again size and athleticism are carrying the day here. Of the two, LaVine is probably the riskiest pick -- he may be one of the two or three riskiest picks in the draft -- but he has a higher ceiling. In fact, some scouts will argue that other than Exum, LaVine has the most upside of any point guard in the draft.

[jr lucosa]

He also has a top 10 for bigs, in case you guys are wondering how he's ranking them

BIGS

1. Joel Embiid, freshman, Kansas (3)
2. Julius Randle, freshman, Kentucky (5)
3. Aaron Gordon, freshman, Arizona (6)
4. Noah Vonleh, freshman, Indiana (7)
5. Dario Saric, 20, Croatia (12)
6. Adreian Payne, senior, Michigan State (17)
7. Clint Capela, 19, Switzerland (18)
8. Jusuf Nurkic, 19, Bosnia (23)
9. Kyle Anderson, sophomore, UCLA (26)
10. Jarnell Stokes, junior, Tennessee (29)

PGs

1. Dante Exum, age 18, Australia (4)
2. Marcus Smart, sophomore, Oklahoma State (8)
3. Tyler Ennis, freshman, Syracuse (9)
4. Zach LaVine, freshman, UCLA (14)
5. Elfrid Payton, junior, Louisiana Lafayette (19)
6. Shabazz Napier, senior, UConn (25)
7. Semaj Christon, sophomore, Xavier (33)
8. Jahii Carson, sophomore, Arizona State (34)
9. Vasilije Micic, age 20, Serbia (36)
10. Spencer Dinwiddie, junior, Colorado (37)

Wings

1. Andrew Wiggins, Fr., Kansas (1)
2. Jabari Parker, Fr, Duke (2)
3. Gary Harris, So, Michigan State (10)
4. Nik Stauskas, So., Michigan (11)
5. Doug McDermott, Sr., Creighton (13)
6. James Young, Fr., Kentucky (15)
7. P.J. Hairston, So., Texas Legends (NBDL) (16)
8. Rodney Hood, So., Duke (20)
9. Jerami Grant, So., Syracuse (21)
10. K.J. McDaniels, Jr, Clemson (22)

In parentheses is what he has them on his top 100

[jakecronus8]

Weird he has Kyle Anderson listed as a big.

[skones]

I just can't see Aaron Gordon as anything more than an off the bench guy.

[jakecronus8]

I just can't see Aaron Gordon as anything more than an off the bench guy.

I agree. He screams Tyrus Thomas to me.

[Badgerlander]

Weird he has Kyle Anderson listed as a big.

why? he's a pf in the nba, doubt there are many sf that he could stay in front of

[JimmyTheKid]

As long as the guy is a willing passer, I don't think your PG has to be Mike Conley or Steve Nash to effectively run the position. The kid's 22 years old, plays good perimeter defense, has a great work ethic, and showed promising growth in a season where everything else pretty much went to ****. I don't see a need to pigeon-hole him in a "bench 3&D guy" role when he's shown the potential to be more than that.

I agree, and I wouldn't form any judgments about Knight's willingness to pass/distribute based on the season just ended. The Bucks' offense was so often poorly spaced that passing opportunities were limited. I don't think it was so much a matter of the choice of passing to a poor shooter or taking it himself. It was a function of the geometry of the game and not having passing lanes or even many run-of-the-mill pick-and-roll opportunities.

What about the fact that Detroit already gave up on him?