The #2 Pick

[knicksup19]

knicks fan here hoping russell falls to us..

I watch tons of college basketball okafor while a great offensive product doesnt rebound hit FT or play D.

Okafor= Al jefferson

Russell= damian Lilliard IMO..

If it was my choice i would take russell

your comparisons are whack man

saids the guy who compares russell to Curry and mudiay to a Dwade/John wall hybrid..

At least mines are rational and tempered.. You basically have mudiay as the best combo guard of all time if hes a cross between wall and wade, and russell reminds you of the MVP and arguably best 3 point shooter of all time

[DEEP3CL]

I keep going back to Okafor's hand size. When Phil Jackson talks about the differences between Kobe and MJ he always mentions that MJ's hand size allowed him to do things with the ball that kobe just couldnt do. If hand size gives you an advantage then Okafor is going to have one hell of a advantage.

Big Game I'll tell you right now what his first advantage is going to be. At NBA level as you know...defenses collapse more, this means more fouls on a guy that won't easily lose the ball and that will lead to more free throws. That alone will be the start to improving his FT percentage. Also it will benefit his team because they'll get to the penalty a lot earlier, and that will be the first phase of controlling tempo. Although his first couple of years he will be hack-a-thon on Jahlil.

Overall Okafor gives you so many advantages with just that physical aspect of his make up.

[DEEP3CL]

There really is no discussion here.

Let's not even make this a philosophical discussion. Let's make this a discussion about Russell and Okafor.

One, by virtue of who he is, would put up numbers on any college team. The other, ironically like two famous OSU alums* before him, seemingly needs the ball in his hands, as the focal point, to be "who he is".

There really is nothing to see here.

*Jimmy Jackson and Evan Turner.

You're right about this one ALL HAIL, you like me...we come from the old school of how ball was for decades before this "spray'em up all over the court" style of play. And the problem is some of these young bucks don't understand that guard.....point guard in the NBA is the HARDEST spot to master. The reason I don't like most of these guards today is that for one they need to pound and pound and pound on the ball. They're more so trying to create for themselves rather than run the offense and spread the ball around, recognize the hot man, feed the post and so on.

Guys can keep mentioning Russell and Muiday until they're black and blue in the face, bottom line is Mitch is drafting a big so some of these guys better be able to deal with it.

You're right man, we don't need one of these "new toys" when we're deep isht in a rebuild.

[kblo247]

knicks fan here hoping russell falls to us..

I watch tons of college basketball okafor while a great offensive product doesnt rebound hit FT or play D.

Okafor= Al jefferson

Russell= damian Lilliard IMO..

If it was my choice i would take russell

your comparisons are whack man

saids the guy who compares russell to Curry and mudiay to a Dwade/John wall hybrid..

At least mines are rational and tempered.. You basically have mudiay as the best combo guard of all time if hes a cross between wall and wade, and russell reminds you of the MVP and arguably best 3 point shooter of all time

Not even going to bash you. Just going to say you need to scale things.

My scale for each top draft guy - little work / average worker / tons of hard work

Towns - Tyson Chandler / Jermaine ONeal / Kevin Garnett

Okafor - Al Jefferson / Pau Gasol / Tim Duncan

Russel - Jennings / Van Exel / Curry

Muiday - Francis / Marbury / Westbook

Everyone has weaknesses. Towns lacks a strong frame, he has not played big minutes, and he may very well be a 4 who plays some 5 in the long run and whose game relies on a lob play and mini jumper. Okafor problems stem from his lack of D, but if he chooses to he can be similar tot he Pau of the finals run just by using his length properly, and if he truly committed to it and maintained his O, he's the best big since Duncan to enter this league. Russell has shooting ability a no if he tightened up his handles and learned step backs for separation he may be curry, but he's also the guy who struggled last year vs any athletic guard he faced and got exposed as well, so he may be an ineffective chucker like Jennings vs nba athletes, or a spark like Van Exel on a good team. Then there's Muiday who has all the tools, he could be a flash in the pan without work similar to Francis, he could be a multiple time all star who winds up out the league when everyone catches on ala Marbury, or he could work on his body and skills and blow up like Westrbook.

[ALL HAIL]

It's really all about how you nurture the talent that you choose to select.

[gotokyo]

your comparisons are whack man

saids the guy who compares russell to Curry and mudiay to a Dwade/John wall hybrid..

At least mines are rational and tempered.. You basically have mudiay as the best combo guard of all time if hes a cross between wall and wade, and russell reminds you of the MVP and arguably best 3 point shooter of all time

Not even going to bash you. Just going to say you need to scale things.

My scale for each top draft guy - little work / average worker / tons of hard work

Towns - Tyson Chandler / Jermaine ONeal / Kevin Garnett

Okafor - Al Jefferson / Pau Gasol / Tim Duncan

Russel - Jennings / Van Exel / Curry

Muiday - Francis / Marbury / Westbook

Weren't you the poster going on all season about wanting us to lose the pick because this draft class is extremely overrated, especially towns/okafor. You wanted the 3-5 million cap hold to be used for free agency?

Now okafor with average work ethic will be Pau Gasol?

[Tarik_shaq]

why isnt Kevon Looney an option on this poll? what happened to all the Looney lovers near the beginning of the season? smh

[TyCobb]

Right here, but I'm not passing on Okafor or Towns for him.

[kblo247]

saids the guy who compares russell to Curry and mudiay to a Dwade/John wall hybrid..

At least mines are rational and tempered.. You basically have mudiay as the best combo guard of all time if hes a cross between wall and wade, and russell reminds you of the MVP and arguably best 3 point shooter of all time

Not even going to bash you. Just going to say you need to scale things.

My scale for each top draft guy - little work / average worker / tons of hard work

Towns - Tyson Chandler / Jermaine ONeal / Kevin Garnett

Okafor - Al Jefferson / Pau Gasol / Tim Duncan

Russel - Jennings / Van Exel / Curry

Muiday - Francis / Marbury / Westbook

Weren't you the poster going on all season about wanting us to lose the pick because this draft class is extremely overrated, especially towns/okafor. You wanted the 3-5 million cap hold to be used for free agency?

Now okafor with average work ethic will be Pau Gasol?

I said they won't contribute right away or attract a star. JO, KG types took 2-3 years to get it. That's the catch 22. I'll take em because they are assets. They develop right and they could be damn good, at worst we now know the cap is getting a huge jump as opposed to being eased into, so that means we can trade them and bring back a proven guy who can attract others. Our options got better as I expected then to try and get that smoothing **** passed


And to be blunt Pau is just a B player and can't lead you anywhere so I hope he's better.

[kblo247]

It's really all about how you nurture the talent that you choose to select.

Half and Half, they have to want to improve too

[ALL HAIL]

It's really all about how you nurture the talent that you choose to select.

Half and Half, they have to want to improve too

Fortunately and unfortunately though, most players have "the want" but don't possess the nurturing situation -- the special teams know how to nurture talent.

The bad teams lack the ability to put young pups in the best, most ideal positions to succeed.

It's the nurturing that sets the bad and good apart from one another.

Jerry West was, many more times than not, very, very good at not just getting talent, but more importantly nurturing this talent to reach optimal levels.

[laduane1]

Would love a big, but Mitch seems like he wants to trade the lottery pick for vet help. I hope he was just talking. Has Mitch not learned about trading #1 picks. He gave up a boat load for Nash and what did that do. Nothing. Still owe a #1 to 76ers and #1 to Orlando. Help right away does not mean wins.

[Luciferswings]

People are criticising Russell's lack of athleticism. Going back to the Bogut over Paul/Deron draft, just how athletic were Deron/Paul? Not very. How did that choice pan out?

[kblo247]

People are criticising Russell's lack of athleticism. Going back to the Bogut over Paul/Deron draft, just how athletic were Deron/Paul? Not very. How did that choice pan out?

Deron was very athletic .. Probably the most since Baron Davis for his body type. And for all Boguts flack, Paul has only played one full season in his life in the nba

[Luciferswings]

Saying he was "athletic for his body type" is like saying "he was fast for a senior citizen". And seriously, did you just rip Chris Paul for time missed in a comparison with Bogut?

[Sedale Threatt]

I wouldn't say Stephen Curry is much of an athlete either. He's OK.

[laduane1]

Okafor, shoots under 50 percent from foul line. Going to have to sit at end of games. Need to get him a free throw coach. Would love Towns or Stien. He plays defense at lease.

But with Mitch talking trade of the pick. We might not get any.

[Pointgod]

People are criticising Russell's lack of athleticism. Going back to the Bogut over Paul/Deron draft, just how athletic were Deron/Paul? Not very. How did that choice pan out?

Deron was a big body, strong and fast for his size. And Paul was a lightening quick guard and tenacious competitor. I don't see the comparison with Russell tbh. I wonder how Russell compares to James Harden athletically. That draft was horrible because Chris Paul was the pick, but the Bucks already had TJ Ford. Bogut reminds me a lot of Towns, just a solid player on both ends but the upside isn't all that sexy.

[iamworthy]

Okafor, shoots under 50 percent from foul line. Going to have to sit at end of games. Need to get him a free throw coach. Would love Towns or Stien. He plays defense at lease.

You would take Stien over Okafor?

But with Mitch talking trade of the pick. We might not get any.

In radio appearances Thursday, Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak discussed the draft pick and what the Lakers might do with it, although he pointed out that it’s still early, that they’re still fielding calls from teams interested in the pick and that they still must work out and interview draft prospects in the coming weeks.

“It looks as though we’ll use our pick this year,” Kupchak said during a radio appearance with ESPN’s Colin Cowherd. …

“Let’s just say there was a team that had the fifth or sixth or seventh pick, and they wanted to go to No. 2,” Kupchak told SiriusXM NBA Radio. “In that area of the draft, just to move up two or three or four slots, normally, it’s hard to do. And the price that that team would pay would be high, because they’ve targeted a player that they really want. Obviously the other team would know that, and they would have to pay for that.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lak ... -no-2-pick

Pretty safe to say that we will keep the pick this year.

[Dilly]

Yesss lets keep this pick and it's scary 2 think these Monster bigs are still growing. We can possibly have a 7 foot plus monster manning the paint for decades