2015 Draft Thread - Part 1

[The Consiglieri]

I just sent my brother my wish list:

Dream scenario:

Lyles, Turner or Portis just fall into our laps, we pull the trigger (tempted to say Kaminsky, but Im just a little bit worried about where his floor is at).

Acceptable scenario:

Looney is taken if he's available, if he's not, Hunter is the pick, if he's not, Grant is the pick.

Nightmare scenario:

With Looney, Lyles, and Turner all gone, the team forces the pick and goes Harrell just to grab a 4.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

CCJ, I love his game, I thought he and Favors were every bit as worthy a pick in '10 as Wall, i actually wondered if Favors would be the best (and I'm not too proud to admit that I was/am stunned at how bad Turner has been, great college player and great story after all of his travails, to fail at the next level was a shock to me). Love his game.

But he as a guy is absolute poison to a locker room. The only guy who wants him in Sac is the owner. Way too many insiders co-signing on the stories of him deliberately jaking it in games when he doesn't like something going on, deliberately quitting on possessions out of pique, dust ups in the locker room, disrespecting coaches, the guy is awful.

As a technical player, when he feels like playing he's one of the two most dominant big men in the league by a country mile, but that doesn't mean anything if he's poison in the room and can't get along with anyone. He's the Jeff George of Centers.

Last paragraph....I say check his game logs, game scores, PPA, plus minus from game to game.

Cousins reminds me in temperament of a young Rasheed Wallace, mixed with Ron Artest, a young Zach Randolph, and sprinkled with essence of JR Smith. That mindset with Moses Malone rebounding skills, Vlade Divac passing skills, and a handle better than Zach Randolph.

I think you will find a player who has a range of mood swings, but who plays hard consistently...until SOMETHING sets him off. He acts like a middle schooler when he's upset. Petulant.

Consiglieri, say what you want about Cousins. I say go back and watch Kentucky lose in the Final Four. Cousins was better all tournament than Wall. I told a bunch of you just how good Cousins was...AND YOU LIKED HIM THEN.

Cousins didn't kill Coach K or Coach Malone or Coach Calipari.

I like him because I suffer from a mood disorder myself. I expect Cousins will have a heap of success with a few catastrophic failures. The key will be who is coaching and how good are his teammates. This is an Alabama kid. Strong as an ox. WYSIWYG. Attitude with his view of respect being important to him.

Dude feuds primarily with how games are officiated.

Just like Z Bo and Rasheed, Boogie WILL BE A WINNER at NBA hoops.... as long as he does nothing criminally compromising. The very fact that he tweeted old predictions from 5 years ago shows just like John Wall, he writes down what his critics say.

For the record: I want Boogie AND John on my team!

[DCZards]

ccj, no one is disputing Cousins' talent. The guy is a beast. But stats are not enough. If they were SAC wouldn't be talking about trading him.

And please don't compare Cousins to Rasheed, because while 'Sheed could be temperamental on the court, pretty much everyone who has ever played with him, as well as coaches, say Rasheed has always been a leader in the locker room. I don't think the same can be said of Boogie.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

The draft is 24 hours away. Phuck getting drawn in to a BS discussion about Wall and Cousins.

There are far more pleasant scenarios to entertain.

I miss you already!

I miss you, too. We have a Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello symbiosis, fish.

Bill Simmons needs us on his newest thing, whatever it is. Tell him I'm like Cedric the Entertainer morphed with Joe Peschi, but with the loving-kindness of Barney the Dinosaur, and a bit like bible - thumping Tim Tebow. Women on even a major movie set .... trust me.

Got the horn dog out of me and major props to the local VA. Mental health has come a mighty long way.

Miss you, too, fish.

[TGW]

Pass on Cousins—the front office worked hard to get rid of the selfish, idiotic knuckleheads...no need to undo all that hard work.

[Dat2U]

Outside of somehow landing either Turner, Kaminsky or Portis...I'd prefer trading the pick. If you could get a young asset back, that would be ideal. I think the talent level falls off significantly at about 13 or 14 guys.

On the other side of the board, trading for an additional 2nd round pick makes alot of since.
There's likely to be a decent amount of talent available and I'm sure a few are going to stick as role players and one or two could even do more.

[nuposse04]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/SLAMonline/status/613863809627893760[/tweet]

I find this amusing in that, it isn't tat Cody and Kaminsky have similar games... it is that people have similar stereotypes about them. Myself included. I would love to see a Zeller/Kaminsky front line if CHA can't unload Zeller, mostly for the Lulz. I do think it could be potent offensively, defensively....ehhhh....ok...

[closg00]

Man, the "scout" take in SI on Tyus Jones sounds like kiss of death stuff:

He’s not very big, but he’s a winner. You don’t think he’s a great shooter, but when the game is on the line, the guy never misses.

I have Jones down as a dropper tomorrow night.


#FireErnie ~ Because he believed Stephen Curry couldn't help us and Jan Vesely could.

[gambitx777]

#1 Tyous Jones IMO is one of the most overrated players in the draft. After looking at some stuff, I don't want to touch him at 19.
#2 I'm going to pass on Looney if he has a hip issue. at least that drops him below some other guys on my list.
#3 The only reason you bring in Boogie, is because we have Wall. Wall as a leader, as a man, and as one of Boogies best friends, will be able to rain him in and get him playing team ball. Boogie with out wall is not worth trading for at all.
#4 About grant, I don't feel like Sessions is going to figure in to our draft plans, I actually have a theory that we might be trading him to the cavs anyway. I would much much rather have Tyler Harvey, But I would be happy with grant.

[payitforward]

Jerrell Martin

You are forgetting Montrezl Harrell !!

My depressing projections are Grant or Harrell -- though in fairness, Grant is likely to be a much better player than Harrell!

My optimistic projections are Looney or (dream dream dream) he's gone but Oubre falls to us -- that kid is a phenomenal talent.

My ultra optimistic projection is that somehow we trade down and Dekker drops to us, we pick up a high R2 guy like Cliff Alexander, then at 49 we get say Joseph Young (? anyone like him at all?). Michael Qualls has somehow fallen off of DR's mock along w/ my guy Alan Williams. So we pick up those two guys as FAs.

W/ Blair, Seraphin, Bynum & Butler off the team, we stock the back of the bench w/ guys who are cheap and have the potential to build the team's core down the road.

Now... I know I've grabbed 5 and only dropped 4 in the above scenario -- it's a motivation thing: we tell them as follows -- "we're going to keep the 4 best of you, and the other one we're going to (fill in the blank)!"

[tweet]https://twitter.com/jorgeccastillo/status/613801826354204672[/tweet]

oh no oh no no no.

[hands11]

Richaun Holmes will be available in Round 2 but doubt he lasts to #49

Should we really reach for him????

Not to worry... Wizards will get a high second for Thomas

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Wizards coming up on NBATV mock!

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Countdown to the draft... Looking like this could be a crazy one, lot's of wheeling and dealing!

[SUPERBALLMAN]

And (in the NBATV mock) with the 19th pick in the 2015 NBA draft The Washington Wizards select...

RJ Hunter !

[80sballboy]

Rick Snider, normally not a Wizards beat guy, now writing online for 1067 the Fan, mentioned since they drafted Pecherov, Singleton and JaVale at 18, maybe Grunfeld ought to consider trading the pick. I'm not against that assuming Portis or Lyles is not there.
http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/06/23/wizards-best-bet-trade-the-19th-pick/

[hands11]

Good thing about this draft... there aren't a lot of player you would be upset they picked.

Might not be everyone's first chose but ...

Lots of good players. And in the end, you can sometimes see right away, but it doesn't always happen quickly. Specially depending on who they pick. A lot of the guard seem NBA ready though.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I just sent my brother my wish list:

Dream scenario:

Lyles, Turner or Portis just fall into our laps, we pull the trigger (tempted to say Kaminsky, but Im just a little bit worried about where his floor is at).

Acceptable scenario:

Looney is taken if he's available, if he's not, Hunter is the pick, if he's not, Grant is the pick.

Nightmare scenario:

With Looney, Lyles, and Turner all gone, the team forces the pick and goes Harrell just to grab a 4.

As far as I'm concerned, your "Nightmare scenario" to me is more like having a dream that you're involved in some passionate lovemaking, with somebody TRULY DESIRABLE, only to wake up and find you still love the ex-wife who hates your guts and would do anything in the world to destroy your reputation and cause you emotion and financial pain. That and take your kids, not let you see them, and overcharge you for child support with the court's blessing.

BAD NEWS PERHAPS... but just depends on your perspective. If you roll with what is (in this case getting a MEH PF who's maybe a better Trevor Booker) then it's NOT a NIGHTMARE.

My Nightmare would be Looney, Lyles, Turner and other ALL THERE but EG picks some really bad player. Temperament like Glen Rice Jr. Heart and brains or lack thereof of Vesely and McGee. And about as professional as Andray Blatche on a Rod Strickland hot dog diet. Plus injured like Martell Webster from day one.

That's a nightmare, Consiglieri.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Good thing about this draft... there aren't a lot of player you would be upset they picked.

Might not be everyone's first chose but ...

Lots of good players. And in the end, you can sometimes see right away, but it doesn't always happen quickly. Specially depending on who they pick. A lot of the guard seem NBA ready though.

While true my friend, hands, I'll NEVER FORGET 2011.

The only two guys I said don't draft were named Vesely and Chris Singleton.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I like Jones, enjoyed watching him play, and he's the kind of guy I think might slip through a la Dat Nguyen, with that work hard, mental make up, physical skills just good enough, mental make up through the roof, but I am not so confident that I would take him over guys I think flat out can make the jump and contribute for sure (Grant, Hunter), or have the chance to be this draft's "why the hell did he get picked that low again" guys like Schroeder, and particularly Giannis, and Gobert, that looked like steals to a lot of us two years ago, when they were still available after the first dozen picks had come and gone. Those guys for me are Lyles, Looney, Turner, Oubre (way too low of a floor for me though), Portis, Alexander, and a guy like Wood who looks like a steal in round 2 if his mental make up isn't six feet under the local graveyard at this point.

Wow, awesome, man. Football analogy that I totally get. Nguyen was and undersized, not NFL athletic linebacker, who was really effective for the Cowboys. Exception to the rule ... as you're saying maybe Tyus Jones can be.

[The Consiglieri]

For the record, and I'm sure you can tell, I'm not nearly as knowledgable with regards to basketball as I am with Football, and soccer and to a lesser degree baseball. Basketball always was last in the pack amongst my sporting interests in terms of playing and watching compared to #1 football #2 hockey (though i don't know it nearly well enough having not played it) #3 baseball and #4 soccer (which is #1 now for me, Champions League, World Cup just kick the teeth in of all other sports to me, nothing has impacted me in sports the way the US upset of Portugal did in '02 the near win against Germany in the quarterfinals, Liverpool's epic comeback in the Champions League Final in '05, Donovan's injury time winner against Algeria in '10, the women and their heroics against Brazil in '11, the fight back against Ghana, and the fight back and horrific gut punch against Portugal in '14 followed by the Howard/Comeback/fail against Belgium in the Round of 16-the redskins haven't given me a single experience remotely close to that other than RGIII's two drives against Seattle before his knee blew up, in the past twenty years, and that isn't as great anyway).

When it comes to basketball, I enjoy the playoffs and the draft and the NCAA tourney and that's about it. As a result (and it being my worst sport as a kid, way, way, way better as a football/baseball/soccer player), I can generally identify busts consistently, but as my anthony bennett love can attest to, I can't sniff out the future studs as well (kind of like my skill at identifying future busts among Edge Rusher/DL prospects, but am not nearly as good at sussing out guys who actually will make it).

Still have not heard ANYTHING about the Wizards by the way, came across a massive column out of Chicago with about 10,000 rumors, but ZERO on what the wizards are going to do .