2015 Draft Thread - Part 1

[Higga]

Portis would have been ideal at #19 but Oubre is a fine pick and makes a lot of sense in today's NBA.

Many of you were disappointed when Ariza left, well here you go. Here's an uber athlete with 3 & D potential that plays with high energy. He shot 37% from 3 so he's ahead of were Ariza was at the same age. He's 19 so he fits well with our trio of Wall, Beal, Porter.

Here's hoping his defense will help him earn the backup SF role going into next season. He's in a good environment to contribute. Wall, Beal & Porter are becoming seasoned vets now and will definitely help the kid grow up pretty fast.

+1

We aren't knucklehead central anymore. With Wall, a wise beyond his years Beal, a maturing Porter, veterans like Gortat and Hump among others(not even factoring in Pierce)you're gonna come here and work and be a pro or you're out.

[payitforward]

Problem is that he may CHOOSE to play in europe over here. I imagine he may do that for a year and wait for the '16 cap to kick in before signing a deal. So essentially, we could have drafted two players who don't impact the team much at all this season.

On the bright side, there is no way more than two rookies make it on our roster. If he does go to Europe i could see Holmes/Jaiteh/Kaba/Alexander/Wood being brought in. Frazier is another option at the 2

Those guys aren't going to wait on White to make his decision. We'll be left with the garbage when it comes to the bigs.

Chill a little maybe...? Holmes, Wood, Jaiteh, & Kaba aren't making an NBA team this year -- I'd certainly take Khem Birch over any of them.

Alexander is an odd case, as he played well in some fundamental ways -- but if he only earned 17 minutes a game at Kansas do you really think his game is developed enough that he's going to earn an NBA roster spot by the Fall?

I tell you what -- if Aaron White is as good as Matt Bonner (the negative? comparison some of you have made), I'll be doing back-flips of joy! Do you think Bonner gets minutes on the Spurs because he's a bad player?

[Saqs]

Liking the pick more and more honestly. I think Ernie might have hit a homerun but only time will tell.

[payitforward]

I wanted Portis. Oubre wasn't even on my radar since he was expected to be gone before the 19th pick, and I thought the Zards would/should be looking for a PF with range or a backup guard.

But I think Oubre will likely turn out to be a good--maybe even great--pick. He was widely considered the BPA at 15. He has a good looking jumper, is an excellent athlete and he's a tremendous defender. Yeah, he's young and raw and may not contribute much this year, but that's true of about half of the players in the top half of the draft.

Several posters here wanted EG to be bold and daring rather than play it safe. Now that he's done that some of those same people are unhappy. Go figure.

Agreed -- I'm really surprised at the reactions. I think it was a great get. As I wrote yesterday morning "this kid is a phenomenal talent."

If you'd told me a day or so ago that Ernie was going to do this, I'd have said it was impossible.

[W. Unseld]

I went to bed thinking most of you would freak out had Ernie drafted Lebron, then I woke up thinking--did we just trade up to get the only knucklehead in a draft with no knuckleheads? Did we just take Nick Young with 1/2 the offense but more defense? Are we relying on a guys defensive potential who lacks desire to play defense and was benched in college for not playing defense?

I've come back down a little but I'm waiting for Colin Cowherd to "thin slice" Oubre based on his outfit.

[payitforward]

Snowcones in hell. We all three agree on something.

Someone will certainly bring Alexander into camp. I can't understand how he was not drafted -- one of the top recruits out of high school a year ago and, though he didn't live up to that rep, the kid put up very good numbers: 12 boards per 40 minutes (incl. 4.5 offensive) and .60 TS%. He has no 3-ball. Definitely worth a shot in R2.

Hands' guy Michael Frazier went undrafted as well.

I mentioned a week or 2 ago - there were reports that Alexander had a very bad attitude.

And as promised: Down goes Frazier! <sorry>

I must have missed that about Alexander -- I did hear it about Wood of course.

Poor Joe Frazier... Hey! Is Michael his grandson?

[payitforward]

I went to bed thinking most of you would freak out had Ernie drafted Lebron, then I woke up thinking--did we just trade up to get the only knucklehead in a draft with no knuckleheads? Did we just take Nick Young with 1/2 the offense but more defense? Are we relying on a guys defensive potential who lacks desire to play defense and was benched in college for not playing defense?

I've come back down a little but I'm waiting for Colin Cowherd to "thin slice" Oubre based on his outfit.

He was benched for not paying attention to defense, then he came back and was an outstanding defender. You think this is a bad thing? I think it's a terrific sign.

He may be a bust. Ditto Portis. He may be a star. Ditto Portis. Hey... Jerian Grant may be better than both of them in the end! But Oubre was a terrific Freshman, has a big upside, and has showed himself responsive to coaching and discipline. I love the move.

Btw, we didn't know Portis would drop past our #19 pick, most people had him and Oubre both gone by then. So you can't ask "why didn't we just wait and take Portis?" If you don't like the pick of Oubre, you sort of have to be saying we should have made the same trade we did -- but take Portis over Oubre. I can't see that.

[payitforward]

... or else stay where we were and take Grant if Portis was gone.

[manifested]

I went to bed thinking most of you would freak out had Ernie drafted Lebron, then I woke up thinking--did we just trade up to get the only knucklehead in a draft with no knuckleheads? Did we just take Nick Young with 1/2 the offense but more defense? Are we relying on a guys defensive potential who lacks desire to play defense and was benched in college for not playing defense?

I've come back down a little but I'm waiting for Colin Cowherd to "thin slice" Oubre based on his outfit.

Honestly, I don't know if Oubre can play at all but I'm going to wait and see before calling him a knucklehead. The story is that he started out not getting minutes early in the year due to lack of defensive intensity, but took to the coaching, got better as the year went on, and played a bigger role at the end. Don't know how accurate that narrative is, but that doesn't scream knucklehead to me.

I didn't pay much attention to Kansas, but that sounds like a guy who maybe got hyped in HS, thought he was better than he was, got a bit of a lesson early on and learned something from it. That would actually be positive in my mind and a sign that he is maturing (whereas Nick Young never showed any real signs of growing up). Time will tell if he is willing to continue that process in the NBA.

The locker room is pretty solid now. Count me as cautiously optimistic.

[W. Unseld]

payitforward, I'm not all over Portis, for some reason this year I didn't catch draft fever until late so I don't know much about the guys, I went to bed thinking it was a worthwhile gambit for a guy who was projected higher and I woke up thinking we got a potential knucklehead that had to be forced to play defense that isn't that great offensively and the Wiz don't have the best track record for teasing out potential.

OTOH, they were about as patient as they could've been developing Seraphan and Otto does seem to have developed. I'm not sure what to think, it looks like we'll know in 2 years.

[Zonkerbl]

Looks like we just drafted Jordan Crawford again?

[Rafael122]

BTW, so much talk about Atlanta fleecing the Nets w/the Joe Johnson trade, the ability to swap picks and all they ended up with was Tim Hardaway Jr. The Nets arguably had a better draft than the Hawks.

It just makes me wonder what Boston is going to do with all those picks. Just because a team has all of these assets doesn't mean they'll know how to use it.

[barelyawake]

double

[barelyawake]

Snowcones in hell. We all three agree on something.

Someone will certainly bring Alexander into camp. I can't understand how he was not drafted -- one of the top recruits out of high school a year ago and, though he didn't live up to that rep, the kid put up very good numbers: 12 boards per 40 minutes (incl. 4.5 offensive) and .60 TS%. He has no 3-ball. Definitely worth a shot in R2.

Hands' guy Michael Frazier went undrafted as well.

I mentioned a week or 2 ago - there were reports that Alexander had a very bad attitude.

And as promised: Down goes Frazier! <sorry>

No doubt the guy has ego for days. Hopefully, not getting drafted was a humbling experience. His mentality certainly reminds me of McGee or Blatche. But, I have no problem drafting those types in the second round. My problem is basing the teams' future on them three or four years later, when we are still talking about potential.

[nuposse04]

On the bright side, there is no way more than two rookies make it on our roster. If he does go to Europe i could see Holmes/Jaiteh/Kaba/Alexander/Wood being brought in. Frazier is another option at the 2

Those guys aren't going to wait on White to make his decision. We'll be left with the garbage when it comes to the bigs.

Chill a little maybe...? Holmes, Wood, Jaiteh, & Kaba aren't making an NBA team this year -- I'd certainly take Khem Birch over any of them.

Alexander is an odd case, as he played well in some fundamental ways -- but if he only earned 17 minutes a game at Kansas do you really think his game is developed enough that he's going to earn an NBA roster spot by the Fall?

I tell you what -- if Aaron White is as good as Matt Bonner (the negative? comparison some of you have made), I'll be doing back-flips of joy! Do you think Bonner gets minutes on the Spurs because he's a bad player?

Meh I've calmed down a little, and the characterization of matt bonner is off... he is a better athlete then I thought, but he doesn't look any bit quick or explosive for NBA standards...which would be ok if he had high skill. He doesn't seem to have the dead eye range that Bonner has so that immediately makes him less of a player and does not appear to be strong enough to guard traditional 4s or overly quick to guard small ball 4s. He looks a bit...untoned to me, so maybe some NBA training can help him with strength, but he is going to be 23, so I doubt his body changes much at all. Maybe 10 lbs more muscle. I hate Richaun Holmes as more interesting prospect since he seemed to be an explosive offensive player but it is moot since philly took him. Also I doubt White get to the FT line as much as he did in college unless he has the flopping and flailing pedigree of Harden.

Woods is a headcase I would willing to gamble on, maybe he'll come for a camp invite since twitter leads me to believe this guy will not play here this coming season. So I don't get drafting a senior if it is understood said player is going to be voluntarily go to europe. Especially since this guys upside seems limited. Drafting and stashing young raw players is understandable....but him? Meh.

I think Jiteh would have trouble in year one, but the upside is better... I think Alexander, even w/o 3pt ability would have been a great enforcer in due time. I don't mind a couple non-choir boys.

What rubs me the wrong way, is that essentially both of our draft picks will contribute little, or next to nothing (especially White if he goes overseas) and we're a team short on assets, can't really spend...that needs to improve in order to get prominent FA attention...so how do we rectify that in the draft? Well lets draft TWO guys who can't help much in year one.

[nate33]

He looks a bit...untoned to me, so maybe some NBA training can help him with strength, but he is going to be 23, so I doubt his body changes much at all. Maybe 10 lbs more muscle.

Untoned? Really?




I think he could probably stand to gain a little more muscle if he's going to play PF in the NBA, but his muscle tone and overall body fat looks real good to me.

I think some of this may be due to him being white. There's something about a sweaty sheen against the backdrop of dark skin that makes black guys look more muscular than white guys with the exact same build. Years ago, I played pickup ball with a guy that made the NBA back in the 80's (Eric Fernsten, a journeyman 7-footer big white stiff for the Knicks). He said to me that the most surprising thing about playing against Larry Bird was his strength. He didn't look like it because of his pasty white skin, but he was one of the strongest guys in the league.

[DCZards]

What rubs me the wrong way, is that essentially both of our draft picks will contribute little, or next to nothing (especially White if he goes overseas) and we're a team short on assets, can't really spend...that needs to improve in order to get prominent FA attention...so how do we rectify that in the draft? Well lets draft TWO guys who can't help much in year one.

It looks like EG and the Zards made the decision that the long-term upside of Oubre was more valuable than the short-term benefit of a more NBA-ready player like Grant...or maybe Portis. We'll have to wait and see if that was the smart move.

It was very unlikely that the #49 pick would have been of much help in year one.

[dobrojim]

that's if you assume that either Portis or Grant really are more NBA ready. Certainly possible but we
don't really know yet.

[Saqs]

What rubs me the wrong way, is that essentially both of our draft picks will contribute little, or next to nothing (especially White if he goes overseas) and we're a team short on assets, can't really spend...that needs to improve in order to get prominent FA attention...so how do we rectify that in the draft? Well lets draft TWO guys who can't help much in year one.

It looks like EG and the Zards made the decision that the long-term upside of Oubre was more valuable than the short-term benefit of a more NBA-ready player like Grant...or maybe Portis. We'll have to wait and see if that was the smart move.

It was very unlikely that the #49 pick would have been of much help in year one.

Agreed. I also think Witt may have had more influence on this pick than people think. He was just on 980 and expressed the fact that regardless of who you pick you dont know if a kid can come in right away and contribute. He also pointed out how impressed he was that Oubre was forced to sit and be humbled for months instead of being anointed PT right away at Kansas and came away as the best player on a talented team by the end of the year despite this.

[queridiculo]

Agreed. I also think Witt may have had more influence on this pick than people think. He was just on 980 and expressed the fact that regardless of who you pick you dont know if a kid can come in right away and contribute. He also pointed out how impressed he was that Oubre was forced to sit and be humbled for months instead of being anointed PT right away at Kansas and came away as the best player on a talented team by the end of the year despite this.

Of course he was, sitting young players is his MO!

All kidding aside, I'm over my initial shock over the move with Portis dropping to our original draft spot.

Hope he realizes his potential, and who knows, maybe some day this team manages to add a few young, talented bigs to this roster.