Thank Nation! Pre-Lottery: Denver 9th, NY pick 7th (PART 4)

[Volcano]

If we draft Luwawu, I'd try to swap Carroll out for Batum (actually I want to do that no matter who we draft).

You get the French connection and Batum can take Luwawu under his wing.

[Jstock12]

If we draft Luwawu, I'd try to swap Carroll out for Batum (actually I want to do that no matter who we draft).

You get the French connection and Batum can take Luwawu under his wing.

Great idea. However, I don't think that Carroll would land you Batum.

[Treadmill_Team]

I see a lot of Myles Turner in Skai. Both have similar games and came into College with a lot of hype but didn't live up to it. both were the #2 ranked prospect coming outta High School. I believe Skai and Brown are the two guys that if we pass up we could regret it big time down the road.

[OAKLEY_2]

I am willing to eat this post but hell will freeze over before the Raps take another project at 9. Like Wright they will want a player's game to be more developed not to mention their physique. That is why I think Skal is off the list. Luwawu is a pro already who's weakness is his handle and Sabonis taking Poetl to the wood shed opened some eyes. Will they take Sabonis at 9? Depends entirely on workouts and I suspect he will be motivated to turn heads there. Let's agree that Sabonis is on the radar as is Luwawu and to some extent Korkmaz. Rabb also has to be considered as well. If that involves leveraging the pick to move down a bit then that has to be a possibility. Cannot sse them giving up the farm to move up.

[TheGoodDoctor]

Based on a slightly skewed current draft order because I don't PHI winning and LA's farewell Mamba gift *ahem*

1. LAL - Ben Simmons
2. PHI - Brandon Ingram (traded to BOS - Saric is coming next year)
3. BOS - Kris Dunn (pick swap + another minimal asset to move up)
4. PHX - Dragan Bender (bye Kieff!)
5. MIN - Jamal Murray (perfect running mate for LaVine, space floor for Wiggins n KAT)
6. NOH - Buddy Hield (Gordon gone and Davis needs some help with the scoring load)
7. DEN - Jaylen Brown (they have Harris and Barton I believe at SG n could small ball w/ Gallo)
8. SAC - Ivan Rabb (they need maturity in the locker room)
*9. TOR - Timothe Luwawu (we've been looking at 2 way players, him, Powell & Wright good combo moving forward)
10. MIL - Jakob Poeltl - they need a defensive C
11. ORL - Skal Labissiere - they take a gamble on replacing Harris
12. Utah - Forkan Korkmaz
13. PHX - Domantas Sabonis - somewhat security of Bender busts
14. CHI - Tarean Prince - they value toughness
15. DEN - Denzel Valentine - to Mudiay with distributing
16. BOS - Marquess Chris - banking on upside
17. MEM - Henry Ellenson - Zbo is aging and Gasol can defend post anyways
18. DET - Demetrius Jackson - has some grit and upside to his game, seems like a decent fit as back up
19. DEN - Brice Johnson - a nice way to open up a trade for Kenneth Faried
20. IND - Chieck Diallo - they just seem to look for a diamond in the rough
21. ATL - Tyler Ulis - they were already rumoured to be shopping Teague
22. CHA - Malik Beasley - just add some scoring
23. BOS - Thon Maker - the Celts I think are swinging for the fences with their picks, they have enough "solid" players
24. PHI - Caris LaVert - get some ballhandling
25. LAC - Diamond Stone- just some padding for DeAndre
26. PHI - Zhou Qi - it's nearing end of 1st rd take a gamble
*27. TOR - Cat Barber or Isaiah Cordinier (the French connect w/ Luwawu in D-League), I still like Bentil but doubt it
28. PHX - Cat Barber or Isaiah Cordinier - whichever one we don't take, think they have similar drafting tastes to us
29. SAS - Petre Cornelie - small ball C next to LMA for Pops and seems like a mature young player
30. GSW - Kay Felder - Gstate shocks people with a short flat out scorer

Solid list. As much as Philly needs a point guard, they would be insane to trade Ingram. Definitely have my doubts about Luwawu going that high. Could potentially be there at 27 if we don't package the pick. The guy that will be interesting to follow is Thon Maker. Especially if he wows at the draft combine and team workouts. A team might be ballsy enough to take him in the lottery.

As for Philly and their PG need, do you think they'd trade the pick for home town all-star Kyle Lowry? Kyle would lift them into the playoffs instantly. Ingram or Simmons would still be development projects for a couple years at least. Get 'er done BC.

Do you think the Pelicans, who need an SF, would trade #6 for #9 and Carroll if Murray was still available there? If we could pull that off, I'd be fine with keeping DD as an over paid player for one more season, and it would allow us to bring back Biyombo. Ross and Powell could handle SF well enough to keep us in the 50+ wins space next season.

Personally I don't see either of those deals happening tbh

If Kyle was like 4-5 years younger maybe but they're not giving up a #1-3 pick for a 30+ y/o PG who isn't going to be growing with their young guys and no team is desperate to add an aging, broken down Carroll who has looked pretty bad in his limited time being somewhat healthy never mind giving up a better asset to do so AND they need to send out more salary to do so. If we trade up by using a player, we have to give up one of Wright or Powell (period). Personally I may be open to trading Wright but of course an absolute hell no to giving up Powell who is top 5 caliber himself. Even when I say that I'm not sure how big of an appeal Wright has around the league. We know he's solid but how closely are other GMs paying attention to a kid who spent the vast majority in the D-League and just blended but didn't really stand out per say?! It's a long shot imo.

What I think is likely to be attempted...

a) our pick is traded in a package for some upgrade at PF
b) Masai TRIES to package the LAC pick to move up a couple of spots in an attempt to land Murray. He's said multiple times that our roster doesn't have the space to handle all the draft picks in the next 2 years (especially with Wright, Powell and Bruno using up 3 spots already). In the end he may fall short as Murray will be off the board and does he think it's worth it to package the LAC pick to their most likely trade partner, DEN because I could see them liking Luwawu as much as Brown. I think the Pelicans would be a bit harder pressed to give up having Hield pair up with AD. Personally I'm good with packaging to get Hield or Brown.

But so many teams struggle to get anyone to bite at moving up anymore so what I could actually see happening in the end is a trade like Ross + Wright + LAC pick + our own 2016 for Millsap or something (or similar package in a S&T for Horford - look what we got for Bosh or CLE did for LBJ), I think BOS just may get Cousins in the off season if they can weasel into the top 2.

[super_balls]

Juan Hernangomez is really starting to grow on me. He has the potential to be a weird mix of JV and Mirotic.

When watching him play you see that he has JV's motor and length on the board and on offence he has Mirotic's IQ and feel as a shooter (good footwork and form), slashing (great at reading gaps) and passing (makes the right play).

I really like this kid and he could potentially sneak into the lottery. I wouldn't be opposed to that. If we can somehow get him at our own pick, it would be a steal especially, if we could stash him for a couple of years in Madrid.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2srBdn_U5CU[/youtube]

I would love to come away with two of the three in Skal, Prince and Hernangomez.

[BoyzNTheHood]

If Luwawu can't create his own shot because of a weak handle, and if we re-sign Demar who can't create his own shot in the playoffs we just end up putting the entire burden of offensive creation on Kyle. That doesn't work. It makes the opposition's defensive schemes extrememly easy to plan. You need to be able to hit them from different places.

[mademan]

Juan Hernangomez is really starting to grow on me. He has the potential to be a weird mix of JV and Mirotic.

When watching him play you see that he has JV's motor and length on the board and on offence he has Mirotic's IQ and feel as a shooter (good footwork and form), slashing (great at reading gaps) and passing (makes the right play).

I really like this kid and he could potentially sneak into the lottery. I wouldn't be opposed to that. If we can somehow get him at our own pick, it would be a steal especially, if we could stash him for a couple of years in Madrid.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2srBdn_U5CU[/youtube]

I would love to come away with two of the three in Skal, Prince and Hernangomez.

Big fan of his. Would love to get him at our pick

[zilby]

As someone who doesn't follow college basketball at all, every scouting report I've read makes it seem like Rabb is the player to take at our pick if he gets there. Extremely talented, good low-post scorer with the ability to develop a shot, mobile defender, excellent rebounder. We've been a good rebounding team this year but having a mobile defender next to JV makes all the difference, as we've seen with Patt this year.

I dunno, I'm expecting a PF out of the Knicks pick and BPA in our draft slot.

[myfaceisonfire]

I agree w.r.t. not drafting a project this year - I would be 0% surprised if we end up taking Sabonis at 9 as he seems to have the best balance of pro-readiness and upside of any of the PFs in the draft. I also like Brice Johnson, I don't understand why he is projected to fall so low...I'd be thrilled if we grabbed him with our own pick.

This depends on what we think Demar is going to end up doing. Even if he jettisons I don't think that forces us into immediate rebuild mode -it may make us consider looking at a guard instead of a PF at 9 though.

[cammac]

Call me crazy but in this draft I think Sabonis is going to be in play at or near 9. Whether we make that happen is another story. I highly doubt we pick any guards. If anything Masai will be hedging against a Bismack departure not a Derozan exit. Watch us trade the 27th pick.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if Sabonis is picked somewhere around 10.

I'll be killing myself laughing reading the draft thread if Masai picks him. [quote]

Sabonis is grossly underrated by DX basically see him or Rabb as our pick and personally see Sabonis as the better pick. With the Raptors pick Hernangomez should be taken whether Masai would stash him or bring him over he is a steal at that point.

Obviously I would look at trading 9th for 15th and 19th if we could still get either Rabb or Sabonis with 15th.

[CoachJReturns]

Sabonis and JV would be one of the least athletic frontcourts in the league. Defensively, it would be a nightmare. Rabb, if he enters the draft, is the PF option at our pick. I like Sabonis a lot, but it's a terrible fit with JV and I think Jonas has, at least for now, earned the right to play a bigger role going forward especially if Demar leaves. Sabonis has a great motor, but so does Rabb and he is a better perimeter defender. Masai has now drafted 3 times and all 3 he has taken someone who at least appeared to have defensive potential. Sabonis isn't that guy.

[Treadmill_Team]

As someone who doesn't follow college basketball at all, every scouting report I've read makes it seem like Rabb is the player to take at our pick if he gets there. Extremely talented, good low-post scorer with the ability to develop a shot, mobile defender, excellent rebounder. We've been a good rebounding team this year but having a mobile defender next to JV makes all the difference, as we've seen with Patt this year.

I dunno, I'm expecting a PF out of the Knicks pick and BPA in our draft slot.

Rabb is leaning towards returning to school

[OAKLEY_2]

If Luwawu can't create his own shot because of a weak handle, and if we re-sign Demar who can't create his own shot in the playoffs we just end up putting the entire burden of offensive creation on Kyle. That doesn't work. It makes the opposition's defensive schemes extrememly easy to plan. You need to be able to hit them from different places.

Ross doesn't really create off the dribble but from from catch and shoot he's money. It really depends what strengths we are playing to. Luwawu would be mostly a defensive SF with the ability to score on the fast break and probably from the corner. Sort of a young Anthony Parker with more bounce.

[TheGoodDoctor]

As someone who doesn't follow college basketball at all, every scouting report I've read makes it seem like Rabb is the player to take at our pick if he gets there. Extremely talented, good low-post scorer with the ability to develop a shot, mobile defender, excellent rebounder. We've been a good rebounding team this year but having a mobile defender next to JV makes all the difference, as we've seen with Patt this year.

I dunno, I'm expecting a PF out of the Knicks pick and BPA in our draft slot.

Rabb is leaning towards returning to school

This is really a mind boggling decision to me if he does. He's only going to cause himself to fall further down in the next draft as it's considered to be much deeper and when you project to go top 10 I always think it's just way too risky to go back because your coach can use other incoming players more and lower your numbers or heaven forbid an injury and you're screwed. In the end I believe agents will be reaching out with similar words of caution and he'll enter it but if he doesn't it sucks to lose a solid prospect and also means another name in our range will be off the board when they're taken in his place.

I'll be completely disgusted if we take a more polished Psycho T aka Sabonis, with our one chance to add a lotto talent in likely the next 4+ years. His projection is the exact player that is the weak link at PF now; Scola smdh lol he's not a good shot blocker or defender. As others have mentioned him and JV would get destroyed on the blocks and his offense is not good enough to compensate for that. What some don't realize is that he's already filled out like a man so a lot of the buckets he gets now will not be there at the next level when he is playing against equally physically developed players and is a below average athlete and not a great wingspan. He has role player written all over him, have no idea why some people would even think about targeting one with a lone lotto pick.

Anyways, if Rabb does declare I believe the pick is b/w him and Luwawu. Could go either way, I like Luwawu more and I think he's a better overall fit in the end with Powell and Wright...and eventually Bruno who I think ends up a small ball PF. With his current shortcomings to dribble, I think he'll improve and he really doesn't seem THAT bad but also Wright and Powell will probably be the ones creating off the dribble much of the time anyways. But Rabb can make a lot of sense to with Scola gone and needing a mature player to come in and blend while having upside.

[UcanUwill]

When is lottery, draft?

[HolyMage110]

When is lottery, draft?

Around 2 months from now

[DreamTeam09]

Just take skal. He can hedge out on screens and face guard far away from the basket. His defensive potential at the 4 spot beside Val is too much to pass on. He'll get his offense from above the rim, things lowry and cojo like are capable of. He has a mid range too and at 7ft you know he's getting that shot off.

JV, SKal, BB, playoff Patterson is an elite defensive front court.

If skall gets any sorta post game he's a star.


I also like Ivan Rabb too. Don't mind him at all. I'm just really in love with mobile length. It's the only way to beat small ball.

[anj]

When is lottery, draft?

Around 2 months from now

No, the lottery to determine drafting order is always in May, during the playoffs. So about a month away. The actual draft is on June 23.

[LJKO]

For me it's between Luwawu and Skal or Rabb if he declares; also hoping Lotto ball help denver pick 1-6 so we keep the NY-pick now that would be interesting ^_^