2016 NBA DRAFT NIGHT THREAD

[BobbieL]

The key
is Brandon Knight willing to be 6th man?

If yes, I think the team can improve

If not, have to trade him.

Rob Henniger and Vlade Divac - get me them on lines one and two please

[King4Day]

Chriss is a weird guy:

Asked about being selected by Phoenix - "I'm fine with it".
How was the workout in Phoenix - "Good weather and nice hotel".

Totally serious answers lol.

Better than Davis' reaction when he was drafted in the second round by Boston (for Memphis).
I get that kid was down but man, talk about defeated.

[JMac1]

I had a dream last night we drafted both Bender and Chriss, then woke up to find out it was not a dream Went to bed thinking about the draft because it was the first time we actually traded up to get a good player, not 42 to 35 or 29 to 28 and I was totally shocked and excited.

Don't know what these guys are going to turn out to be, but we all can have a reasonable level of excitement considering we have a long player and an athletic player which we have not had in a long time minus Len.

I know BW is probably still running around like an 8 year old on Christmas day

[sunsbg]

Chriss is a weird guy:

Asked about being selected by Phoenix - "I'm fine with it".
How was the workout in Phoenix - "Good weather and nice hotel".

Totally serious answers lol.

Let's hope he's joking otherwise not only his BBIQ is low.

[NTB]

Chriss is a weird guy:

Asked about being selected by Phoenix - "I'm fine with it".
How was the workout in Phoenix - "Good weather and nice hotel".

Totally serious answers lol.

Let's hope he's joking otherwise not only his BBIQ is low.

I agree with you that those answers are not good but we should also consider that they are just kids and it was maybe their most important and excited day of their life. Being bad at talking doesn't always reflect to the court.

[JMac1]

Booker hanging with Ulis waiting for him to get picked...

[tweet]https://twitter.com/DevinBook/status/746193199337603072[/tweet]

I like that though. Everyone needs to know that this is Booker's team, including Booker. It will give him more of an Alpha male personality which is needed if he is going to be a star; dude can't acquiesce to the likes of Knight. Everyone will know that they have to get in were they fit in, not the other way around.

Booker should feel like he is respected and wanted in this organization and he can trust us. After all of the crap Goran and IT and the Morri said about us when they left, including the media always poking fun at us, has hurt our brand. Booker is the perfect guy to get the Suns respect. Dude is already in a national commercial with what some expect are the new faces of the NBA....

Don't mess it up Suns!

Booker will be out new recruiter of FA, glad he is tight with so many great players!

I love it.

[King4Day]

I love the draft but will take a step back into reality for a minute.

1. If we re-sign one or both of Leuer / Mirza, that will significantly cut into the playing time of both Chriss and Bender. My guess is, we'll re-sign at least one of them so we can trade them later.
Part of free agency is to acquire assets. We'll do so at the expense of developing players early on.

Tucker/Warren/
Mirza/(Leuer)Bender/Chriss
Chandler/Len

2. Unless we trade Knight, I would be surprised if Ulis gets much playing time this year. I expect him to spend a lot of time in the D-League instead of sitting behind all of our guards (especially if Price returns).

Bledsoe/Knight/Price/Ulis
Booker/Goodwin

-----------

I have no doubt these guys will find minutes eventually, I just think it'll be a while.
I also don't think we're a playoff team, even if everyone stays healthy.

[JMac1]

who had a better draft than us? the Clippers? they gave up Lance Stephenson and a 2019 1st round pick for Diamond Stone and Cheick Diallo. big whoop.

Philly? Ben Simmons makes them a 30 win team IF he plays like rookie LeBron. i like Korkmaz. 33 wins tops right now.

Spurs? i don't think D. Murray is any good at basketball yet. (creepy feeling that reminds me of when i realized that Kawhi Leonard was ridiculous, after 5 seasons)

maybe the Wolves did because they got Kris Dunn and we didn't.

there is no way Kris Dunn is better than Eric Bledsoe right now. in addition, you fear Eric Bledsoe will break down the way Derrick Rose has, but you couldn't know that. Rajon Rondo has had about as many injuries as Bledsoe. Rajon is still himself, although he doesn't always try.

i like Dunn, but Dunn/Knight or Dunn/Bledsoe is worse than Bledsoe/Knight because Knight and Bledsoe can both shoot. Dunn can't, at least not at that level. so am i investing in this guy, instead of the freaky Dragan Bender AND the freaky Marquese Chriss?

no. why? DUNN AND KNIGHT ARE THE SAME AGE. BOOKER IS FOUR YEARS YOUNGER THAN DUNN.

if we need a guard, we don't need Dunn. we probably need a guard that can shoot, and Dunn is not that. but right now, we really don't need a guard.

You don't have to sale me, I am an owner of this frame of mind.

[MathiasPW]

Phoenix being taken as winners in most draft reviews.

I particularly loved this one, with the comments and tweets on the Celtics

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2016-nba-draft-winners-and-losers-celtics-underwhelm-thunder-make-out/

[Barkley6]

Chriss is a weird guy:

Asked about being selected by Phoenix - "I'm fine with it".
How was the workout in Phoenix - "Good weather and nice hotel".

Totally serious answers lol.

Let's hope he's joking otherwise not only his BBIQ is low.

Eh, don't be nit picky. Some guys just don't buy into the whole media thing. These are almost Popovich-esque answers and no one would say he has a low IQ in anything. How many times can you hear guys say "I'm excited to get to work, I'm going to do whatever the team asks me. It's a great city with great fans. They've got some really interesting talent there." It's almost a script. He deviated from it. Okay, so he's an individual. I'm fine with that.

[JMac1]

Best drafting teams in the McDonough era:

Dunn, Lavine, Wiggins, Muhammad, Dieng, Towns
Simmons, Okafor, Noel, Embiid
Booker, Warren, Chriss, Bender, Len

I'd love to get another 1-2 elite picks (I'm not sure we have our no.1 superstar yet) and then go head to head with these mid-market teams who built through the draft for the next decade, similar to GS and OKC.

I'm already checking for PGs in the lottery next year as the two high level protypes we probably need in the 18-23 core still are a PG and then a defensive SF.

Difference is, Mc'D had to be crafty and good. Those other guys just got super high picks year after year, hell, Philly has two number 1's in there as does Minny.

[JMac1]

Reading through the Boston board is quite comical. They are really giving it to Ainge. lol

They had very high hopes, they stockepiled "Assets", and with all the rumored players (Okafor/Noel/Butler/Hayward/Parker/Middleton/Love/Monroe) they ended up with:

Jaylen Brown
Guerschon Yabusele
Ante Zizic
Demetrius Jackson
Ben Bentil
Abdel Nader

All those great "Assets" turned into THOSE players.

After Ainge was able to pull off the Big 3 trade back in the day, and a few others, Boston fans felt he was a trade stealing team building god, and i think the league finally got tired of his shenanigans and refused to do anything with them (Besides Memphis Taking on #31 & #35 for the Clippers 2018 1st).

Seriously, their draft was a MAJOR letdown.

They sure did.

[JMac1]

Check out the thought's on Ulis from all the draft forum analysts here... viewtopic.php?f=3&t=1442361

I know nothing about Ulis other than that he's a good PG but is also only 5'10 150lbs. Didn't know he was THAT good. Do you consider him a steal or do you think his draft position is about right?

I liked him. He had the second best ast/to ratio of all guards in college basketball...a steal? Potentially...he had an insane ast/to ratio and was defensive player of the year and conference player of the year overall...I mean this is a conference with Jamal Murray and Ben Simmons.

He's just small. Kay Felder (also small) from a smaller school even posted a more insane ast/to ratio and was also good defensively but is more stout and most thought he could be a rock and not get pushed over easily so I liked him and Ulis both.

The only question with Ulis is how skinny and lightweight he is...if he can put some muscle on, I have zero doubts about him. I actually have fewer doubts with him right now than the other two. I mean Ulis is for real and will be a fan favorite...if he needs to put on weight, I imagine he will.

I guess Booker told them we have to draft him (he played with him last year).

When I was searching for Murray info, I continued to find info on how good Ulis was. I am very happy about him as well. IT, Nate Rob, Mugsy, little guy from Denver (315lbs bench press guy?) all were productive in this league. Although Ulis is the tiniest in weight. He won't be a trouble make, so bringing synergy to a team that is void of it is just a big as he is small.

[JMac1]

Honestly prior to 6 hours ago I thought they'd both bust, but I'd rather have 2 lottery tickets with chance of hitting than guys with no chance of making any significant difference.

They both have high bust factor, but with our team, yeah, you have to roll the dice and not go for what seems safe. I'm glad they did. And when they don't come along quickly, we get another high pick next year, and then we are getting there. If they come along quickly, can't argue with that.

All I know is this is the best draft because we don't have to worry about the other guy's development like everyone was worried about, even BSOTS, because we have both; good or bad, we got the right guy this time. No Noel or Len ongoing debate for years, btw, I still like Len for us. That includes Gobert and Adams too. Those bigs haven't separated themselves that much.

For the record. I will not be following Hield or Murray or Dunn or Brown because I wanted Bender, so if those guys bust out I could care less, good for them. I am following Kaminsky though. Not hoping he is better than Booker, just that he becomes a good player, because some of you guys keep playing that card every now and then.............its too early my friends

[Frank Lee]

This draft is a make or break for McD. I can't walk away with the joyous feeling some of you have. I rate it a C because there is no 'Incomplete' Our two prize picks are perhaps the two biggest projects on the board. Neither is ready to contribute according to ALL the experts. The fact that so many here are falling all over themselves mythically grab assing McD for his work yesterday further emphasizes my doubt. This board was the same way with the Dragic/IT/Knight debacle last yr and we have seen how that has turned out. One problem solved, but created another. The late snag of Ulis is an obvious reacharound for Booker, but he likely will contribute more than the beanpoles. If we can jettison Knight. And From what was said when Bender was selected... he was McD's boy all along, while Chriss was Sarver's. I guess I am just not that excited about a player whose greatest attribute is his athleticism while his greatest weakness is his BBIQ. Thats a dangerous combination.

I wasn't expecting much, but to say this is an 'all-time ' great draft by us is a starry eyed gaze into a crystal ball set on 2+ yrs.

There is more work to do. Much more.

[JMac1]

I'm not knocking the guys we got. I like them and I'm rooting for them, but they're risky picks. I'm not sure I should speculate, because it'll be taken as "I'd rather have these guys over the ones we've got" but it's more of balancing the risk. So, with that in mind.

I think Kris Dunn will be in the running for Rookie of the Year and has a good shot at becoming a multi-year all-star and will likely be more durable than Bledsoe - who would then likely have to be moved. I would've liked Dunn/Chriss/Ulis or another guy like Zimmerman or Qi or Brogdon. Another scenario I like would be Bender and Valentine/Baldwin and Skal and Ulis or the three other guys I've mentioned.

This being said, these guys could blossom and be all-stars, but it's going to be at least two seasons before they show why they were drafted this high. Sure they could shock everyone and do it next season, but that's unlikely.

As my sig notes, I'm going to be patient with these guys.

I'm with you. I like the two guys because both players were lauded as the #3 talent in this draft and we took both of them. That said, they are both highly risky, high reward players and I would've liked to see us go with a slightly more conservative, perhaps more ready to play guy. I went with 'A' because I thought the trade for a high reward/high reward guy was a great move and I have no doubt we would not have gotten anyone better from those assets we traded away. Time will definitely tell with how our three guys will fare but I think we drafted well at #4, we made a great move for #8 and we took a strong player with potential with our last pick.

Ding ding ding, exactly!!! I hope people aren't forgetting that just because they are on the same team. There have been several outlets that claim either of the guys could wind up being the best player in the draft and both have the highest upside outside of the top 2. Both are 18 years as of today!

If they both BOOM with Booker. How about a

Roy (my favorite outcome for Book)
Marion sprinkled with a little Amare, Gay, and LMA
AK47 sprinkled with a litte Dirk and Kukoc

as a core in 3 or even 4 years they'd be 21-23 years old only...crazy!

[jcsunsfan]

This draft is a make or break for McD. I can't walk away with the joyous feeling some of you have. I rate it a C because there is no 'Incomplete' Our two prize picks are perhaps the two biggest projects on the board. Neither is ready to contribute according to ALL the experts. The fact that so many here are falling all over themselves mythically grab assing McD for his work yesterday further emphasizes my doubt. This board was the same way with the Dragic/IT/Knight debacle last yr and we have seen how that has turned out. One problem solved, but created another. The late snag of Ulis is an obvious reacharound for Booker, but he likely will contribute more than the beanpoles. If we can jettison Knight. And From what was said when Bender was selected... he was McD's boy all along, while Chriss was Sarver's. I guess I am just not that excited about a player whose greatest attribute is his athleticism while his greatest weakness is his BBIQ. Thats a dangerous combination.

I wasn't expecting much, but to say this is an 'all-time ' great draft by us is a starry eyed gaze into a crystal ball set on 2+ yrs.

There is more work to do. Much more.

Only you could argue that the Suns being universally praised for "winning" the draft last night by all the major media outlets is a bad sign.


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[bhawk]

So who were all the members of the Buddy Brigade again? I want their feelings/take on the draft because i remember hearing a lot from them leading up to the draft.......

JMac likes it...but he was on Bender...just loved Hield too (but who doesn't like Hield?)

Cactus Jack - not around

ginobili - not around

I usually can remember who all liked who but my photographic memory is failing me because I often confuse some posters.

Though there were a few that rarely post that hated the picks...like Dambo, SteveNashidis and maybe some others.

Still like Buddy and think the NOP will be a much better team with him. He will put up some 30 pt games next to AD. I think it is tough to trade guards in this league. There are sooo many of them and they are almost inter-changable. From Paul, Bled, Conley, Rose, Knight, Rubio, Teague, Schroeder... etc. The shooting guard market is flooded as well. So as much as I like Buddy for all of the reasons mentioned on this board, is he that much of an improvement over Knight? He definitely has better size and is a better shooter, but even Buddy will take time to develop. The decision Sarver and MCD had to make is do the Suns wait and develop a promising new and older shooting guard? Or do they invest in younger players at positions that are in greater demand? Good SF are really tough to come by... Athletic stretch 4's are very rare.

I'm personally very happy with the draft. Bender and Chriss have GREAT potential. I do worry about Chriss's work ethic / personality, but the kid is very young. I hope that Booker (others) can be positive influences on the kid. Bender is really thin and more concerning - weak. Can his skillset translate to a very strong and physical NBA? Can he put on muscle?

Time will tell on both guys. I'm a SUNS fan first and foremost and would have been happy with anybody. I will say that I like MCD more today than I ever have. Thad Young gets a 20 and Markieff got 13. Bravo. Did we really just move up 5 spots for peanuts? I'm still pinching myself because these deals RARELY happen. I feel like we just pulled off Curry for an old Amare. We fleeced SacTown.

There is still work to be done. Not an Archie fan. I think he is gone. I think we will have another high pick next year as our 2 new guys develop. Probably in the 6-10 range. I'm really looking forward to the player development of our new young core. I'd rather have BIG potential than older proven players who will only move the needle on established teams. See Horford / Ibaka / Gibson, others. We have HOPE as Suns fans for the first time in a long time and hope is a good thing (or whatever that Shawshank quote is).

It is a good summer to be a Suns fan!

[JJ13]

This draft is a make or break for McD. I can't walk away with the joyous feeling some of you have. I rate it a C because there is no 'Incomplete' Our two prize picks are perhaps the two biggest projects on the board. Neither is ready to contribute according to ALL the experts. The fact that so many here are falling all over themselves mythically grab assing McD for his work yesterday further emphasizes my doubt. This board was the same way with the Dragic/IT/Knight debacle last yr and we have seen how that has turned out. One problem solved, but created another. The late snag of Ulis is an obvious reacharound for Booker, but he likely will contribute more than the beanpoles. If we can jettison Knight. And From what was said when Bender was selected... he was McD's boy all along, while Chriss was Sarver's. I guess I am just not that excited about a player whose greatest attribute is his athleticism while his greatest weakness is his BBIQ. Thats a dangerous combination.

I wasn't expecting much, but to say this is an 'all-time ' great draft by us is a starry eyed gaze into a crystal ball set on 2+ yrs.

There is more work to do. Much more.

Who would you have rather we drafted mr fancy words and phrases? I think people are excited about the outcome given the options, and excited about the commitment to rebuilding which we haven't quite seen yet. Not to mention the gaping hole we have at PF.

[MathiasPW]

This draft is a make or break for McD. I can't walk away with the joyous feeling some of you have. I rate it a C because there is no 'Incomplete' Our two prize picks are perhaps the two biggest projects on the board. Neither is ready to contribute according to ALL the experts. The fact that so many here are falling all over themselves mythically grab assing McD for his work yesterday further emphasizes my doubt. This board was the same way with the Dragic/IT/Knight debacle last yr and we have seen how that has turned out. One problem solved, but created another. The late snag of Ulis is an obvious reacharound for Booker, but he likely will contribute more than the beanpoles. If we can jettison Knight. And From what was said when Bender was selected... he was McD's boy all along, while Chriss was Sarver's. I guess I am just not that excited about a player whose greatest attribute is his athleticism while his greatest weakness is his BBIQ. Thats a dangerous combination.

I wasn't expecting much, but to say this is an 'all-time ' great draft by us is a starry eyed gaze into a crystal ball set on 2+ yrs.

There is more work to do. Much more.

It's damn right a make or break draft.

If you pick two guys with 30% chance of becoming an all star (avg probability at pick 4 over the last 10 years or so), the chance that one becomes an all star is still 30%. The chance BOTH become an all star is 10%.

McD is swinging for the fences. If he hits, he's built a very good team for many years.
If he fails, he may still have have a competitive team (low likelihood that picks ranked #4 become total busts), or may sink the ship for good.

I'm happy he took the risk. No more con building.

Let's see how it turns out.