Snapbacks and Handshakes: The 2017 Draft (Raps pick #23)

[S ID]

Personally not my pick but for whoever's interested

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[HeadtopChunes]

Personally not my pick but for whoever's interested

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Ahh Thicc Siakam. I don't know about him at 23. I'd take him 2nd round but then again there are others I like more than him.

[RaptorsLife]

Personally not my pick but for whoever's interested

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Thanks for posting. I think I'm only fan of his on here lol

[RaptorsLife]

motley reminds me of homeless millsap

[PhilBlackson]

motley reminds me of a slightly better pascal

Fixed.

[HeadtopChunes]

In reference to Bolden.

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[PhilBlackson]

In reference to Bolden.

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I pray that's right just to have a chance to draft him lol

We have more than enough "character" guys that I have zero concern we'd have a problem with him. Also keep in mind that's from UCLA which imo could very easily be the result of a talented young player being upset by his lack of playing time and involvement in the offence when he was there to the point he said f it I'll go play internationally to get some burn. I have yet to watch an interview of his where he came off abrasive like Cousins or even a young Lowry/current moody one.

If teams are dumb enough to pass on him there's going to be a whole lot of "what a steal" and it was all over character "concerns" lol which is a joke when you consider the source.

[OAKLEY_2]

I could see Boldens go top 15 but Semi should be there. As for who drops that's much harder to predict. Terrence Ferguson seems like he will

Remember every year this board has its Miracle picks and last year it was Skal and Deyonta Davis, at 9! Few liked Poetl and the usual bias reared its head. The board faithful wants its mythical beast down low or like unicorn at small forward. Comparisons are always with stars not named Draymond Green who most of the time were high lotto picks. In other words role player is what 23 yields if they don't bust. So since Ujiri has rabbit from hatted Bruno and Paskal the forum folk are scouring the planet for the overlooked and foresaken.

The pick at 23 won't be the overlooked and it likely won't be a position we need now. Nobody at 23 is going to replace Pat. If we work out power forwards it is because this is a bigs draft. Jordan Bell? He is Chad Ford's 2017 Skal.

The real stud from the eye test is Donovan Mitchell. I do not see anything in Semi or Bolden or Swani that even hints at the kind of game Mitchell has. We are trying to find that which isn't there.

I don't think anyone loved Poeltl because he was not an exciting choice, but we all knew he was coming. He was the consensus pick on most mock drafts regardless of whether we liked Skal or not. Once Chriss was selected it was the likely outcome.(Though I was ticked off we didn't trade up for Chriss when it was easy to do so. We have the 905 to develop raw players after all)
Donovan Mitchell seems out of our range which is why nobody is discussing him I think. We don't really have a place for him with Norm here already, but I wouldn't be opposed to taking him. I always like guards who can pick up a high number of steals and Norm is pretty easy to move if someone thought Mitchell was a keeper.

Exactly my point we all have to ask ourselves how looking for the "exciting choice" might colour our judgement when for all we truly know, let's be honest, a Lydon may come away as having the biggest game impact over the next 4 years from pick 23 and this board consistently writes him off in the first three seconds. Why do they do that? They do it because they project more what kind of a player they think they like vs. looking at the resume of the prospect. The exciting pick is usually a wing with a fall back to power forward. Same every year. Wright was the last point guard taken since Roko Leni and the best players taken after 20 were usually point guards...

[CoachJReturns]

In reference to Bolden.

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After watching some video of him yesterday, I was thinking it could be some off court issues. I don't mind taking a chance on a guy who's less than a perfect gentleman. The team needs more talent.

[HeadtopChunes]

"UCLA: Guard-forward Jonah Bolden's college debut was delayed a game when he sat out as punishment for violating unspecified team rules." source: http://www.espn.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400814200


This is the only thing I can find. 1 game looks more like academic probation than "significant character concerns" to me. Which makes sense given the "failed his classes rumors"

But like Chuck said "they're not here to play school"

[ATLTimekeeper]

"UCLA: Guard-forward Jonah Bolden's college debut was delayed a game when he sat out as punishment for violating unspecified team rules." source: http://www.espn.com/ncb/recap?gameId=400814200


This is the only thing I can find. 1 game looks more like academic probation than "significant character concerns" to me. Which makes sense given the "failed his classes rumors"

But like Chuck said "they're not here to play school"

No one would be able to say with any certainty whether teams are "not going to touch a player" in the first round or not. Especially this early in the process. Worth noting that Josh Jackson's remained a top 5 pick despite chasing a woman to her car and kicking it with her inside. It's not even an allegation, it's something he has admitted to. If Jonah Bolden can top that, then you'd think there'd be more smoke out there.

[RaptorsLife]

Masai loves characters guys. That's a huge thing with him. That dude doesn't be fit that

[ATLTimekeeper]

I like Bolden, but the consensus that's starting to form on him is almost always a bad sign. The surprises in the draft tend to be just that.

Sometimes. I think the big surprises are usually the guys picked 30+ in the draft. I mean we almost had an early season consensus here, for those that remember, on Delon Wright. Quite a few of us were high on him.
I'm guessing someone like Evans would be this year's surprise, although it's less about him being unknown than him simply playing a position that most teams are stacked at.

I'm not talking about this board specifically, Bolden is all over every hole on the internet they discuss the draft. That tends to happen when desperate people (fans) go junk shopping (think about steals late in the draft). Our board is no different than any one else's.

[Syd-TK3]

Remember every year this board has its Miracle picks and last year it was Skal and Deyonta Davis, at 9! Few liked Poetl and the usual bias reared its head. The board faithful wants its mythical beast down low or like unicorn at small forward. Comparisons are always with stars not named Draymond Green who most of the time were high lotto picks. In other words role player is what 23 yields if they don't bust. So since Ujiri has rabbit from hatted Bruno and Paskal the forum folk are scouring the planet for the overlooked and foresaken.

The pick at 23 won't be the overlooked and it likely won't be a position we need now. Nobody at 23 is going to replace Pat. If we work out power forwards it is because this is a bigs draft. Jordan Bell? He is Chad Ford's 2017 Skal.

The real stud from the eye test is Donovan Mitchell. I do not see anything in Semi or Bolden or Swani that even hints at the kind of game Mitchell has. We are trying to find that which isn't there.

I don't think anyone loved Poeltl because he was not an exciting choice, but we all knew he was coming. He was the consensus pick on most mock drafts regardless of whether we liked Skal or not. Once Chriss was selected it was the likely outcome.(Though I was ticked off we didn't trade up for Chriss when it was easy to do so. We have the 905 to develop raw players after all)
Donovan Mitchell seems out of our range which is why nobody is discussing him I think. We don't really have a place for him with Norm here already, but I wouldn't be opposed to taking him. I always like guards who can pick up a high number of steals and Norm is pretty easy to move if someone thought Mitchell was a keeper.

Exactly my point we all have to ask ourselves how looking for the "exciting choice" might colour our judgement when for all we truly know, let's be honest, a Lydon may come away as having the biggest game impact over the next 4 years from pick 23 and this board consistently writes him off in the first three seconds. Why do they do that? They do it because they project more what kind of a player they think they like vs. looking at the resume of the prospect. The exciting pick is usually a wing with a fall back to power forward. Same every year. Wright was the last point guard taken since Roko Leni and the best players taken after 20 were usually point guards...

With the way our team looked so bad lately in the playoffs and stood no chance against Cavs. Its not hard to understand the exciting pick interest.

And just going based off of last year alone Skal actually looks like he would have been a good pick

[Morris_Shatford]

Personally not my pick but for whoever's interested

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High energy guy I could see a good team that needs bench depth taking;
If Quincy Acy has turned high octane energy into a career, Motley can too.

He isn't anywhere near a high upside guy, but his floor is particularly low especially at the back end of the first round or the second round.

With that said, not my guy at 23 at all.

[CoachJReturns]

I don't think anyone loved Poeltl because he was not an exciting choice, but we all knew he was coming. He was the consensus pick on most mock drafts regardless of whether we liked Skal or not. Once Chriss was selected it was the likely outcome.(Though I was ticked off we didn't trade up for Chriss when it was easy to do so. We have the 905 to develop raw players after all)
Donovan Mitchell seems out of our range which is why nobody is discussing him I think. We don't really have a place for him with Norm here already, but I wouldn't be opposed to taking him. I always like guards who can pick up a high number of steals and Norm is pretty easy to move if someone thought Mitchell was a keeper.

Exactly my point we all have to ask ourselves how looking for the "exciting choice" might colour our judgement when for all we truly know, let's be honest, a Lydon may come away as having the biggest game impact over the next 4 years from pick 23 and this board consistently writes him off in the first three seconds. Why do they do that? They do it because they project more what kind of a player they think they like vs. looking at the resume of the prospect. The exciting pick is usually a wing with a fall back to power forward. Same every year. Wright was the last point guard taken since Roko Leni and the best players taken after 20 were usually point guards...

With the way our team looked so bad lately in the playoffs and stood no chance against Cavs. Its not hard to understand the exciting pick interest.

And just going based off of last year alone Skal actually looks like he would have been a good pick

Sometimes the exciting pick is the right one and sometimes it isn't. Since you can't know for sure either way, it's kind of pointless to dwell on it. The 2 most talented guys this team ever drafted were Vince and T Mac, both of whom I would say were "exciting" picks. So it's entirely reasonable to want the explosive athlete kind of pick, or whatever constitutes an "exciting" "sexy" pick.

[Mark_83]

Aside from OG, Bolden, and Robinson I really like Thornwell. I just have no idea where he would fit on g he roster. I do actually like him better than Powell though and I like Powell.

[HeadtopChunes]

Aside from OG, Bolden, and Robinson I really like Thornwell. I just have no idea where he would fit on g he roster. I do actually like him better than Powell though and I like Powell.

I really like Thornwell too if we still had our second id love to draft him

[BoyzNTheHood]

905 him? FVV him? He seems to be a solid role player.

Semi Ojeleye's teammate; Sterling Brown. The younger brother of Shannon Brown. As a senior at SMU he went for 13/6/3 with 47/45/79 shooting splits.

The reason Semi didn't defend the oppositions best player was because Sterling Brown did.

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[Lord_Zedd]

Masai loves characters guys. That's a huge thing with him. That dude doesn't be fit that

In the same article from 10giz's post a couple pages back, Bolden admitted to his immaturity and how easily distracted he was while in UCLA.

He now credits his time in FMP Belgrade for maturing and changing his overall mentality.