2018 Draft Prospects

skywalker33 · Post #1 » by **skywalker33** » Fri Dec 8, 2017 11:41 pm

We’re over a 1/4 through the season so l thoughy I’d start getting people’s wish list ( ‘tis the season ) on next years draft. I’m betting we’ll land in the 17-22 range and I️ do know some prospects won’t enter, rise or fall so nothing will be written in stone, just for polite conversation and speculation.

Right now I’m really digging on C Brandon McCoy ! He’s not playing against the best competition but I️ think he’d be a more capable backup than Plumlee.

Also like SFs Kevin Knox, Emanuel Akot and Dzasan Musa as the sf seems like we need to jettison Chandler asap and not sure why Hernangomez isn’t starting there already.

Last player who might make it is PG Duval, but adding more youth doesn’t seem real practical unless you’re getting the real deal. If this is a real consideration though, why didn’t we just select Mitchell last year ?

Post #2 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 12:27 am

SF seems like the #1 need for certain. Then again, with you starting off with a center and what we've seen this year, drafting a center would seem to also make a lot of sense.

Is it OK if I think we have enough guards and power forwards? :lol:

Mickey8 · Post #3 » by **Mickey8** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 12:40 am

Denver need a true PG, Murray and other kid are obviously not pgs . They can't perform simple pick and roll or pop action, so sad.

skywalker33 · Post #4 » by **skywalker33** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 1:19 am

Mickey8 wrote:Denver need a true PG, Murray and other kid are obviously not pgs . They can't perform simple pick and roll or pop action, so sad.

Morris is looking good and appears to be a true PG, why it was put towards the bottom, at least on my list

Post #5 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 2:09 pm

skywalker33 wrote:
Mickey8 wrote:Denver need a true PG, Murray and other kid are obviously not pgs . They can't perform simple pick and roll or pop action, so sad.

Morris is looking good and appears to be a true PG, why it was put towards the bottom, at least on my list

I'll keep saying, the Nuggets' offense is not based on a traditional PG. Morris looks like a great, true PG but if you will notice on the RIo Grande Vipers, he plays a lot of SG as well. When you add Morris to Murray and even Beasley and Barton, maybe (maybe) Mudiay, PG seems unneeded. The Nuggets need guards with handles, sure. With or without Jokic, the most important thing a Nuggets' guard needs is the ability to cut and drive. A close second is 3pt shooting.

As for pick-n-roll, the Nuggets' guards are actually fairly decent at pick-n-roll, or so it seems. Malone does not like pick-n-roll offense. The Nuggets run picks/screens looking for mis-matches. There are occasional pick-n-rolls but not many.

skywalker33 · Post #6 » by **skywalker33** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 3:00 pm

Another PG prospect I'm hearing about *haven't seen him yet, so heresay so far) is Trae Young. Not only hearing he shoots the lights out he has some nice court vision for teammates. On the flip side, he's also a "tad" ball-dominant, Good size at 6-2 with room to from, he's 19yo. Don't know about his defense, but an intriguing prospect none the less. He's being compared to Curry, the GSW one...

SoCalNuggsFan · Post #7 » by **SoCalNuggsFan** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 3:16 pm

What are the chances our first gets traded? Between Murray, Mudiay, Beasley, Juancho, lyles and lydon, not to mention Torrey Craig And monte Morris, whoever we’d draft likely wouldn’t get a meaningful minute his first few years.

skywalker33 · Post #8 » by **skywalker33** » Sat Dec 9, 2017 10:30 pm

SoCalNuggsFan wrote:What are the chances our first gets traded? Between Murray, Mudiay, Beasley, Juancho, lyles and lydon, not to mention Torrey Craig And monte Morris, whoever we’d draft likely wouldn’t get a meaningful minute his first few years.

Well, after next year Faried, Arthur, Chandler and perhaps even Millsap and Barton will be gone opening up 3-5 roster spots.

U hova · Post #9 » by **U hova** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 8:19 pm

SoCalNuggsFan wrote:What are the chances our first gets traded? Between Murray, Mudiay, Beasley, Juancho, lyles and lydon, not to mention Torrey Craig And monte Morris, whoever we’d draft likely wouldn’t get a meaningful minute his first few years.

This front office needs to get back to actually drafting players instead of arranging deals so I pray they don't.

skywalker33 · Post #10 » by **skywalker33** » Sun Dec 10, 2017 11:22 pm

U hova wrote:
SoCalNuggsFan wrote:What are the chances our first gets traded? Between Murray, Mudiay, Beasley, Juancho, lyles and lydon, not to mention Torrey Craig And monte Morris, whoever we’d draft likely wouldn’t get a meaningful minute his first few years.

This front office needs to get back to actually drafting players instead of arranging deals so I pray they don't.

Agree with this, TC wants to hit a homerun trade and seems to only be able to hit doubles there at best. He and his team do seem to have strong grasp on the draft, stick with what you know .

Post #11 » by **NuggetsWY** » Tue Dec 12, 2017 9:11 pm

OK, took a little time to look at SF prospects.

Michael Porter Jr seems to be my favorite but I doubt he's available unless we make a major trade up.

Mikal Bridges would be nice. He looks like a 3&D with the ability to cut to the basket on offense. Not sure if he'll be available or not.

Jarred Vanderbilt is my favorite that I'm fairly certain will be available around our pick. He's from Kentucky which means he's about as NBA ready as college gets. He appears to have decent ball-handling/passing with lots of length and even rebounds well on both ends of the court.

SoCalNuggsFan · Post #12 » by **SoCalNuggsFan** » Wed Dec 13, 2017 3:05 am

NuggetsWY wrote:OK, took a little time to look at SF prospects.

Michael Porter Jr seems to be my favorite but I doubt he's available unless we make a major trade up.

Mikal Bridges would be nice. He looks like a 3&D with the ability to cut to the basket on offense. Not sure if he'll be available or not.

Jarred Vanderbilt is my favorite that I'm fairly certain will be available around our pick. He's from Kentucky which means he's about as NBA ready as college gets. He appears to have decent ball-handling/passing with lots of length and even rebounds well on both ends of the court.

I like bridges a lot. Miles bridges has been getting all the hype for the last year but mikal is pretty clearly a better nba prospect

skywalker33 · Post #13 » by **skywalker33** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 3:09 am

C's Daniel Gafford & Nick Richards could work here. Another name that could come up largde might be PG Anfernee Simons if we move Mudiay.

Post #14 » by **NuggetsWY** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 1:50 pm

skywalker33 wrote:C's Daniel Gafford & Nick Richards could work here. Another name that could come up large might be PG Anfernee Simons if we move Mudiay.

Yeah, I haven't looked at Cs too much but there seem to be a few good ones. Same with PGs (mostly not too interested because of Morris). But those are the two positions I think it most important to be able to go three deep. I have no problem with one of them being an aging veteran or a youngster that don't get many minutes. Of course I'm not as smart as our front office because I'd never stock a roster with 6-8 PFs.

Post #15 » by **NuggetsWY** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 2:10 pm

SoCalNuggsFan wrote:I like bridges a lot. Miles bridges has been getting all the hype for the last year but mikal is pretty clearly a better nba prospect

I did look at him too and he looks intriguing, almost like he could play 2,3,4 but it's his shooting that bothers me. He'd certainly be nice off the bench.

SoCalNuggsFan · Post #16 » by **SoCalNuggsFan** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 5:40 pm

NuggetsWY wrote:
SoCalNuggsFan wrote:I like bridges a lot. Miles bridges has been getting all the hype for the last year but mikal is pretty clearly a better nba prospect

I did look at him too and he looks intriguing, almost like he could play 2,3,4 but it's his shooting that bothers me. He'd certainly be nice off the bench.

I haven’t seen him at all yet this year, but last year miles looked like he’d be the bad kind of 3/4 tweener in the nba. Not physical enough to be a 4 not quick enough to be a 3.

Mikal is a pure wing though. I don’t think he’s really ready to contribute right away but he’s got the tools to be a plus 3 and D guy with athleticism.

skywalker33 · Post #17 » by **skywalker33** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 6:44 pm

SoCalNuggsFan wrote:
NuggetsWY wrote:
SoCalNuggsFan wrote:I like bridges a lot. Miles bridges has been getting all the hype for the last year but mikal is pretty clearly a better nba prospect

I did look at him too and he looks intriguing, almost like he could play 2,3,4 but it's his shooting that bothers me. He'd certainly be nice off the bench.

I haven’t seen him at all yet this year, but last year miles looked like he’d be the bad kind of 3/4 tweener in the nba. Not physical enough to be a 4 not quick enough to be a 3.

Mikal is a pure wing though. I don’t think he’s really ready to contribute right away but he’s got the tools to be a plus 3 and D guy with athleticism.

Miles is definitely high profile so he can easily be seen as a lotto pick but Mikal seems like he could easily be within our range. Doesn't Mikal have like a 7'4" wingspan, makes him have great defensive potential

Post #18 » by **NuggetsWY** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 7:15 pm

skywalker33 wrote:
SoCalNuggsFan wrote:
NuggetsWY wrote:I did look at him too and he looks intriguing, almost like he could play 2,3,4 but it's his shooting that bothers me. He'd certainly be nice off the bench.

I haven’t seen him at all yet this year, but last year miles looked like he’d be the bad kind of 3/4 tweener in the nba. Not physical enough to be a 4 not quick enough to be a 3.

Mikal is a pure wing though. I don’t think he’s really ready to contribute right away but he’s got the tools to be a plus 3 and D guy with athleticism.

Miles is definitely high profile so he can easily be seen as a lotto pick but Mikal seems like he could easily be within our range. Doesn't Mikal have like a 7'4" wingspan, makes him have great defensive potential

Yeah, Mikal has a crazy wing-span plus he's taller than Miles by 3"-4". He's a better offensive player than Miles and from what I can tell, he's not too bad on defense.

skywalker33 · Post #19 » by **skywalker33** » Fri Dec 15, 2017 11:24 pm

Seems most DEN fans are looking at the SF since that appears our biggest weakness in the starting lineup. Just wondering how everyone sees ( or at least what they think the FO sees ) of Hernangomez as a starting SF ?

Post #20 » by **NuggetsWY** » Sat Dec 16, 2017 1:26 am

skywalker33 wrote:Seems most DEN fans are looking at the SF since that appears our biggest weakness in the starting lineup. Just wondering how everyone sees ( or at least what they think the FO sees ) of Hernangomez as a starting SF ?

That one puzzles me for sure. Not sure they are convinced he's a starting SF because the starter should be able to play against all other SFs. We all know some of them are impossible to stop, but the starting SF should be able to at least slow them down.

But watching Lyles and Lydon makes me wonder if those three aren't awful close to each other in abilities and styles, as well as the obvious similarities in size/build. Perhaps if two of the three are on the court at the same time, it just might work, if the team learns how to provide help defense. (Right now "help" defense is when one player tries to help, but it takes more than that.)

What does our front office think? I'm not sure. Maybe they think a nice trip on Josh's yacht is where they do their thinking (based on some of their decisions). But that's just my opinion. Sometimes they hit homeruns, sometimes they swing at pitches that are 4 feet off the plate. I don't expect homeruns on every transaction, but they need to hit more doubles and triples.