2018 NBA Draft Thread

[emunney]

Okogie put up crazy numbers also, great measurements as well. Settled too much.

[Badgerlander]

Okogie put up crazy numbers also, great measurements as well. Settled too much.

Josh Okogie with a 42-inch max vert at the combine. I have a feeling he's going to make some fans during this pre-draft process.

[emunney]

Did they change the shuttle run? The times I'm seeing seem impossibly slow.

[BucksStatsGuy]

Did they change the shuttle run? The times I'm seeing seem impossibly slow.

Combine results can be notoriously bad. Random years where a group of guys will all be sometimes damn near a half second or second faster/slower than the other groups in certain drills. That, and players can absolutely "game" some of the workouts. I've talked to multiple people around the league that have said that players can absolutely get good at the lane agility drill, or other specific ones. Also, players can sometimes go straight from playing the 5 on 5 into doing a drill, which is kind of unfair to them. There's so many variables in the whole testing process. Plotting the historical results against each other reveals some wild ****.

[emunney]

Did they change the shuttle run? The times I'm seeing seem impossibly slow.

Combine results can be notoriously bad. Random years where a group of guys will all be sometimes damn near a half second or second faster/slower than the other groups in certain drills. That, and players can absolutely "game" some of the workouts. I've talked to multiple people around the league that have said that players can absolutely get good at the lane agility drill, or other specific ones. Also, players can sometimes go straight from playing the 5 on 5 into doing a drill, which is kind of unfair to them. There's so many variables in the whole testing process. Plotting the historical results against each other reveals some wild ****.

There's no doubt that tight footwork can make a huge difference on these 3 second agility drills. Just wondering if they changed the drill entirely because they're like 40% slower.

[Matches Malone]

Rob Pelinka has the goofiest hair.

[emunney]

Okogie put up crazy numbers also, great measurements as well. Settled too much.

Josh Okogie with a 42-inch max vert at the combine. I have a feeling he's going to make some fans during this pre-draft process.

He's good but GT was very tough to watch this year. Was one of my players to watch coming into the year. Didn't take much of a step but there was no room to operate on that team.

Still did some impressive things:

Watch on YouTube

He's as good or better as Hield was at the same stage.

[HurricaneKid]

Its pretty readily apparent that Cs don't impact the game the way they once did. Capela basically got played off the floor in G2. So why are so many projected top 10 picks Cs?

This may sound dumb based on current mocks but I want Spellman. Really good feet, quicker than expected, great range. Really good corner 3 shooter. When a training staff gets a hold of him I think he is going to be a really good stretch 5 which would be ideal with Giannis.

I prefer Zhaire but I don't think he will be around.

Quite a few guys in our range I am interested in. Better draft than last year I think, though that might just be the fact that we took a BUM at 17 last year.

[drone3]

Not really a big fan of Jontay Porter to be honest. I get that he's got that modern big/pick & pop skill set, but he plays small. Seemed to struggle finishing at the rim at the college level, so I can only imagine how he'd struggle against NBA bigs. Isn't as physical you'd like crashing the boards, and he's not going to be some elite rim-protector or switch defender considering his lack of elite athleticism and physical tools. I'm just not a fan of bigs who aren't good at things that bigs are supposed to be good at. I just see him as a more situational Channing Frye, with maybe some better passing.

I'm with Ron on this analysis. I know that Jontay would fit nicely with buds system of smarts, shooting, passing skills he just seems soft and slow.

[M-C-G]

Not really a big fan of Jontay Porter to be honest. I get that he's got that modern big/pick & pop skill set, but he plays small. Seemed to struggle finishing at the rim at the college level, so I can only imagine how he'd struggle against NBA bigs. Isn't as physical you'd like crashing the boards, and he's not going to be some elite rim-protector or switch defender considering his lack of elite athleticism and physical tools. I'm just not a fan of bigs who aren't good at things that bigs are supposed to be good at. I just see him as a more situational Channing Frye, with maybe some better passing.

I'm with Ron on this analysis. I know that Jontay would fit nicely with buds system of smarts, shooting, passing skills he just seems soft and slow.

If you are drafting Porter that high, you have to think reshaping his body is a big part of the plan.

[drone3]

Mitchell Robinson is winning the award of the most red flags ever.

[emunney]

He's not soft. He doesn't play soft. He's physically immature. He sets good screens and he establishes early position inside for kickouts. He fights for rebounds. He doesn't back down physically. He draws a lot of fouls. He contests vertically, he blocks a lot of shots despite not being a classic shot blocker type. He gets steals.

My yearly refrain: you don't have to have an opinion about everything.

[Ron Swanson]

I personally hate it when people throw the "soft" label around. Porter doesn't strike me as soft so much as he does a guy who isn't using his 6'10, 250 lb frame to its fullest advantage. You can reshape a guy's body but at some point it's an ingrained mentality thing. He drifts around the perimeter because he's a very good shooter for his size, but also because, at least in the games I saw, he doesn't absorb contact well and isn't very good at finishing around the rim. That's a big red flag for me.

[Prez]

Feels good knowing that whoever we draft, he'll be in about as good of a setting to develop with Bud & his staff as almost any other team.

[emunney]

I personally hate it when people throw the "soft" label around. Porter doesn't strike me as soft so much as he does a guy who isn't using his 6'10, 250 lb frame to its fullest advantage. You can reshape a guy's body but at some point it's an ingrained mentality thing. He drifts around the perimeter because he's a very good shooter for his size, but also because, at least in the games I saw, he doesn't absorb contact well and isn't very good at finishing around the rim. That's a big red flag for me.

I can't deny that he struggles finishing around the rim, I just think that's about physical immaturity and being the youngest guy on the floor at all times. But in no other way did he play like the youngest guy on the floor. Watch this play for the kind of thing that really excites me about Porter:

https://youtu.be/xXkjMqJ8Ga4?t=1561

He's a real player, man.

[BucksFanSD]

I was focusing in on Zhaire Smith, Bruno Fernando, and Jontay Porter for my top 5 of realistic players available.

Zhaire Smith: 6' 2.75'' barefoot... I am lowering him a little to just out of my top 5... This isn't typical NBA SG height.
Bruno Fernando: 6' 8.75'' barefoot, 9' 1'' reach -- good but not great. A lot of similarities to BAM all around.
Jontay Porter: 6' 10'' barefoot, 9' 1'' reach -- good enough to play center. He moved up for me.

Also to note:

- Moving up Keita Bates-Diop into my top 5 now (6' 7.25'' barefoot, 8' 10.5'' reach). He's looking more and more solid as a SG/SF.
- Aaron Holiday moves to late first round. 5' 11.75'' barefoot, not near the height of his brother.
- Brandon McCoy with solid numbers (6' 11.5'' barefoot, 9' 2.5'' reach). Athletic numbers will be telling if he's worth a mid-1st round pick.
-Landry Shamet, Shake Milton, and Gary Trent Jr. with solid height and shooting percentages. Will keep my eye on them.

[Baddy Chuck]

Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk seems like a guy who could carve a role in the league. Good shooter and feel for the game.

[Garden Of Edens]

Melvin Frazier reminds me of a poor mans Khawi Leonard. I'd love for us to get another late 1st and take him

[Balls2TheWalls]

He's as good or better as Hield was at the same stage.

The only problem here is that Hield jumped like 7 percentage points from three in his last season. That is what is missing from his game that Buddy Hield had going into the pros. I liked him a lot also.

[drone3]

Just watched some more of Jontay. I'm seeing a softer Charlie V. Yes I used the word 'soft' again, feel free to replace 'soft' with 'passive' , 'chilled' or 'channing frye'