2019-2020 College/Draft thread (Part 4)

[mpharris36]

I think he has a better shot of going in the lottery than falling to 27. Someone is going to take a chance on him way before our 27th pick.

Yea, someone will probably take a shot at him. Seems like a ton of upside, but will need some time. I know KT likes him a lot.

Would love to find a way to move up from #27 and grab him with our 2nd pick.

I don't think he'll be there either, but just wondering on the off chance he was still on the board. Sometimes players fall unexpectedly ans like Perrin was saying it's a weird draft, I wouldn't move up for him though, there's a couple other players I like if we trade up

yeah he has that bertans feel with better ball handling and passing.

He is a project for sure but if you are shooting for the stars and using a 1st round pick on the highest potential he is up there in terms of what he can get to in terms of potential. Mobile 4's who can shoot are extremely valuable.

[Deeeez Knicks]

I think he has a better shot of going in the lottery than falling to 27. Someone is going to take a chance on him way before our 27th pick.

Yea, someone will probably take a shot at him. Seems like a ton of upside, but will need some time. I know KT likes him a lot.

Would love to find a way to move up from #27 and grab him with our 2nd pick.

I don't think he'll be there either, but just wondering on the off chance he was still on the board. Sometimes players fall unexpectedly ans like Perrin was saying it's a weird draft, I wouldn't move up for him though, there's a couple other players I like if we trade up

Yea, you never know....like Bol Bol last year. Poku is another guy who could go anywhere and is a wildcard in the draft.

It's always tough to know what to make of someone like Poku. He went against pretty bad competition and some of his numbers weren't that impressive. But he flashed some crazy skills. I really don't know where I would draft him tbh. I am always a sucker for wildcards

[jvsimonetti0514]

would you take a shot at pokusevski 27th if he falls there

7 footer than runs like a wing? Sign me up. Probably will need like 2 years in the G league working on his body since he’s thin as a rail but it’s probably worth the risk. There’s probably no bigger boom/bust prospect in this whole draft than him. Could be Giannis but more likely Jan Vessly.

[robillionaire]

would you take a shot at pokusevski 27th if he falls there

7 footer than runs like a wing? Sign me up. Probably will need like 2 years in the G league working on his body since he’s thin as a rail but it’s probably worth the risk. There’s probably no bigger boom/bust prospect in this whole draft than him. Could be Giannis but more likely Jan Vessly.

Yeah, could be KP or Dragan Bender

[Zenzibar]

Yea, someone will probably take a shot at him. Seems like a ton of upside, but will need some time. I know KT likes him a lot.

Would love to find a way to move up from #27 and grab him with our 2nd pick.

I don't think he'll be there either, but just wondering on the off chance he was still on the board. Sometimes players fall unexpectedly ans like Perrin was saying it's a weird draft, I wouldn't move up for him though, there's a couple other players I like if we trade up

Yea, you never know....like Bol Bol last year. Poku is another guy who could go anywhere and is a wildcard in the draft.

It's always tough to know what to make of someone like Poku. He went against pretty bad competition and some of his numbers weren't that impressive. But he flashed some crazy skills. I really don't know where I would draft him tbh. I am always a sucker for wildcards

My Dudes, if you can stash this kid on the Westchester Knicks for a couple of years, it'll be worth it but only if he drops to the 2nd round.
Way too many good players at 27 to give a green light to swing for the fences with the pitch count at 1-2.

[robillionaire]

I don't think he'll be there either, but just wondering on the off chance he was still on the board. Sometimes players fall unexpectedly ans like Perrin was saying it's a weird draft, I wouldn't move up for him though, there's a couple other players I like if we trade up

Yea, you never know....like Bol Bol last year. Poku is another guy who could go anywhere and is a wildcard in the draft.

It's always tough to know what to make of someone like Poku. He went against pretty bad competition and some of his numbers weren't that impressive. But he flashed some crazy skills. I really don't know where I would draft him tbh. I am always a sucker for wildcards

My Dudes, if you can stash this kid on the Westchester Knicks for a couple of years, it'll be worth it but only if he drops to the 2nd round.
Way too many good players at 27 to give a green light to swing for the fences with the pitch count at 1-2.

He's mostly projected in the 10-20 range so I feel like at 27 it's probably a bargain. plus we have the time to stash

[RHODEY]

Why not a blend of both?

That would be Ball, maybe Hayes (tho he doesn't project to be a big-time scorer)

Haliburton is a facilitator/spot-shooter rather than a scorer

Cole is a scorer but not an advanced facilitator

That is correct. The player that would address the most needs for the Knicks is LaMelo Ball.

Yes, yes, he doesn't shoot 3's. That's not the end-all-be-all of everything. A lot of guys in this draft that can shoot can't do most of anything that Ball can.

I think Hayes has every bit as much scoring potential as Lamelo, possibly more.

[blueNorange]

lamelo's biggest issue isn't that he's trash in the mold of the brandon jennings, it's that his father is lavar ball and lamelo isn't good enough to take the risk.

last thing we need is lavar saying "if lamelo had the ball in his hands instead of rj, knicks win" quotes.

LaMelo Ball is clearly the best PG in this draft and is the one player that has the skills to make this team better. So not sure what 'isn't good enough to take the risk' you're talking about. Every single player has risk. What magical player should the Knicks be taking instead? Tyrese Haliburton? Should they go after another 'good guy' like a Frank Ntilikina type?

someone that isn't related to lavar ball.

lonzo ball's career was ruined before it even began thanks to lavar ball, the same will happen with lamelo -- he's not good enough to justify putting up with lavar's antics. thankfully you're not leon rose.

brandon jennings was a great passer with a great handle that only cared how cool he looks dribbling the ball, look at how he ended up -- that's all lamelo is, a one trick pony.

sign ish smith and you get the same production, probably more because of less headache.

[Retired_Doc]

If he's still available, I'm taking Tyrese Haliburton.

Cole Anthony is a decent player but not as good a shooter as Haliburton.

Killian Hayes is a dreadful 3-point shooter. Do not want.

[mpharris36]

If he's still available, I'm taking Tyrese Haliburton.

Cole Anthony is a decent player but not as good a shooter as Haliburton.

Killian Hayes is a dreadful 3-point shooter. Do not want.

depends on what you want out of a shooter and where you want to play them.

Anthony and Hayes are better shooters off the dribble which is usually what you want out of a guy with the ball.

Haliburton is a significantly better catch and shoot player...but that requires another good distributor/ball handler playing with him.

[RHODEY]

If he's still available, I'm taking Tyrese Haliburton.

Cole Anthony is a decent player but not as good a shooter as Haliburton.

Killian Hayes is a dreadful 3-point shooter. Do not want.

Hayes shot 3pointers @ 39% percent during the Eurocup, and can score in myriad of ways and is great free throw shooter. I think he will eventually be a solid 3point shooter with a ton of reps.

[Pistol King]

Deni's team didn't even really let him play in Euroleague. He only averaged 14 mins per game and shot 43/27/56 slashes. His 14 mpg makes him the 12th man on the roster. I think it really says something that his team didn't trust him when the games actually mattered.

All his good games were in the Israeli league and back in 2017 Fran Raschilla ranks it 13th best league in the world. People have been knocking the knocking the league LaMelo was in and this one is ranked even lower than the NBL.

At least Hayes played in Eurocup, which is the third best league in the world and got to play major minutes. He was on the worst team in the league, but he was their best player and played his best ball as the competition got tougher. I just see that translating way more than some guy that couldn't get on the court when it mattered.

I don't like to comment here, usually more liking to just read the comments here, pretty entertaining, but I feel I must respond to this message and explain in extended way the whole situation with Deni. He didn't get much minutes in the EuroLeague at the starting of the year. But he made a big progress trough out the year. You need to understand that in the Euroleague, especially in a contender team like Maccabi Tel Aviv, nobody cares about your talent. Nobody cares if you're more talented than Tyler Dorsey or not, and he's much more talented. No hate to Dorsey. The coaches have so much pressure to win now that they have zero patience for mistakes or about developing a player, and they would play him just if he's ready to contribute to win now, in the Euroleague. It's a league of experiences players.

It was his first full year in the Euroleague. Last year he still was playing for the youth team and though he played some senior games, this year was his first full year in the Euroleague. Why I'm doing all this introduction? to explain that it took him time to adjust. The last 7 games gives a better image of where he is now rather than the entire year stats, due to the circumstances and the adjustment required. In the last 7 games he already averages 20mpg, 7.5ppg, being arguably the best defender in the team and having the best plus minus in the entire team in this games stretch, which shows he should've got even higher minutes than he got. Everybody who follows international basketball and understand the dynamic of Euroleague basketball would tell you what he has shown in these last 7 games is a high level production for 19 years old on his first full season. And he's going to only get better and better.

Again, In these 7 games Maccabi have a 5-2 winning record in the Euroleague, which means, he's a legit contributor to winning with 20 minutes per game, averaging 7.5ppg with limited touches on the ball while he's the best version of himself the more he touch the ball, and while he's having the best plus minus in the entire team which makes his positive impact undeniable. As someone who watched all these games, his numbers are misleading and could be much higher if his coach was rely the offense more on him. He has that talent. When he got the ball with his size and his underrated quickness he looked like someone who can pretty easily blow by his Euroleague defenders or take the smaller ones to the post. He's not experienced yet, and because the offense was rely on the more experienced players, by nature the numbers wasn't impressive, and that's why it's so important to understand the story behind the cold numbers and not based your opinion just on that.

If you think LaMelo for example could successfully make a jump from playing in the worst team in the NBL to playing for a top 5 Euroleague team, with his weak shooting percentages and with the low level of defense he has shown, you have no idea how much you're wrong. Maccabi Tel Aviv was the best defensive team in the Euroleague this season. With the level of defense LaMelo has shown in the NBL and with his shooting percentages, I have hard time seeing how he would even get minutes there. Again, those teams doesn't care how a good passer or a good talent you are, if you are not efficient, and usually young players aren't, you will not see playing time. If you think Hayes, who played for the worst team in the EuroCup, with no pressure to win (1-9 losing record), and when his system have much more patience for his mistakes because the lower expectations, could successfully play for Maccabi Tel Aviv, you have no idea how much you're wrong. And I'm telling that as someone who watched 5 full games of Hayes and tons of highlights. With his inability to drive to the rim, with his shaky ball handling and with his below average burst, even against the below average athletes he faces in the EuroCup, I don't think he would even get any playing time in Maccabi Tel Aviv. And if he asked to massively increase his playing level, would he be able to do that? would he be able to face that pressure when other good European players can get his minutes and throw him to the bench for a few games in a raw if he have a bad game? how would he react to that? how his confidence will be affected by that? last year he played for one of the worst teams in France and yet couldn't produce. The situation is matter so much more than the numbers.

Fran Raschilla's 2017 ranking is irrelevant to this year. This year the German teams are garbage in their European competitions. Bayern Munich is ranked 17'th in the Euroleague (out of 18), Alba Berlin is ranked 16'th. Ulm was the worst team in the entire EuroCup (Israeli maccabi rishon lezion was ranked slightly ahead of them in this group), and Vechta, another German team who is ranked 6th in the German league, was ranked in the champions league group stage at 5'th, with a 6-8 losing record (Israeli Hapoel Jerusalem was ranked 1'th in this group with a 11-3 winning record).

The Israeli league and the German league are more or less at the same level this year. And even let's say the German league is slightly better, which we can't really prove, the margin is too small to consider one league as 'not bad' and the other as 'bad'.

The level gap between the Euroleague and the EuroCup is big. How big? last year the two best EuroCup teams were Valencia and Alba Berlin. This year they moved to the Euroleague. Valencia ended up in the 10'th place in the Eurpleague, with a 12-16 losing record (tied with the 13'th place) and Alba Berlin ended up in the 16th place, with a 9-19 losing record. And I'm talking about the two best teams in the EuroCup. Now imagine the gap between the worst team in the EuroCup and Maccabi Tel Aviv (ranked 5'th in the Euroleague, tied with 4'th).

So to end that, same as in the Euroleague, Deni made a clear progress in the domestic league as well. In his last 8 games he already the main contributor of the team, averaging 30mpg, 16.6ppg and 6reb and having the best plus minus on the entire team. The team having a 6-2 winning record in this games stretch. As someone who watched him, these numbers representing his current level more than the entire year stats, considering he was in his first senior year and needed to adjust. And seriously the numbers are still the most misleading thing about him because he touch the ball much less than the typical college star. Or unlike Hayes who touch the ball all the time due to an easier situation as I explained earlier.

Hope I helped with some info.

[jvsimonetti0514]

I don't think he'll be there either, but just wondering on the off chance he was still on the board. Sometimes players fall unexpectedly ans like Perrin was saying it's a weird draft, I wouldn't move up for him though, there's a couple other players I like if we trade up

Yea, you never know....like Bol Bol last year. Poku is another guy who could go anywhere and is a wildcard in the draft.

It's always tough to know what to make of someone like Poku. He went against pretty bad competition and some of his numbers weren't that impressive. But he flashed some crazy skills. I really don't know where I would draft him tbh. I am always a sucker for wildcards

My Dudes, if you can stash this kid on the Westchester Knicks for a couple of years, it'll be worth it but only if he drops to the 2nd round.
Way too many good players at 27 to give a green light to swing for the fences with the pitch count at 1-2.

We don’t have superstar talent on this team and need to swing for the fences. That’s how we ended up with Mitch on the team taking a chance on some raw kid with no tape. If Poke is there at 27 you have to grab him.

[Zenzibar]

Yea, you never know....like Bol Bol last year. Poku is another guy who could go anywhere and is a wildcard in the draft.

It's always tough to know what to make of someone like Poku. He went against pretty bad competition and some of his numbers weren't that impressive. But he flashed some crazy skills. I really don't know where I would draft him tbh. I am always a sucker for wildcards

My Dudes, if you can stash this kid on the Westchester Knicks for a couple of years, it'll be worth it but only if he drops to the 2nd round.
Way too many good players at 27 to give a green light to swing for the fences with the pitch count at 1-2.

We don’t have superstar talent on this team and need to swing for the fences. That’s how we ended up with Mitch on the team taking a chance on some raw kid with no tape. If Poke is there at 27 you have to grab him.

Mitch wasn't under the radar, the Knicks were onto him since highschool. The only reason teams shied away was because the following. Don't get me wrong I like this kid, but there are a BUNCH of nice players at 27. Make a case for this kid...from his videos it looks like he was playing at the Y.

5-Star Prospect Mitchell Robinson Reportedly to Skip College, Focus on NBA Draft

Robinson "is not expected to play college basketball this season" and "is expected to focus his energies on preparing for the 2018 NBA draft."

Tuesday's report comes after the 5-star center prospect left Western Kentucky after previously enrolling there this summer. Ranked eighth nationally by Scout in the 2017 high school class, Robinson was the highest-touted recruit ever to sign with WKU when he announced his intentions last June.

Robinson left Western Kentucky abruptly in July after attending two weeks of classes and practicing with the team. Hilltoppers head coach Rick Stansbury suspended Robinson initially before granting him his release.

"WKU freshman center Mitchell Robinson has been granted his release to transfer from the Hilltopper program," Stansbury said in a statement (via ESPN's Jeff Borzello). "After discussing Mitchell’s future with him Monday evening, we agreed that it would be best for both sides to allow him to move in a different direction. As I’ve said before, Mitchell is a great kid, and we wish him well going forward."

[rajajackal]

my take on objective value to knicks 1-5:

1. wiseman (flexibility to trade him or mitch for something franchise-changing while keeping the other)
2. lamelo (can be our floor general of the future or a trade piece for a more experienced young player)
3. edwards (can transform our offensive spacing and will have a wiggins-type of extended trade value even if he doesn't pan out)
4. haliburton (we should straight keep him if we draft him. fits well, and can't see him netting a player that's worth a trade)
5. deni (he fits well too, but is probably worth more in a trade than haliburton so i'd explore that)

who i have realistically hoped for (6ish):
haliburton, deni, hayes

who i hope we don't draft (lolknicks scenario):
toppin, cole

[jvsimonetti0514]

Deni's team didn't even really let him play in Euroleague. He only averaged 14 mins per game and shot 43/27/56 slashes. His 14 mpg makes him the 12th man on the roster. I think it really says something that his team didn't trust him when the games actually mattered.

All his good games were in the Israeli league and back in 2017 Fran Raschilla ranks it 13th best league in the world. People have been knocking the knocking the league LaMelo was in and this one is ranked even lower than the NBL.

At least Hayes played in Eurocup, which is the third best league in the world and got to play major minutes. He was on the worst team in the league, but he was their best player and played his best ball as the competition got tougher. I just see that translating way more than some guy that couldn't get on the court when it mattered.

I don't like to comment here, usually more liking to just read the comments here, pretty entertaining, but I feel I must respond to this message and explain in extended way the whole situation with Deni. He didn't get much minutes in the EuroLeague at the starting of the year. But he made a big progress trough out the year. You need to understand that in the Euroleague, especially in a contender team like Maccabi Tel Aviv, nobody cares about your talent. Nobody cares if you're more talented than Tyler Dorsey or not, and he's much more talented. No hate to Dorsey. The coaches have so much pressure to win now that they have zero patience for mistakes or about developing a player, and they would play him just if he's ready to contribute to win now, in the Euroleague. It's a league of experiences players.

It was his first full year in the Euroleague. Last year he still was playing for the youth team and though he played some senior games, this year was his first full year in the Euroleague. Why I'm doing all this introduction? to explain that it took him time to adjust. The last 7 games gives a better image of where he is now rather than the entire year stats, due to the circumstances and the adjustment required. In the last 7 games he already averages 20mpg, 7.5ppg, being arguably the best defender in the team and having the best plus minus in the entire team in this games stretch, which shows he should've got even higher minutes than he got. Everybody who follows international basketball and understand the dynamic of Euroleague basketball would tell you what he has shown in these last 7 games is a high level production for 19 years old on his first full season. And he's going to only get better and better.

Again, In these 7 games Maccabi have a 5-2 winning record in the Euroleague, which means, he's a legit contributor to winning with 20 minutes per game, averaging 7.5ppg with limited touches on the ball while he's the best version of himself the more he touch the ball, and while he's having the best plus minus in the entire team which makes his positive impact undeniable. As someone who watched all these games, his numbers are misleading and could be much higher if his coach was rely the offense more on him. He has that talent. When he got the ball with his size and his underrated quickness he looked like someone who can pretty easily blow by his Euroleague defenders or take the smaller ones to the post. He's not experienced yet, and because the offense was rely on the more experienced players, by nature the numbers wasn't impressive, and that's why it's so important to understand the story behind the cold numbers and not based your opinion just on that.

If you think LaMelo for example could successfully make a jump from playing in the worst team in the NBL to playing for a top 5 Euroleague team, with his weak shooting percentages and with the low level of defense he has shown, you have no idea how much you're wrong. Maccabi Tel Aviv was the best defensive team in the Euroleague this season. With the level of defense LaMelo has shown in the NBL and with his shooting percentages, I have hard time seeing how he would even get minutes there. Again, those teams doesn't care how a good passer or a good talent you are, if you are not efficient, and usually young players aren't, you will not see playing time. If you think Hayes, who played for the worst team in the EuroCup, with no pressure to win (1-9 losing record), and when his system have much more patience for his mistakes because the lower expectations, could successfully play for Maccabi Tel Aviv, you have no idea how much you're wrong. And I'm telling that as someone who watched 5 full games of Hayes and tons of highlights. With his inability to drive to the rim, with his shaky ball handling and with his below average burst, even against the below average athletes he faces in the EuroCup, I don't think he would even get any playing time in Maccabi Tel Aviv. And if he asked to massively increase his playing level, would he be able to do that? would he be able to face that pressure when other good European players can get his minutes and throw him to the bench for a few games in a raw if he have a bad game? how would he react to that? how his confidence will be affected by that? last year he played for one of the worst teams in France and yet couldn't produce. The situation is matter so much more than the numbers.

Fran Raschilla's 2017 ranking is irrelevant to this year. This year the German teams are garbage in their European competitions. Bayern Munich is ranked 15'th in the Euroleague (out of 18), Alba Berlin is ranked 17'th. Ulm was the worst team in the entire EuroCup (Israeli maccabi rishon lezion was ranked slightly ahead of them in this group), and Vechta, another German team who is ranked 6th in the German league, was ranked in the champions league group stage at 5'th, with a 6-8 losing record (Israeli Hapoel Jerusalem was ranked 1'th in this group with a 11-3 winning record).

The Israeli league and the German league are more or less at the same level this year. And even let's say the German league is slightly better, which we can't really prove, the margin is too small to consider one league as 'not bad' and the other as 'bad'.

The level gap between the Euroleague and the EuroCup is big. How big? last year the two best EuroCup teams were Valencia and Alba Berlin. This year they moved to the Euroleague. Valencia ended up in the 10'th place in the Eurpleague, with a 12-16 losing record (tied with the 13'th place) and Alba Berlin ended up in the 16th place, with a 9-19 losing record. And I'm talking about the two best teams in the EuroCup. Now imagine the gap between the worst team in the EuroCup and Maccabi Tel Aviv (ranked 5'th in the Euroleague, tied with 4'th).

So to end that, same as in the Euroleague, Deni made a clear progress in the domestic league as well. In his last 8 games he already the main contributor of the team, averaging 30mpg, 16.6ppg and 6reb and having the best plus minus on the entire team. The team having a 6-2 winning record in this games stretch. As someone who watched him, these numbers representing his current level more than the entire year stats, considering he was in his first senior year and needed to adjust. And seriously the numbers are still the most misleading thing about him because he touch the ball much less than the typical college star. Or unlike Hayes who touch the ball all the time due to an easier situation as I explained earlier.

Hope I helped with some info.

This is great and definitely helps paint a better picture. Post here more often! Europe is usually more difficult to scout for most Americans since there’s so many different leagues and they have the junior conferences too. From my understanding the Israeli league is really too heavy Maccabi and the Jerusalem are the only ones with serious cash to put together good squads.
Did you watch any Real Madrid? What’s you’re feeling on that Bolasmo kid?

[jvsimonetti0514]

My Dudes, if you can stash this kid on the Westchester Knicks for a couple of years, it'll be worth it but only if he drops to the 2nd round.
Way too many good players at 27 to give a green light to swing for the fences with the pitch count at 1-2.

We don’t have superstar talent on this team and need to swing for the fences. That’s how we ended up with Mitch on the team taking a chance on some raw kid with no tape. If Poke is there at 27 you have to grab him.

Mitch wasn't under the radar, the Knicks were onto him since highschool. The only reason teams shied away was because the following. Don't get me wrong I like this kid, but there are a BUNCH of nice players at 27. Make a case for this kid...from his videos it looks like he was playing at the Y.

5-Star Prospect Mitchell Robinson Reportedly to Skip College, Focus on NBA Draft

Robinson "is not expected to play college basketball this season" and "is expected to focus his energies on preparing for the 2018 NBA draft."

Tuesday's report comes after the 5-star center prospect left Western Kentucky after previously enrolling there this summer. Ranked eighth nationally by Scout in the 2017 high school class, Robinson was the highest-touted recruit ever to sign with WKU when he announced his intentions last June.

Robinson left Western Kentucky abruptly in July after attending two weeks of classes and practicing with the team. Hilltoppers head coach Rick Stansbury suspended Robinson initially before granting him his release.

"WKU freshman center Mitchell Robinson has been granted his release to transfer from the Hilltopper program," Stansbury said in a statement (via ESPN's Jeff Borzello). "After discussing Mitchell’s future with him Monday evening, we agreed that it would be best for both sides to allow him to move in a different direction. As I’ve said before, Mitchell is a great kid, and we wish him well going forward."

I don’t really see how that contradicts anything I said. Never called him under the radar I said he was raw with no tape. If you’re going to draft poke it’s going to be from his athletic profile just like Mitch.

[Zenzibar]

We don’t have superstar talent on this team and need to swing for the fences. That’s how we ended up with Mitch on the team taking a chance on some raw kid with no tape. If Poke is there at 27 you have to grab him.

Mitch wasn't under the radar, the Knicks were onto him since highschool. The only reason teams shied away was because the following. Don't get me wrong I like this kid, but there are a BUNCH of nice players at 27. Make a case for this kid...from his videos it looks like he was playing at the Y.

5-Star Prospect Mitchell Robinson Reportedly to Skip College, Focus on NBA Draft

Robinson "is not expected to play college basketball this season" and "is expected to focus his energies on preparing for the 2018 NBA draft."

Tuesday's report comes after the 5-star center prospect left Western Kentucky after previously enrolling there this summer. Ranked eighth nationally by Scout in the 2017 high school class, Robinson was the highest-touted recruit ever to sign with WKU when he announced his intentions last June.

Robinson left Western Kentucky abruptly in July after attending two weeks of classes and practicing with the team. Hilltoppers head coach Rick Stansbury suspended Robinson initially before granting him his release.

"WKU freshman center Mitchell Robinson has been granted his release to transfer from the Hilltopper program," Stansbury said in a statement (via ESPN's Jeff Borzello). "After discussing Mitchell’s future with him Monday evening, we agreed that it would be best for both sides to allow him to move in a different direction. As I’ve said before, Mitchell is a great kid, and we wish him well going forward."

I don’t really see how that contradicts anything I said. Never called him under the radar I said he was raw with no tape. If you’re going to draft poke it’s going to be from his athletic profile just like Mitch.

But Mitch was a 2nd rounder, for us to pick an unknown at 27 is big time reaching and not smart. Especially, since Jalen Smith, Tyrese Maxey, and Cassius Stanley are out there. But hey, I'm liking the new front office team and if they like him I'm all for it.

[Pistol King]

This is great and definitely helps paint a better picture. Post here more often! Europe is usually more difficult to scout for most Americans since there’s so many different leagues and they have the junior conferences too. From my understanding the Israeli league is really too heavy Maccabi and the Jerusalem are the only ones with serious cash to put together good squads.
Did you watch any Real Madrid? What’s you’re feeling on that Bolasmo kid?

Happy it helps. I'm not an Israeli league expert, I was more focused on Deni himself, but from what I saw the Isareli league have a few very competitive teams that can make troubles to Maccabi in a given day. That's not a trash league as some people trying to make of it. Of course it's also not the highest level. I'd say it's ranked somewhere in the 7th-8th range in Europe. More or less at the same level of the German league. We can look on that in this way, Maccabi Tel Aviv having a 19-2 record in the domestic league, and they are ranked 5'th in the Euroleague. Bayern Munich having a 19-2 record in the German league, while Bayren is ranked only 17th in the Euroleague this year. So if a team that ranked 17'th in the Euroleague is dominant in the German league the exact way as Maccabi, a much better team than Bayren, we can understand that the German league is not really stronger than the Israeli league. Not this year at least.

I watched a 2-3 games of Real Madrid, but I think you're talking about Leandro Bolmaro who is playing in Barcelona (?). He played only 6 games in the Euroleague this year and he didn't play against Deni (Maccabi), so I didn't watch him live and only investigate him through highlights and scouting reports. I was a bit disappointed about his stats on the 3'rd Spanish division league, I thought a first round prospect could do a bit better than just 15ppg, 2 rpg and 3apg and 2.7 TO with a 28% from 3. But it's always a complicated situation for a player to play for two different teams (he played some games for the first Barcelona team and some games for the second team in the third division) so I don't know exactly what his situation was. In the eye test he looks like someone who has a decent floor, but I'm not convinced about his ceiling and would rather see him going to a better system than the Knicks (sorry), for the sake of chance to keep develop him and maximize his potential. If I was the Knicks I'd rather invest my second pick on players I think have a high upside. You really need game changers and corner stones at this moment, and I think it's a good draft to try and put hands on some unpolished diamond in the late first round.

[Retired_Doc]

Mitch wasn't under the radar, the Knicks were onto him since highschool. The only reason teams shied away was because the following. Don't get me wrong I like this kid, but there are a BUNCH of nice players at 27. Make a case for this kid...from his videos it looks like he was playing at the Y.

5-Star Prospect Mitchell Robinson Reportedly to Skip College, Focus on NBA Draft

Robinson "is not expected to play college basketball this season" and "is expected to focus his energies on preparing for the 2018 NBA draft."

Tuesday's report comes after the 5-star center prospect left Western Kentucky after previously enrolling there this summer. Ranked eighth nationally by Scout in the 2017 high school class, Robinson was the highest-touted recruit ever to sign with WKU when he announced his intentions last June.

Robinson left Western Kentucky abruptly in July after attending two weeks of classes and practicing with the team. Hilltoppers head coach Rick Stansbury suspended Robinson initially before granting him his release.

"WKU freshman center Mitchell Robinson has been granted his release to transfer from the Hilltopper program," Stansbury said in a statement (via ESPN's Jeff Borzello). "After discussing Mitchell’s future with him Monday evening, we agreed that it would be best for both sides to allow him to move in a different direction. As I’ve said before, Mitchell is a great kid, and we wish him well going forward."

I don’t really see how that contradicts anything I said. Never called him under the radar I said he was raw with no tape. If you’re going to draft poke it’s going to be from his athletic profile just like Mitch.

But Mitch was a 2nd rounder, for us to pick an unknown at 27 is big time reaching and not smart. Especially, since Jalen Smith, Tyrese Maxey, and Cassius Stanley are out there. But hey, I'm liking the new front office team and if they like him I'm all for it.

Sadly there is NO way Tyrese Maxey will still be on the board at 27. Cannot happen.