casual_raps_fan wrote:I would like somebody convince to me why it's worth the risk of drafting Pokuseveski.
He looks to be a very tall player with a skill set of a guard. Although still at a primitive level, he shows the ability to make plays, handle the ball, shoot, and pass. He is very young so there is hope that he can start refining his tools and work on his body to compete at the NBA level. I'm thinking his ceiling is something like a Lamar Odom type player. A player that has the height of a 4 or 5 but can do everything a guard would do on offence.
My biggest question marks are...
1) Defence. He's tall but will he ever be strong enough and good enough to defend the 5? If not, will he ever be able to be athletic and strong enough to defend the 4?
2) Offensively, he has a nice variety of skills but he still needs a ton of polish to get his offence to the NBA level. Why would a coach give him the ball when there are so many talented guards in the NBA who can do so much with the ball in their hands.... he'd have to be really good with the ball in his hands.
3) Does he have an NBA level motor? Without the motor, can he really put the work on and off the court to get to where needs to get to?
Basically his potential is great but I see a far more likely chance of him busting. For every Odom or Porzingis, there are so many more Dragan Benders or Thon Makers.
From a cost/benefit standpoint the risk is pretty minimal for us. The downside is thats hes a third string level player but thats an expected risk for the draft and one we can easily take imo. The upside is basically 7ft gaurd lol thats a huge mismatch for NBA bigs and probably the highest upside in the draft.
I’ll try to address what i can though
1) i think his defense is fine for a 5/4 he’s fairly mobile and his strength issues are probably a little overstated (While he is a noodle now, I think he’ll be fine after a couple years of nba s&c). I expect net positive on that end because hes good at off ball postioning but, he’s pretty bad on-ball right now
2) i think you can make the same argument for a lot of prospects, the appeal isnt an 19 year old shows up and dominates from day 1 but that they have real potential to do that down the line. Poku has basically the same type of skillset as Lamelo but hes 6 inches taller. Why wouldn’t a team try and hone that into a weapon? Usually 19 year old gaurds aren’t elite at the stuff Poku is doing, him showing it at all at his size is pretty crazy imo.I think developing in the 905 for a couple years could really help.
3) Definitely have seen his motor issues on a game 2 game basis have been questioned. Could just be league quality not sure.
Hard to have an opinion here but i trust an nba team could do a much better background check than i can lol