Official 2013 Draft Thread - Part VIII

[tontoz]

Wtf this is pure nonsense, and I know nonsense.

HOF

[fishercob]

Please don't mention John Nash so close to the draft.

I think we share a brain sometimes.

That is soooo weird, because I was just going to say the exact same thing!

See people -- THIS is why sports is great. because otherwise Sev and I would just be two dudes who disagreed about politics.

[LyricalRico]

Wtf this is pure nonsense, and I know nonsense.

HOF

[LyricalRico]

HoopsWorld's final consensus mock:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-nba-mock ... -consensus

3 out of 4 have the Wiz taking Porter.

[Dark Faze]

HoopsWorld's final consensus mock:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-nba-mock ... -consensus

3 out of 4 have the Wiz taking Porter.

Tomorrow cant come soon enough.

[sfam]

HoopsWorld's final consensus mock:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-nba-mock ... -consensus

3 out of 4 have the Wiz taking Porter.

Tomorrow cant come soon enough.

That sounds like it could be the title of the next Bond movie!

[Ruzious]

HoopsWorld's final consensus mock:

http://www.hoopsworld.com/2013-nba-mock ... -consensus

3 out of 4 have the Wiz taking Porter.

And the other has us picking Noel.

One player who I don't understand why he's ranked so low is Withey - the highest he's ranked is 28th. Yes, he's light for a center and he's 23, but the guy is a fluid 7 footer who understands the game at both ends (higher bbiq than centers rated ahead of him). And I don't know why everyone that I've read assumes he'll never be starting material. Maybe the weight is the issue, but he's strong for his size and holds his ground. There aren't a lot of huge offensive centers in the NBA that are going to effectively bully him around, imo. And his shot-blocking ability is almost uncanny.

[wake20]

I'd love to package our 2nds to move up to draft Withey if we can.

[Knighthonor]

There's chatter that an espn phoenix affiliate has talked to an insider who says Wall is lobbying for Bennett.

Pre-draft Internet chatter at its finest.

Wall tends to know what's best.

Remember last season when Wall said they needed a shooter. They picked up Beal. And lit things up. People wanted MKG and others who couldn't shoot.but wall was right about getting a great shooter in the draft.

If Wall say he wants Bennett I can trust he is a good asset for the Wizards.

[truwizfan4evr]

There's chatter that an espn phoenix affiliate has talked to an insider who says Wall is lobbying for Bennett.

Pre-draft Internet chatter at its finest.

Wall tends to know what's best.

Remember last season when Wall said they needed a shooter. They picked up Beal. And lit things up. People wanted MKG and others who couldn't shoot.but wall was right about getting a great shooter in the draft.

If Wall say he wants Bennett I can trust he is a good asset for the Wizards.

Last year Beal was an obvious pick wall and Crawford did not play well together. And Bennett just worry's me a lot.

[gesa2]

No matter who we draft we are in far, far better shape this year than two years ago. I've seen Nene literally scream and glare at both Wall and Beal when they missed a rotation or gave up on a play. I've read that Okafor told Wall to suck it up, quit whining and take responsibility for his play. Admonishments from our senior veterans had a quick and beneficial effect on Wall and Beal.

Our vets are teaching the youngsters to hold one another accountable which is the beginning of a successful rebuild (sans further mistakes from EG) If Bennett is our selection, I'm going to laugh like hell the first time he goes into matador defense mode and catches a tirade of sh*t from our vets and now, Wall and Beal as well.

This is why I can live with any of Noell, Porter, Zeller or Bennett -- my draft choices in order. We have a much better situation to bring a young player into than we did 2 years ago. I want Ernie gone as much as anybody here, but we do have a much better organizational culture in the locker room than we used to.

(Mebbe I should have just posted this to the optimists thread)

[The Consiglieri]

One of the selling points for Porter for me, even though I'm more in favor of Bennett, is that this team would look mighty attractive to free agents in the summer of '14/'15, w/a back court of Wall/Beal that might be two all stars, a legit, no nonsense, smart, great teammate does it all right SF in Porter, and Nene and perhaps Seraphin developing together. We could always target a FA PF or FA center in one of those two classes, and utilize the Wall/Beal/Porter youth movement to market outselves to FA's. We've all seen how elite PG's (Curry and Paul), and formerly elite ones (Williams), can attract the attention of elite FA's, and draw the attention of many great players. That's why I actually like having Wall, particularly if his hot shooting ways weren't simply a hot streak, more than a shoot first PG, like Rose. Players love to play for players that play hard and are good, and especially for players that are unselfish like Wall, and our pass first types. I can imagine FA's being very interested in teaming up with a team built around selflessness in players like Wall, Beal, and Porter. It's not hard to envision it. That's perhaps the biggest reason beyond team mentality, and near certainty that he's going to be solid, that I can tolerate the idea of going after a Porter, which I tend to think is aiming low in terms of upside, and raw potential.

[stevemcqueen1]

Beal wasn't a no brainer. A lot of people wanted other players at that spot, Drummond, MKG, TRob, etc.

Wall also wasn't necessarily the no brainer people think he was today. A lot of people loved Evan Turner.

Anyway, I found it interesting that Beal has been kind of an ambassador for the team to young players in the class. He has connections to both McLemore and Porter and Bennett said Beal reached out to him and told him about how much he loves playing here. It was cool to hear about Beal being proactive and pursuing a personal relationship with these guys. I think he's an amazing teammate.

A lot of young players already want to play with Wall, he's been mentioned as the reason these guys want to play here since 2011. Beal can be another guy who helps ease the transition of whomever we draft.

We've got a nice thing brewing.

[dangermouse]

We've got a nice thing brewing.

Agreed. I just hope EG's barista skills are good enough to pour us a perfect cup.

[The Consiglieri]

In '10 when we jumped inside into the top 2 I was ecstatic because it meant (at the time) that we were getting Turner and Wall. W/the run up to the draft I became more and more enamoured with both Favors and Cousins, and am honestly unsure who I would have rated #2, it could have been any among them as I loved Cousins and would regard him as 1B if not for the team cancer issue, and Favors as I viewed him as the one w/the highest upside if he could develop an offensive game.

In '12 I had them ranked 1. Davis, 2. MKG, 3. Beal largely because I felt MKG's energy level, leadership and intangibles more than made up for the currently spotty shooting issues, while Beal's potential lower ceiling worried me enough to put him at #3. I wasn't disappointed when we got Beal, though, because I felt he actually was a far better shooter than his critics were suggesting, and that the struggles early on had nothing to do with his actual ability as a shooter and everything to do with being a freshman, learning the ropes, and playing with chuckers (doing the same game log analysis I did with Bennett, to show the uptick in 2 pt, and 3 pt shooting percentage from February onward, particularly if you dropped the one horror game (I think 0-7 or 1-7 from 3, which really screwed up his percentage).

[Dark Faze]

I'm willing to admit that I liked MKG over Beal, but lets remember Beal was being sold on being a knock down shooter who had very average shooting numbers and MKG had a don't lose at any cost mentality to his game.

I made a mistake and think Beal is the better prospect now but it's not like MKG would have killed us. We'd probably be choosing McLemore instead of Porter or Bennett and I think Wall/McLemore/MKG has the potential to be an awesome core.

But yea, I prefer Wall/Beal/Porter quite a bit. Less overall athletic upside but much better above the shoulders and probably ends up being better at the end of the day.

[WizarDynasty]

There's chatter that an espn phoenix affiliate has talked to an insider who says Wall is lobbying for Bennett.

Pre-draft Internet chatter at its finest.

Wall tends to know what's best.

Remember last season when Wall said they needed a shooter. They picked up Beal. And lit things up. People wanted MKG and others who couldn't shoot.but wall was right about getting a great shooter in the draft.

If Wall say he wants Bennett I can trust he is a good asset for the Wizards.

ballers know ballers

[The Consiglieri]

That's something that bothers me though is that when we get metrics based, which I liked, sometimes we depart and ignore nuance. If a guy who was known for being the best pure stroke shooter since Ray Allen struggled for two months to start his freshman year, and was merely above average to good after that, does it mean he is what he was for that brief, small sample size of a freshman year, or should we have taken his 4+ years of scouted brilliant shooting more seriously? To me, the fact the he was regarded as one of the best pure shooters to be available in a draft in the past 15+ years was 10x as important as his struggles in December and January of his freshman year. He turned it on in February and March and did improve, showing what had him so highly thought of to begin with before the season (generally a 5th-10th overall grade going into the season). Not surprisingly he struggled a bit early with us too, but then dramatically turned it on about 8 weeks into his first NBA season just as he had with Florida. I don't think that's a coincidence.

It bothers me that we often make emphatic judgments on 1 and done players based on that 1 season, then ignore the previous two seasons when they don't agree with our storyline about another player (Oladipo this year, Robinson last year) that we do like, or simply read into the evidence whatever we feel like reading into it with regards to 2nd year guys like Barnes, or Porter.

I just want nuance really. There was nuance to be read into a player like Beal, or MKG, or this year in a Bennett or a Porter (doubling his accuracy at 3pt range in one offseason) etc, and I hope we can focus on that, instead of polemics.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

NBATV is doing a mock draft right now with David Aldridge among others...

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Which is why I prefer the less-athletic Olynyk over Zeller. Olynyk is able to score around, and also up and under through contact. Cody is really fast and I think a sure thing to score in transition, but not in half court. Olynyk is going to destroy opposing bigs with both pick and pop and pick and roll. Olynyk will finish at the rim in half court and will be a good end-of-game scorer. He can score ugly. (No pun intended).

I like how Olynyk finishes around the basket, he's incredibly crafty. What worries me about him as a prospect is his disastrous defense. I don't ever see him as a starter in this league because of that deficiency, and his terrible height to wingspan ratio also makes me wonder how effective he will be as a rebounder in this league.

Olynyk seems like a great pickup in the late teens for a team that's looking for depth, not a starter that can potentially develop into franchise cornerstone.

Out of the bigs only Noel and Len fit that bill, and if it was up to me, we'd pick between those two with Porter as the consolation price.

Olynyk's defense surely will be the weakest part of his game, queridiculo. I think the Wizard defense is strong enough with Ariza and Okafor back that Olynyk will not be a liability because of the teammates around him. I believe his great offense will outweigh his subpar defense.

You might be very happy when Alex Len ends up being the pick. I am guessing Len is going to end up the pick in some sort of trade on draft night.