June 27, 201412 yr Now that we know who'll be playing where, which team got a steal on the player they picked? Consider the position they were selected, the position they were projected to go, and how well they fit their new team's needs and style of play.
June 27, 201412 yr Toronto's pick at 20. That Brazil kid. Lavine as well. You mean the "Brazilian Kevin Durant" who averaged like 4 points a game and 3 rebounds per game in Brazil? Yeah, his highlights where the other player scored over him and his dunk attempt that he missed and got fouled on was impressive.
June 27, 201412 yr Joel Embiid. Will be lucky if he plays out his rookie contract IMO. The second coming of Greg Oden.
June 27, 201412 yr Anyone have a clue what in the hell the 76ers are doing? Drafting anyone that is not physically capable of playing?
June 27, 201412 yr And apparently I am one of the few people in America not buying in to Marcus Smart. The "advanced analytics" show him being a sure thing, but I am just not seeing it. To me he is Russell Westbrook with less skill and marginal intangibles. Put aside the shoving incident, he had some terrible stretches last season.
June 27, 201412 yr And apparently I am one of the few people in America not buying in to Marcus Smart. The "advanced analytics" show him being a sure thing, but I am just not seeing it. To me he is Russell Westbrook with less skill and marginal intangibles. Put aside the shoving incident, he had some terrible stretches last season. I think a very poor mans Chauncey Billups is a good comparison. He's going to have to work on his 3 point shooting a lot. He has questionable shot selection as well.
June 27, 201412 yr Joel Embiid. Will be lucky if he plays out his rookie contract IMO. The second coming of Greg Oden. Which they compared him to last night. Followed with he's the best big man since Oden. I assume they just overlooked Davis because he doesn't play as much with his back to the basket.
June 27, 201412 yr How does he not fit in? They were discussing it on the radio this morning as well. Another scorer & shooter is not what they needed. Not enough shots to go around with three players who already average 20+. That's what they were saying on Mike & Mike I believe. Couldn't tell you the last time I watched a Kings game.
June 27, 201412 yr Author Minnesota: Zach LaVine: After finally getting rid of Derrick Williams, a combine warrior that they’d taken with the #2 pick in a weak 2011 draft, you’d think the Wolves might reassess the whole “pick the guy with the best measurables and individual workouts” strategy. What if he doesn’t really have a position though? Eh, he’s probably athletic enough, tweeners are fine—by the way, look at some of his big individual performances. Some people learn from their mistakes. The Minnesota Timberwolves do not look like those types of people, as history has been repeated. Zach LaVine is a great athlete. He is 6’6, has a 47’ vertical, and has nice “straight line” speed. But, he’s also a tweener: not polished enough to play the point but at 180, not enough muscle to play the 2 and defend his man. He’s most likely will have to be a 2, but regardless of which guard slot he ends up at, there are even more glaring problems. These are BIG problems, like labels that he: doesn’t have a great basketball IQ, doesn’t attack the rim despite his explosiveness, has a tendency to take bad shots, isn’t “strong with the ball”, and doesn’t get to the free throw line at a good rate. Oh yes, his shot seems to come and go, which is likely caused by the height he reaches before release***. Maybe Minnesota was thinking, “we tried to hit the homerun with Williams, missed on Wes Johnson at 4 in 2010, and weren’t great in 2009 either... we must be due”. No matter what, LaVine didn’t start for his collegiate team last year, so even if he does pan out, it’s probably going to take a few years. ***Side Note: Scientifically, there are hypothesized reasons that seemingly explain why those who are the highest jumpers tend to be more inconsistent shooters. The laws of physics tell us that the higher someone jumps to shoot, the more prone they are to drifting forward or fading back, and/or their momentum in jumping so high working against them as they lose balance that is critical to a good release. A great book on this is John Fontella’s “The Physics of Basketball”.
June 27, 201412 yr Author Sacramento: Nik Stauskas: The Kings “crowd sourced” this pick by letting stat heads vie for the opportunity to be a consultant at this year’s draft. With this pick, it’s probably easy to see why guys like that, despite the value they could add to data collection and analytics, aren’t really cut out for tasks that are usually given to GMs. Stauskas is considered the best pure shooter in the draft. He had a nice combine. He’s probably going to end up being more of what they thought they’d be getting when they drafted Jimmer. He has a more complete offensive game than many might think. That’s all good. What’s bad is he’s thin and maybe a step slow for the position, didn’t have a very good assist to turnover ratio in college, and the more you read about him, the more you hear about his ‘swagger’ or incidents like him throwing a shoe into the Cameron Crazies. If you know much about the Kings’ locker room, you’ll agree that it has been in the running for the ‘most dysfunctional in the NBA’ award, for the past few seasons. So what we’re looking at is a guy who was taken #8 in a deep draft that runs a serious risk of being a very one-dimensional player, plays the same role as the guy who was just drafted in almost the same position the year before, has flaws like a lack of upper body strength and associated problems with turning the ball over (which are probably only going to be compounded in the NBA), and, finally, might not be the best personality for an already unstable locker room? Great. That’s pretty much par for the course in the Kings’ drafts aside from the one where they basically HAD to take Cousins because he was gift-wrapped to them. Look back at the past few Kings’ drafts sometime at this link, (Link: Sacramento Kings Draft Picks | Basketball-Reference.com). Regardless, and to the surprise of absolutely no one, the Kings reached here. It’s likely that Stauskas would have been available for at least a handful more picks. What makes even less sense is that the Kings just drafted a shooter last season in Ben McLemore. Even if they were absolutely in love with him, trading down and waiting for him and/or settling for a guy with many similarities to him in Doug McDermott would have likely been more advisable. Adding even more confusion, the Kings really needed a power forward, yet left Noah Vonleh, a player whose skills and potential as a big stretch 4 would seemingly complement to DeMarcus Cousins well, sitting in the Green Room. This whole thing maybe begins to make more sense if the Kings, as have been rumored, can end up pulling off a trade for Rajon Rondo and/or Josh Smith (and bonus points if such a trade involves McLemore or Stauskas). However, as things stand now, the Kings throw Stauskas in the mix with Rudy Gay and Ben McLemore. That wouldn’t be bad if they didn’t have Ray McCallum and Isaiah Thomas pigeonholed into the PG slot and the same situation with a grab bag of underachievers in Reggie Evans, Derrick Williams, and Carl Landry doing the same at the 4. If you are like me, and are Kings fan because of Cousins and the nostalgia from the Bibby, Webber, and Divac teams, and someone tells you that there’ll be no trades, you’re probably hoping that the organization knows something about Jason Thompson that almost everyone else doesn’t. That, or maybe some consolation from the fact that they could have already given up on Ben McLemore and just want to start fresh, is about all that you can really say.
June 27, 201412 yr Author Two more guys made this list for me. Both high first rounders. I'll share what I wrote on them if they're named or later on once everyone has had a chance to name some people so I'm not thread jacking.
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