Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:A couple injury issues I hadn't seen before but explains why these guys have been low or dropping significantly lately.

Valentine reportedly has a possible degenerative knee issue which is why he is so far down the draft board.

Ulis may have a hip issue which is why he is falling.

I think Ulis is falling for more than just the injury but the injury help. Like tyus he is short not athletic enough at the NBA level, tyus shoots better though. If you are drafting Ulis you are hoping to get a backup pg

kekgeek1 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:A couple injury issues I hadn't seen before but explains why these guys have been low or dropping significantly lately.

Valentine reportedly has a possible degenerative knee issue which is why he is so far down the draft board.

Ulis may have a hip issue which is why he is falling.

I think Ulis is falling for more than just the injury but the injury help. Like tyus he is short not athletic enough at the NBA level, tyus shoots better though. If you are drafting Ulis you are hoping to get a backup pg

It's a devastating combo for his draft stock. A hip problem is a HUGE problem for pro athletes. You might be able to gimp along with a knee but a hip injury could spell the end especially for guys that rely on quickness. It probably doesn't help that D Murry has moved up a bit on draft boards too because a few weeks ago it was Dunn Baldwin and Ulis at PG then a pretty big drop off.

I did a little research watching videos of Chriss. I can see why he is tantalizing. For a young guy with his level of experience playing the game his offensive game is pretty advanced. He has some legit post game and can pop out and shoot it. He has a pretty nice athletic profile as well. There are obvious drawbacks to him (some clips show Sabonis working him over easily highlighting weaknesses) but I see the base he has to work from. I'm not really sure he is a guy I would target with our pick but I can certainly see why he has really risen up draft boards.

When it comes to the bigs it feels like there are a group of guys that I don't see a significant separation between them and any of them may turn out to be good players (in no particular order and I am not completely ties to the tiers I put these guys in either)

Chriss
Ellenson
Poeltl
Sabonis
Skal
Diallo
D Davis
Bender

And possibly
D Jones
And other Euro guys that could be first round draft and stash guys.

Plus you have other wildcard guys like

Maker (who might be rising up to the first round)

Zimmerman
Diamond Stone
Various International players
Bentil

I'm not saying there isn't a large gap between say Bentil and a guy like Chriss but a lot of those first round young guys I think all of them have some nice talent and holes in their game. Whoever has the higher picks to the guys are gonna be happy to have their pick but some teams later are going to be plenty happy to be able to select who is left. There will be some busts like every year but there is some intriguing talent and someone might get a nice player outside of the lottery whether it's a big or a perimeter player.

Phenom's_Revenge wrote:

WildWolf2813 wrote:I may have said this before, but I will be in Brooklyn Thursday night.

If anyone else is, please let me know. Wolves fans tend to clique up on Draft night. Oddly enough, NYC might have the largest cluster of Wolves fans that I've noticed in any city (LA is maybe close. I've seen Clipper games have a large Wolves contingent).



That's me on the right.

My wish list is this:

1. Bender
2. Hield
3. Sabonis
4. Murray
5. Dunn or Chriss (I can't really decide)

I will say this: IF Brown and Chriss go 3 and 4, I'd like to see Minny try to trade 5 to Denver for 7/15 or 7/19. I'd pray Sabonis is there at 15. If not, target best big available at 15.

Not to sound vain, but they're probably gonna show me on TV again because I attend this annually. I'll have my Towns shirt on just so you guys can spot me.

Ha I remember seeing that and wondering if that was WW.

Was that at the moment when the Knicks picked 'Zingis? EDIT: [Note to self, "Uhh, it says 'Zingis right on the screen grab."]

I love seeing anguished-looking Knicks fans almost as much as seeing them proven wrong.

This spoof is genius. Do I see an Oscar for WW's performance in the opening frame? I do.
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/01/knicks-fans-who-booed-kristaps-porzingis-on-draft-night-pay-penance-in-spoof-video

And remember Lampe? They cheered him, partly because they got him at #30, and he was a bust. He's an inverse-Porzingis, which sounds like the name of a particular kind of groin strain.

I was listening to Givony (DX guy) on a recent podcast and he was asked why Bentil was a guy that never made his first round mocks. The guy that had Givony on his podcast was a BIG Bentil guy. Givony said part of it is that Bentil doesn't exactly have one thing to hang his hat on but the real issue is that he sees this draft being really loaded at the PF position. He said look at how many PFs will probably go top 15. That made me think of how it may make sense to grab a guard at #5 and try and get a 2nd rounder to get a PF then maybe Bentil or someone else.

Givony also talked about how Skal still has an intriguing skill set.

He said what makes Chriss a riser in this draft is that he said what one scout he respects a lot said about Chriss was when you watch him it's like a lamborghini. There are only so many prospects that excite that much and even though he may not turn out (I think most know his problems with motor rebounding really high foul rate) but if he does wow because of his athletic abilities shooting and skills etc.

Edit:

Also when Givony was asked about the Lakers working out other players they might take at #2 Givony said it was more about the Lakers really wanting to get another top pick and if someone was willing to deal they want to have done their homework.

Latest DX mock draft came out today. Dunn back at #3 to Boston Chriss drops to the Suns.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2016/

Nice story about Prince and the life challenges he went through.

http://sportsworld.nbcsports.com/taurean-prince-nba-draft/

monsterpile wrote:Latest DX mock draft came out today. Dunn back at #3 to Boston Chriss drops to the Suns.

http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2016/

I am looking forward to the unpredictability of this draft. Usually we have known the direction of the Wolves when in the lottery. I was confident that Towns, Tyus, Rubio, Love, and Brewer would be Wolves but have no good feel this time. Should be entertaining for 20 minutes anyway.

ESPN Sports science on Bender. There are a couple interesting things here.

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=16309924

Ford now has Dejounte going in the top 10. He is really on the climb.