Minnesota Sports Forum

Cam -- Watching Saboinis dominate Poeltl head to head and watching Sabonis and Poeltl generally overrides for me any inferences about their NBA potential from the relative strength of their respective conferences. Where did Kenneth Faried go to school? Or how about the strength of Paul Millsap's WAC conference back in his day? Millsap dropped into the second round largely because of the view of his conference. When it comes to rebounding, conference doesn't seem to matter much.

lipoli390 wrote:Cam -- Watching Saboinis dominate Poeltl head to head and watching Sabonis and Poeltl generally overrides for me any inferences about their NBA potential from the relative strength of their respective conferences. Where did Kenneth Faried go to school? Or how about the strength of Paul Millsap's WAC conference back in his day? Millsap dropped into the second round largely because of the view of his conference. When it comes to rebounding, conference doesn't seem to matter much.

I think it's worth mentioning that where Faried and Millsap got drafted was likely highly influenced by them being undersized 6'7" in shoes PF prospects. At the time those guys were drafted lengthy PFs (6'10" almost seemed undersized) were the standard. now guys like that are dinged on their draft stock if they are undersized but can't shoot the 3. The game has changed the past few years but if you can find a Millsap or Faried outside the lottery you are obviously doing well. Whoever gets Sabonis is gonna get a nice player.

lipoli390 wrote:Cam -- Watching Saboinis dominate Poeltl head to head and watching Sabonis and Poeltl generally overrides for me any inferences about their NBA potential from the relative strength of their respective conferences. Where did Kenneth Faried go to school? Or how about the strength of Paul Millsap's WAC conference back in his day? Millsap dropped into the second round largely because of the view of his conference. When it comes to rebounding, conference doesn't seem to matter much.

So we're going to zone in on Poeltl's one game vs Sabonis, pretty much ignore his regular season production (highest PER in the class, by the way), forget about Poeltl's 25+ point game in international play against Valanciunas and Lithuania in late 2015, forget about underclassmen having a history of struggling during the tournament (granted, Sabonis was a sophomore too, but the point remains). I also don't get why 9.0 RPG is being disrespected in this instance. And conference talent level absolutely matters, mainly because of the opposing players sizes and talent level.

I'd also add that rim protection continues to be more and more essential in today's NBA. Poeltl has that element to his game (1.9 BPG; 8.6 BLK% in 2014-15, 1.6 BPG; 5.0 BLK% in 2015-16) and Sabonis has no chance to add that to his game.

The counter to that argument might be that Sabonis is a better shooter than Poeltl, and he is right now. Poeltl did just boost his FT% from the 40's to just under 70% from his frosh season to his sophomore season, which shows that he's capable of being able to grow that part of his game.

He has a better chance of being a threat from 16-feet as a shooter than Sabonis does of becoming a threat as a shot-blocker. I'm taking Poeltl over Sabonis in this draft knowing what we know right now.

I like aspects of both Poeltl and Sabonis, and like Cam, have Poeltl ahead of Sabonis primarily because of size and athleticism. Having said that, as I look at where they are slotted to go in most reputable mocks (Poeltl 7-10, Sabonis in the teens), I think Sabonis provides better value and more likely to be a Wolves target if they trade their pick for a pair of firsts. While there's a lot to like about Poeltl, he is quite average in many areas he should rank higher in based on his size...for instance, he doesn't rank in the top 10 centers in either rebounds or blocks per 40 minutes. While I see Poeltl as a better center than Sabonis, I would feel better drafting Sabonis at 15 than Poeltl at 7.

longstrangetrip wrote:I like aspects of both Poeltl and Sabonis, and like Cam, have Poeltl ahead of Sabonis primarily because of size and athleticism. Having said that, as I look at where they are slotted to go in most reputable mocks (Poeltl 7-10, Sabonis in the teens), I think Sabonis provides better value and more likely to be a Wolves target if they trade their pick for a pair of firsts. While there's a lot to like about Poeltl, he is quite average in many areas he should rank higher in based on his size...for instance, he doesn't rank in the top 10 centers in either rebounds or blocks per 40 minutes. While I see Poeltl as a better center than Sabonis, I would feel better drafting Sabonis at 15 than Poeltl at 7.

Yeah, that's where I'm at LST. Poeltl seems like he should have been more dominant in boards and blocks considering his huge size advantage over most D-1 opponents. Sabonis on the other hand seemingly does more with less, suggesting that he just has a nose for the ball and great hands. 12 rebounds per game in 32 minutes of action is just really, really impressive. Plus he's one of these guys that looks a little skinny up top, but has a really strong base that is difficult to knock off balance. As we've seen with the likes of Gorgui Dieng or Adriean Payne, having a weak base and high center of gravity makes it really difficult to protect the paint and seal guys off.

Interesting article.

https://sports.yahoo.com/news/the-lessons-of-the-nba-draft-combine-155949876.html