Minnesota Sports Forum

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Yeah, no one has impressed me a ton in terms of being an NBA prospect that really stands out (other than Zion). And I don't get the love for Hunter. He is like Virginia's 3rd best player. Heck, even Culver seems like a slow poke to me.

Q what do you think we should do in this draft? Go for a guy that seems a bit of a sure thing or maybe even do the trade down that we both like for a 2fer? There are guys I have seen that I like but yeah Im not sure what guys really wow me.

I forgot Hunter was supposed to be good. One of the guys I really like is Herro and the little guys from Auburn blew past him today...although I wonder if he was playing toward help that never came. Nobody seemed to be able to guard those guys though which is a big reason why Auburn won.

We need defense more than offense, so I would go for a guy that has shown lock down potential, grit, and hustle (yes, another Josh Okogie type). And then we just have to pray that he can shoot. Like I've said a lot before, unless the guy is knocking down a super high volume of 3's at the college level with an 80%+ FT rate, I just don't trust whatever the numbers say on their shooting and that it can translate. So go with defense, rebounding, steals, blocks, hustle stuff because that all translates more reliably.

Q12543 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:

Q12543 wrote:Yeah, no one has impressed me a ton in terms of being an NBA prospect that really stands out (other than Zion). And I don't get the love for Hunter. He is like Virginia's 3rd best player. Heck, even Culver seems like a slow poke to me.

Q what do you think we should do in this draft? Go for a guy that seems a bit of a sure thing or maybe even do the trade down that we both like for a 2fer? There are guys I have seen that I like but yeah Im not sure what guys really wow me.

I forgot Hunter was supposed to be good. One of the guys I really like is Herro and the little guys from Auburn blew past him today...although I wonder if he was playing toward help that never came. Nobody seemed to be able to guard those guys though which is a big reason why Auburn won.

We need defense more than offense, so I would go for a guy that has shown lock down potential, grit, and hustle (yes, another Josh Okogie type). And then we just have to pray that he can shoot. Like I've said a lot before, unless the guy is knocking down a super high volume of 3's at the college level with an 80%+ FT rate, I just don't trust whatever the numbers say on their shooting and that it can translate. So go with defense, rebounding, steals, blocks, hustle stuff because that all translates more reliably.

Thanks for the response Q. I'm mostl down with your plan... at least till I do some more research. I will say though this team does need shooting pretty bad. Would you be interested in a guy that seems pretty likely to be able to shoot and at least do some other stuff? Thinking someone like Tyler Herro. Sure only 35.5% from 3 this year but 93.5% from the FT line as a freshman?* That's gotta mean he is a shooter. I'll be interested to see how some of these guys measure out.

* The other day I watched a youtube video about how it was basically impossible for an NBA player to shoot better than 95% from the FT line. The guy that made the video had a number of experts including some basketball player named Steve Nash who seemed to have a pretty good looking stoke. It was actually more interesting than I expected.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BKIOqbx3sbU

Camden0916 wrote:I wouldn't think of Brandon Clarke as someone I'd seriously look at in the top-10.

Also, this talk about how poor or meh this draft class is doesn't match what I've seen from a lot of prospects in this class. There's a couple "sure things" at the top, but then there's another 8-10 guys with All-Star talent, ability, and tools hanging around too. This could very easily look like a stacked draft in the next four years.

What are you seeing then that literally none of NBA experts are seeing? What All-Star tools are out there? You've mentioned a guy like Hero, but he can only shoot the ball. No defense and not a playmaker. How does that have all-star written on him? Culver doesn't have the altheticism. Barrett can't shoot in a league where your primary ball handler just has to be able to shoot the ball. Clarke is an undersized 4 who will need to significantly improve his shot to become an all-star. There's literally 2 guys with actual all-star tools and the rest are missing big pieces of their game that they need to even have a chance at being all-stars.

It hit me tonight that Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.

I watched just the last couple minutes of that Auburn Virginia game...that was quite the finish. Ty Jerome kinda intrigues me.

monsterpile wrote:It hit me tonight that Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.

I watched just the last couple minutes of that Auburn Virginia game...that was quite the finish. Ty Jerome kinda intrigues me.

I like Winston too. He's going to be a pro for a long time. Maybe not an all star but he plays with enough poise to be a solid guard.

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:It hit me tonight that Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.

I watched just the last couple minutes of that Auburn Virginia game...that was quite the finish. Ty Jerome kinda intrigues me.

I like Winston too. He's going to be a pro for a long time. Maybe not an all star but he plays with enough poise to be a solid guard.

He was absolutely brutal tonight. Just a terrible performance.

CoolBreeze44 wrote:

thedoper wrote:

monsterpile wrote:It hit me tonight that Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.

I watched just the last couple minutes of that Auburn Virginia game...that was quite the finish. Ty Jerome kinda intrigues me.

I like Winston too. He's going to be a pro for a long time. Maybe not an all star but he plays with enough poise to be a solid guard.

He was absolutely brutal tonight. Just a terrible performance.

Eh, I can see those young guys wanting to be a bit of a hero, not his best night for sure but Texas Tech earned it with better team D. Culver didn't really do anything until the very end. Good game all together. Nice grind it out college ball.

monsterpile wrote:It hit me tonight that Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.

I watched just the last couple minutes of that Auburn Virginia game...that was quite the finish. Ty Jerome kinda intrigues me.

That is kind of a ridiculously high bar. Winston will be lucky to get backup minutes in the NBA. I love him as a college PG though.

Q12543 wrote:

monsterpile wrote:It hit me tonight that Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.Cassius Winston looks like a combo of Paul Pierce and Rod Strickland.

I watched just the last couple minutes of that Auburn Virginia game...that was quite the finish. Ty Jerome kinda intrigues me.

That is kind of a ridiculously high bar. Winston will be lucky to get backup minutes in the NBA. I love him as a college PG though.

Really i'm only saying what he looks like his face and maybe a bit physically as Paul Pierce didn't look like an elite athlete. Both of those players had somewhat of an old man's game too so that was a bit of it too. But yeah sure i completely agree if Winston became anywhere close to either guy he would have a heck of a career and no I'm not expecting that. I'd say the reasonable high end expectation for him was something more in the range of Darren Collision.

Not sure anyone from that MSU team is gonna be a 1st round pick this year right? That team has a bunch of really solid talent on the roster. Henry intrigues me a bit if he makes progress.

Watching the NCAA tournament I've been underwhelmed by most of the lottery prospects I've had my eye on. I've been particularly disappointed in Keldon Johnson, Alexander-Walker and Jarrett Culver. Reddish was just as underwhelming as I thought he'd be. I wasn't particularly high on Koby White to begin with and he did nothing to win me over. I'm still not sure what to think of Nassir Little. I had Barrett ranked #3 before the tournament and he remains #3 on my list, but I have doubts about him. I considered Zion and Ja the two future NBA stars of the draft before the tournament and watching them in the tournament simply confirmed my view. There is one lottery prospect who went up in my estimation as a result of the tournament - De'Andre Hunter. He was obviously terrific tonight. He has a nice looking shot with 3-point range and is solid defensively. My concern is that he only averaged 5 rebounds and 0.6 blocks as a sophomore playing 32 minutes a game. That doesn't bode well for him as an NBA PF.

So while I have a lot more research to do, I'm currently not very impressed by the pool of talent in this year's draft. If we can get lucky and move up in the top three, I'd grab Ja, Zion or Barrett in that order. If we move up to #4, I'd lean towards Darius Garland if his knee checks out and we might be able to get him trading down from #4. If we end up in the likely 10-12 range, then I'm at a loss right now since I think Darius will be gone by then. I'd have my eye on Okpala as perhaps the guy with the highest upside among those likely to be available in that range. I'd still consider Nickeil Alexander-Walker and I'd take a long look at this Doumbouya guy. I wouldn't rule out Romeo Langford and I'd seriously think about Brandon Clarke as someone we could probably trade down and still draft.