Following 2018 draftees

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I rate them in the same tier, so I would take whichever player Joerger was giddiest about coaching. If he felt like Trae was a coach’s dream, and he could shoehorn Young/Fox/Buddy/Bogi into some 3pt shooting monster lineups, I would roll with it. I think Joerger would probably prefer one of the other three players, but I assume nothing.
 
So what should the Kings do if they're on the clock at 7 and the guys that are still available are Trae Young, Carter, Mikal and Miles? Is there a consesus best player of this group?
In a vacuum, I have Young/Carter a slight bit ahead but the gap is not large and the kings are so starving for wings and loaded with guards and bigs that you can make a case for Mikal and Miles.

Or maybe Vlade wants to trade down again? Maybe, if he really rates all of them equally on their draft board. I could see Philly being interested in trading up from 10 to 7. They could have their eyes on Young/Mikal. Perfect fits, but probably won't last to 10. Miles and Carter however dont make that much sense for them. So there is definitely a motivation for them to do so.
Kings could then take whoever falls to 10 and get 26+38 from Philly. My guess then would be that Philly takes Young or Mikal at 7, Cavs take whoever Philly doesnt take and then Ny decides between Miles and Carter at 9. So the Kings would be guaranteed one of Miles or Carter at 10.
Maybe you could then package the extra picks from Philly with your own pick 36 to move up a bit from 26, looking for Jontay Porter, Troy Brown, Musa or take a swing at Anfernee Simons.
I would take Trae Young, then trade Fox for Mikal Bridges+promising young player.

BPA BPA BPA BPA. We would have to pull the trigger on a Fox trade immediately in order to get Mikal in the draft. I don't think Young-Fox can co-exist, and I think Young is the better PG and franchise prospect.

Young/Bogdanovic/Bridges (plus) one of Gordon/Randle/Parker/Nurkic

I don't think this FO would ever trade Fox though.

I have Trae stupid high on my big board. His potential is freaking crazy and I would have no problem trading up for him.
 
I would take Trae Young, then trade Fox for Mikal Bridges+promising young player.

BPA BPA BPA BPA. We would have to pull the trigger on a Fox trade immediately in order to get Mikal in the draft. I don't think Young-Fox can co-exist, and I think Young is the better PG and franchise prospect.

Young/Bogdanovic/Bridges (plus) one of Gordon/Randle/Parker/Nurkic

I don't think this FO would ever trade Fox though.

I have Trae stupid high on my big board. His potential is freaking crazy and I would have no problem trading up for him.
I agree completely with your approach. If we can draft Young AND trade Fox (extremely unpopular) for Mikal I would do that in an instant. Extreamly high on Young. His offensive game will be better in the NBA than college where teams were able to basically cover him with 2 defenders because Youngs teammates were so bad. With his vision, dribbling and passing ability beging better than Currys at his age, by far, Young will just murder teams at the NBA where he will have teammates that are at least decent.
I fully expect Curry level offensive production from him.

BUT id bet he will be gone top 5, maybe 3, so its it wont matter anyways.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
Well out of Young, Carter, Mikal, and Miles, Young is the most skilled overall. The most athletic is probably Miles. The best player at both ends of the court is Mikal, and Carter is obviously the best down low defender and scorer. It's sort of apples and oranges with three wing players and a low post player than can move out and stretch the floor. So it's pick your poison.

If I had to choose who of that group had the best chance of being a star, I would have to say Young. He probably accomplished more as an individual player this season than any of the others. He took over a team that was projected to be at the bottom of it's conference. A team with very little talent, and personally willed that team into the tournament. He created history by leading all of college in scoring and assists. And he did that despite being the single target of the other teams defense.

If there's a case to be made against him, it's that he wasn't the best defender in the world. But then, his own coach admitted that he gave Young instructions to stay out of foul trouble because he was the team's offense. The other question is whether his body will stand up to the rigors of the NBA. All I know is that I saw him attack the basket fearlessly, get hammered, and jump right back up. He's tougher than he looks, and remember, those were the same exact questions that were asked about Curry.

I guess, that as much as I like Mikal Bridges, and I would take him over Miles and Carter, I'm making a case for taking Young over all of them. Personally, I don't think Young will be there when we choose, assuming were choosing at seven. But if he is, and you want to pick the best player available, then I think you have to take Young, regardless of how many other guards we have. I'll promise you this, Young would be the first player since J. Will that will be a regular on ESPN's play of the night video's.
 
Well out of Young, Carter, Mikal, and Miles, Young is the most skilled overall. The most athletic is probably Miles. The best player at both ends of the court is Mikal, and Carter is obviously the best down low defender and scorer. It's sort of apples and oranges with three wing players and a low post player than can move out and stretch the floor. So it's pick your poison.

If I had to choose who of that group had the best chance of being a star, I would have to say Young. He probably accomplished more as an individual player this season than any of the others. He took over a team that was projected to be at the bottom of it's conference. A team with very little talent, and personally willed that team into the tournament. He created history by leading all of college in scoring and assists. And he did that despite being the single target of the other teams defense.

If there's a case to be made against him, it's that he wasn't the best defender in the world. But then, his own coach admitted that he gave Young instructions to stay out of foul trouble because he was the team's offense. The other question is whether his body will stand up to the rigors of the NBA. All I know is that I saw him attack the basket fearlessly, get hammered, and jump right back up. He's tougher than he looks, and remember, those were the same exact questions that were asked about Curry.

I guess, that as much as I like Mikal Bridges, and I would take him over Miles and Carter, I'm making a case for taking Young over all of them. Personally, I don't think Young will be there when we choose, assuming were choosing at seven. But if he is, and you want to pick the best player available, then I think you have to take Young, regardless of how many other guards we have. I'll promise you this, Young would be the first player since J. Will that will be a regular on ESPN's play of the night video's.
I agree with everything here, and this is the kind of gamble I would make if we’re going to swing for the fences. Bamba has a lot of support amongst Kings fans as a home run swing, but I think it would take a pretty narrow set of circumstances for him to really come good. Trae, on the other hand, can flat out ball.

If, and it’s a big IF, Trae can play off-ball, then the gravity of a Fox/Trae backcourt (on offense) would be pretty amazing. Of course, we would need to be really long everywhere else if that team was going to have a chance of making a deep run. That’s a real fun team though. I would NOT trade Fox. I would sell him and his agent on a Dame/CJ or Paul/Harden type of future. Tough sell, but really nice potential.
 
Gambling on HS players is a mistake. Imagine if anyone drafted Hamidou Diallo with a lotto pick last year... he stunk it up at Kentucky. How about Terrance Ferguson? He played ball overseas in Australia and was pretty bad... still ended up getting drafted at #20 because of "potential". I'd like to see production and potential at the college level. You have a 0.01% chance of ending up with a Kobe, or a a most likely chance of ending up with Travis Outlaw...

if you're looking for a young, athletic, high potential player, I will draw you to (highlight links are in the name):

  1. 18yearold Zhaire Smith
  2. 19yearold Lonnie Walker IV
  3. 18/19yearold Dzanan Musa
 
I agree with everything here, and this is the kind of gamble I would make if we’re going to swing for the fences. Bamba has a lot of support amongst Kings fans as a home run swing, but I think it would take a pretty narrow set of circumstances for him to really come good. Trae, on the other hand, can flat out ball.

If, and it’s a big IF, Trae can play off-ball, then the gravity of a Fox/Trae backcourt (on offense) would be pretty amazing. Of course, we would need to be really long everywhere else if that team was going to have a chance of making a deep run. That’s a real fun team though. I would NOT trade Fox. I would sell him and his agent on a Dame/CJ or Paul/Harden type of future. Tough sell, but really nice potential.
Both of them would be putrid on defense. Fox gets bullied by PGs, and would absolutely get exploited by SGs. At 6'3, he's only listed at 175lbs. Would need to get to at least a 210lb frame if he wanted to guard SGs...don't see that being plausible.

If you draft Young, you have to trade Fox...and sell high. There would be no reason to go 1/2 way through the season and have him put up 10pts off the bench just to tank his value.
 
I agree with everything here, and this is the kind of gamble I would make if we’re going to swing for the fences. Bamba has a lot of support amongst Kings fans as a home run swing, but I think it would take a pretty narrow set of circumstances for him to really come good. Trae, on the other hand, can flat out ball.

If, and it’s a big IF, Trae can play off-ball, then the gravity of a Fox/Trae backcourt (on offense) would be pretty amazing. Of course, we would need to be really long everywhere else if that team was going to have a chance of making a deep run. That’s a real fun team though. I would NOT trade Fox. I would sell him and his agent on a Dame/CJ or Paul/Harden type of future. Tough sell, but really nice potential.
Why wouldn’t Young be elite off the ball he was an elite catch and shooter at OU
 
Both of them would be putrid on defense. Fox gets bullied by PGs, and would absolutely get exploited by SGs. At 6'3, he's only listed at 175lbs. Would need to get to at least a 210lb frame if he wanted to guard SGs...don't see that being plausible.

If you draft Young, you have to trade Fox...and sell high. There would be no reason to go 1/2 way through the season and have him put up 10pts off the bench just to tank his value.
Yes, it would be a bad defensive pairing because Young is bad defensively. I’m not sure I would put Fox on SGs. Young is going to get torched wherever you put him—I would probably just try to hide him on whichever perimeter player does the least playmaking and take our lumps there.

But, this wouldn’t really be an issue for at least a year. If they went this direction I think the idea would be to have two waves of players coming at the opponent and pushing the pace. Young would captain the new Bench Mob while he learned the NBA game and improved on defense. That would be a really fun team—something the fans would enjoy. In the interim, Fox could add mass, which he needs to do anyway.

In regards to Young playing off-ball...I think he can but we just haven’t seen it. He really struggled to get clean looks off-ball with OU. A lot of that is because no one else could handle and Kruger did an all-time terrible job at adjusting, but it’s there on film for us to see.

Last thing, if the Kings went this direction as BPA, it would not be a long term contending move. Young, if he developed, would end up being our CJ McCollum where we are wondering what we could get for him to re-balance the squad. But, that’s a lot better off than where we are now, and I think betting on Trae’s development is a mitigated risk.
 
Yes, it would be a bad defensive pairing because Young is bad defensively. I’m not sure I would put Fox on SGs. Young is going to get torched wherever you put him—I would probably just try to hide him on whichever perimeter player does the least playmaking and take our lumps there.

But, this wouldn’t really be an issue for at least a year. If they went this direction I think the idea would be to have two waves of players coming at the opponent and pushing the pace. Young would captain the new Bench Mob while he learned the NBA game and improved on defense. That would be a really fun team—something the fans would enjoy. In the interim, Fox could add mass, which he needs to do anyway.

In regards to Young playing off-ball...I think he can but we just haven’t seen it. He really struggled to get clean looks off-ball with OU. A lot of that is because no one else could handle and Kruger did an all-time terrible job at adjusting, but it’s there on film for us to see.

Last thing, if the Kings went this direction as BPA, it would not be a long term contending move. Young, if he developed, would end up being our CJ McCollum where we are wondering what we could get for him to re-balance the squad. But, that’s a lot better off than where we are now, and I think betting on Trae’s development is a mitigated risk.
I just see both players being too undersized right now to co-exist. i do agree that Trae could play off-ball. In terms on defense...I think putting Trae on SGs would be worse than Fox there. Young is only 6'2 180lbs(probably less) with a 6'4 wingspan.

If Joerger found a way to workout a Young-Fox backcourt, then I'd be ecstatic. Just don't see it working out. We'd have a legitimate 2-PG offense, but defense would be free real estate for opposing teams. Imagine how many open 3s the other teams would get just by running off screens.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
Gambling on HS players is a mistake. Imagine if anyone drafted Hamidou Diallo with a lotto pick last year... he stunk it up at Kentucky. How about Terrance Ferguson? He played ball overseas in Australia and was pretty bad... still ended up getting drafted at #20 because of "potential". I'd like to see production and potential at the college level. You have a 0.01% chance of ending up with a Kobe, or a a most likely chance of ending up with Travis Outlaw...

if you're looking for a young, athletic, high potential player, I will draw you to (highlight links are in the name):

  1. 18yearold Zhaire Smith
  2. 19yearold Lonnie Walker IV
  3. 18/19yearold Dzanan Musa
I like both Smith and Musa a lot. Not much gets said about Musa's defense, but I watched him play this year and I thought his defense was better than advertised. At the moment, I'm not much of a Walker fan. Watched that dude play at least 15 times and was, for the most part, disappointed. And believe me, I was trying to like him. He could be a victim of the system, or whatever, but he was underwhelming every time I watched him play. Very few wow moments!

Doesn't mean he couldn't surprise. It happens all the time where a player is held back by the system, and he explodes once in the NBA. I think Donovan Mitchell falls into that group a little. Thing is with Mitchell, he did drop hints along the way. Not so much with Walker..
 
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Kingster

Hall of Famer
Gambling on HS players is a mistake. Imagine if anyone drafted Hamidou Diallo with a lotto pick last year... he stunk it up at Kentucky. How about Terrance Ferguson? He played ball overseas in Australia and was pretty bad... still ended up getting drafted at #20 because of "potential". I'd like to see production and potential at the college level. You have a 0.01% chance of ending up with a Kobe, or a a most likely chance of ending up with Travis Outlaw...

if you're looking for a young, athletic, high potential player, I will draw you to (highlight links are in the name):

  1. 18yearold Zhaire Smith
  2. 19yearold Lonnie Walker IV
  3. 18/19yearold Dzanan Musa
I'll look at all of them before I look at the list of horribles that includes Carter and Bamba.
 
The Spurs are already working out Jontay Porter and the Rockets De'Anthony Melton. I have both of them as lottery/top 14 and while that seems like a stretch to some, apparently the more successfull front offices in the league are interested in them as well. :p
 
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kingsboi

Hall of Famer
The Spurs are already working out Jontay Porter and the Rockets De'Anthony Melton. I have both of them as lottery/top 14 and while that seems like a stretch to some, apparently the more successfull front offices in the league are interested in them as well. :p
I didn't know a team thats still in the playoffs can work out draft prospects?
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
The Spurs are already working out Jontay Porter and the Rockets De'Anthony Melton. I have both of them as lottery/top 14 and while that seems like a stretch to some, apparently the more successfull front offices in the league are interested in them as well. :p
Well I think you have to take where both those teams will be drafting. Both are near the bottom of the 1st round, and to be honest, I'll be shocked if De'Anthony Melton lasts that long. The dude can ball. I currently have him going at 23, but I've been tempted to move him up. I doubt he goes in the lottery, but it wouldn't surprise me to see him go in the teen's somewhere. Jontay is another story. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to share his brother's athleticism, and that's assuming that Michael regains all of his. That said, he's very skilled, and someone needing a skilled big man might take a shot at him after all the big names are gone.
 
Jaylen Brown:
6'5.25 w/o shoes, 6'6.76 w/shoes.......6'11.75" wingspan........222.8lbs

Miles Bridges
6'5.25 w/o shoes, 6'6.75 w/shoes.........6'9.5 wingspan.........220.4lbs.

Yeah, there's no reason why Miles is undersized at SF. That narrative has died with the combine.


Moritz Wagner is a guy I want on this team. 6'11.5 w/ shoes, but only a 7'0 wingspan, and a 9'0 standing reach.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
Jaylen Brown:
6'5.25 w/o shoes, 6'6.76 w/shoes.......6'11.75" wingspan........222.8lbs

Miles Bridges
6'5.25 w/o shoes, 6'6.75 w/shoes.........6'9.5 wingspan.........220.4lbs.

Yeah, there's no reason why Miles is undersized at SF. That narrative has died with the combine.


Moritz Wagner is a guy I want on this team. 6'11.5 w/ shoes, but only a 7'0 wingspan, and a 9'0 standing reach.
I think Wagner has some potential, but the dude suffered on defense. He has poor lateral quickness. Of course some of that can be compensated for with solid team defense. He's certainly on my 2nd rd watch list, but I have others that I like more. We'll have to see who's there when the time comes. As far as Bridges is concerned, he's near the bottom of what's considered acceptable in the length dept. But in today's NBA where everyone is going for non-positional players. I go more on standing reach as a barometer and Bridges standing reach is an inch taller than's Brown, so he should be just fine.

Of course that doesn't mean he'll be as good a player as Brown. Doesn't mean he won't be better either.
 
Jaylen Brown:
6'5.25 w/o shoes, 6'6.76 w/shoes.......6'11.75" wingspan........222.8lbs

Miles Bridges
6'5.25 w/o shoes, 6'6.75 w/shoes.........6'9.5 wingspan.........220.4lbs.

Yeah, there's no reason why Miles is undersized at SF. That narrative has died with the combine.


Moritz Wagner is a guy I want on this team. 6'11.5 w/ shoes, but only a 7'0 wingspan, and a 9'0 standing reach.
Keep in mind that Brown plays as a big SG a lot of the time. I never thought Bridges would be too small to be a wing in the NBA, I wondered about his ball handling and defense on the perimeter. I don't know how good he'll be on the NBA level but he's one of my favorite prospects to watch so I'd love to see him succeed.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
I don't think enough has been stated about Jaren Jackson for some reason. As I stated in another thread, it was hard to get a read on him at times, especially if you only caught a couple of games. It seemed he was in constant foul trouble, some of them tickey tackey, and spent a great part of every game riding the bench. But if you watched enough games, something I'm guilty of, you would see the talent he has. Here's a little video showing his defensive abilities.



Here's another video that shows both his defense, and his offense, and some weaknesses:


 
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JJJ chatter is quiet. Arguably the best all-around defender in this class, but his low hype among Kings fans has a lot to do with his lack of offensive polish compared to Ayton, Doncic, Porter Jr, and even Bagley. Although Bagley is raw in a lot of aspects such as ball handling and 3pt shooting, he has a nose for putting the ball in the basket. Not something JJJ is particularly known for. Bamba gets his boost for being a potential elite defender with rebounding, shotblocking, and switching. The Rudy Gobert comparison helps a lot, and it's completely warranted. JJJ on the other hand? Probably more like OKC Ibaka who was very very very good, but recency bias takes over a lot with fan perception.

JJJ? He's right in the middle of everything. Truth be told, I think if he were a better defensive rebounder, more Kings fans would be inclined. However, we've had a horrible experience this year with lack of rebounding, and JJJ's deficiencies in boxing out tie too strongly with WCS and Skal.

I like his face-up potential, but it looks like it's more in the early developmental stages. Intriguing prospect, but not a guy I'd personally take at #2 just because I have other guys ranked over him.

to add onto these thoughts, I think JJJ would be the perfect 3rd, possibly 4th addition on a team. Not necessarily a guy you would necessarily build around unless he emerges and shows that type of potential. Similar to the Myles Turner situation in Indiana.
 
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Jackson Jr. is a solid player, not a star. I think his ceiling is something like a modern day Rasheed Wallace w/o the attitude issues. I'm just not sure his offensive skills one on one will ever reach that level. Sheed was underrated getting his own shot. I don't think passing on Ayton or Doncic for him would be the worst mistake in franchise history, but it would be on the list somewhere.
 

bajaden

Hall of Famer
JJJ chatter is quiet. Arguably the best all-around defender in this class, but his low hype among Kings fans has a lot to do with his lack of offensive polish compared to Ayton, Doncic, Porter Jr, and even Bagley. Although Bagley is raw in a lot of aspects such as ball handling and 3pt shooting, he has a nose for putting the ball in the basket. Not something JJJ is particularly known for. Bamba gets his boost for being a potential elite defender with rebounding, shotblocking, and switching. The Rudy Gobert comparison helps a lot, and it's completely warranted. JJJ on the other hand? Probably more like OKC Ibaka who was very very very good, but recency bias takes over a lot with fan perception.

JJJ? He's right in the middle of everything. Truth be told, I think if he were a better defensive rebounder, more Kings fans would be inclined. However, we've had a horrible experience this year with lack of rebounding, and JJJ's deficiencies in boxing out tie too strongly with WCS and Skal.

I like his face-up potential, but it looks like it's more in the early developmental stages. Intriguing prospect, but not a guy I'd personally take at #2 just because I have other guys ranked over him.

to add onto these thoughts, I think JJJ would be the perfect 3rd, possibly 4th addition on a team. Not necessarily a guy you would necessarily build around unless he emerges and shows that type of potential. Similar to the Myles Turner situation in Indiana.
If you watched him play, then you would know that he played on the perimeter, where he wasn't often allowed to use his post skills, or for that matter rebound as well as he would have had he been playing nearer the basket. Why was he out there? Because Ward couldn't play anywhere but in the post, and Bridges did as much scoring at the basket as he did away from the basket. So there wasn't enough room for Jackson down low. I think you have to take that into consideration when judging his rebounding and his offensive skills.

In my opinion, he was a far better post player than Ward, but unfortunately, there was no where else to play Ward. I wasn't a big fan of how they used Jackson. I believe that Jackson will be a much better NBA player than he was a college player. And, some of those ticky tacky fouls would never be called in the NBA. Also, out of his 203 rebounds, 151 were defensive rebounds, so he's a better defensive rebounder than offensive. But as I pointed out, he played away from the basket on offense. And, he still averaged 10.6 rebound per 40 minutes. Which I think is not bad considering the circumstances he played under.
 
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Young recently bulked up to 183lbs.

I might sound crazy, but am I the only one who's willing to consider Trae Young? don't know that I'd do it at #2, but he's in the convo for BPA pick. We saw that Denver passed up on Donovan Mitchell because they already had Jamal Murray and Garry Harris at PG-SG, with no true PG. Mitchell was also seen as more of a combo guard as well.

If you're the Kings, would you ignore all PGs in the top 10 because we already have Fox? Young is super talented, but he plays the same position as our most promising young player.
 
Young recently bulked up to 183lbs.

I might sound crazy, but am I the only one who's willing to consider Trae Young? don't know that I'd do it at #2, but he's in the convo for BPA pick. We saw that Denver passed up on Donovan Mitchell because they already had Jamal Murray and Garry Harris at PG-SG, with no true PG. Mitchell was also seen as more of a combo guard as well.

If you're the Kings, would you ignore all PGs in the top 10 because we already have Fox? Young is super talented, but he plays the same position as our most promising young player.
I don't believe the bulking up reports. The amount of muscle reported that he put on in 2 months is impossible. Even if all you have to do all day long is work out.
 
I don't believe the bulking up reports. The amount of muscle reported that he put on in 2 months is impossible. Even if all you have to do all day long is work out.
I doubt it's all muscle, but Young clearly wasn't his listed 180lbs at Oklahoma.. he came into the draft combine at 178lbs, and from that tweet, it said he started off at 170lbs before working out with the trainer.

At Oklahoma he looked really thin, but he looks noticeably bigger in his pro-day.
 
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