Kings Select in the 2008 NBA DRAFT??
- Thread starter =LarryLegend=
- Start date
He ate the rest of it. lol
Marreese Speights
More than any other player, Marreese Speights’ write-up needs to be separated into two sections: the drills, and the competitive three on three setting.
We walked away from the first day shaking our head at what we witnessed—a 6-10, 20-year old power forward who is about as skilled a big man facing the basket as you will find in this draft. “He’s really more skilled than anyone knows,“ Joe Abunassar told us. The first thing you notice is how fundamentally sound Speights’ shooting mechanics are. He’s got a natural, flawless stroke, showing small-forward like elevation creating separation from his defender, a high release point, excellent body control on his fade-aways, great technique squaring his shoulders and his hips simultaneously in perfect unison—and not surprisingly, getting unbelievable results in the process. He operates strictly on the balls of his feet as he catches and fires away, draining shot after shot from 16-18 feet with machine-like efficiency, and then proceeding to step-away and knock down college and even NBA 3-pointers with impressive accuracy as well.
In the post, he has a beautiful hook-shot and an even prettier turn-around jumper, to go along with great hands, length and size for his position and excellent agility finishing around the hoop. On top of that, there was nothing resembling any of the problems Speights had with his conditioning back at Florida, as he’s looking to be in phenomenal shape and had no problem at all finishing up his workout in very strong fashion. “He has really has worked on his body and conditioning,” Abunassar told us. Needless to say, we came away almost floored at what we saw—telling basically anyone that would listen that we’re talking about a starting NBA power forward any day of the week.
Alas, workouts can be somewhat of fool’s gold at times—something we need to constantly remind ourselves as we continue to make the rounds. What we saw during the second day probably brought us back to the proper proportions, for his sake, and ours as well. Speights seemed to fall in love with his jump-shot way too much for our personal liking, spending virtually the entire two hours behind the 3-point line and rarely if ever going inside to make his presence felt.
We need to keep in mind that this was a very informal setting where the players were more interested for the most part in having fun than winning at all costs, but it was still hard not to be bothered at times by his shot-selection and extremely poor defensive (and overall) intensity. When he did decide to focus and take things seriously, again we saw the flashes of talent that made many people think he’s a lottery pick in the making, putting the ball on the deck and finishing a play with a running one-handed floater, taking an offensive rebound, dribbling backwards and draining an incredibly difficult contested 19-foot turnaround jumper while being fouled, or spotting up effortlessly and knocking down an NBA 3-pointer. He has more potential as a two-dribble slasher taking his man off the bounce from the high post than we were able to see at Florida, something that could serve to be a great weapon for him in the pros considering the superior spacing he’ll enjoy in the NBA.
All in all, we still feel pretty strongly about the fact that if Speights is somehow able to harness all the talent he shows and put it all together over the next few years, he will be looked back at as a player that clearly should have been drafted in the lottery. With that said, we can see why he isn’t there right now considering what we saw and know from the rumblings about his overall approach to the game, as opposed to his talent. What we want to know is: how bad could his work ethic be if he went from barely being considered a top-50 high school recruit to one of the most skilled big men in the draft and a potential lottery pick in the span of just two years? Like so many players in this whacky draft, though, he’s incredibly young, incredibly talented, and still has a great deal of time to pan out in a huge way and reward the team that decides to “take a chance on him.” That just goes to show you how difficult a job NBA teams have…especially in this case.
More than any other player, Marreese Speights’ write-up needs to be separated into two sections: the drills, and the competitive three on three setting.
We walked away from the first day shaking our head at what we witnessed—a 6-10, 20-year old power forward who is about as skilled a big man facing the basket as you will find in this draft. “He’s really more skilled than anyone knows,“ Joe Abunassar told us. The first thing you notice is how fundamentally sound Speights’ shooting mechanics are. He’s got a natural, flawless stroke, showing small-forward like elevation creating separation from his defender, a high release point, excellent body control on his fade-aways, great technique squaring his shoulders and his hips simultaneously in perfect unison—and not surprisingly, getting unbelievable results in the process. He operates strictly on the balls of his feet as he catches and fires away, draining shot after shot from 16-18 feet with machine-like efficiency, and then proceeding to step-away and knock down college and even NBA 3-pointers with impressive accuracy as well.
In the post, he has a beautiful hook-shot and an even prettier turn-around jumper, to go along with great hands, length and size for his position and excellent agility finishing around the hoop. On top of that, there was nothing resembling any of the problems Speights had with his conditioning back at Florida, as he’s looking to be in phenomenal shape and had no problem at all finishing up his workout in very strong fashion. “He has really has worked on his body and conditioning,” Abunassar told us. Needless to say, we came away almost floored at what we saw—telling basically anyone that would listen that we’re talking about a starting NBA power forward any day of the week.
Alas, workouts can be somewhat of fool’s gold at times—something we need to constantly remind ourselves as we continue to make the rounds. What we saw during the second day probably brought us back to the proper proportions, for his sake, and ours as well. Speights seemed to fall in love with his jump-shot way too much for our personal liking, spending virtually the entire two hours behind the 3-point line and rarely if ever going inside to make his presence felt.
We need to keep in mind that this was a very informal setting where the players were more interested for the most part in having fun than winning at all costs, but it was still hard not to be bothered at times by his shot-selection and extremely poor defensive (and overall) intensity. When he did decide to focus and take things seriously, again we saw the flashes of talent that made many people think he’s a lottery pick in the making, putting the ball on the deck and finishing a play with a running one-handed floater, taking an offensive rebound, dribbling backwards and draining an incredibly difficult contested 19-foot turnaround jumper while being fouled, or spotting up effortlessly and knocking down an NBA 3-pointer. He has more potential as a two-dribble slasher taking his man off the bounce from the high post than we were able to see at Florida, something that could serve to be a great weapon for him in the pros considering the superior spacing he’ll enjoy in the NBA.
All in all, we still feel pretty strongly about the fact that if Speights is somehow able to harness all the talent he shows and put it all together over the next few years, he will be looked back at as a player that clearly should have been drafted in the lottery. With that said, we can see why he isn’t there right now considering what we saw and know from the rumblings about his overall approach to the game, as opposed to his talent. What we want to know is: how bad could his work ethic be if he went from barely being considered a top-50 high school recruit to one of the most skilled big men in the draft and a potential lottery pick in the span of just two years? Like so many players in this whacky draft, though, he’s incredibly young, incredibly talented, and still has a great deal of time to pan out in a huge way and reward the team that decides to “take a chance on him.” That just goes to show you how difficult a job NBA teams have…especially in this case.
Richard Hendrix
The shooting drills were definitely not the place to evaluate Hendrix as a prospect—he’s a five on five player on the way, and the poor point guard play he suffered from in many of the three on three games he participated in didn’t really do him any favors either—meaning we’ll definitely have to wait until the pre-draft camp to get a better read than we were able to during the regular season.
Hendrix’s shooting stroke is nothing to write home about—he has a bit of a hitch and seems to fling the ball at the basket on his way down as well. We did like what we saw physically, though—he has tree trunks for legs, a great frame, and surely has been putting in significant time in on his body. He is down about 3% on his body fat to 9% since he finished school, and weighs in at a chiseled 253 pounds now, with the goal being to get down to 245 eventually. Talking to him, he seems very aware of his situation and is very focused on getting as much as he can out of his body quickness and agility-wise. He didn’t seem to play all that much in the competitive three on threes during the last day, preferring to take a step back and let the more enthusiastic guys here have their fun. He knocked down a few 15-foot jumpers, struggled a bit to get his shot off in the post, and played fairly average defense, like most players here. He needs to have a strong outing in Orlando to show that his Carlos Boozer-esqe college numbers can translate over to the next level.
The shooting drills were definitely not the place to evaluate Hendrix as a prospect—he’s a five on five player on the way, and the poor point guard play he suffered from in many of the three on three games he participated in didn’t really do him any favors either—meaning we’ll definitely have to wait until the pre-draft camp to get a better read than we were able to during the regular season.
Hendrix’s shooting stroke is nothing to write home about—he has a bit of a hitch and seems to fling the ball at the basket on his way down as well. We did like what we saw physically, though—he has tree trunks for legs, a great frame, and surely has been putting in significant time in on his body. He is down about 3% on his body fat to 9% since he finished school, and weighs in at a chiseled 253 pounds now, with the goal being to get down to 245 eventually. Talking to him, he seems very aware of his situation and is very focused on getting as much as he can out of his body quickness and agility-wise. He didn’t seem to play all that much in the competitive three on threes during the last day, preferring to take a step back and let the more enthusiastic guys here have their fun. He knocked down a few 15-foot jumpers, struggled a bit to get his shot off in the post, and played fairly average defense, like most players here. He needs to have a strong outing in Orlando to show that his Carlos Boozer-esqe college numbers can translate over to the next level.
Marreese Speights
More than any other player, Marreese Speights’ write-up needs to be separated into two sections: the drills, and the competitive three on three setting.
We walked away from the first day shaking our head at what we witnessed—a 6-10, 20-year old power forward who is about as skilled a big man facing the basket as you will find in this draft. “He’s really more skilled than anyone knows,“ Joe Abunassar told us. The first thing you notice is how fundamentally sound Speights’ shooting mechanics are. He’s got a natural, flawless stroke, showing small-forward like elevation creating separation from his defender, a high release point, excellent body control on his fade-aways, great technique squaring his shoulders and his hips simultaneously in perfect unison—and not surprisingly, getting unbelievable results in the process. He operates strictly on the balls of his feet as he catches and fires away, draining shot after shot from 16-18 feet with machine-like efficiency, and then proceeding to step-away and knock down college and even NBA 3-pointers with impressive accuracy as well.
In the post, he has a beautiful hook-shot and an even prettier turn-around jumper, to go along with great hands, length and size for his position and excellent agility finishing around the hoop. On top of that, there was nothing resembling any of the problems Speights had with his conditioning back at Florida, as he’s looking to be in phenomenal shape and had no problem at all finishing up his workout in very strong fashion. “He has really has worked on his body and conditioning,” Abunassar told us. Needless to say, we came away almost floored at what we saw—telling basically anyone that would listen that we’re talking about a starting NBA power forward any day of the week.
Alas, workouts can be somewhat of fool’s gold at times—something we need to constantly remind ourselves as we continue to make the rounds. What we saw during the second day probably brought us back to the proper proportions, for his sake, and ours as well. Speights seemed to fall in love with his jump-shot way too much for our personal liking, spending virtually the entire two hours behind the 3-point line and rarely if ever going inside to make his presence felt.
We need to keep in mind that this was a very informal setting where the players were more interested for the most part in having fun than winning at all costs, but it was still hard not to be bothered at times by his shot-selection and extremely poor defensive (and overall) intensity. When he did decide to focus and take things seriously, again we saw the flashes of talent that made many people think he’s a lottery pick in the making, putting the ball on the deck and finishing a play with a running one-handed floater, taking an offensive rebound, dribbling backwards and draining an incredibly difficult contested 19-foot turnaround jumper while being fouled, or spotting up effortlessly and knocking down an NBA 3-pointer. He has more potential as a two-dribble slasher taking his man off the bounce from the high post than we were able to see at Florida, something that could serve to be a great weapon for him in the pros considering the superior spacing he’ll enjoy in the NBA.
All in all, we still feel pretty strongly about the fact that if Speights is somehow able to harness all the talent he shows and put it all together over the next few years, he will be looked back at as a player that clearly should have been drafted in the lottery. With that said, we can see why he isn’t there right now considering what we saw and know from the rumblings about his overall approach to the game, as opposed to his talent. What we want to know is: how bad could his work ethic be if he went from barely being considered a top-50 high school recruit to one of the most skilled big men in the draft and a potential lottery pick in the span of just two years? Like so many players in this whacky draft, though, he’s incredibly young, incredibly talented, and still has a great deal of time to pan out in a huge way and reward the team that decides to “take a chance on him.” That just goes to show you how difficult a job NBA teams have…especially in this case.
More than any other player, Marreese Speights’ write-up needs to be separated into two sections: the drills, and the competitive three on three setting.
We walked away from the first day shaking our head at what we witnessed—a 6-10, 20-year old power forward who is about as skilled a big man facing the basket as you will find in this draft. “He’s really more skilled than anyone knows,“ Joe Abunassar told us. The first thing you notice is how fundamentally sound Speights’ shooting mechanics are. He’s got a natural, flawless stroke, showing small-forward like elevation creating separation from his defender, a high release point, excellent body control on his fade-aways, great technique squaring his shoulders and his hips simultaneously in perfect unison—and not surprisingly, getting unbelievable results in the process. He operates strictly on the balls of his feet as he catches and fires away, draining shot after shot from 16-18 feet with machine-like efficiency, and then proceeding to step-away and knock down college and even NBA 3-pointers with impressive accuracy as well.
In the post, he has a beautiful hook-shot and an even prettier turn-around jumper, to go along with great hands, length and size for his position and excellent agility finishing around the hoop. On top of that, there was nothing resembling any of the problems Speights had with his conditioning back at Florida, as he’s looking to be in phenomenal shape and had no problem at all finishing up his workout in very strong fashion. “He has really has worked on his body and conditioning,” Abunassar told us. Needless to say, we came away almost floored at what we saw—telling basically anyone that would listen that we’re talking about a starting NBA power forward any day of the week.
Alas, workouts can be somewhat of fool’s gold at times—something we need to constantly remind ourselves as we continue to make the rounds. What we saw during the second day probably brought us back to the proper proportions, for his sake, and ours as well. Speights seemed to fall in love with his jump-shot way too much for our personal liking, spending virtually the entire two hours behind the 3-point line and rarely if ever going inside to make his presence felt.
We need to keep in mind that this was a very informal setting where the players were more interested for the most part in having fun than winning at all costs, but it was still hard not to be bothered at times by his shot-selection and extremely poor defensive (and overall) intensity. When he did decide to focus and take things seriously, again we saw the flashes of talent that made many people think he’s a lottery pick in the making, putting the ball on the deck and finishing a play with a running one-handed floater, taking an offensive rebound, dribbling backwards and draining an incredibly difficult contested 19-foot turnaround jumper while being fouled, or spotting up effortlessly and knocking down an NBA 3-pointer. He has more potential as a two-dribble slasher taking his man off the bounce from the high post than we were able to see at Florida, something that could serve to be a great weapon for him in the pros considering the superior spacing he’ll enjoy in the NBA.
All in all, we still feel pretty strongly about the fact that if Speights is somehow able to harness all the talent he shows and put it all together over the next few years, he will be looked back at as a player that clearly should have been drafted in the lottery. With that said, we can see why he isn’t there right now considering what we saw and know from the rumblings about his overall approach to the game, as opposed to his talent. What we want to know is: how bad could his work ethic be if he went from barely being considered a top-50 high school recruit to one of the most skilled big men in the draft and a potential lottery pick in the span of just two years? Like so many players in this whacky draft, though, he’s incredibly young, incredibly talented, and still has a great deal of time to pan out in a huge way and reward the team that decides to “take a chance on him.” That just goes to show you how difficult a job NBA teams have…especially in this case.
Sounds like he could potentially be the next Rasheed Wallace.
The thing about Speights, which that writeup really illustrates, is that there's two Speights. There's the guy with the great athleticism, great size, great jump shot... seems like a complete package. He's almost perfect on paper. But then when you watch the guy play... it just doesn't add up to the sum of his parts.
He could be a guy like Rasheed Wallace, but he doesn't play with that kind of passion.
To me Speights looks (and plays) more like another old ACC guy who ended up adding up to less than his raw abilities: Joe Smith.
He could be a guy like Rasheed Wallace, but he doesn't play with that kind of passion.
To me Speights looks (and plays) more like another old ACC guy who ended up adding up to less than his raw abilities: Joe Smith.
Here's more on Speights, as well as Joe Alexander, both of whom Chad Ford is raving about. That should be enough to give anyone pause.
It's an Insider Free Preview article, and there's some video.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=DraftWatch-080520
It's an Insider Free Preview article, and there's some video.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft2008/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=DraftWatch-080520
You can if the right guy is there and you pick properly -- Amare, for instance.
I know you can always pick Speights and hope he becomes a Villanueva or Channing Frye or Reggie Lewis and manages to overcome a reputation for a lack of toughness and focus, but I really don't think you can teach motivation and confidence. And notice Villanueva and Frye have mostly reverted to form after looking good as rookies.
There are worse things to gamble on than a 6'10" power forward with athleticism, a nascent low post game and a jump shot, but I'd still rather have someone like Westbrook or McGee.
I know you can always pick Speights and hope he becomes a Villanueva or Channing Frye or Reggie Lewis and manages to overcome a reputation for a lack of toughness and focus, but I really don't think you can teach motivation and confidence. And notice Villanueva and Frye have mostly reverted to form after looking good as rookies.
There are worse things to gamble on than a 6'10" power forward with athleticism, a nascent low post game and a jump shot, but I'd still rather have someone like Westbrook or McGee.
Amare is an exception, but he was hardly a complete package on draft night. He lacked serious offensive skills, but did great during his first two years because he had great athleticism, length and an nba ready body. I'm not saying it can be physically taught, but players can develop it over time once they become more confident. They said Rudy Gay lacked focus, passion, and determination and all that other stuff too.
Westbrook isn't a PG. I really don't see what McGee has over Speights besides a slightly higher ceiling maybe.
Westbrook isn't a PG. I really don't see what McGee has over Speights besides a slightly higher ceiling maybe.
The best draft pick would be jaVale mcgee
jaVale mcgee could end up being a terrific backup for spencer at minimum. At 7 foot, 237 lbs with an outstanding wingspan and at 20 years old great potential. Some reason I feel he fits in well with the Kings future plans is Mcgee's ability to run the floor and superior shot blocking potential in which the Kings desperatly need. Not to mention has range on his shot range is not limited to mid range he can step back and hit the 3 pointer.
As with almost all young big men he has weaknesses and is a few years away from impacting the game and has some weaknesses in his game which include free-throws and footwork in the post not to mention the kid is very thin all which could be improved.
Of course this is speculating the kings keep there draft position.
what do you think?
jaVale mcgee could end up being a terrific backup for spencer at minimum. At 7 foot, 237 lbs with an outstanding wingspan and at 20 years old great potential. Some reason I feel he fits in well with the Kings future plans is Mcgee's ability to run the floor and superior shot blocking potential in which the Kings desperatly need. Not to mention has range on his shot range is not limited to mid range he can step back and hit the 3 pointer.
As with almost all young big men he has weaknesses and is a few years away from impacting the game and has some weaknesses in his game which include free-throws and footwork in the post not to mention the kid is very thin all which could be improved.
Of course this is speculating the kings keep there draft position.
what do you think?
I like McGee a lot. I think he's in the mold of Chris Bosh. He's got some developing to do, but I really liked what I saw when I saw him play. Athletic, skilled 7 footers like him don't come along often, and I'm intrigued by the idea of putting him at power forward alongside Hawes.
PS: Here's a pretty good highlight video that shows some of the things McGee can do: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gSh4w-UPUk4
I actually think the video focuses too heavily on his dunking (against obviously inferior competition) and not enough on his mid-range game, which is actually where I saw him get most of his points. Starting around 4:20 and on they show some more jump shots, including a Martin-esque shot where he floats back through the key while shooting a jump shot, which would be completely impossible to block. But you can really see the fluidity and athleticism. He also has some great passes in there, even though by reputation he's a bit of a ballhog.
PS: Here's a pretty good highlight video that shows some of the things McGee can do: http://youtube.com/watch?v=gSh4w-UPUk4
I actually think the video focuses too heavily on his dunking (against obviously inferior competition) and not enough on his mid-range game, which is actually where I saw him get most of his points. Starting around 4:20 and on they show some more jump shots, including a Martin-esque shot where he floats back through the key while shooting a jump shot, which would be completely impossible to block. But you can really see the fluidity and athleticism. He also has some great passes in there, even though by reputation he's a bit of a ballhog.
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What are you talking about its incedibly important to build a solid backup for spencer who will be the starter one day especially an athletic type player that can take the load off spencer while not sacrificing much on the court.
I dont think there is anything silly about potentially having 2 young talented 7 footers.
You want talent spread around, not clogged up at one position limiting the minutes of the other. Yea benches are important but they're not more important than the starting rotation and the players getting the majority of the minutes. Getting good bench players is the goal of late firsts and 2nd round picks. It's irrelevant anyways because McGee has the athletic ability to play PF.
Here's Fran Fraschilla's mock: http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3406388&name=ncbexperts
He has us getting Westbrook at #12 btw.
He has us getting Westbrook at #12 btw.
S
DeAndre Jordan promised to be a top 5 pick!
Well this could be good in that it should help drop a player we'd actually want down to us.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draf...ry?columnist=ford_chad&page=DraftNotes-080522
On Wednesday I heard several interesting "promise" rumors. The first said that Texas A&M center DeAndre Jordan has a promise in the Top 5 of the draft. The two sources who gave me the information were NBA front office sources in the lottery who said that Jordan's agent, Joel Bell, wouldn't schedule workouts with them.
Well this could be good in that it should help drop a player we'd actually want down to us.
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draf...ry?columnist=ford_chad&page=DraftNotes-080522
On Wednesday I heard several interesting "promise" rumors. The first said that Texas A&M center DeAndre Jordan has a promise in the Top 5 of the draft. The two sources who gave me the information were NBA front office sources in the lottery who said that Jordan's agent, Joel Bell, wouldn't schedule workouts with them.
Petrie's Summer Vacation:
2007 Moves: Draft Pick #12 (Hawes), MLE (Mikki), call it an off-season.
2006 Moves: Draft Pick #19 (Douby), MLE (Salmons), FA Move (Let Bonzi go), call it an off-season.
2005 Moves: Draft Pick #23 (Garcia), MLE (SAR), TRADE! (B-Jax for Bonzi), TRADE! (Future First Round for Jason Hart), call it an off-season.
2004 Moves: Draft Pick #26 (Martin), MLE (Ostertag, Songilia), call it an off-season.
I'll be eccstatic if Petrie gets creative and daring this summer with the draft and trades ... but I'm not holding my breath.
2007 Moves: Draft Pick #12 (Hawes), MLE (Mikki), call it an off-season.
2006 Moves: Draft Pick #19 (Douby), MLE (Salmons), FA Move (Let Bonzi go), call it an off-season.
2005 Moves: Draft Pick #23 (Garcia), MLE (SAR), TRADE! (B-Jax for Bonzi), TRADE! (Future First Round for Jason Hart), call it an off-season.
2004 Moves: Draft Pick #26 (Martin), MLE (Ostertag, Songilia), call it an off-season.
I'll be eccstatic if Petrie gets creative and daring this summer with the draft and trades ... but I'm not holding my breath.
A lot of that has to do with Salary dynmaics. Bibby is not basically off the books minus Shelden's 3 million.
I think he's going to have the ABILITY to get creative again with Kenny, SAR, Brad, Moore all coming off the books in 2 years. We're not right at the tax threshold anymore and so Petrie can probably get the go-ahead from the Maloofs to start spending again.
