Leonard and Faried and Biyombo are all the guys I wanted and theyve all been better than Jimmer. especially the first two and I know a ton of us wanted them.
It's hard to see where they thought Jimmer could be the best pick for this team, especially considering the commitment to MT. MT is the best case scenario for Jimmer, with more passing and less athleticism.
Even worse now with IT's emergence.
It's hard to see where they thought Jimmer could be the best pick for this team, especially considering the commitment to MT. MT is the best case scenario for Jimmer, with more passing and less athleticism.
Even worse now with IT's emergence.
They are very close in value. Barnes could be the answer to Kings' SF woes, Drummond might just be the perfect frontcourt partner to Cousins. I think it's close and when it's close go "big".
Barnes is actually quite good as a defender and I don't think MKG is a better one right now. Also I'm starting to think that MKG is getting overated. His main values are his work ethic and leadership skills. People make him out to be some very skilled, very athletic guaranteed future superstar. He's not. Whatever his ceiling is there seems to be like 99% chance that he reaches it but you do not build around him. I would say he can be your new Vlade, not Webber.
Barnes is quite good as a defender, but MKG is in a whole other league. He's one of the best defensive wing players to enter the draft in years. Since Westbrook I'd say if you consider him a wing and not a PG, or before that I'd go back to Igoudala in 2004.
I've said this before, but the more I think about it I get even more excited about how unique this draft is. There are 7 guys that I would love for us to have ended up with in any year and we're closing in on a lottery position which might guarantee us a pick in the top 7. You've got two guys in Davis and MKG who figure to make multiple All-Defense teams in their career. You've also got two guys in Barnes and Drummond who were projected as first overall picks coming out of high school. Pair them with an All-NBA coach like Sloan or McMillan and they could be scary good in 4-5 years. Then you've got Robinson and Beal who would rank up there in the top tier of prospects at their position in any draft, and lastly Perry Jones who never got on track in two years at Baylor but there's not a lot he can't do on a basketball court. More than anything he needs some direction on how to fit his incredible individual talent into the team game.
Some of those guys are riskier than others, but all of them are in the top 1% of basketball prospects. All of them have All-Star potential. If we close out the year with the fourth worst record, I'm not even going to hold my breath for the draft lottery because I'll be satisfied with picking anywhere from 1 to 7. Even in the 8-10 range, one of the guys I really like could easily slip a couple spots.
You guys are overrating Barnes defense imo.
He took a big step backwards this year from last year, and more then anything doesn't seem to take pride in playing defense and show any real motor on that side of the floor - which is what makes MKG (along with his superior lateral movement/explosiveness) be another level of defense from him.
In general Barnes is enjoying the final moments of his immense highschool hype machine.
He has done practically nothing to support or justify it, and proven to be a pretty limited player. Still got a future in the league, but not at all a star.
How about a Coach like Smart? Or whatever turd the Maloofs hire in a year after Smart gets fired?
The Kings...Where potential goes to die.![]()
For guys like Drummond and Jones, I think you would need a demanding type of coach. Both guys fall into the catagory of needing a fire lit under them. Now I can divide them somewhat by saying, that in Drummonds case, I see it as, more of a lack of desire at times. In Jones case, I see it as, more confused about how to use his talent.
Let me also say, Baylor isn't know as a great school for developing players among'st the scouts. I don't think it helped Jones to play him at the PF position, because it took away some of his strengths. Which are great ballhandliing for a 6'11" player, and very good outside shooting. So if you put him at the SF postion and farther away from the basket, he becomes a more efficient player in my judgement. He's also a very good passer and he runs the floor like a deer. So a part of me has to wonder how he would have fared at Kentucky instead of Baylor. These things do matter folks! Just ask Derrick Favors. If your a post player, you don't want to play on a college team that doesn't have players who can feed the post. Or in some cases, have no inclination to try.
I have similar questions about Drummond at UCONN. Anyone remember another player from UCONN name Thabeet? How well did he develop there? Not saying its a coaching problem, but UCONN doesn't seem to do well with bigs that have low BBIQ. It also didn't help that UCONN had two players in Napier and Lamb, that had a shoot first mentality. Especially Napier, who thought he was the second coming of Kemba somebody. So I blame Napier more than Lamb. Napier was the lead guard.
I'm not trying to make excuses for either players poor performances. I'm just saying that there are other circumstances that you have to take into consideration when passing judgement.
someone in the top 5 is gonna take a chance on drummond. we definitely need to bring him in for a work out to get a closer look.
Drummond will shoot a lot of free throws until the draft and teams would want him to shoot at least 50 every workout. If he comes and drains like 30 or at least 25 out of those 50, I believe he becomes almost a lock at #2.
Look, I realize that Drummond was a terrible freethrow shooter this season. But I think thats the least of what worries NBA GM's and scouts. However if he shoots 500 a day until the workouts start, he'll amazingly get better. One of the things I'm very curious about is his work ethic.
In two UConn games I saw most recently he successfully posted up and held good position for 3-4 seconds but Napier and Boatright stare at him for a second and then turn away or don't look at him at all. He often went for some quick shots to avoid being fouled which make for some ugly finishes but setting up position wasn't his problem.His work ethic has always been a question. Whether he hits 50% of his free throws at a work out might even be within statistical possiblity and mean very little. He has notably been shy to post up, hence the statements that he disappears in games. Heck, he DOES disappear on offense as difficult as that might seem for a guy his size. The question that rattles around in my mind is if an unmotivated, poor free throw shooting uber athlete is still worth it...
In two UConn games I saw most recently he successfully posted up and held good position for 3-4 seconds but Napier and Boatright stare at him for a second and then turn away or don't look at him at all. He often went for some quick shots to avoid being fouled which make for some ugly finishes but setting up position wasn't his problem.
It is double-edged sword - NBA is completely different animal than college. Not only in skill-level or physicality but in style as well. Ezeli and Zeller showed that A.Davis will be pushed around come November, for example . College is a good measuring stick but it's not absolute. Especially when we talk about freshman bigs in need of team play and coaching (Calhoun was not there for most of the season)
For guys like Drummond and Jones, I think you would need a demanding type of coach. Both guys fall into the catagory of needing a fire lit under them. Now I can divide them somewhat by saying, that in Drummonds case, I see it as, more of a lack of desire at times. In Jones case, I see it as, more confused about how to use his talent.
Let me also say, Baylor isn't know as a great school for developing players among'st the scouts. I don't think it helped Jones to play him at the PF position, because it took away some of his strengths. Which are great ballhandliing for a 6'11" player, and very good outside shooting. So if you put him at the SF postion and farther away from the basket, he becomes a more efficient player in my judgement. He's also a very good passer and he runs the floor like a deer. So a part of me has to wonder how he would have fared at Kentucky instead of Baylor. These things do matter folks! Just ask Derrick Favors. If your a post player, you don't want to play on a college team that doesn't have players who can feed the post. Or in some cases, have no inclination to try.
I have similar questions about Drummond at UCONN. Anyone remember another player from UCONN name Thabeet? How well did he develop there? Not saying its a coaching problem, but UCONN doesn't seem to do well with bigs that have low BBIQ. It also didn't help that UCONN had two players in Napier and Lamb, that had a shoot first mentality. Especially Napier, who thought he was the second coming of Kemba somebody. So I blame Napier more than Lamb. Napier was the lead guard.
I'm not trying to make excuses for either players poor performances. I'm just saying that there are other circumstances that you have to take into consideration when passing judgement.
I was passing judgement on our FO and coaching, not on the prospects. I just worry about getting a raw kid in here because we have been HORRIBLE at developing talent.
It sounds like Drummond has a lot of potential. I can see he has a ton of potential. Some of you have a lot of reservations about the guy. But if he falls to us, do you pass on him? For who?