He can play both. SG or SF. He can guard both too
Kings Pre-draft Workouts
- Thread starter RichieInRocklin
- Start date
jcwkings
All-Star
The basis of us drafting Hezonja is that Vlade knows his game best and definitely matches Vlade's feeling of wanting a team game rather than Eastern conference style iso ball. I could see a lineup of Collison, Ben, Hezonja, Gay, Cousins. Say what you want about that lineup defensively, the spacing, speed and athleticism would be off the charts.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Not like him. The Kings want to switch on defense and Winslow is a 230 pound 19 year old monster who can physical handle multiple positions. Neither Ben or Nik are quick enough to guard PG's and are too small to guard SF's.
Entity
Hall of Famer
I don't think we can draft another wing. We haven't really been totally burned by the last two but they are bench players for now. As a franchise you can't do it three years in a row. Unless we get two picks it needs to be a pg or a big. Go after a SG in free agency or trade
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
Winslow isn't a one one position player. He can rotate defensively and offensively he can play off the ball or on it. He can also score in the post. Karl wants to play Gay at the 4 more so a big wing with strength like Winslow will not be just beneficial but critical if you want to have any chance on defense.
That would be a really small lineup.
Dreadnought
Bench
I like to think Winslow plays a little bigger than his height. He truly is pretty heavy and beastly for his position. He wouldn't have issues with SFs.
jcwkings
All-Star
Willie is weird, some mock drafts have him in the top 5, some don't have him going until the 9-11 range. Its so weird because on one side it looks like we would be lucky if he falls to 6 and on the other end we are reaching by nabbing him at 6. Much like my view on him, to me he is just a freak athlete with no real fundamentals on how to play the game. His rebounding fundamentals are poor, which is a legit weakness if your drafting him as a Jordan, Drummond type. At the end of the day i'm going to take the better basketball player. I know everyone wants Willie, but I wouldn't be mad if we passed, at the same time I wouldn't be mad if we drafted him. My problem is he could be the next Deandre or he could be the next Javele, he is considered a "safe" pick but to me he will either be boom or bust, which is scary for a 22 year old Junior whose coming into the league with a defined role. To me Mudiaye, Winslow, Hezonja are all safer picks and all 3 have higher ceilings than Willie.
randymoss1881
Starter
It shouldn't matter if we took a SG last 2 years if Vlade feels he's the best player you take him period.
LPKingsFan
All-Star
Exactly. Consider fit/need as a tiebreaker, sure, but otherwise it's BPA all day. Quite frankly I'm surprised at how many are saying otherwise. Sunk costs are sunk costs.
KingsCitizen
Starter
Just for the sake of keeping some discussions here, I think a Hezonja pick would make sense if Vlade and co thinks that no one at #6 no one can play starter minutes in the NBA yet throughout the season.
So he would pick a guy that would back up Rudy to start his career. That guy needs to be able to shoot because we are flat empty of SF shooter from the bench.
And if the kid realize his potential, he can run as well with a small ball quick line-up of DC, Ben, Rudy, DMC.
This move would make sense if eventually we got some good vet to rotate at PF next to DMC.
Guys like Seraphin, who could actually make a case of Speights-like role in GS.
Or a resurrected Larry Sanders.
He'll even picking Bargniani cheap could just make things work.
So he would pick a guy that would back up Rudy to start his career. That guy needs to be able to shoot because we are flat empty of SF shooter from the bench.
And if the kid realize his potential, he can run as well with a small ball quick line-up of DC, Ben, Rudy, DMC.
This move would make sense if eventually we got some good vet to rotate at PF next to DMC.
Guys like Seraphin, who could actually make a case of Speights-like role in GS.
Or a resurrected Larry Sanders.
He'll even picking Bargniani cheap could just make things work.
SacTownKid
Hall of Famer
He does. He checked PF sized guys at Duke and did a decent job. I think Winslow could have a Draymond Green kind of impact for the Kings. Just does a little bit of everything offensively and just flat out defends whatever is in front of him.
kingsfan101
Starter
I think we need to get over our fear of small ball lineup. The Warriors just won the championship by starting a 6'8'' guy at center (no, I'm not comparing our team stuck in lottery with the team that just won the championship), while their primary center didn't play at all in the final game, and sparingly, as they won 3 straight.
And it wasn't just this series. They were at their most efficient with that lineup throughout the year.
While Ws are a special case, with multiple good defenders, several teams employ small ball(ish) lineup for extensive stretches. Some of them play big, but lot of their "bigs" play away from the basket. Plus, how many SFs in Western conference are major scoring threats, or big guys that can play above Winslow? KD, Kawhi, Batum. One can probably add Parsons, Iggy/Barnes to this group, but I don't think his height will be a disadvantage against any of these guys except KD.
I think the kid has a chance to be special. In a few years, he can stay on the floor just for his defensive capabilities, while providing energy, athleticism, and decent offense. He recently won the national championship, where he was often the best player on the floor. I personally hope we pick him.
ilmago
Prospect
So, Winslow just did a workout with Detroit.
He also has visited NY (4th pick), Orlando (5th) and Denver (7th).
We did a workout with only 2 "lottery" players (WCS and Payne).
Thus I think we're going to draft WCS (if he's available) or trade down to pick Payne (around 10-13th pick?), even if I do love Justise..
He also has visited NY (4th pick), Orlando (5th) and Denver (7th).
We did a workout with only 2 "lottery" players (WCS and Payne).
Thus I think we're going to draft WCS (if he's available) or trade down to pick Payne (around 10-13th pick?), even if I do love Justise..
Hezonja is an average passer at best. And that lineup will be very bad defensively for a while.
Winslow has the body and can learn to score in theory, but he doesn't have developed post game just like Stanimal.
80% of college PFs would be SFs in the NBA. And Winslow defends well whatever is in front of his teammates - he routinely dropped his man and just roamed around the paint looking to help. That might have been the plan, but given multiple attempts to dart back to his man, who mysteriously to him turned up on the arc on the other side of the floor, I would guess, it wasn't always the case.
randymoss1881
Starter
Just because we don't work someone out doesn't mean we won't take him.
Because that has worked so well for us in the past.
It doesn't look like we'll have much choice this year. We've worked out one projected top 10 player.
Workouts should really be like 1 or 2% of why we pick a player. It's nice to be able to see a player up close, but I would hope we're making decisions based on game-tape and where we project guys to be in 5 years as players.
Basically, if we're taking a guy because he looked good posting up or beating a chair off the dribble, then we're in a lot more trouble than we initially thought.
Kingster
Hall of Famer
It's not so bleak as all that.
1. Towns (not working out for anybody)
2. Okafor (won't be there at 6)
3. Russell (very unlikely to be there at 6)
4. Mudiay (agent won't let him work out below #4, we'll see if that softens)
5. Porzingis (we saw the group workout, which is the only one he's doing)
6. Cauley-Stein
7. Hezonja (can't work out, team still playing)
8. Winslow
9. Johnson
10? Kaminsky (reported to be coming in)
10? Payne
So for 6 of what is probably the top-11, we've either seen them, or seen exactly as much as anybody else. Two of the others almost certainly aren't going to fall to us so there's not that much point. We might yet get Mudiay to come in if his agent softens his stance, and it's possible that we've got Winslow and Johnson scheduled, considering how tight-lipped our front office has been about draft workouts this year (we only found out about Kaminsky because HE told a reporter that he had us scheduled at somebody else's workout). The draft is in 8 days, let's see who else comes in.
That's true, but that didn't really address my point, though.
Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Its tough anymore with all these guys so young/so few having faced competition. Kaminsky or WCS, sure. You have enough tape. But you've got multiple young guys playing in Europe with limited minutes/roles. You've got a small school kid. You've got a high school kid with something like 9 games in the Chinese league...I mean tape alone in those situations is going to be dicey just based on competition.
How so? Do you think if we had worked out Trob, that we would have gotten off him as a prospect? That's actually more silly to me, if a workout changes our minds on a prospect we initially liked.
Absolutely. How many other teams brought him in for a workout then decided to pass? Seems they were right to do so as well.
Agree with all of this, but you have to trust your scouting to do its job. I already know Mudiay is a dynamite athlete; I don't need to bring him in to show me.
The WCS workout video is another great example. Watching him shoot open jumpers and struggle to post up Corliss isn't information I need to see nor do I want to see. Every reason you draft WCS, he can't show in a workout.
He actually did a workout for the Lakers.. I hope Vlade can convince him to come over just so we can get a 2nd look at him
