Iirc Bamba was your guy that draft right? What have you seen with his NBA game? Decent fit here?
Yup I had Bamba and JJJ over Bagley n even mentioned that I thought Wendell Carter might be better than Bags. After the pick came in I defended it too much but predraft I had Marvin lower than most, lower than 2nd for certain.
While I didnt have the top of the draft in a good order in 2018, I really did have a long list of steals in the late first n 2nd picked out as favorites, I made a huge stink about Anfernee Simons n Mitchell Robinson being insanely, absurdly underrated n that came to pass. I always swore up n down Mitchell Robinson was a lotto talent, n that Simons was easily a lotto pick if he waited another year.
I was a huge Robert Williams fan, I followed him from Houston Hoops like De'Aaron, massive Robert Williams fan.I was moderately upset he fell in that draft, n was completely bewildered by the increasing chances he fell to the 2nd rd. I shoulda had him in the top5, over Bagley, honestly in hindsight. when I first saw Robert Williams he was 6'6 or max 6'7, with the same 7'5 wingspan, he was built like a helicopter. Jared Vanderbilt from Houston Hoops was a player I liked a lot too.
Thats why I kinda much prefer drafts like this year, where we're way out of the lottery and it's more, for lack of a better term, 'dumpster diving'
n also, ya know one last one --- Kevin Huerter.. I was a huge Kevin Huerter believer in that draft. Certainly I was dropping posts calling him my favorite 4-star player in the freshman class. I'm a new yorker, some kid from NY makes team USA basketball's junior squads or even gets a minicamp invite you can best belive I'll know all about em.
As for Mo and this seasons Kings (sry for the tangent)
I still think Mo fits great here. I mean, it's pretty obvious that he'd fit WAY better here than in Orlando where they have this absurd backlog of frontcourt guys.
He can really run, his 3pt shot is really not bad, he's plenty capable of blocking shots, you can be damn sure he'll get his hands on and tip balls that no one on our team is currently capable of reaching, that'd really be great here in small spurts far as im concerned, we dont need a starter we need a guy who can give us 15-20 mins n shift matchups. He doesnt turn 25 for a few months, he's right in the window as lots of our core guys.
Brown would be a great coach for Mo. Fox and Sabonis great stars for him to try and play around. If any coach can get "the most" out of him, everyone will stand scratching their heads 'how did we get this player?' Even though Mo's been around its not like his talent has diminished. Orlando has the ROY starting at C, another really good C in Carter and actual PF's, he's just the odd man out there.
Certainly the biggest error in my evaluation on Mo predraft was that he'd be worth drafting to secure for his 2nd contract, and so he's behind schedule. But I mean honestly I'm still vehement that he'd have been better here than Marvin, n Mo is a gregarious personality, he's very likeable and in line with the guys we have here. Players built like Mo have an easier time actually improving their game in their mid 20's than lots of others.
All that being said I do think Jaxson Hayes might be better here. I'm not sure though. If Mo comes here n knocks down his 3's then his upside is greater.
Mo's greatest value to the Kings is as the 5man in an ANTI-SMALLBALL look. You might think "We the kings, we play smallball why do we need an anti-smallball look?" ---- The issue can be seen in the Embiid-less 76ers loss and the Raptors loss, teams with the proper personell (that we'll run into more and more in the playoffs) who can put out a full frontline of strong forwards that hold their ground like pj tucker siakam, scottie barnes, montrezl harrell, tobias harris etc. This is where we unleash Bamba and cross our fingers n say go getem kid -- n if he blocks shots n hits his 3's n gets a lot of dunks everyone looks like a genius..
If u just look at these highlights.. How many bigmen on the planet are capable of having a half like that against Embiid.. what he did in the first half. I'll take him off the bench!
Also just look at how much ground he covers in half a step to get the block on the broken play at 2:40.. thats a lot of space..