ryan richards at #5?

Big Cuz 15

All-Star
this guy has some crazy upside from what i gather on the youtube videos. is #5 too high for this guy? is this the guy portland is targeting when moving up in the draft? pritchards loves international players.
 
No way. No.5 is way too high for him. Right now he is a 2nd rounder, late first at best. And unless he absolutely blows people away in workouts (which I suspect he won't), that's not going to change.

He isn't terribly athletic, he's probably average. He has no stand-out skills. He has very good size for the PF position. Good length. But there are far, far better prospects available at 5. I wouldn't be surprised if Petrie took him at 33 if he were still there, but not at 5. In fact, he's a guy I think Petrie would definitely take if he were there at 33 to garner more international interest in the Kings.
 
Don't know a lot about Richards other than what I saw at the combine. From what I did see, he did look pretty athletic, and he shot the ball well in the shooting drills. Having said that, its meaningless. Shooting in a game is a whole other animal. We really know nothing about his game, or at least I don't. I've read that he hasn't been able to make the roster of one of the top european teams, and that bothers me. But not knowing how their pecking order works, it may mean nothing. I could possibly see taking a flyer on him in the second round. I think Brandon Jennings is more the exception than the rule.
 
I wouldn't even take the guy at #33. Physically, he's lacking in the length, strength (one of the weakest big men in this draft) and leaping ability department, and while he's laterally quick, he's generally a groundbound big man. He's quite known for his scoring ability, and he's very efficient at doing so, and has some rebounding instincts--but defensively he's not much of a shotblocker. He's very young at age 19, so someone will take a flyer in the 40s range, but we've had too many bigs with sheer scoring ability, and not enough shotblockers. This guy isn't it. Not to mention that he's very green and will need to be stashed in Europe for a couple years to perhaps physically develop.
 
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there are a few qualifiers for me

ballhandling - check
shooting - check
low post moves - i've seen him go down there for points in the clips - check

rebounding? defense? haven't seen that in the videos but that doesn't say he doesn't do those. we'd need to bring in for a work out or two to get a better look at him.
 
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