Who do we draft?

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Kingster

Kingster

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bajaden said:
I think what it comes down to with Diallo is whether he has a good skill set or not. For that reason, I think his workouts will be more important than for most players. He's the mystery man, but if he can show he can shoot the ball, and has good handles, his stock will rise significantly. His athleticism is a big plus, but skill are equally important. Hard to find a player that athletically gifted who is also very skilled. According to an atricle on the comcast website, Diallo is one of the players that the Kings are bringing in to work out.
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He didn't play in the recent couple of games for the scouts. That's got to be a fairly big negative, especially when you have nothing to go on as far as college games. He did play against excellent competition in practice. I wonder how many times the Kings scouts saw him there? My biggest question is his BBIQ and work ethic. If he's got that, everything should come out fine. If he doesn't, then all those athletic abilities will be squandered.
 
Kingster

Kingster

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bajaden said:
Fox: “They just feel like if they’re able to get a point guard, somebody who can run the team, they feel like they could do something special,” Fox told reporters after meeting with the Kings. “But like I said, that division is really hard. You’re going to have to have a point guard that’s ready to play every night to do something in that division.”
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I like that quote from Fox. I'm going to assume it was suggested to him by his agent and that he really has paid some attention to what's going on in Sacto.
 
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Jimbob

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bajaden said:
Well, as you know, I don't need convincing. I've been touting him for most of the college season. He's very skilled for a seven footer, but what I really like about him is that he plays with an edge. He's mentally tough and a total team guy. I can see him easily playing the stretch four position, and center if needed. I keep asking myself if Skal can play the three? My gut says no, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to experiment in summer league and training camp. Sure would make for a hell of a front line with Willie, Zach, and Skal.

That said, I would prefer Isaac, but there's the possibility that he's gone. Right now, Smith is projected to be available when we pick. But if he starts dazzling people in his workouts, what happens if Fultz, Ball, Smith, and Fox, all go in the top five That would leave Monk, Tatum, Isaac, Ntilikina, and Markkanen. If Tatum and Isaac go next, that leaves us with Monk, Markkanen, Ntilikina, and of course Collins as our choices. At that point, if we really have our heart set on a PG, we have to take Ntilikina at 8, which I think is a bit of a reach. I can't see us taking Monk. I like him but I think he's best suited as a sixth man off the bench, and I think we want more than that at 8. Either way, in that scenario, I see us taking Collins at either 8 or at 10. I think Collins is a better all around player than Markkanen.
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Agree about Zach, if hes there at 10 I am happy to take him. Ntilikina at 8 also happy with. That's also how nbadraft.net currently has it down. As I said in a past post I like Ntilikina as he can rotate opening up more time for Buddy and Bogdan to facilitate some as well.
I also have wondered about Skall at the 3. I have not had the opportunity to watch him as much as some but he seems to have the speed and ability to score to keep up just not sure about other aspects of his game.
 
bajaden

bajaden

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Kingster said:
I like that quote from Fox. I'm going to assume it was suggested to him by his agent and that he really has paid some attention to what's going on in Sacto.
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I think it's reasonable to assume that he's somewhat familiar with the Kings, with Willie and Skal both playing on the team. The Kentucky guys are like one big family and I'm sure they share info about their teams.
 
bajaden

bajaden

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Jimbob said:
Agree about Zach, if hes there at 10 I am happy to take him. Ntilikina at 8 also happy with. That's also how nbadraft.net currently has it down. As I said in a past post I like Ntilikina as he can rotate opening up more time for Buddy and Bogdan to facilitate some as well.
I also have wondered about Skall at the 3. I have not had the opportunity to watch him as much as some but he seems to have the speed and ability to score to keep up just not sure about other aspects of his game.
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I think the first question about Skal at the three, is whether he can guard opposing three's. The other question is whether his ball handling is adequate for the position. I can't answer those questions, but I'm sure Joerger can. Putting him at the three seems like a very simple solution to a couple of problems, so if it doesn't happen, then I think we can assume, the powers that be don't think he can play that position.
 
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ESP47

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I've yet to see Skal do anything that could warrant him playing at SF. His lateral quickness seems pretty slow compared to his body size. PFs blew by him quite a bit. He should be able to correct that by anticipating moves better as he gets more experience but it's a different animal at SF. I think he's going to concentrate on PF and bulk up so he doesn't get powered through as much as he did last year. On offense, he doesn't really have a perimeter game other than catch and shoot. He has a similar body to Durant's a few years back but he has none of the guard/small forward type skills that Durant had. Skal is a different type of athletic than most SFs. He's more of a one or two step athletic guy than a perimeter to the hoop type of athletic, if that makes sense. He can receive the ball in the paint and throw it down with authority or use one of his many crafty moves to score but that athleticism is kind of limited to a 5ft bubble around where his feet are set. If you had him step out to the 3 point line and then drive to the hoop off a screen, it wouldn't work out very well. I see him turning out more like a Zach Randolph type player with a better 3 point shot if he can reach his ceiling.
 
allrightythen

allrightythen

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I really like Zach Collins and I think he's better than where he is generally expected to go. I would think a guy with his size, mobility, athleticism, and skill set would be much more coveted. Maybe because he didn't start and get a ton of minutes with the Zags. He seems like the ideal 5 for the current brand of basketball. I don't know that I like him on the Kings given the bigs we have, but I wouldn't be upset if we took him only because he seems to be really valuable. Hopefully someone above takes him and pushes down another PG or SF.
 
bajaden

bajaden

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Kingster said:
He didn't play in the recent couple of games for the scouts. That's got to be a fairly big negative, especially when you have nothing to go on as far as college games. He did play against excellent competition in practice. I wonder how many times the Kings scouts saw him there? My biggest question is his BBIQ and work ethic. If he's got that, everything should come out fine. If he doesn't, then all those athletic abilities will be squandered.
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I would have preferred to see him in the five on five games, but at the same time, I can understand why he skipped them. Sometimes its to your advantage to remain a mystery, than to expose yourself to criticism. The five on five games are quite chaotic. Your playing with players you've never played with before with very little practice. It's easy to look bad in one of those games, sometimes through no fault of your own. So I get why he might skip it. That's why I think his individual workouts are going to be important for him in his decision. I think if he gets a promise from a team in the 1st round, he'll stay in the draft.
 
bajaden

bajaden

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ESP47 said:
I've yet to see Skal do anything that could warrant him playing at SF. His lateral quickness seems pretty slow compared to his body size. PFs blew by him quite a bit. He should be able to correct that by anticipating moves better as he gets more experience but it's a different animal at SF. I think he's going to concentrate on PF and bulk up so he doesn't get powered through as much as he did last year. On offense, he doesn't really have a perimeter game other than catch and shoot. He has a similar body to Durant's a few years back but he has none of the guard/small forward type skills that Durant had. Skal is a different type of athletic than most SFs. He's more of a one or two step athletic guy than a perimeter to the hoop type of athletic, if that makes sense. He can receive the ball in the paint and throw it down with authority or use one of his many crafty moves to score but that athleticism is kind of limited to a 5ft bubble around where his feet are set. If you had him step out to the 3 point line and then drive to the hoop off a screen, it wouldn't work out very well. I see him turning out more like a Zach Randolph type player with a better 3 point shot if he can reach his ceiling.
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I think he has a tad more perimeter game than you've indicated, but not much more. I think his biggest limitations on his perimeter game is his ball handling. If he can tighten that up, then I think he'll be able to attack the basket more from out there. Still, that doesn't make him a SF. Personally, I doubt he can play the SF position, but I've been surprised before. I worry more about him defensively at that position than I do offensively.
 
Kingster

Kingster

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bajaden said:
I think he has a tad more perimeter game than you've indicated, but not much more. I think his biggest limitations on his perimeter game is his ball handling. If he can tighten that up, then I think he'll be able to attack the basket more from out there. Still, that doesn't make him a SF. Personally, I doubt he can play the SF position, but I've been surprised before. I worry more about him defensively at that position than I do offensively.
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I think it depends somewhat on the 3 Skal is guarding. At this point if he's guarding a 3 who doesn't have all that much ball handling expertise himself, I think he could handle it. On the other hand, if the 3 he is facing can really drive to the basket, that's a bridge way too far at this point.
 
Warhawk

Warhawk

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Warhawk said:
I think it's just funny that there are 32 pages of posts on who we will pick at spots 8 and 10 (or thereabouts), when we don't even know if we will be picking there, if we will even have any picks (I know, very remote chance), whether we will jump into the lottery and be getting Philly's pick instead, whether Vlade decides to make some trades and go up or down in the draft, etc.

People are hyper-focusing on an outcome that may not be there in a few weeks!
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10 pages later....and I'm right.
 
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