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NBA Draft Discussion

rome8180 said:
This is a quibble, but "5th best player" seems extreme. Who was better than him? Mark Williams at the end of the year and Matthew Hurt. That's it.
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Also, wasn't he the top scoring rookie in the ACC? It's clear he wasn't ready for the NBA, but the kid balled out last year.
 
rhfarmer said:
rome8180 said:
This is a quibble, but "5th best player" seems extreme. Who was better than him? Mark Williams at the end of the year and Matthew Hurt. That's it.
Click to expand...
Also, wasn't he the top scoring rookie in the ACC? It's clear he wasn't ready for the NBA, but the kid balled out last year.
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That would be Scottie Barnes at FSU who was ACC Rookie of the Year. And maybe it is just a quibble. But he wasn't better than Mark Williams. He wasn't better than Matthew Hurt. He wasn't better than Jalen Johnson. And by year's end he wasn't better than Wendell Moore IMHO. It doesn't matter who was or wasn't 5th best player. He wasn't ready for the NBA and the combine proves it.
 
He absolutely was better than Moore. First of all, the full season matters. Second of all, Moore still had major turnover and shooting issues even in the last two months of the season. And no, I'm not counting Johnson since the team played worse with him on the floor and he played like 13 games.

I think you're going out of your way to make him sound worse than he was. I also think you're exaggerating his defensive issues, for the record. He wasn't amazing on that end, but I thought he was fairly neutral. Roach and Hurt were clearly worse.
 
rome8180 said:
He absolutely was better than Moore. First of all, the full season matters. Second of all, Moore still had major turnover and shooting issues even in the last two months of the season. And no, I'm not counting Johnson since the team played worse with him on the floor and he played like 13 games.

I think you're going out of your way to make him sound worse than he was. I also think you're exaggerating his defensive issues, for the record. He wasn't amazing on that end, but I thought he was fairly neutral. Roach and Hurt were clearly worse.
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Hey, a full season does matter and they only played 24 games total. 13-11 overall and 9-9 in the ACC. Not a full season. Jalen Johnson is my least favorite player ever at Duke. And that includes Suilamon which is saying something. But regardless he will be drafted and DJ won't.

Moore ended up being PG out of necessity and when Goldwire ran PG he hit shots as he wasn't facilitating everyone else. His stats were skewed because he sucked so bad for the first half of the season playing wing. He definitely turned it around with his game at the season's end. It's my opinion that he was playing better.

Williams was a stud last season. Hurt was All-ACC. I never mentioned Roach.
 
I thought DJ competed really hard on defense. Probably could've been a solid option against opposing point guards if he gained about 25 pounds. I also think his three-point shooting and ability to get to the line would have improved going forward. He had a chance to be a 110 offensive rating guy on about 25% usage just by getting a bit stronger and raising his 3 point% by a few points.

DJ leaving and going undrafted is just really a shitty situation for all parties. All we can do now is hope that Roach improves significantly and that Keels is a stud from day one.
 


Probably the next big freak in the NBA. Age 17, 7-2 height, 7-8 wingspan, has shot 17/44 3pt (37%) in 2020-21 per basketball-reference. I assume he’s #1 overall in the draft after Paolo/Chet. Can’t believe the Pistons will be trotting out this lineup:

PG Cunningham
SG Frank Jackson
SF Wembanyama
PF Banchero
C Mason Plumlee
 
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SeanMayTriedToEatMe said:


Duke fans should be glad this dominant player will probably pick Kentucky instead of Gonzaga.
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Damn.

He's gonna end up at Kentucky.

I like Williams a lot, but damn... it's an arms race, right? If K wants to go out with a bang, you gotta at least talk to some these dudes in the transfer portal, don't you?
 
Heard a great point on a podcast about drafting older players. I've always said draft experts worry too much about age. Anyway, Kevin O'Connor made the point that if your team is ready to compete now an older player can offer more value. You still have them on a cheap contract, but unlike the younger player, they're actually ready to contribute. Granted, you still have to hit on the right older player.

Teams in that spot don't necessarily need to ask themselves "what is this player's upside," but rather "how much will he impact winning relative to his contract."
 
DrKlahn said:


Jeez, is this guy really 17? Why not spend his Age 18 year at Gonzaga and get a head start on US endorsements?
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It's going to be very interesting to see how he, Chet, and Mobley pan out over the next few years, and maybe to a lesser extent even Mo Bamba. They're sort of a new type of player, in that they appear to be the first wave of transcendently gifted 7-footers who came up fully during the 3PT era. Will they all be bigger Anthony Davii, or will there be a Porzingis and/or a Wiseman mixed in? Big guys like that are so hard to project, especially when there aren't many existing comps for them.
 
Of super skinny 7-footers, who has really panned out besides KD and AD? Granted, like you said, there haven't been that many examples.

And health is always a concern. Even the two guys I mentioned have had their share of injuries. One thing I'd look at when drafting anyone like that is whether they have the frame to fill out. AD's shoulders have always been really broad.
 
And by the way, of the players you mentioned Mobley stands out as being much more physically developed. Not sure he has some of the same concerns as Holmgren and Wembanyama.

Seeing this pic, I would assume I was looking at your average 6'7" NBA wing.

M47R8WZ.jpg
 


Is he the One who can finally get Gonzaga a title? Or will a smart coach force him to defend 3pt shooters?

Duke’s best chance might be this lineup:

PG Blakes
SG Keels
SF Baker
PF Moore
C Griffin

The realistic best chance might involve having someone break his limbs.
 
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