Too Soon? Draft Day is coming. Prepare for Combo Forwards

Like the claim that he’s the quickest/fastest guy on the team despite being almost 280 pounds.

Davis brings blocks and dunks. Both stats translate incredibly well. also, maybe I’m just reading it wrong, but I’m pretty sure I saw that Drummond shoots sub 50% from the line. After seeing Greg’s beauty from the stripe this season, I’m not sure I can handle a big that shoots less than 60% from the line.

I want that unabrow so badly. People keep knocking on him but he owns it. And it is powerful. And despite the unibrow portion, it is actually pretty well lined. So he has a different style? Who cares! Maybe we’re being closed-minded to think that having two separate eyebrows is the only acceptable style in the world today.

Any dude willing to buck the thousands of years old tradition of 2 eyebrows in favor of a well-kept single brow has gotta have big brass balls. That’s the kind of guy I want on my team.

Not that there haven’t been countless opportunities in the past

But seriously, if we fall out of the 3-5 range, and we can’t get a franchise player, we should look to unload it as part of a larger move to fix a whole bunch of stuff similar to what Charlotte did last year or what Michael Corleone did in the last part of the Godfather. Teams are going to be going apeshit over Chris Paul and co. it’d be nice to see Joe D take advantage. Or maybe Joe made his money and doesn’t really give a shit if the team wins or not.

I’ve got mad respect for MFMP, but I think I disagree on this one.

My reasoning:

Sullinger may not be an idea fit with Monroe, yes, but he’s no less so than JJ, and all things considered, I’m not terribly unhappy with our frontcourt. A starting line of JJ, Sullinger, and Moose isn’t going to win a championship by itself, but it’s young, cheap, versatile and puts us in the playoff hunt even without major roster overhauls elsewhere.

Financial flexibility and youth. Having Sullinger on a rookie contract + retaining one of our other bad contracts really isn’t any worse than taking on Smith’s contract. Plus, Sullinger is younger. If Sullinger is available and we select him, we could start JJ, Sullinger, and Moose, and none of them would be making more than $5 million per season. If we then use the amnesty clause on one of our bad contracts, we’re not in any worse shape than we’d be if we shipped the pick and a bad contract.

I would also note that Josh Smith isn’t getting any younger. Assuming we’re still a few years away from being a serious playoff nuisance, that makes him 28-29 when we’re actually ready to make an impact in the EC. That’s not old by any stretch, but for a guy whose game is predicated so much on athleticism, I think I’d prefer a younger guy.

And if Sullinger does pan out, he becomes a very valuable trade asset.

Or to put it much more succinctly, would you rather have Sullinger and Villanueva at the same price point as an aging Josh Smith? That’s a tough question.

Draft Express has Sullinger ranked for us.

Has Jeremy Lamb ranked as the no. 3 pick, we just happen to be in the slot. I clicked on the mock draft tab the other day and it had us at the 4, with Lamb still going 3rd.

Comparing Davis and Drummond:

Davis scores more points per 40 minutes, he scores more efficiently — shooting both a higher percentage from the field and from the free throw line, he averages more blocks, more steals, more assists, less turnovers and less personal fouls.

Davis does everything better than Drummond, and that is despite still not being as fully physically developed. This all bodes incredibly well for Davis, generally if a player is dominating before they’ve even grown into their bodies (like Durant in college), that is a sign they have a very high ceiling and a good chance of reaching that ceiling.

it fucking should.

if he’s 6’8", he’ll have a lower center of gravity against some of the taller bigs but it definitely looks like he’s on his way to Ben Wallace like biceps.

if Knight keeps improving his shot selection and takes better care of the ball, then you guys are really just a wing scorer away (Gordon does not count) from being a pretty good team (I would say 6-8 seed in the playoffs). And then there is no telling what happens from there, getting Gordon and Villanueva off the books and getting rid of Prince’s horrible contract, could make you guys players in FA as well. So, I think you have a pretty solid future, especially because you already have a stud at center who can actually score in the post, which is very hard to find.

D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY VIS!!!!

You could go Davis/Knight and have solid speed, quickness, and range while having a shot blocking dunkarific defensive dynamo.

Drummond more because of the Highlight dunks and the size & strength that is already NBA ready.

The shitty thing is— I think Dumars has precisely the same draft criteria. Screw all that noise, Drummond doesn’t deserve top draft consideration because of his measurements and his ability to dominate little tiny schools that no one cares about. When he puts up big games against remotely decent competition, call me.

At the end of the day, I’ll side with the stats 1000 times instead of saying “his youtube dunk real is awesome” and “he’s big”. That’s pretty much all that NBA scouts bring to the table.

If you have Jonas Jerebko, Tayshaun Prince, and Austin Daye at the 3, and only 1 legitimate big man (which is currently the case), then you take a big or you trade down to take the next best big when they’re expected to go.

I agree with you that if Barnes is BPA, then we probably take him but not to keep, just to trade on draft day.

If Harrison Barnes is there you cannot pass him up

Why Barnes over Gilchrist? I know Barnes was once sitting atop the mock drafts, but other players have muscled in front of him. I’d take Gilchrist— he’s a year younger with more room to grow, he’s already built more solid than Barnes, he does everything (rebounds like a beast, passes well, blocks shots, steals, shoots threes), whereas Barnes seems a bit more unidimensional. He can score, but modern NBA SFs need to do a lot more than that in the age of LeBron.

If we wind up with a wing in this draft, I won’t complain if it’s Gilchrist. But I’d really prefer a big. My draft board:

Davis
Sullinger
Robinson
Drummond
Gilchrist

This will obviously change, and is based on college performance to this date, nothing more. If Drummond can string together some dominant games against NBA-caliber competition, he’ll climb quickly.

My only note is that if we didn’t need a big so badly, I might bump Gilchrist higher. He’s the big bodied wing defender this team has needed since Tayshaun started disappearing in the playoffs back in 2006.

I fully expect Davis to put up some ridiculous stat lines during March Madness that result in him pretty much locking up the #2/#3 overall.

I honestly think Gilchrist could end up passing Davis for top prospect out of Kentucky just because of his allure…ya know, long smooth strokes.

Now your thoughts.

Iron City Beer, man, Iron City Beer. What the fuck? I’m just outside Pittsburgh and felt obliged to grab some while doing a bit of work in my hotel, and seriously? What the fuck? Why was every six pack covered in this god-knows-what debris? Do they feel that they need to make their beer literally gritter in order to properly encapsulate the grittiness of their fair city? Iron City Beer, man. Iron City Beer.

I’m sorry, what were you saying?

Macklyns ceiling is redicoulusly low.

Given his low vertical, I bet he can’t even hit his head on it when he jumps.

and i have to say i´m absolutely unimpressed.. his only positive contributions were a couple of rebounds. the rest of his game is mediocre at best. he can´t create his own shot, he does not move well without the ball and he often looked frightened out there.. but hey he is long and smooth, i guess