Now that the lottery is done, mock draft season is officially underway. Here’s Chad Ford’s first. The highlights: Michael Beasley to the Bulls at No. 1, Chris Douglas-Roberts to the Pistons at No. 29. (Update: whoops, I forgot the link the first time)
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cdr at 29 would be fantastic. i’d be surprised if he were there though.
Yeah, echoing what JD says, in the Game Thread last night Jim mentioned this Ford prediction and Forty said mine and JD’s words for us, as is “not gonna happen”. Personally, I’m salivating over DeVon Hardin, especially considering Joe is rumored to have promised him at #27 had he come out last year. Nothing would make me happier than Joe going with Afflalo in that draft and Hardin in this one.
i remember being pretty shocked by the afflalo pick last year. now, with perspective, it looks like genius. it reminds me of the eagles having troy vincent, brian dawkins and bobby taylor coming off of pro bowl seasons and fat andy reid drafting corner, safety and corner with their 1st three picks in the draft. it’s seeing the play on the field before it develops. luckily for joe, i think we’re still in best player available position instead of drafting for need.
that said, i’d prefer a front court player, please. so if this hardin character is already on joe d’s radar, i’m all for it.
JD: Take a look at this Draft Express profile and tell me if you agree with my assertion that Hardin’s strengths (including all indications pointing to him being of good character) are things we value and that his weaknesses aren’t particularly highly valued traits on the Pistons:
http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/DeVon-Hardin-225/
DX has him going #30 to Boston. Something tells me Joe wouldn’t let Boston take him if he was ready to take him last season. It might be wishful thinking though, because I really don’t want us drafting Hickson as DX suggests. At least I could take solace in the fact that if Hardin went to Boston they’d be admitting Perk sucks. I really think Hardin is the perfect fit for us in this draft (in terms of position “need”, skill set, and current “draft value”). There are only a small handful of guys I’m even interested in at all for that pick if Hardin is off the board and I’m making the call (Robin Lopez, Nikola Pekovic, Hardin’s Cal teammate Ryan Anderson, Bill Walker and D.J. White).
PS: Walker and Anderson are the only ones that intrigue me w/o an agent. They can still withdraw up until June 16th. Oh and, add Brandon Rush to my “interested in” list (he has an agent) if he somehow fell to us (I suppose it’s possible).
I live in the Bay Area and have seen Hardin play a few times. While I can’t disagree with the strengths and weaknesses listed for Hardin on DE, I would say that the weaknesses are far more pronounced than the strengths and I hope he doesn’t end up as a Piston.
He’s a good rebounder and a good shot blocker, but seems to be injury-prone, certainly appears to drift through large portions of games and has no real offensive skills. Looking at the current roster we already have a few players that have the same skill set who appear to be much harder workers than Hardin is. I didn’t really see an iota of offensive improvement from last year to this year and that was after (I’m assuming here bc of his defensive and rebounding skills) he heard he needed to work on that from scouts last year.
Robin Lopez would be an absolute steal for the Pistons, but I don’t see how he will last that long. I actually like Robin better than Brooke because he can actually pass the ball out of the post (Brooke’s next pass out of a post double will be his first and it’s not exactly like he’s adept at scoring over them), is a much better defender than Brooke and shows glimmers of the same offensive game. I really do believe he wasn’t as assertive on the offensive end because he was defering to Brooke.
All that being said, last round we saw the all-NBA first team center throw shots off the backboard when he had to dribble and shoot and this was when he was being covered man-to-man. My point being, I see these big guys going a bit quicker than projected when we get to June.
I’m still holding out hopes for Kyle Weaver. I don’t follow draft projections all that closely, but about a month ago, he was falling in the DP’s range on nbadraft.net. He is a true Piston and since I can’t imagine Jarvis Hayes will be returning next year, he could fill that role as well as the third two man behind AA. He’s long, athletic, good ball-handler, gets to the basket, unselfish to a fault and an absolute lockdown defender.
I agree LB — Brandon Rush could be a good pick if he’s still on the board, which I think is fairly doubtful.
SMPLRoscoe: I’ve seen Kyle Weaver going 31st to 46th and everywhere in between. A LOT can happen in the next month that change draft status, but he should still be there at #29, I imagine. I’m not interested in a 3rd 2 myself, I’m more interested in a 2nd 3 or 5. Joe Alexander won’t survive the lottery, but he’s my draft sleeper, as much as it pains me to agree with the clearly over-matched draft prophecies of Chad Ford I love Alexander. Do you have any thoughts on Ryan Anderson assuming he stays in the draft seeing as he’s a Cal Bear as well?
Ryan Anderson when I have seen him is either really, really good or really, really bad and it seems like he was only really good against the really bad teams. I’m surprised with that skill set he would be a second rounder, but I also would have serious concerns about him panning out in the NBA.
The reason I like Weaver is because he can cover three positions. Kind of fits in that Tayshaun, Amir mold.
As a Marquette man I saw plenty of Joe Alexander and it seemed like he was just beginning to realize his potential and put all those skills together that he had shown in flashes throughout the season just in time for the Big East Tournament. I agree that he is on his way to a big payday and a strong pro career. I think Huggy Bear really helped him out a ton this year.
J: Draft boards across the internet are crazy inconsistent. I remember at least one of them that had been updated today (to reflect the Bulls @ #1) had Rush going to us (the most common one I see is Dorsey to us). I think Rush will go in the early twenties, but you never know, a bad pre-draft camp (that’s not terribly reflective of much in my mind) could give some teams cold feet I suppose but it may jut be wishful thinking.
Afflalo was a good pick UNLESS Tiago Splitter turns out to be the 7-ft tall banger that would’ve perfectly complimented the games of Amir Johnson and Jason Maxiell.
I only say this because so many of us thought Detroit would take Tiago.
Ironically, two other players the Pistons were strongly considering were Big Baby and Gabe Pruitt (Amir’s high school teammate) who both went to Boston.
i thought it’d be tiago once he started sliding.
we’ll have to pay attention next week to the orlando camp, because i think every guy we’ve mentioned in this thread is expected to participate. hopefully it won’t be the only thing we’re paying attention to by the end of the week.
JD: Solid words of wisdom.
QD: I don’t think Splitter is particularly “banger” strong or as proficient a rebounder as I would have hoped. I think it’s more finesse for him. That being said, I’m not sure it wouldn’t merit taking him over Afflalo if I had my druthers, but I don’t look for us to feel stupid about the pick once Splitter comes over. I think leaving Splitter on the board to the Spurs has no chance of hurting as bad as the Phoenix Suns were when they realized that leaving us Tayshaun Prince while they gobbled up Casey Jacobsen in 2002 wasn’t exactly the most prudent of maneuvers.