NBA draft discussion thread

[Aces McGee]

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Who cares about Gomes? He's a career 8th man. Essentially irrelevant.


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Hey now. There's no reason to turn this thread ugly.

The Garnett deal involving Jefferson is terrible for the Celtics.

I personally think Noah isn't going to give whoever drafts him everything they bargain for. I think he benefitted a ton playing alongside Horford. Sure, in the pros, if he went to, say, the Celtics, he'd be playing alongside Jefferson and would benefit somewhat from that, but the NBA isn't the SEC. Noah's effectiveness offensively was in part due to simply being a quickish 6'11" and being the secondary concern of the opposition's interior defense. The quality, size, and most importantly strength of that second defender goes way up in the NBA. Also, he's not like Conley or Brewer where you think that he might be able to develop a shot. His mechanics are so terrible that he's never going to have any sort of offensive arsenal outside like six feet.

I actually think he's overrated defensively, too; he wanders unnecessarily and that leaves him out of position (and wastes energy, to boot).

Despite all of this, I do think he's a decent fit for the Celtics, but Clark is right: I hate the idea of spending the 5 on him.

Part of me wants to take Brewer, just because he's probably going to be the best player available and therefore will have the most value. Anyone who reads my posts on here knows I don't think the kid can shoot, and that worries me some: adding him to a backcourt/wing rotation that already includes Rajon Rondo and Tony Allen is going to limit the combos we can put out on the floor.

I am high on Conley, but I don't think he's such a difference-maker that we should take him when I think he duplicates a lot of what Rondo gives us.

I loved watching Jeff Green at Georgetown, but I don't think his game translates all that well to the NBA.

That leaves me with Yi, who I know almost nothing about. Looking back over these comments I've just made, that's probably why I like Yi: I don't know enough to point to a flaw he has that makes him a bad pick for us. That's probably not a great reason to pick him, though, huh?

-McGee

[SomethingClever]

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I actually think he's fairly well-built, more so than Durant.

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He's 6'8" 185. I was surprised to read that.

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Yikes, that's 7 inches more than me... and only 7 more pounds.

He seriously looks like a twig in person, but he is disgustingly athletic. I think he'll be fine.

[Aces McGee]

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it's stuff like that which makes me wonder why Chad Ford has a job.

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His current mock draft has Brandan Wright out of the top 5. Is this really a possibility? If Wright fell to us at 5, I'd obviously want him.

-McGee

[ThePoppinE]

Speaking of Afllalo, I think he'll be a great steal for any team in the 2nd round.

[MEbenhoe]

What is the knock on Aaron Gray that he is rated so low? Not that I think he should be a lottery pick, but I would've thought he would've been more like a late 1st rounder.

[DCWildcat]

I guess they think he's too much of a plodder. Fwiw, I agree with you on the late 2nd round thing. I think there's a good chance he ends up being better than the other 7 foot white guy, Jason Smith.

[DCWildcat]

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Which site generally has the most accurate mock draft?

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Outside of the uncommon but absurdly bad reviews, nbadraft.net is slightly better than draftexpress. com. While the latter has more and harder working contributors (nbadraft feels like it's written by a bunch of slackers), the former's scouts are infinitely more knowledgeable about what NBA teams really desire and need, and so is much more accurate.

Anything coming from ESPN is horrible.

[DCWildcat]

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GKA is Rondo really better than Conley?

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I watched every collegiate game of Rondo's but haven't seen any of his NBA games, and saw maybe 5 of Conley's. Both are insanely fast, and Conley's shot is light years ahead. However, Rondo's a better finisher, is significantly longer, and has bigger hands (better handles, more steals). But his jumper is so much worse that it's hard to say he'll be better long term.

Also, freshman rondo >>>>>>>> sophomore rondo. His NBA play seems more reflective of the former, so I wouldn't value his 2005-2006 play at UK very much for judging his long-term potential.

[hanster]

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Conley's shot is light years ahead.

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Are we watching the same Conley? I don't recall seeing him hitting a shot from the outside.

BTW I agree with nbadraft > draftexpress. However I think aything beyond the lottery picks are basically crapshoot trying to project, with Balkman and Marcus Williams from last year.

[DCWildcat]

It's not so much that Conley's jumper is particularly good, more that Rondo's is just so bad. Conley has decent form and showed some good improvement in his one season in college, while Rondo in two years of college and one in the NBA, has not.