6 things to note

Love this…….Keep us updated until the draft comes along

 I really want Faried to become the closest thing to Rodman, I miss Rodman

I hope the Knicks take Selby or Biyombo.

"I hope the Knicks take Selby"

The question is will he get burn.

Mostly agree, although I really don’t like Selby. I don’t think there was a worse decision-maker in college basketball last year. DX pointed out that he finished last in just about every adjusted offensive category and he’ll never be a very good distributor. From what I can tell he’s not a high character guy either and needed at least another year in school. Ellis was a born scorer, and unlike Selby, he knows his limits. Ellis can shoot the three ball but knows that he’s much more efficient attacking the basket and taking nice mid rangers he’s comfortable with. Selby chucked ridiculous three after ridiculous three last year, and when you come into the nba at Selby’s age, you don’t just start attacking the basket against much bigger, better, physical players; from what I can tell, he’ll just want to keep shooting. 

Charlotte definitely needs a scorer. If I were them I would seriously consider Jordan Hamilton at 9, he’s an extremely polished, NBA-ready scorer who would form a nice, big wing tandem with Stephen Jackson. 

I wouldn’t be surprised if the Rockets took Biyombo or reached for Vucevic.

Just because the Wizards signed Young to a qualifying offer doesn’t mean they’ll definitely re-sign him; it means they intend to, but Young is a tall, ever-improving SG and some team might come out of nowhere and make a big offer. The wizards like him, but when you consider that the Wizards are a horrible defensive team and someone might throw $8M/yr at Young, I think they’ll still keep looking at wings at 18. 

Anybody else think the Wizards take Marshon Brooks at 18?  He seems like the perfect replacement for Nick Young.

1) The Wizards extended a qualifying offer to Nick Young so it can be assumed that the Wizards will probably not be targeting a 2 guard at 18…

I disagree because tendering Young a qualifying offer doesn’t mean that he is going to be their long-term starter. Now, part of this is that I am not a big fan of a player who takes 15 shots per game also averaging all of 1 assist. I don’t think a team can win with those guys, and they tend to only get minutes on really bad teams but that is just me. It is more based off Washington working out Alec Burks, Austin Freeman, Charles Jenkins, Darrion Pellum, Demonte Harper, E’Twaun Moore, Gilbert Brown, Jake Kelly, Josh Selby, Justin Hurtt, Klay Thompson, Leroy Nobles, Malcolm Lee, Marshon Brooks, Nolan Smith, Randy Culpepper, Ravern Johnson, Travis Leslie, and Tyler Honeycutt I think that they are coming out of the draft with a 2 guard whether it is at #18 or #34.

2) Charlotte needs to avoid adding foreign bigs in this draft for the simple fact that they have a bigger learning curve than American players and last time I checked, the Bobcats were 29th in the league in scoring last year. They need to add players who can come in and perform right away.

There have been plenty of international players who have come in and contributed right away. I think Jan Vesely is someone who can probably step in and play 20-30 minutes next year for whoever drafts him. I wouldn’t make that same statement about Valanciunas, Motiejunas, or Biyombo, but not because they are international. The well-noted flaws in their games have nothing to with where they are from.

3) Houston targeting Motiejunas is a rumor I just heard. However, they have a glaring need at the 5 spot and they drafted a power forward last year (Patrick Patterson). It doesn’t make much sense to me… I would suggest spending the 14th pick on Biyombo.

Picking Biyombo doesn’t fill a need at the 5 either. They are probably going to bring back Yao and Hayes while trying to develop Hill and Thabeet. Plus, Brad Miller should be healthy by mid-season, which means he will be there shortly after Yao’s next season-ending injury. Adding another developmental project doesn’t really help them.

4) I really worry about Kenneth Faried. I know he was a great college rebounder but being 6’7” 225 lbs, it’s going to be tough for him to be effective crashing the boards in the NBA. Also, his offensive abilities are still unacceptably poor.

He is going to be a backup power forward. He works too hard to fall out of the league, but isn’t good enough to be anything more than a backup. The fact of the matter is he doesn’t break NCAA rebounding records if he was at Kansas and spent his college career sharing that load with the Morris twins, Cole Aldrich, Thomas Robinson, Darrell Arthur, Darnell Jackson, and Sasha Kaun.

5) I think teams will really wish they drafted Josh Selby. He has the natural skill set to help a team out right away and the potential, in a few years, to be as potent on offense as Monta Ellis.

When has a player who stunk to the degree Josh Selby stunk (37 percent shooter, high turnover rate, showed no ability to run the point, loses minutes to the likes of Brady Morningstar and Tyrel Reed, and had a bad attitude throughout the season) has ever helped an NBA team right away? The NCAA is a higher level of basketball than AAU. Just because someone was a prep legend, it doesn’t mean that being bad in college is something to be ignored. Guys like Russell Westbrook and Jrue Holiday weren’t bad in college, they were just not featured in the offense. They weren’t inefficient and turnover prone.

6) This year’s Dionte Christmas (guy that we all thought was going to be a top 40 pick but didnt get selected): Andrew Goudelock

I’ll push my chips in with Jereme Richmond. The guy has missed scheduled workouts with the (6/6) Nets, Thunder (6/1), and Trail Blazers (6/16). I also tend to believe Cory Joseph will go undrafted, but there are far fewer reasons for teams to stay away from him.

i think selby had a bad run with kansas because of his suspension and then integrating his skills into an offensive system he didnt know very well… i think he’ll have great value wherever he is selected..

The comparison by Taylor to Monta Ellis is a good one. Except Ellis is a whole lot faster with the ball and can get to the lane and finish. Also remember where Ellis was drafted. 2nd round. Which at the time was right when he came out of high school, as a small shooting guard. Nobody expected Ellis to become the elite scorer he is today.

If Selby gets drafted in the 2nd round he would be a steal and teams would have to risk very little on him, since he is a undersize shooting guard.

Josh Selby has never been the type to get separation off the dribble against NBA caliber athletes like Ellis could. Even in HS. He was a shot maker, sure, and he’s always been a pretty good athlete, fine. But he doesn’t have the ability to free himself of his man off the dribble. The difference was in HS, he was going up against either HS seniors in All-Star/AAU settings, or against guys who weren’t nearly as good. It was exposed in college, and I still see it in the draft workouts I watch. Josh Selby couldn’t even really get free of Jacob Pullen in the workouts I saw, for example, and really only made himself look marginally better because he simply has the raw shot making instincts to make a few bad shots. Monta Ellis isn’t going to struggle to get separation off the dribble against Jacob Pullen people. His shot making skills are flashed in these settings just as much as they were at KU, but all of a sudden people think he’s going to be Monta Ellis, just because he’s playing good in workouts? BS! Just because he was hyped up in HS, doesn’t mean you can toss aside just how much he struggled at KU. He’s definitely got some work to do. He’s no Monta Ellis.

I have to strongly disagree with what is being said about Kenneth Faried. Does anyone remember a guy out of Louisanna Tech, that was 6’6 1/2, led the nation in rebounding, but was overlooked by everybody and taken late in the 2nd round by the Utah Jazz named Paul Milsap? How did his game translate to the NBA? I would’ve thought the NCAA tournament got rid of the big school bias but I guess it exists pretty strongly still. Faried grabbed boards like that in college, and with his athleticism he can sure as heck do it in the NBA.

"I have to strongly disagree with what is being said about Kenneth Faried. Does anyone remember a guy out of Louisanna Tech, that was 6’6 1/2, led the nation in rebounding, but was overlooked by everybody and taken late in the 2nd round by the Utah Jazz named Paul Milsap? How did his game translate to the NBA? I would’ve thought the NCAA tournament got rid of the big school bias but I guess it exists pretty strongly still. Faried grabbed boards like that in college, and with his athleticism he can sure as heck do it in the NBA."

He’s not Paul Milsap. They don’t even play the same. Faried isn’t as good offensively as Milsap is, and he’s not nearly as big. He honestly doesn’t even have Milsap’s face-up skills. He’s a hustle player who rebounds, nothing more.

You obviously did not watch Milsap play in college. I watched him play a handful of times from courtside. They were not much different Milsap has worked hard to develop his skills and he was a hustle player as well. Didn’t really have a lot of moves with the ball. Faried can continue to develop as well being the beast that he is.

"You obviously did not watch Milsap play in college. I watched him play a handful of times from courtside. They were not much different Milsap has worked hard to develop his skills and he was a hustle player as well. Didn’t really have a lot of moves with the ball. Faried can continue to develop as well being the beast that he is."

So you sitting courtside makes Milsap play a similar game to Faried? I don’t care if you sat beside him on a bus ride to an away game, he’s still not as big as Paul Milsap or the player Milsap was offensively. Faried is an energetic hustler, Milsap is a big body who had a big wingspan to make up for a lack of height. Milsap also was a better low post scorer than Faried in college. Faried is catch the ball, dunk the ball on offense. Not much shooting touch and not much in the way of the frame to seal PF’s down low like Milsap. There isn’t a comparison between the 2.

It makes the fact that I watched him when you didn’t even know who he was at that point. Go read the scouting reports on him coming out of college or as a rookie with the jazz. How does the nation’s leading rebounder 3 years in a row fall to 47th in the draft? Because he is shorter than 6’7,  from a tiny school, and did not have a polished game. He scored of hustling and moving without the ball. He was known a a hustler/defender/rebounder early on with the jazz. Millsap was not a good shooter either; 62 percent from the free throw line his last year of college as well..