air gordon wrote:Management did a fine job this year. Minus the Felecio deal, the moves they made were solid.
Yeah we disagree on that, especially the Butler deal, but let's move on...
air gordon wrote:Valentine doubled his production this year and is a good 3pt shooter on high volume. Even added a floater to his game. Portis may be a punk but he has become a reliable scorer off the bench. It was a roller coaster ride for Niko. thanks to the heavens it’s over.
Rollercoaster ride for Niko - I blame Hoiberg for that. He's been inconsistent since Hoiberg took over when he really should've fitted right into his system. That's coaching. He went on a roll before we traded him (another trade they botched, I might add), and he's continued that for New Orleans right into the playoffs where he was their third best player behind Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday. Just think about that, then compare him with Portis. 3rd best player a playoff team that made the Western Conference second round as opposed to an undisciplined punk who's a bad teammate and not as good of a basketball player. I know who I'd want more on the roster...
Valentine's career high point came when he won Summer League MVP. He'll never be more than a bench warmer on a playoff contender, maybe come off the bench for 5-10 minutes to shoot a few shots to change the flow of the game, that's about it...doubling your production sounds better than it is when its from 5 to 10 ppg, especially when he shot twice as many shots as JB, Wade, Rondo etc all left the team.
air gordon wrote:Those guys may not have all star appearances in their future but this team needs their own guys to develop. They’ll never get out of the basement if they continue to miss on draft picks/not accumulate assets. Obviously a lot riding on the return from the Butler trade and the upcoming draft pick as well.
I completely understand the need to having role players on the roster, but right now what this team needs is legit stars to build from as a foundation after shipping out All-Star and All-NBA player Jimmy Butler, and it doesn't help that the best role player vet who could've been a mentor to these young ones was shipped out for Cam fucking Payne.
air gordon wrote:I’m not sure how you’ve already come to a conclusion these prospects are deadbeats. Perhaps you’re merely just overstating their weaknesses (some incorrectly says the michigan native) listed on websites (lol). Whoever they get @7 is not going to be polished/haven't been playing professional since they were in diapers like Doncic
I'm not rating them badly because they haven't been pros, I'm rating them badly because they aren't ready in the NBA and should be staying a few more years in college to develop instead of coming in and being absolute shit, and we need players who can play.
I'm stating their weaknesses that I saw on tape, not reading them on websites. If you can't watch their game footage and see the same weaknesses then we really have nothing to talk about. You don't even need to look at his numbers to see that Jaren Jackson is skinny as fuck and gets pushed around in games against fellow college players, how do you think he'll do against grown men? Porter Jr on the other hand only played what? 3 games due to his back injury? and looked really bad in all of those games. With our dodgy medical staff do you think it's wise to draft him based on the fact that he's coming off a serious injury and there might be long term repercussions? That alone should strike him off the list.
benji wrote:He averaged 6 rebounds a game, playing 22 minutes, and it was still only one rebound off the team leaders. Other than Ward he was probably the most consistent offensive rebounder on the team. He was eighth in the Big Ten in rebounding percentage.
and Michael Beasley averaged 12.4 rebounds a game with 4 offensive boards. Didn't turn out to be much of a rebounder in the NBA did he? Of course, not saying he's going to be a Beasley, but with that frame he's not going to get more than 6 rebounds a game in the NBA playing out of position at center, which he will if he plays alongside Lauri. We need something better than Robin Lopez, not worse.
benji wrote:Did I mention that he's still 18?!? He's younger than the HSer in the Draft!
That's not really a concern for me, if he's not a 28 year old pretending to be 18 i really don't care about age. In fact, being that young means his entire rookie contract will be spent on learning how to play basketball, which will really suck for us if we take him and suffer a few more years of mediocrity before he may or may not turn out good.
Then again, we have a college coach pretending he can coach the NBA, so maybe more college players instead of NBA players will get him more comfortable.
benji wrote:Playing out of control is like the last thing you could call him, if anything he was often too concessionary to the veterans who were worse.
17.4 turnover percentage and 23.5 usage rate tells me a different story. Obviously I haven't seen all of his games but from the few clips that I have found of him playing his turnovers come when he's driving wildly into the paint, making moves before he thinks about what he's doing. Not showing good basketball IQ is a no-no for me.
I agree he's a good shot blocker and has potential but he's still undisciplined on defense, committing a lot of cheap fouls. Like I said, i reckon he's comparable with Thon Maker. He'll be a good fit in Memphis due to them already having a legit center in Gasol. Not with us when we have a lightweight stretch 4 in Lauri.
Wendell looks like a big boy, I'm wary of Duke products but I haven't done any homework on him so I'll pass on commenting.