NBA Draft Prospects Discussion

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:06 am

Hi guys

We had a few different groups so far to discuss college players, NCAA etc. I wanted to start a group to discuss all potential prospects in details. Given what a shit stain of a season it has been, the draft is one thing we have to look forward to. McD has shown to be half decent at drafting. This is essentially to talk about prospects rather than outlandish offseason trade scenarios. I assume there will be another thread made for mock drafts once our final draft position is solidified.

Plenty of good reading out there:

NBAdraft.net
Draftexpress.com
Hoopshype
Sbnation
http://www.sbnation.com/nba
there is also a good pdcast on Brightsideofthesun which talks in-depth not just about options at our positions but also have 2nd rounders with potential upside.
http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/phoenix-suns-podcasts

Potentially to give this some structure we could talk compare players at the same position and who we might be interested in and why e.g. Centres:

Potential 1st rounders:
Sabonis pf/C
Dragon Bender PF/C
Jakob Poeltl
Skal Labissiere PF/C
Henry Ellenson
Diamond Stone
Stephen Zimmerman
AJ Hammons
Damian Jones
Ivica Zubac

Potential 2nd rounders
Ante Zizic
Zhou Qi
Petr Cornelie
Thor Maker??? PF/C

Cap · Post by **Cap** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 9:59 am

Isn't Thon Maker projected to be a lottery pick? Is he realistically a target for a 2nd-round pick?

TOO · Post by **TOO** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:37 am

Maker needs a ton of work, he should be a 2nd rounder. Diamond Stone is another guy I wouldn't touch in the 1st, he is very Kendrick Perkins to me.

Sunsfan4life · Post by **Sunsfan4life** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:42 am

Unless Skal was there with the Cavs pick, I wouldn't want him either.

I'm getting close to locking in Buddy Hield as my 3rd ranked player behind Simmions and Ingram. His age is working against him and he isn't ideal for how the roster is currently constructive for the present and future (Book), but You do BPA when you draft this high I feel unless you're talking about 2 back to the basket centers or something.

Sunsfan4life · Post by **Sunsfan4life** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:42 am

TheOriginalOriginal wrote:Maker needs a ton of work, he should be a 2nd rounder. Diamond Stone is another guy I wouldn't touch in the 1st, he is very Kendrick Perkins to me.

Side note; How is Kendrick Perkins still in the league?

TOO · Post by **TOO** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 11:10 am

Sunsfan4life wrote:
TheOriginalOriginal wrote:Maker needs a ton of work, he should be a 2nd rounder. Diamond Stone is another guy I wouldn't touch in the 1st, he is very Kendrick Perkins to me.
Side note; How is Kendrick Perkins still in the league?

Veteran leadership.

Post by **Superbone** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 2:04 pm

TheOriginalOriginal wrote:Maker needs a ton of work, he should be a 2nd rounder. Diamond Stone is another guy I wouldn't touch in the 1st, he is very Kendrick Perkins to me.

If I didn't know better, I would think you're making up these names. Thon Maker, Diamond Stone, Dragan Bender? Come on!

3rdside · Post by **3rdside** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 2:16 pm

You're on the clock - you're tossing up between Maker and Ennis (take 2) at 18 and you choose....

Ennis?

Yeah nah.

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TOO · Post by **TOO** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 4:36 pm

3rdside wrote:You're on the clock - you're tossing up between Maker and Ennis (take 2) at 18 and you choose....

Ennis?

Yeah nah.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Point?

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:58 pm

Cap wrote:Isn't Thon Maker projected to be a lottery pick? Is he realistically a target for a 2nd-round pick?

Different articles seem to have him all over the board. He just looks like someone who could really use a year in college basketball. Yes highlights seems to show he has decent athleticism, solid shooting stroke and handles. There are somethings to work with there. But other than that its largely him doing transition dunks or put back dunks against smaller opposition.
As someone mentioned in another thread, his weaknesses video is quite horrify and it screams out for someone who needs further development. He looks incredibly Raw

He is going to have a make a huge jump from Canadian HS ball to the NBA. Potentially someone is pushing him to rush for a pay cheque. He clearly has upside. My fear is that he winds up going 2nd rounds, spends a lot of time in the D league and doesn't get the proper support to develop that he needs. A year in college and he should be a lock for high lottery.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 5:59 pm

Superbone wrote:
TheOriginalOriginal wrote:Maker needs a ton of work, he should be a 2nd rounder. Diamond Stone is another guy I wouldn't touch in the 1st, he is very Kendrick Perkins to me.
If I didn't know better, I would think you're making up these names. Thon Maker, Diamond Stone, Dragan Bender? Come on!

yeah a friend of mine thought I was full of shit after he asked me about the draft and I mentioned these names

OE32 · Post by **OE32** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:06 pm

No reason to take Maker over Skal. I think Thon goes second round and spends a lot of time in the D League.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 6:17 pm

Two prospects that haven't been talked about much on .net are Jakob Poeltl and Henry Ellenson.
Both seem projected early-mid lottery but seem to have quite limited upside. Can anyone who has watched them a bit more give me their thoughts on them?

pickle · Post by **pickle** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:27 pm

It feels like NBADraft.net is ... slowing down their operations. There hasn't been any player scouting reports on a lot of the top prospects.

Why is the list full of big men? No honorable mention for Denzel Valentine even?

Speaking of weird names, how come Tacko Fall hasn't been spoken of with interest from draft knowledgeable people? Is he really that far out or just an absolute albatross in the modern NBA?

I know that Hield played well on the big stage (other than that one Villanova game) but I'm not a huge fan. He's a fearless shooter, sure. But given that we'd been feasting on the likes of Bledsoe and Knight running a team, do we really want another guy who has trouble taking care of the ball on this team? Hield is a scorer with limitless range, but he also has questionable decision making (based on what I've seen) when the defense really shuts down his scoring options.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 7:55 pm

pickle wrote:It feels like NBADraft.net is ... slowing down their operations. There hasn't been any player scouting reports on a lot of the top prospects.

Why is the list full of big men? No honorable mention for Denzel Valentine even?

Speaking of weird names, how come Tacko Fall hasn't been spoken of with interest from draft knowledgeable people? Is he really that far out or just an absolute albatross in the modern NBA?

I know that Hield played well on the big stage (other than that one Villanova game) but I'm not a huge fan. He's a fearless shooter, sure. But given that we'd been feasting on the likes of Bledsoe and Knight running a team, do we really want another guy who has trouble taking care of the ball on this team? Hield is a scorer with limitless range, but he also has questionable decision making (based on what I've seen) when the defense really shuts down his scoring options.

Yeah I just wanted to see people's opinions on big men first. Tacko seems like he will be returning to college. Seemed to make some late season strides. Want to see a video of two 7'6 guys playing each other? Well here you go:

draftexpress seems a lot better for video these days than nbadraft.net

TOO · Post by **TOO** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:56 pm

Nbadraft.Net is pretty terrible now. No real reason to go anywhere but DX.

3rdside · Post by **3rdside** » Mon Apr 11, 2016 10:22 pm

TheOriginalOriginal wrote:
3rdside wrote:You're on the clock - you're tossing up between Maker and Ennis (take 2) at 18 and you choose....

Ennis?

Yeah nah.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Point?

How many 18 picks ever become anything? Maker is raw as hell but i'd still take him there, especially if we had to choose between him and Ennis again. Okay, so hindsight might be easy on that one but if it was me looking at the roster back then with dragic, Bledsoe, and IT, I'm fairly sure I'd still have taken Maker.

Ring_Wanted · Post by **Ring_Wanted** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 9:40 am

I've seen people knock Simmons because he has no jumpshot, but I don't really care. Monster handles for a PF, coordination and quickness so he blows by PFs, and if you put a smaller guy he can take him to the post. His passing skills while in motion is awesome so he doesn't even need to get to the rim to be dangerous. Then when he actually gets there he elevates effortlessly and dunks. And he rebounds, of course.

This guy would be absolutely perfect on our roster. Passing to a cutter like Warren, driving and kicking to Booker, feeding Len easy baskets.

Ingram has the shot and length, but am I the only one who thinks he is too slow? And for all the Durant comps, his ballhandling is pretty weak. Wouldn't take him #1.

Indy · Post by **Indy** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 9:50 am

Ring_Wanted wrote:I've seen people knock Simmons because he has no jumpshot, but I don't really care. Monster handles for a PF, coordination and quickness so he blows by PFs, and if you put a smaller guy he can take him to the post. His passing skills while in motion is awesome so he doesn't even need to get to the rim to be dangerous. Then when he actually gets there he elevates effortlessly and dunks. And he rebounds, of course.

This guy would be absolutely perfect on our roster. Passing to a cutter like Warren, driving and kicking to Booker, feeding Len easy baskets.

If that is his limitation, I don't understand the complaints. You aren't looking for him to be the next Curry/Klay from behind the arc, and you can teach a 15-18 foot jump shot pretty well. Look at Amare--that guy couldn't do anything well besides dunk, and he had great hands. That jump shot of his became automatic, in part because of practice, but also because everyone had to worry he was going to go right around them and dunk. So they gave him space.

Ring_Wanted · Post by **Ring_Wanted** » Tue Apr 12, 2016 11:34 am

There are other issues, and they say playing at LSU was one of them, but I don't know much more. Just going by the footage I've seen.

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