NBA Draft 2020

[ShelC]

I'm still trying to figure out if I like Kira. I don't think he's a natural lead guard, but more of a scoring guard who gets assists from scoring opportunities. Physically he reminds me of Fox but he's not the passer Fox is. If we have Book creating and running some point, it's not a huge deal. Lewis would add some nice downhill slashing to the backcourt and his 3pt shot looks good now even at a young age.

[Split T]

You never can be sure about draft prospects, but Kira is very fast, good ball handler, good passer, and a good shooter. He’s gonna have to get creative finishing around the rim. He’s small and not a vertical athlete. Taking a page out of Tony Parker’s playbook would be helpful for him. He’s kinda like an Ish Smith that can shoot. There’s a lot of Collin Sexton comps out there, and I do see that a bit, but I think Kira is a more natural pg than Sexton.

[Drewsprocket]

I just don’t see a point Book as a good idea. Book has shown to be his best spending his energy getting buckets in a variety of ways - off screens, iso, on the break, etc. Adding lead ball handler and playmaker to that list again leaves him exhausted, vulnerable to injury, less efficient, and a lot more guard-able. Besides, outfitting him as a James Harden makes for a less watchable product to buy into. We saw this year what he’s like with a pass-first PG and I hope there’s no going back. Perhaps there’s room for a slightly less pass-first PG than Rubio who can hang more points and create more shots for himself.
Edit: if they do go for a PG, He needs to have capacity as a good pass first PG AND be able to knock down the 3 ball better than Rubio.

[Split T]

Rubio is on the extreme side of pass first. We don’t need someone to be that pass-first. The problem is we just didn’t have an nba level pg next to Booker until Rubio. At least after Bledsoe left. Did they have 2 years together? Well 1.5 as Bled sat out the last half of his last season here.

And drafting a pg doesn’t mean we’re getting rid of Rubio. I don’t think any of the pg’s in this class are ready to start day 1. They’d come off the bench and learn from Rubio, or whoever we have at the position. I think both Lewis and Terry, Lewis especially, have the lead guard skills to allow Booker to play off ball in the future. They also have the off ball skills to let Booker run the offense at times.

[Cap]

Edit: if they do go for a PG, He needs to have capacity as a good pass first PG AND be able to knock down the 3 ball better than Rubio.

Threebio shot a perfectly respectable .361 from three this season. IIRC, that consists of a very high percentage on catch-and-shoots and a very low percentage on pull-ups.

[ShelC]

I think what we've seen from Monty's offense and Jones' vision is that they want heady bball players who are legit triple threats and can pass and move, with the ability to score in various ways - spotting up, cutting and finishing, some dribble drive, etc. They're not looking for guys who pound the ball looking for their own offense, slashers who can't shoot, or guys who can only play defense and are liabilities on O. Even tho Rubio is a high usage PG handling the ball, he can still pass and cut, spot up and shoot and uses his dribbling to set up others. He's not a pound the ball for 14 seconds ISO guy. None of our guys really are. So a heady, athletic combo guard who doesn't need the ball to be effective is ideal.

[O_Gardino]

Yeah, I think we need a legit guard off the bench and I think Kira is a huge step up from Carter. Kira is certainly not an exceptional passer, but he's not garbage. He could grow into an FVV or Tony Parker level passer. And all I would ask of him is to be better than Carter, Tyler Johnson, Okobo, and Ty Jerome were last year. He doesn't have to win the starting job for 2 more years.

[ShelC]

Carter still fills a role tho as sparkplug defender and 3pt shooter. If we keep Carter and use him in that kind of role, we should be that much better. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. I wouldn't let Carter go just because we draft a PG but I also wouldn't not draft a PG because we have Carter.

Let's also not forget about Payne, who played extremely well in the bubble and could be that combo guard we're looking for. Similar to Carter tho, we kind of don't know where he'll net out. Is he a flash in the pan or a has he turned the corner as a pro and fallen into our laps as a future piece?

[Drewsprocket]

Edit: if they do go for a PG, He needs to have capacity as a good pass first PG AND be able to knock down the 3 ball better than Rubio.

Threebio shot a perfectly respectable .361 from three this season. IIRC, that consists of a very high percentage on catch-and-shoots and a very low percentage on pull-ups.

Totally agree. If only we could get more out of him. It always felt like half his 3’s were looks other teams dared him to take. I wonder what it would be like if our pg demanded other team’s coverage?
I just read the ringer article on Terry. Sounds like he’d be perfect at 10.

[O_Gardino]

Carter still fills a role tho as sparkplug defender and 3pt shooter. If we keep Carter and use him in that kind of role, we should be that much better. It doesn't have to be an either/or situation. I wouldn't let Carter go just because we draft a PG but I also wouldn't not draft a PG because we have Carter.

Let's also not forget about Payne, who played extremely well in the bubble and could be that combo guard we're looking for. Similar to Carter tho, we kind of don't know where he'll net out. Is he a flash in the pan or a has he turned the corner as a pro and fallen into our laps as a future piece?

I'd keep them both to use situationally. There are plenty of minutes for a 4th guard every night, especially if we are talking about a rookie taking the 3rd slot. I would love for Payne to continue to produce for us and for Carter to keep setting the tone on D.

[Split T]

After those three, the second tier includes Deni Avdija, Obi Toppin, Isaac Okoro, Tyrese Haliburton, Onyeka Okongwu and Patrick Williams. Those players appear likely to make up picks Nos. 4-9 in some order.

From ESPN’s Jonathan Givony on what he’s hearing from execs. Seems crazy to me, but if Killian drops to 10, you’ve got to take him I think.

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/story/ ... es-lottery

[ShelC]

I feel like Okoro is going to be the "he's the next Kawhi" prospect who doesn't even come close.

[Split T]

Ya a lot of people have been pretty high on Okoro...I’ve just never gotten excited about him. I just don’t want to bet on a guy that needs to learn to shoot still. People bring up Kawhi or Jaylen Brown, I think Justise Winslow is more likely.

[O_Gardino]

I feel like Patrick Williams in the top 10 would have been controversial in February, but we've had time to think about the flaws of the guards in this draft and he's a 4 with a high floor.

[Split T]

I like Patrick, he’s got some Draymond lite potential, but a lot of it is still just potential. He didn’t play much and wasn’t asked to do much at FSU this year. He’s got good size though and has flashed some promising skills with the ball. Looks like he’ll defend. I don’t see star potential, but could be molded into a 3rd piece around a couple stars.

I wonder if the Warriors would be interested if they traded down. I like him better than the other big wings/combo forwards like Avdija and Okoro

[ShelC]

[Cap]

Edit: if they do go for a PG, He needs to have capacity as a good pass first PG AND be able to knock down the 3 ball better than Rubio.

Threebio shot a perfectly respectable .361 from three this season. IIRC, that consists of a very high percentage on catch-and-shoots and a very low percentage on pull-ups.

Totally agree. If only we could get more out of him. It always felt like half his 3’s were looks other teams dared him to take. I wonder what it would be like if our pg demanded other team’s coverage?
I just read the ringer article on Terry. Sounds like he’d be perfect at 10.

Yeah, .410 on c&s, .208 on pu. https://www.nba.com/stats/player/201937/shots-dash/

[Vladimir_Taltos]

Did a quick scan of the top ranked Mocks and the names coming up...Killian, Williams, Terry...will be interesting to see who.

VT

[Split T]

Saw another mock today with Killian dropping to 10. ESPN is releasing a new mock tomorrow that will also have Killian available at 10. I didn’t think there was any chance he’d make it to us, but he’s my pick if he’s there. I thought he’d go closer to 1 than 10.

[ShelC]

We should definitely have some choice of Hayes, Haliburton, Lewis, Vassell not to mention others like Terry, Bane, Nesmith. The year more than most others I don't think anyone has a read on who goes where. The Knicks and Pistons seem to be wild cards and could go with PGs. Washington could go guard/wing if there aren't any bigs.