Predict the steal of the draft

[cragganmor]

the bulk of these players will go undrafted, so if any one of them makes a roster, then they are a steal. expecting that you will find a future all-star from the ranks of the pit is just not realistic, extremely slim odds.

[cragganmor]

watched a workout vid of robert upshaw, he's kind of intriguing, he has great height and length (7' and 7'5"), was the ncaa leading shotblocker until his release from uw. looks like he's been working on his strength and on his perimeter game, hits a pair of 3's. he's still too radioactive for the 1st round, but might be worth taking a flyer with a 2nd round pick.

rakeem christmas had a pretty good showing at the nba combine; in both days of the 5-on-5, he played really well dropping 20 on day 1, 19 pts on day 2, while showing a reliable midrange j. he measures out pretty well for the pro game, at just under 6'10" and a 7'5" wingspan. he still looks a bit lanky, could add more muscle, but may have played his way into the 1st round.

[thewatcher]

Christmas ??? Holy Christmas!!!

[cragganmor]

rakeem christmas and justice winslow have the best pun potential of the draft

[cragganmor]

jordan mickey growing on me. at 6'8" he's undersized to play c in a traditional nba set but as gsw has shown, playing a very long and mobile guy at 6'7" like draymond green can be pretty good in a small ball setting; his 7'3" wingspan and 37" max vert will let him play much bigger. he was pegged pretty much at the 5 playing for lsu, but he may have a future in the nba as a kawahi leonard type if his skills can catch up to his tools. he definitely has the toughness and defensive mindset, the lateral quicks to guard 2-4's and maybe even 5's, he covers the p&r very well, too.

[BXGuy]

I agree about Mickey. Him and Martin will be good.

[nazrmohamed]

jordan mickey growing on me. at 6'8" he's undersized to play c in a traditional nba set but as gsw has shown, playing a very long and mobile guy at 6'7" like draymond green can be pretty good in a small ball setting; his 7'3" wingspan and 37" max vert will let him play much bigger. he was pegged pretty much at the 5 playing for lsu, but he may have a future in the nba as a kawahi leonard type if his skills can catch up to his tools. he definitely has the toughness and defensive mindset, the lateral quicks to guard 2-4's and maybe even 5's, he covers the p&r very well, too.

I just cant do a 6'8 C and Im not gonna lie, I don't know anything about Mickey so yeah Im discriminating. But my mind cant fathom it. Green does that at PF where Im far more flexible when it comes to size. A player Ive been quietly interested for instance is Montrezl Harrell. He could be anything from Faried to Quincy Acy though. Thats the risk you take with undersized players.

I guess off the bench as an energy guy your 6'8 C might work but there are alot of 6'10 traditional PFs id rather do that with instead.

[cragganmor]

montrezl is more athletic than mickey but really raw, hasn't shown any offensive polish at 21, jm is 20 and showed a consistent j at the 2 days of the 5-on-5 at the chicago draft combine. both guys are not good passers, but jm seems to have more offensive upside while having a strong defensive efficiency rating, on par with montrezl.

6'8" with freakish length is working pretty well for a bunch of guys. the refs seem to be allowing smaller, faster, very long defenders to get into the chest of the ballhandler w/o a whistle and the smaller defenders are much better at covering the p&r or closing out shooters on the perimeter. he might not be a starter, but i'd settle for having a good rotation player that anchors the d. a strong motor always gets my vote, always easier for the 6'8" to bring high energy over a 7 footer.

[KnicksFanInSouthFL]

jordan mickey growing on me. at 6'8" he's undersized to play c in a traditional nba set but as gsw has shown, playing a very long and mobile guy at 6'7" like draymond green can be pretty good in a small ball setting; his 7'3" wingspan and 37" max vert will let him play much bigger. he was pegged pretty much at the 5 playing for lsu, but he may have a future in the nba as a kawahi leonard type if his skills can catch up to his tools. he definitely has the toughness and defensive mindset, the lateral quicks to guard 2-4's and maybe even 5's, he covers the p&r very well, too.

First you try to steal thewatcher's pick of Rakeem Christmas and now you're tryna muscle in on my Jordan Mickey pick, too?

Stick to ya guns and stay true to ya Portsmouth Invitational guys.



Now, back to these predictions...

[cragganmor]

I guess you own all of those players because you mentioned them first? You're better than that 3rd grade mentality, kfisfl, thinking in binary again. I guess there's no room in your world for other people to actually agree with you, even if only rarely

[Don Che]

Cragg ...Russell or Mudiay...who would you pick? If you would take someone out of the top 4 instead..who would it be?

[cragganmor]

Cragg ...Russell or Mudiay...who would you pick? If you would take someone out of the top 4 instead..who would it be?

dunno how this relates to the topic, but since you asked...

at #4, if both russell and mudiay are available, it's a tossup; whoever phil thinks is the better choice, as he would have seen them work out against legit talents and would be able to best assess their value at this point in time. everyone has probably grown their game at least a bit since their season ended and polished their stuff.

like i've said before, the top 4 picks all have their warts; the differences are small, it's all about who do you believe will have more upside, who is most likely to deliver on that promise and last but not least, who is the best fit for your team. honestly, i'd be happy with either; i think both have a good floor, just hard to tell what their ceilings will be and how long it will take to make good on it.

if we had the #1, then i'd take towns; skilled bigs of his size and length are far rarer than skilled or athletic pg's. for our system, the skills and athleticism at the wing positions are more important than at the 1. i also think that galloway is going to have a strong soph season, just needs the experience/confidence; he did extremely well to be all-rookie after going undrafted, so you could say we already have the steal of the draft (you didn't say which year ).

[KnicksFanInSouthFL]

Cragg ...Russell or Mudiay...who would you pick? If you would take someone out of the top 4 instead..who would it be?

Seemed like a simple enough question to me, Don Che. So, I'll provide an answer for ya. MUDIAY, or WTCS.

Reading ol' boys comments is literally exhausting...

[Don Che]

I asked Cragg cuz I respect his opinion and he usually answers with some sense..plus I haven't heard his opinion too much on this draft.

Mudiay at 4..is a steal.

Another steal would be Portis....I like his game more then WCS and he's being considered for top 6.

Also steals are deligated for which team takes em....same player thats a steal for one..is a dud for another.

[KnicksFanInSouthFL]

I asked Cragg cuz I respect his opinion and he usually answers with some sense..plus I haven't heard his opinion too much on this draft.

Mudiay at 4..is a steal.

Another steal would be Portis....I like his game more then WCS and he's being considered for top 6.

Also steals are deligated for which team takes em....same player thats a steal for one..is a dud for another.

Yeah, that's because he admittedly gets all his information from DraftExpress. The guy doesn't have an opinion until they post one for him.

And if that's the case why not just bypass him and go straight to the source...

[Don Che]

You can show a monkey Shakespeare....its still a monkey. I hear idiots all the time that use all the websites we do...so its not just that.

[cragganmor]

I asked Cragg cuz I respect his opinion and he usually answers with some sense..plus I haven't heard his opinion too much on this draft.

Mudiay at 4..is a steal.

Another steal would be Portis....I like his game more then WCS and he's being considered for top 6.

Also steals are deligated for which team takes em....same player thats a steal for one..is a dud for another.

Yeah, that's because he admittedly gets all his information from DraftExpress. The guy doesn't have an opinion until they post one for him.

And if that's the case why not just bypass him and go straight to the source...

too bad i never said that, but that's par for the course with such poor reading comprehension; always arriving at the wrong conclusion. anyone would be foolish not to consult the many online resources that have plenty of time and expertise to give a synopsis; but the synopsis is only a starting point and it's not the final word. i've noticed professionally over 30 years in tech, that there are some people that are cursed with the personality flaw that says that no good idea occurs if it hasn't been thought by them (a.k.a. not invented here disease). it says a lot about one's lack of self-worth because that's the view such people project onto others. personally, i like telling people when i agree with them and i learn a lot from my fellow posters - that's the nature of collaboration. knick fans are the smartest in the league.

to answer don the best that i can, the top 5 are very, very close. imagine okafor on a team w/o winslow or tyus. imagine russell on a team with a legit 4/5, etc., so much of it is their situation. plus, each of the top 5 has some dings, but all are pretty talented; not really worried about which one we pick. actually, i'm a far more worried about trading down, because outside the top 5 the risk/reward is not appealing. another thing is that no matter who we pick at #4, he is going to be a 19 y.o. rookie; may need at least 1 year to become a contributor, so let's not saddle him with ridiculous expectations; let 'em develop, become the best player possible. phil will do more to help this team immediately in the fa market.

[Don Che]

What you guys think of Myles Turner?

also considered top 3 in his class in HS but slipped a bit....7 footer/range/blocks shots basically what Kris P is getting praise for.

[KnicksFanInSouthFL]

... personally, i like telling people when i agree with them and i learn a lot from my fellow posters - that's the nature of collaboration. knick fans are the smartest in the league...

That's funny because I don't recall reading the part where you agreed with thewatcher about Rakeem Christmas, nor did I read the part about you agreeing with me on Jordan Mickey. Not that I truly needed your acknowledgement in the first place... I'm just exposing the BS. But that's neither here nor there.

As for Mickey he's been a pretty good player for LSU over the last two seasons which is why I mentioned him in the Draft Discussion Thread. However, he only just started "growing on you" (I think that's how you worded it) as recently as a week or so ago. Funny thing is DX released a video on Mickey just about a week or so ago...

So, just to be a prick and hopefully prove myself wrong in the process I checked to see if the date you made your Mickey comment synced up with the date DX released Mickey's video, and lo and behold they do. It's probably just a coincidence but it's still pretty ironic considering you don't get ya information from DraftExpress, right?

FOH!!!

[Don Che]

Ur hate runs deep youngblood