2016 NBA Draft thread

[Russ Smith]

He rebounds and blocks well, you have to consider the pace at which Utah plays. And 68% isn't bad for a center these days plus he's shown considerable improvement already. I agree about not taking him with our pick but that's mostly because we already have Len. Poeltl probably isn't a future star but I'd be surprised if he wasn't effective in the NBA. If he's still there for our Washington pick (and Rabb isn't) we'd have to consider him even with Len and Chandler. By that point in the draft he'd be an easy call as BPA.

Barring a major change in plans Rabb won't be available because he won't be in the draft. He promised his mom he'd stay 2 years while his little brother is growing up, that's why he went to Cal in the first place to be close to home.

 

[Russ Smith]

Pace is already factored in, Poetl rebounds and blocks less per possession than Ivan Rabb.

I suspect his blocks are down for 2 reasons, everyone in the PAc 12 knows he can block shots now so they don't challenge him as much, and Utah has less depth at the 5 this year(they graduated 2 backup 7 footers) so he's playing more minutes and being asked not to foul out. They are also using him at times to guard 4's like they did against USC.

He had 1.9 blocks in 23 plus minutes last year and is at 1.4 in almost 30 minutes this year but the fouls are almost identical.

 

[slinslin]

Barring a major change in plans Rabb won't be available because he won't be in the draft. He promised his mom he'd stay 2 years while his little brother is growing up, that's why he went to Cal in the first place to be close to home.

Being a lottery pick I think might change that. That is a lot of guaranteed money.

Anyway I think Simmons, Ingram and Brown are the clear top 3 picks.

I don't think the drop off between the top 2 and Brown is actually that immense. It is just unfortunatey that we already have Booker and Warren.

Jaylen Brown looks like a more athletic Stanley Johnson. His draft stock will explode if he measures well at the combine and people are convinced he can be a SF.

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[JCSunsfan]

Barring a major change in plans Rabb won't be available because he won't be in the draft. He promised his mom he'd stay 2 years while his little brother is growing up, that's why he went to Cal in the first place to be close to home.

If his mom is smart, she will go back on that request. He is a lottery pick and the wisest course of action is to come out. He will get his guaranteed money and he can attend school in the off season, or even during the year.

 

[Russ Smith]

Being a lottery pick I think might change that. That is a lot of guaranteed money.

Anyway I think Simmons, Ingram and Brown are the clear top 3 picks.

I don't think the drop off between the top 2 and Brown is actually that immense. It is just unfortunatey that we already have Booker and Warren.

Jaylen Brown looks like a more athletic Stanley Johnson. His draft stock will explode if he measures well at the combine and people are convinced he can be a SF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-hDlD6TKo

I think Rabb was a projected lottery pick before he promised his mom that. The one change on Rabb is his buddy that he wants to play with at Cal is Oscar Frayer and Frayer decommitted in November. At the time people thought he'd end up at Cal anyways but he actually surprised everyone and verballed to Grand Canyon College in Arizona(Dan Majerle).

Frayer and Rabb were very tight he played a big role in Rabb deciding to stay home so it was a big surprise. There were rumors Frayer was going to go to prepschool for a year but the decommit surprised people.

So I guess there's the possibility Rabb now has less reason to stay at Cal

 

[Russ Smith]

If his mom is smart, she will go back on that request. He is a lottery pick and the wisest course of action is to come out. He will get his guaranteed money and he can attend school in the off season, or even during the year.

Well the other thing is an NBA guaranteed contract can pay to move his mom and little brother to a safer neighborhood too.

Rabb needs to get much stronger but he can do that in the NBA too.

 

[Russ Smith]

I'm still not sold on Jaylen Brown. Maybe I'm bitter that he didn't pick UCLA but he strikes me as a kid that overpowers people and plays like an athletic 4. He's not a good shooter and doesn't really handle the ball well, he just goes through guys on the break in college.

I think he really has to improve his wing skills but he's a freak athlete.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I'm still not sold on Jaylen Brown. Maybe I'm bitter that he didn't pick UCLA but he strikes me as a kid that overpowers people and plays like an athletic 4. He's not a good shooter and doesn't really handle the ball well, he just goes through guys on the break in college.



I think he really has to improve his wing skills but he's a freak athlete.

Sounds a lot like Shabazz Mohammed coming out.

 

[Russ Smith]

Sounds a lot like Shabazz Mohammed coming out.

Bigger and a better athlete than Bazz but not nearly as good a shooter.

Bazz shot 38% from 3, Brown 29. Brown is a much better teammate he actually passes and tries to play defense. I think Brown is better than Bazz but I'm not sure if he can shoot well enough to play the 3.

Bazz can make shots and hes' a terrific rebounder for his size, I'm also not sure he'll ever have much of a role on a good team.

 

[slinslin]

Lets talk about Alonzo Trier.

Arizona is 17-3 with him in the lineup. His numbers are outstanding since early December.

He is a shooting guard and one of the best freshman in the country.

Why is there no hype for Trier yet? Seems to me that he should be a first round lock with lottery potential, yet DX projects him #38 in 2017?

 

[Russ Smith]

Lets talk about Alonzo Trier.

Arizona is 17-3 with him in the lineup. His numbers are outstanding since early December.

He is a shooting guard and one of the best freshman in the country.

Why is there no hype for Trier yet? Seems to me that he should be a first round lock with lottery potential, yet DX projects him #38 in 2017?

His stock fell when he got hurt which is weird. I agree very good player, didn't shoot well from distance early in the season, probably had lifted too much or something. Now his 3's are falling.

Early in the year his defense was atrocious, has improved, and he passes the ball more than people thought he would. Not great 23 assists in 20 games from a guard, but there was talk during the postseason all star stuff that Trier was the most selfish player there and that hasn't been the case at Arizona.

Big strong kid. Before he got hurt I expected him to turn pro, now I have no idea.

 

[slinslin]

Last 12 games he is averaging 17,1ppg 4rpg 1,3apg 38%3s 48.7%FG

Low assist numbers and steal numbers are a worry, but I don't think low assist numbers are unusual for freshman shooting guards,

 

[Russ Smith]

Last 12 games he is averaging 17,1ppg 4rpg 1,3apg 38%3s 48.7%FG

Low assist numbers and steal numbers are a worry, but I don't think low assist numbers are unusual for freshman shooting guards,

In HS he was very much like OJ Mayo they were going all over the country, at one point he got suspended from a homeschooled league in Oklahoma when it came out he wasn't actually living with his mom as they said he was and the mom had to move out there to get him eligible.

I suspect all that led to him being a very ball dominant player in HS he just didn't pass much and he was so good at scoring didn't really matter.

When he got to the all star events and they have practices people started talking about it. I'm sure Miller worked with him on it too, you can't be that ball dominant in college it just won't play with your teammates. UCLA has a freshman Prince ALi who has 10 assists all year and 5 in the last 3 games so he had played over 250 minutes with 5 assists at guard. Trier is much better than ALi better shooter and ballhandler but he's only just barely doubled him assists in nearly twice the minutes he's a scorer. But again, he has not been nearly as selfish as people might have expected from his HS career, hell even Stanley Johnson last year had issues where Miller pulled him from games for being selfish, I haven't really seen that with Trier.

His defense is much improved he figured out he wasn't starting at the beginning of the year because he didn't play defense.

I kind of expect he will go because the next draft will be better so no benefit to coming back but you never know. The injury might also scare him into going pro, wasnt' serious but he's seen first hand what can happen if you get hurt. Also not exactly a kid who wants to be in school, he did tons of home schooling and moved around as a kid and as has been out there for awhile now he's very tight with Kevin Durant and very much focused on an NBA career. That's actually why he was playing in Oklahoma his family met Durant when he was a kid and Durant was in Seattle.

 

[slinslin]

Another topic Skal Labissiere.

He is literally producing next to nothing and before the season he was considered a potential #1 pick.
Going back to Kentucky is a risk due to their recruiting classes. Hard to tell how much he will drop, currently he is projected end of lottery still due to potential and mystery I guess but if nothing changes it seems to me that he is the typical long term project that nobody will pick up until the end of the first round or early second round.

 

[Russ Smith]

Another topic Skal Labissiere.

He is literally producing next to nothing and before the season he was considered a potential #1 pick.
Going back to Kentucky is a risk due to their recruiting classes. Hard to tell how much he will drop, currently he is projected end of lottery still due to potential and mystery I guess but if nothing changes it seems to me that he is the typical long term project that nobody will pick up until the end of the first round or early second round.

Many still have him as a lottery pick. Clearly the season has harmed his stock he's done nothing as you said and he's actually still not playing that much. Needs to get much stronger, great athlete but lacks basketball instincts.

I think he could very well as you say fall out of the lottery.

I hope he got the money through his handler before UK because that one year in college has cost him lots on his first NBA contract.

 

[Catlover]

Yeah I don't understand why Skal is on anyone's list. But then I've watched Moses Kingsley play 3 times now and I don't understand why he's not being talked about as a lottery pick. And he's down around 90th in at least one ranking.

 

[slinslin]

How high do you think Grayson Allen will go?

My ideal Suns draft probably looks like

#1 Simmons, he would be perfect for us in terms of fit
#12 Valentine, he is one of the most NBA ready players and versatile
#27 I like Grayson Allen here

I realize Grayson Allen is not really a PG but I think when you add great passers such as Simmons and Valentine to Booker/Warren/Len/Bledsoe you are probably going to prefer having a combo guard that can shoot it.

The Spurs and Warriors are examples of this, I don't really think you can say they have traditional PG play and they do not have backups that you would say are great traditional PGs. I mean Patty Mills? Leandro Barbosa?

 

[Catlover]

I haven't paid much attention to Grayson since that's not an area of need but I remember thinking he reminded me of Goran when I watched him. He has a great first step and is pretty creative driving to the basket. He didn't shoot well (okay but nothing special) in the games I've watched but his form looked solid. Still, with Bogdan likely coming over this year or the next and Booker, Bledsoe, Knight and even Goodwin in house, this seems to be a somewhat redundant pick to me. But if he's still there for a Cleveland pick he'd be a steal.

 

[Russ Smith]

Yeah I don't understand why Skal is on anyone's list. But then I've watched Moses Kingsley play 3 times now and I don't understand why he's not being talked about as a lottery pick. And he's down around 90th in at least one ranking.

I've seen Kingsley on a couple of lists now of most underrated players in the country. I agree he looks like an NBA player to me. He sort of came out of nowhere this year which probably explains the lack of hype, didn't play much the first 2 years and all he really did was block shots but now he's got the whole package.

 

[Catlover]

I've seen Kingsley on a couple of lists now of most underrated players in the country. I agree he looks like an NBA player to me. He sort of came out of nowhere this year which probably explains the lack of hype, didn't play much the first 2 years and all he really did was block shots but now he's got the whole package.

I'm not surprised he's on some underrated lists. I just watched him against LSU (checking out Simmons of course) and was very impressed, he even has a nice little hook shot now. The other times I'd watched him were in December (Tennessee Tech and North Florida) and he stood out then too, blocking everything in site and rebounding inside and outside his area. I googled him then and was shocked to not even see him on anyone's draft board. He didn't even make the top 100 lists I came across so I just figured I was being overly impressed by a dominating performance against an inferior foe. But if he measures well I really think he'll shoot up the draft charts.

 

[Ronin]

Fran Fraschilla ‏@franfraschilla 4m4 minutes ago
.@Yogi Ferrell11 reminds me of Buddy Hield. Both have lived in the gym last four years and are benefiting from the fruits of their labor.

 

[Bada0Bing]

Being a lottery pick I think might change that. That is a lot of guaranteed money.

Anyway I think Simmons, Ingram and Brown are the clear top 3 picks.

I don't think the drop off between the top 2 and Brown is actually that immense. It is just unfortunatey that we already have Booker and Warren.

Jaylen Brown looks like a more athletic Stanley Johnson. His draft stock will explode if he measures well at the combine and people are convinced he can be a SF.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F-hDlD6TKo

That was some of the most atrocious defense I've ever seen.

 

[slinslin]

Jamal Murray could be in play for #3 also especially if teams are convinced that he can be a PG.

Combo guard with good size that is a great shooter.

I think that a Murray/Booker backcourt could be viable.

 

[sunsfan88]

I think fans may burn down Talking Stick Resort Arena if the Suns draft a guard with such a high draft pick when they already have Bledsoe and Knight under contract as well as rising star in Devin Booker. Not to mention they spend a first rounder on another guard Bogdanovic who may be coming in next year or the year after. And with so many holes on the roster, I'd think the Suns aren't gonna spend a top 5 pick to bring in a backup guard.

 

[SirStefan32]

I think fans may burn down Talking Stick Resort Arena if the Suns draft a guard with such a high draft pick when they already have Bledsoe and Knight under contract as well as rising star in Devin Booker. Not to mention they spend a first rounder on another guard Bogdanovic who may be coming in next year or the year after. And with so many holes on the roster, I'd think the Suns aren't gonna spend a top 5 pick to bring in a backup guard.

In my opinion, when you have a very high pick, you have to draft BPA. I am not advocating for Murrey, but when you are as bad as the Suns are, you have to take the BPA approach.