2019 Draft Prospects...

[GatorAZ]

Zion hitting 3’s tonight.

 

[GatorAZ]

I remembering arguing with @AzStevenCal about whether Zion could win MVP’s but he’s taken his game to another level since coming back. He just won it for Duke vs UNC in a thriller. Any team who drafts him would really have to screw up for him not to be a superstar.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

I have a hard time believing anyone still harbors any reservations about Zion being a stud at the next level.

 

[Mainstreet]

I have a hard time believing anyone still harbors any reservations about Zion being a stud at the next level.

If the Suns could draft him they would be on their way. They would only need to add a point guard and some veterans.

 

[Krangodnzr]

I don’t want to trade JJ but it seems a trade that’s spot on. Same draft. Drafted 2nd and 4th. Both have had some level modicum level of success with more frustration. Both viewed as potential. Lonzo comes with Lavar. JJ makes some bad decisions (like no showing at schedules appearance).

Kelly Oubre makes up for JJ.

Yeah I'd trade him. Crunch time, have Booker handle the ball.

 

[SunnyBaller]

Zion hitting 3’s tonight.

I love that he'll take them and hit them occasionally but one of the great things about his game is he won't fall in love with the three which is great since it's not his strong suit, and he never seems to take bad shots I've never seen such an efficient player dudes gonna be a star right out the gate

 

[1Sun]

Ja Morant will get a chance to prove himself in Murray State's first NCAA Tournament game in a marquis match-up against Big East Player of the Year Markus Howard and an otherwise similarly weak Marquette squad.

Should be interesting...

 

[Hoop Head]

I'm going all in on the Zion hype. The kid is just special. He's great on the court, no one can argue that, but he seems to be of really high character and just a good wholesome kid off the court.

Here's a quote from him about returning to play for Duke after his shoe incident, he said...

“Yes, sir. Those six games I sat out, when you see your brothers going to war battling and there's nothing you can do but sit on the sideline and cheer, there's nothing wrong with that, but I'm not that type of person. I want to be out there with them, and I made a commitment to them, and I would be a bad person if I went back on my commitment.”

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nc...on-if-i-went-back-on-my-commitment/ar-BBURSVX

I'm surprised no one else posted that here in the last day or two. He seems to be the total package.

 

[Russ Smith]

He's really far more of a finesse player than a bully. Seriously. All this talk you've likely read about him muscling smaller players around does him a disservice. He is strong but many (most?) of his inside shots, steals, blocks and rebounds come from his speed, jumping ability, court awareness and understanding of angles. Watch his highlights from his most recent game (Syracuse) and I think you might just become a Zion convert.

Yep for his size and strength it's remarkable how he can "get small" and squeeze through gaps and get to the basket. He would make a great pass rusher in football he has that ability to turn the corner and immediately bend towards the rim(QB) and finish the play.

He is special

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

I have a feeling that ending up with the 4th or 5th pick instead of 2nd or 3rd could be a blessing in disguise. As much as I am intrigued by what Morant could potentially bring to the table someone like Garland has elite skills that translate very well to the NBA level (ballhandling and shooting). Morant appears to be the better passer of the two, but he is also racking up those assist numbers against weak college competition and is accompanied by a hefty amount of turnovers as well.

Obviously Garland comes with some injury concerns because of his torm meniscus, but in many cases a torn meniscus does not stop a player from returning to their previous level of abilities. There are some serious parallels between Garland and Irving coming out of college and I think it could be a blessing in disguise if we end up with him instead of someone else not named Zion.

 

[slinslin]

The sample size of Garland is just 4 games that is the biggest issue.

Maybe he sucks and simply had 4 hot games.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

The sample size of Garland is just 4 games that is the biggest issue.

Maybe he sucks and simply had 4 hot games.

I mean Kyrie played 11 games and was taken with the #1 pick. There is no question about his abilities to handle the ball and shoot. The questions on him really come down to what we don't know for sure like defense and facilitating, but he can for sure do some things on an elite level.

 

[JCSunsfan]

I don’t get the Garland is better than Morant stuff. In what possible way?

 

[Sunburn]

I don’t get the Garland is better than Morant stuff. In what possible way?

3 point shooting.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

I don’t get the Garland is better than Morant stuff. In what possible way?

I didn't particularly say that Garland is better than Morant, but that I could potentially see him transitioning better to the NBA because he has skills that tend to transition very well. The main difference between the two is their shooting as Garland is an elite shooter and that is a weakness for Morant. It also is hard to predict how Morant's facilitating will transition to the next level when he will be facing much tougher defenses than he had to face in his weak college conference. That's why I specifically stated it could be a blessing to get the 4th or 5th pick because I fully believe we should draft Morant with the #2 pick, but I can also easily see a world where Garland ends up being the better pro.

 

[Russ Smith]

I have a feeling that ending up with the 4th or 5th pick instead of 2nd or 3rd could be a blessing in disguise. As much as I am intrigued by what Morant could potentially bring to the table someone like Garland has elite skills that translate very well to the NBA level (ballhandling and shooting). Morant appears to be the better passer of the two, but he is also racking up those assist numbers against weak college competition and is accompanied by a hefty amount of turnovers as well.

Obviously Garland comes with some injury concerns because of his torm meniscus, but in many cases a torn meniscus does not stop a player from returning to their previous level of abilities. There are some serious parallels between Garland and Irving coming out of college and I think it could be a blessing in disguise if we end up with him instead of someone else not named Zion.

The thing with Morant is you can't underestimate how much pressure is on him to do everything for Murray State. That is his TO rate may go down eventually when he's in a situation where he doesn't have to do everything. it might not, but he literally carries that team on his back at times so high TO's shouldn't be a shock.

I really liked Garland coming out of HS, I think he has a chance to be really good but as Slin said the sample size in college is just so low, 4 full games. Great games against SC and Liberty who are both pretty good(neither has an NBA PG prospect but USC has NBA prospects), only 3 against Alcorn State not very good but 1 game.

Morant has done it for longer and is more athletic, Garland is the better shooter. Garland had 6 TO's against SC which is probably the best game to gauge him given the talent level USC has and he had 19 but only 1 assist against those 6 To's.

I think finishing below top pick in this draft is a big dropoff, from Zion, I like Barrett but he's a volume scorer and with Booker and others I'm not sure you need him. If you finished 2nd pick I'd be very tempted to take Morant over Barrett. I suppose the safe pick is Barrett and try and trade for a PG.

 

[slinslin]

I didn't particularly say that Garland is better than Morant, but that I could potentially see him transitioning better to the NBA because he has skills that tend to transition very well. The main difference between the two is their shooting as Garland is an elite shooter and that is a weakness for Morant. It also is hard to predict how Morant's facilitating will transition to the next level when he will be facing much tougher defenses than he had to face in his weak college conference. That's why I specifically stated it could be a blessing to get the 4th or 5th pick because I fully believe we should draft Morant with the #2 pick, but I can also easily see a world where Garland ends up being the better pro.

ball handling and being able to navigate in the paint and against defensive pressure is far more important than shooting as a PG.

If you are a great shooter but can't run an offense you are not going to be very useful as a PG.

I think finishing below top pick in this draft is a big dropoff, from Zion, I like Barrett but he's a volume scorer and with Booker and others I'm not sure you need him. If you finished 2nd pick I'd be very tempted to take Morant over Barrett. I suppose the safe pick is Barrett and try and trade for a PG.

You make the team at #3 or #4 trade up for Barrett while still getting Morant.

Barrett clearly is the #2 prospect in the draft and Morant is somewhere in the 3-5 range in my opinion.

Culver, Reddish are players I could see being picked over Morant by teams.

 

[Sunburn]

ball handling and being able to navigate in the paint and against defensive pressure is far more important than shooting as a PG.

If you are a great shooter but can't run an offense you are not going to be very useful as a PG.

Garland is an elite ball handler.

 

[slinslin]

low assists, bad assist/turnover ratio, low freethrow rate

Just not as good as Morant.

And his FT% of only 75% indicates that his 3pt% would not have held up.

His projected 3pt% is barely better than Morant.

He is almost as old as Morant too despite Morant being a sophomore. Morant triples his assist output.

I just don't think it is close.

We would have to really fall in the lottery to go for Garland.

 

[slinslin]

The main difference between the two is their shooting as Garland is an elite shooter and that is a weakness for Morant.

Morant shoots better from the freethrow line than Garland which is a better indicator. Their projected 3pt% at the NBA level is almost even.

So that is really non-sense and includes Garland shooting 47% from 3 in a 4 game sample size..

but he is also racking up those assist numbers against weak college competition and is accompanied by a hefty amount of turnovers as well.

that is the same non-sense argument people made against Trae Young. When you average 25 points and 10 assists 5 turnovers are not "hefty".

 

[Sunburn]

Morant shoots better from the freethrow line than Garland which is a better indicator. Their projected 3pt% at the NBA level is almost even.

So that is really non-sense and includes Garland shooting 47% from 3 in a 4 game sample size..

Garland is and will be a better perimeter shooter than Morant. His mechanics are beautiful. I'm not advocating Garland over Morant, but arguing that Garland isn't a better perimeter shooter than Morant is nonsense.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Morant shoots better from the freethrow line than Garland which is a better indicator. Their projected 3pt% at the NBA level is almost even.

So that is really non-sense and includes Garland shooting 47% from 3 in a 4 game sample size..




that is the same non-sense argument people made against Trae Young. When you average 25 points and 10 assists 5 turnovers are not "hefty".

Trae was also doing that against much tougher competition in the Big 12. On top of that Trae was an elite shooting talent coming out of college and again that translates very well to the NBA. Trae to me was a better passer, shooter and ball handler coming out of Oklahoma than Morant is right now. Morant is a better all around athlete, but I would argue that Trae has slightly more quickness if not close to even in that regard.

What conference you are playing in should always be taken into account when rating a prospect coming out of college. With Morant you have to consider the lower level of competition he has faced than some of the other prospects he may be compared to both right now and in the past. That along with his lackluster perimeter shooting and high turnover numbers need to all be considered when making that pick. I am not saying that those things add up to meaning that we shouldn't take him or that he will be a failure, but they shouldn't be outright dismissed either.

 

[Ouchie-Z-Clown]

Trae was also doing that against much tougher competition in the Big 12. On top of that Trae was an elite shooting talent coming out of college and again that translates very well to the NBA. Trae to me was a better passer, shooter and ball handler coming out of Oklahoma than Morant is right now. Morant is a better all around athlete, but I would argue that Trae has slightly more quickness if not close to even in that regard.

What conference you are playing in should always be taken into account when rating a prospect coming out of college. With Morant you have to consider the lower level of competition he has faced than some of the other prospects he may be compared to both right now and in the past. That along with his lackluster perimeter shooting and high turnover numbers need to all be considered when making that pick. I am not saying that those things add up to meaning that we shouldn't take him or that he will be a failure, but they shouldn't be outright dismissed either.

Good post all the way around.

I’ll admit I’m a Morant fan. I see a lot of deaaron fox potential in him. But I’ll readily admit that many of his turnovers are also of the terrible variety where you smack your head and say “what is he doing?” I understand he has to carry that team, but still many of the turnovers are pretty egregious. You’d hope he would grow outta those with some professional seasoning.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Good post all the way around.

I’ll admit I’m a Morant fan. I see a lot of deaaron fox potential in him. But I’ll readily admit that many of his turnovers are also of the terrible variety where you smack your head and say “what is he doing?” I understand he has to carry that team, but still many of the turnovers are pretty egregious. You’d hope he would grow outta those with some professional seasoning.

Yeah and if we were to draft him it would be very important that people have patience with him. In an ideal world where we drafted him he would start his career coming off the bench without too much pressure on him to succeed immediately. Maybe he will be the next Lillard where he comes from a small college conference and is immediately good in his first NBA season, but of course Lillard is a very good shooter and spent 4 years in college so it probably would be a good idea to have those high of expectations right away.

 

[slinslin]

Garland is and will be a better perimeter shooter than Morant. His mechanics are beautiful. I'm not advocating Garland over Morant, but arguing that Garland isn't a better perimeter shooter than Morant is nonsense.

Yeah yeah and Jackson was a better shooter than Tatum. ....