Chad Forde says Westbrook has a guarantee says Suns "covet" him

[Russ Smith]

Either from Seattle at 4 or Clips at 7 or Bobcats at 9. He's shut down workouts and Forde says that's because of the guarantee.

Can't believe he could go 4th that's just too high. He also says of course the Suns "covet" Westbrook and would trade Barbosa to move up because "he's not a pure PG."

I love Westbrook as much as anybody but trading Barbosa because he's not a pure PG so you can move up and draft a kid who's also not a pure PG puzzles me?

 

[corrado]

Your post is very misleading. The article says that the Suns covet Westbrooke, Alexander and Rush.

 

[Russ Smith]

Your post is very misleading. The article says that the Suns covet Westbrooke, Alexander and Rush.

Huh? the post says Forde says he has a guarantee, and that Phoenix covets him, both are true they're right in the article.

I didn't mean to imply he's the only kid Phoenix covets just that if they do covet him and he has a guarantee, Phoenix has to trade to move up to get him and apparently that would be Barbosa.

Not sure how that was misleading to you but sorry if it was.

 

[nowagimp]

Good post Russ! Very logical that the suns would covet Westbrook. The suns need a backup PG, Westbrook has tons of speed and length. I'll bet he would be pretty good defending guys like CP3, pargo, guys the suns cant deal with at all now. If the suns dealt barbs and got westbrook and rush the draft, that would be sweet. The suns need to get younger and faster in a hurry, and if the speed doesnt work on defense(LB), its not all around speed. Alexander might also be a nice pickup in lieu of Rush, though his lack of outside shooting(also true of westbrook) is a concern in the area of balance.

 

[Mainstreet]

I think the Suns long for a combo player. Westbrook could be used at the 1 and 2 thus filling a couple of needs in one player. The perfect player for the Suns could play the 1-3 positions like Salmons.

 

[Andrew]

Who is this guy?

 

[devilalum]

This is like last year when the Suns had a deal locked up to get Noah.

The Suns are just fishing for a lobsided deal. I will be surprised if they do anything more than draft a player at 15.

 

[Mainstreet]

Who is this guy?

You don't follow the mocks?

Gandhi would know.

There are many mock draft sites including sites like ESPN, Draft Express, and NBADraftnet. Just do some Googling. It will keep you busy for days.

 

[nowagimp]

The Suns are just fishing for a lobsided deal.

this would concern me, if true. Lately the suns have been on the wrong side of lopsided deals.

 

[Irish]

There are probably 100 or more mocks, but most are pure crap. What we don't know is which mocks the players look at to determine if they are going to stay in the draft, who they should work out with, etc. It seems like the teams are aware of the mocks and certainly reporters are with draftexpress and nbadraft.net being most often quoted.

 

[The Commish]

Westbrook just seems like Marcus Banks part deux. I used to be high on the kid, but now I feel like his stock has been overinflated.

 

[Irish]

This all sounds like agents are working overtime along with some serious smoke.

 

[Russ Smith]

Westbrook just seems like Marcus Banks part deux. I used to be high on the kid, but now I feel like his stock has been overinflated.

Pretty much what most UCLA fans are saying, we think he's a terrific kid and we're thrilled to see him possibly going that high, but we can't figure out why he is being mentioned as high as 4th with the obvious holes in his game.

Has improved immensely year over year, works hard, only 19, very bright kid, extremely competitive, but I had him pegged as somewhere between 18 and 24 when he declared and assumed he'd stay at UCLA because he wanted a top 20 guarantee, I'm stunned that he's been mentioned top 5 now.

 

[Irish]

My guess is that Westbrook has convinced people he's capable of being a real PG. I'm skeptical, but otherwise he's just a nice but smallish shooting guard.

 

[Bigdez22]

I think, over time, Westbrook will become one of the best defenders in the NBA.

Westbrook could = Rondo

But even if you look at it that way, I still think 4 is to high for him.

 

[Mainstreet]

I think, over time, Westbrook will become one of the best defenders in the NBA.

Westbrook could = Rondo

But even if you look at it that way, I still think 4 is to high for him.

Westbrook should be way better than Rondo if one considers where they went in the draft.

 

[nowagimp]

Pretty much what most UCLA fans are saying, we think he's a terrific kid and we're thrilled to see him possibly going that high, but we can't figure out why he is being mentioned as high as 4th with the obvious holes in his game.

Has improved immensely year over year, works hard, only 19, very bright kid, extremely competitive, but I had him pegged as somewhere between 18 and 24 when he declared and assumed he'd stay at UCLA because he wanted a top 20 guarantee, I'm stunned that he's been mentioned top 5 now.

So Russ, how are westbrooks handles? This is one of the areas that I thought marcus banks hurt himself. Marcus seems to have difficulty handling the ball in traffic and picking up his dribble quickly to shoot, those are some bad flaws for an NBA combo guard. Marcus just looked terrible picking up his dribble to shoot, seemed to take a long time and didnt seem to get his feet set to shoot. LB has the same problems, picking up that dribble to shoot takes too long and looks akward.

 

[Irish]

Westbrook should be way better than Rondo if one considers where they went in the draft.

Westbrook can shoot. Rondo is not bad for a guy drafted in the 20's. IMHO Rondo is a backup type PG who looks good playing with three HOF guys. The issue with Westbrook is not if he's better than Rondo, but if he's a guy who can start for a playoff team with lesser teammates. I honestly don't know.

 

[Joe Mama]

Westbrook can shoot. Rondo is not bad for a guy drafted in the 20's. IMHO Rondo is a backup type PG who looks good playing with three HOF guys. The issue with Westbrook is not if he's better than Rondo, but if he's a guy who can start for a playoff team with lesser teammates. I honestly don't know.

Umm, the big knock on Westbrook is that he is not a good shooter. everybody thinks that he is a very good defender. Most people I've talked to believe he has the skills to be an NBA point guard even if he isn't a top-notch distributor. They say his playmaking skills just weren't on full display at UCLA. If he could shoot he would probably be a consensus top-five draft pick.

Joe

 

[WildBB]

If Augustine were 2" taller there would be no discussion on who the better player/talent would be.

 

[carey]

If Augustine were 2" taller there would be no discussion on who the better player/talent would be.

Does it matter at all that he has the same wingspan as Chris Paul? I think the kid is going to be pretty good.

 

[Irish]

Westbrook can shoot, but does not have three point accruacy and is more of a catch and shoot guy than a make your own shot type. I honestly don't think he'd fit into the Genry offense (D'Antoni is gone but not forgotten).

 

[Russ Smith]

So Russ, how are westbrooks handles? This is one of the areas that I thought marcus banks hurt himself. Marcus seems to have difficulty handling the ball in traffic and picking up his dribble quickly to shoot, those are some bad flaws for an NBA combo guard. Marcus just looked terrible picking up his dribble to shoot, seemed to take a long time and didnt seem to get his feet set to shoot. LB has the same problems, picking up that dribble to shoot takes too long and looks akward.

Not a great ballhandler, not bad but he's still learning PG so in traffic at times he'll overpenetrate and get stripped. Got much better as the year went on learned to make hard jumpstops and just jump over people.

Main thing with Westbrook is he plays on the verge of out of control quite a bit look at the Memphis game for all that he did right in that game he had 2-3 huge turnovers that led to dunks for Memphis and 2-3 more forces that got blocked that led to runouts. He was the one Bruin who was able to compete athletically with the memphis athletes, but he got too rushed at times.

But he's considerably more under control now than he was as a freshman so I assume he's going to continue to get under more control.

 

[Russ Smith]

If Augustine were 2" taller there would be no discussion on who the better player/talent would be.

DJ is a stud, he's a bit small ala TJ Ford but he's a terrific player.

 

[Russ Smith]

Westbrook can shoot, but does not have three point accruacy and is more of a catch and shoot guy than a make your own shot type. I honestly don't think he'd fit into the Genry offense (D'Antoni is gone but not forgotten).

He's not really a catch and shoot guy most of his points at UCLA came in transition or attacking the rim. He's got a pretty nice pullup jumper off the dribble. Early in the year he was around 40% on 3's but as the season went on he began to see different defenses, Shipp couldn't make a shot and teams started to change up and put a better defender on Westbrook and a lesser one on Shipp.

Right now he's much better going to the basket than he is catching and shooting although mechanically his shot is sound.