I like the pick. You couldn't really judge his overall top speed in the video since he was pretty much getting the ball at 20 feet or less from the basket and they were using only half the court.
I agree his shot was better than advertised, I only saw one shot be missed, and that's pretty good for a guy who supposedly couldn't shoot. If he can shoot a 15 foot jumper to break the defense down, it should open things up for him to dish it to his teammates. Now of course most of the time people weren't guarding him, but overall I don't feel he is a bad shooter. Maybe he made a few bad shooting decisions, or was consistently shooting out of his range, but for midrange shots it seems he has NBA adequate skills.
He seems to have good body control, and has a quick and fluid spin move. I liked that fact they were having him drive up, stop, and shoot, rather than just get comfortable shooting jumpers from a set spot without movement. The fact he was knocking down those shots with ease shows me that he isn't a set shooter, I.E. can only shoot when completely set. Also shows imo what he can do when running the fast break if they are just going to give him that shot rather than trying to double team him and leaving a guy open.
When we look at the AST/TO ratio, don't forget they count assists weird in Europe. So his stats might seem like he sucks there, but it IS possible, that if assists were counted like NBA, it could be the equivalent of 9/2.5 versus what ~3.2/2.5.
We'll have to wait and see if that's the case. But I like what I saw.
I applaud them for moving up, but I still wonder if an extra million or so, (1st round picks can garner 3 mill max)..maybe they could have traded for his rights without giving up a 2nd round pick next year (which I believe I read is GS's pick owed to us).
Also when watching that video, he did it after he said 15 hour plane trip. It very well might be the equivalent of playing sometime between 10pm-6am for him.
I believe they will try to coax his team into a buyout. I believe unless the rules have changed, it's a 250k max buyout? Didn't we do that for Jake Suckalotis? But he wants to be here, and if not this year, definitely next he'll be here.
I'd like to see more video of him, but overall I like what I see, and do see some things which might just get me excited about him.
It really appears to me that this years draft along with last years and a pretty good 2006 draft class is pushing the NBA to a higher competitive level. Teams that were good that don't add anything, will suffer as their good team is harder pressed to play as well against the young prospects that are stronger, faster, and more talented than their counterparts from earlier years.
Teams that stockpiled talent in these drafts should fare pretty well. (like portland) There were some pretty suspect drafts earlier this decade and last decade post jordan bulls era. I look around the league and there are alot of insanely quick and talented players/teams that have started their rise.
Ebb and flow go the drafts. Maybe next years will be better, or maybe the NBA will go through a 2-3-5 year slump in talent through the draft. I'm glad we got two guys that I believe talent wise looking back people will think should have gone alot higher.
As much as I have hated their approach, $arver and Kerr, I believe got two players who could be major factors in the coming decade. Any draft that produces that has to be considered a success. Maybe not perfect, but a success.
$arver may still be cheap, but they made the right calls imo from where they picked, and I'll take that. So I'll give a thumbs up that they didn't screw up the draft, or trade/sell away the picks. We needed a youth infusion now. We got at least one coming this year, and it'll be needed, if we can get Dragic over here this year, that youth should contribute faster.
$arver and Kerr gets a pass from me on this one, and that probably makes me as happy as the fact they drafted these two guys.
Zing!
