The 2019 Draft

[1Sun]

Flashy, ball-dominant combo guard who is a high volume, streaky shooter, below-average distributor and decision-maker (assist numbers through 4 games notwithstanding), so-so defender, not elite in any area. Puts up good scoring numbers and so-so other numbers for a mid-major school against inferior competition and the occasional good but not great team while not elevating the play of his teammates or leading his team to any significant success (lost in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament, and best career win so far was against Horizon League runner-up Wright State last year). Might get some All-American consideration for putting up some flashy numbers (just like Isaiah Canaan did when he was at Murray State), but is a project at best.

If Morant is seen as our answer at point guard, we are in even more trouble than I thought.

I for one would like a point guard who has a snowball's chance in Phoenix in June to lead the Suns to the playoffs before Devin Booker's extended contract expires.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Morant has insane highlights and is putting 24-10-7 on extremely good efficiency. He'll need to do it for more than three games, but if he keeps this up with his physical skill-set he will easily go top 10 or even top 5.

 

[1Sun]

Morant has insane highlights and is putting 24-10-7 on extremely good efficiency. He'll need to do it for more than three games, but if he keeps this up with his physical skill-set he will easily go top 10 or even top 5.

Let him develop an elite skill (like Lillard) or lead his mid-major team to the brink of a Final Four (like Curry), and then get back to me.

Without that, I see nothing more than another Isaiah Canaan.

 

[CardsSunsDbacks]

Let him develop an elite skill (like Lillard) or lead his mid-major team to the brink of a Final Four (like Curry), and then get back to me.

Without that, I see nothing more than another Isaiah Canaan.

How you can watch this guy play and see Canaan is beyond me. They couldn't be any more different on the court. Morant has good handles, good court vision and freakish athleticism. Do any of those things sound like Canaan to you?

 

[Chaplin]

Flashy, ball-dominant combo guard who is a high volume, streaky shooter, below-average distributor and decision-maker (assist numbers through 4 games notwithstanding), so-so defender, not elite in any area. Puts up good scoring numbers and so-so other numbers for a mid-major school against inferior competition and the occasional good but not great team while not elevating the play of his teammates or leading his team to any significant success (lost in the first round of last year's NCAA Tournament, and best career win so far was against Horizon League runner-up Wright State last year). Might get some All-American consideration for putting up some flashy numbers (just like Isaiah Canaan did when he was at Murray State), but is a project at best.

If Morant is seen as our answer at point guard, we are in even more trouble than I thought.

I for one would like a point guard who has a snowball's chance in Phoenix in June to lead the Suns to the playoffs before Devin Booker's extended contract expires.

Hey, just to let you know, Steve Nash is retired.

 

[overseascardfan]

Morant is the best PG in this year's draft.

 

[GatorAZ]

Morant is the best PG in this year's draft.

Easily but it’s looking like a historically weak draft for guards.

 

[JCSunsfan]

It is an incredible free agent market for point guards. Take the BPA in the draft and get a point guard in free agency.

 

[Hoop Head]

Saw a mock draft from SBNation, they have the 3 Duke players going 1-3, with Zion #2, Reddish #2, and Barrett #3. I'd be surprised if 3 Duke players go #1-3. I know that's never happened before and I highly doubt it will happen this year. Surely someone's stock will rise enough to displace one of them and one of their stocks will fall also. They have Bol Bol at #5 also.

Here's a link to their mock...

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2018/1...eveland-cavaliers-rj-barrett-duke-cam-reddish

They have a good write up on Zion though also. It's about his size and unique game. Definitely worth reading for anyone who doesn't get the Zion hype and if you're a fan then it's worth checking out also. That kid will be something else. I could see him making a team or breaking them, either way, but I'd bet on making one. I hope that Mock isn't right though with the Cavs getting the #1 pick, that would be par for the course though. They lose Lebron, again, and get the #1 pick for that.

https://www.sbnation.com/2017/10/19/16454852/zion-williamson-recruit-highlights-nba

 

[ColdPickleNachos]

A "point guard" with 5 assists and 10 turnovers in a loss, hyped as "overwhelmingly positive." I'll pass.

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Stats don't always tell the whole story. This was a game where his team was clearly outmatched. If he doesn't take over, they're not competitive. Check out the two plays right after :54 for instance.

Most of his baskets here are strong takes to the basket that look necessary. A great point guard does what his team needs to win, and in this game their best chance was likely him taking over. That's going to result in turnovers (though I'll agree that 10 is excessive).

In the three previous games, he had 11, 8, and 12 assists respectively. I think this is just a kid who is doing what it takes to compete. As we've seen with Booker, that will result in high turnover games when your team is outmatched. It'd be interesting to see what he would do with stronger teammates.

Also, the only thing he has in common with Canaan is the college jersey.

Check out the plays at 6:04 and 6:38. Kid has something.

 

[Hoop Head]

Wasn't the whole "plays for a bad, stats don't mean everything" sort of talk the same for Trae Young? I know Young was a better shooter than Morant but his playmaking seems to translate to the NBA and will only get better as he gets more experience. I'm not saying that Morant will be the Trae Young of this class in terms of play style but Trae caught a lot of flack for being the only star on a bad team, posting crazy numbers because he was the only option, and more. Let's give it some time before writing someone off.

I know I'm being a little hypocritical there because I want us to stay away from Bol Bol. I don't care what numbers he puts up, I think he'll be a bust if he's selected as high as #5 like that mock has him listed. If we had a late 1st round pick to gamble on him then I'd be fine with it but I really don't want to see us spend a lottery pick on him.

 

[Russ Smith]

I know nothing about this kid, but this is one game. I just looked it up and he averages 10.3 assists and 5.3 turnovers for the season. Last year he was at 6.3 assists and 2.5 turnovers.

He's not remotely the same player but the bit of the game I watched was very much like watching Davidson with Steph Curry when they played a big 5 school. The other team would figure out how good Curry was and start doubling and tripling him and Curry had some very high turnover games trying to make plays against that sort of defense. He had one game in college where they effectively double teamed him the whole game so he just passed the ball and took something like 6 shots in the game, but generally speaking they needed him to score so he'd try and score even against defenses rigged to stop him

Again not saying Morant is remotely as good as Curry was, but if the whole game wsa played similarly to the 5 minutes I saw, I can understand why he had 10 turnovers.

No idea how good he really is that's the first time I've seen him play, but he's a freaky athlete, he's not as strong, but in terms of quickness and hops he's up there with Dennis Smith Jr.

 

[1Sun]

How you can watch this guy play and see Canaan is beyond me. They couldn't be any more different on the court. Morant has good handles, good court vision and freakish athleticism. Do any of those things sound like Canaan to you?

His athleticism is good, but not freakish. His handles are just okay. His court vision is average at best. And even with your description, yes that pretty much exactly applied to the college version of Canaan.

 

[1Sun]

Morant is the best PG in this year's draft.

And Chriss and Bender were considered the best PFs in the 2016 draft.

Goes to show that our answer at PG is most definitely NOT in the 2019 draft.

 

[1Sun]

It is an incredible free agent market for point guards. Take the BPA in the draft and get a point guard in free agency.

This x Infinity.

 

[1Sun]

Wasn't the whole "plays for a bad, stats don't mean everything" sort of talk the same for Trae Young? I know Young was a better shooter than Morant but his playmaking seems to translate to the NBA and will only get better as he gets more experience. I'm not saying that Morant will be the Trae Young of this class in terms of play style but Trae caught a lot of flack for being the only star on a bad team, posting crazy numbers because he was the only option, and more. Let's give it some time before writing someone off.

I know I'm being a little hypocritical there because I want us to stay away from Bol Bol. I don't care what numbers he puts up, I think he'll be a bust if he's selected as high as #5 like that mock has him listed. If we had a late 1st round pick to gamble on him then I'd be fine with it but I really don't want to see us spend a lottery pick on him.

Level of competition for Young and Morant is like night and day. And Morant has showed nothing at his inferior level of competition to warrant comparisons to, say, Damien Lillard.

 

[1Sun]

He's not remotely the same player but the bit of the game I watched was very much like watching Davidson with Steph Curry when they played a big 5 school. The other team would figure out how good Curry was and start doubling and tripling him and Curry had some very high turnover games trying to make plays against that sort of defense. He had one game in college where they effectively double teamed him the whole game so he just passed the ball and took something like 6 shots in the game, but generally speaking they needed him to score so he'd try and score even against defenses rigged to stop him

Again not saying Morant is remotely as good as Curry was, but if the whole game wsa played similarly to the 5 minutes I saw, I can understand why he had 10 turnovers.

No idea how good he really is that's the first time I've seen him play, but he's a freaky athlete, he's not as strong, but in terms of quickness and hops he's up there with Dennis Smith Jr.

Except Curry actually led his Davidson team to some wins against big 5 schools (including an Elite Eight appearance) and was an elite shooter in college.

Like I said, have Morant develop an elite skill or lead his team deep in the Tournament (or, heck, at least lead his team to a single win over a top-100 team), and then get to me.

 

[Russ Smith]

His athleticism is good, but not freakish. His handles are just okay. His court vision is average at best. And even with your description, yes that pretty much exactly applied to the college version of Canaan.

He's absolutely explosive athletically. I don't know how good he actually is the competition isn't the same but there have been 7 freshmen in the last 25 years to put up 150 assists, 150 rebounds, 10 blocks and shoot at least 42% from the floor, Morant did it last year, the other 6 were Ben Simmons, Lonzo Ball, John Wall, Derrick Rose, DAngelo Russell and Shai Gilegous Alexander. Pretty sure they were all first round picks.

He's also not even 20 years old, he just turned 19 in August. As the Stepien article pointed out he's younger than both Quinerly and Dotson, elite freshmen PG's who aren't even close to him statistically so far in college.

https://www.thestepien.com/2018/06/29/2019-draft-primer-ja-morant-the-ultimate-sleeper/

AS the article says there are some holes, not a great shooter, has to get stronger, has to improve his defense but everyone that's scouting this kid says the same thing he's an absolute athletic freak.

 

[Russ Smith]

Except Curry actually led his Davidson team to some wins against big 5 schools (including an Elite Eight appearance) and was an elite shooter in college.

Like I said, have Morant develop an elite skill or lead his team deep in the Tournament (or, heck, at least lead his team to a single win over a top-100 team), and then get to me.

I guess you missed where I quite specifically said I'm not saying he's remotely as good as Curry was. Scoring IS a skill, and he's an elite scorer.

With all due respect Ben Simmons is a borderline all star and couldn't even get LSU into the tournament and you're saying this kid should carry Murray State deep into the tournament?

 

[1Sun]

I guess you missed where I quite specifically said I'm not saying he's remotely as good as Curry was. Scoring IS a skill, and he's an elite scorer.

With all due respect Ben Simmons is a borderline all star and couldn't even get LSU into the tournament and you're saying this kid should carry Murray State deep into the tournament?

I'm saying that if we are even going to think of him as the answer at PG, he first needs to demonstrate an elite skill or lead his team to success against decent competition. Putting up big, high-volume-shooting scoring numbers against inferior competition does not make him the answer at PG.

 

[1Sun]

AS the article says there are some holes, not a great shooter, has to get stronger, has to improve his defense but everyone that's scouting this kid says the same thing he's an absolute athletic freak.[/QUOTE]

Actually, that pretty much describes the college version of Isaiah Canaan to a T.

 

[overseascardfan]

And Chriss and Bender were considered the best PFs in the 2016 draft.

Goes to show that our answer at PG is most definitely NOT in the 2019 draft.

Nonsense, they had the most potential but Sabonis was the best PF in that draft and is proving it now. Don't try and tell me he was a C, he played C in college but was always going to play PF in NBA.

 

[SirStefan32]

Nonsense, they had the most potential but Sabonis was the best PF in that draft and is proving it now. Don't try and tell me he was a C, he played C in college but was always going to play PF in NBA.

There was a guy here who was really high on Sabonis back in the day. I liked him a lot, but there was someone else who was all in on Sabonis. How nice would it be to have Sabonis on our roster right now?

 

[AzStevenCal]

There was a guy here who was really high on Sabonis back in the day. I liked him a lot, but there was someone else who was all in on Sabonis. How nice would it be to have Sabonis on our roster right now?

I wanted Sabonis and mentioned him several times as did a few others but I believe JCSunsfan was his biggest supporter.

 

[Mainstreet]

Nonsense, they had the most potential but Sabonis was the best PF in that draft and is proving it now. Don't try and tell me he was a C, he played C in college but was always going to play PF in NBA.

So much for the Suns drafting on potential.