Morris Almond On Knicks' Radar

22nd May, 2007 - 6:38 am

New York Post -
The New York Post has learned one sharpshooter on the Knicks' radar should they keep the No. 23 pick is Rice University senior shooting guard Morris Almond, who will work out for the team in June.

"Almond's game is very similar to Allan Houston's," one NBA personnel director said. "He's probably the best outside shooter in the draft."

Scoring small forward Marcus Williams (Arizona) is another possibility at No. 23.

If this guy is the real deal, and is the best shooter in the draft, he would be a nice pairing with Curry. That would leave a lot of extra players on the roster that we would need to clear for playing time though.

Posted by FrenchKnicks:

If this guy is the real deal, and is the best shooter in the draft, why would he fall to 23 ?

Exactly. Something doesn't jive.

when they start throwing out names--its complete subterfuge--meaning they dont want the guys they mention.

Posted by FrenchKnicks:

If this guy is the real deal, and is the best shooter in the draft, why would he fall to 23 ?

Yeah, that's basically the point I was making in another thread. Is he the next Hubert Davis or something like that?

Posted by FrenchKnicks:

If this guy is the real deal, and is the best shooter in the draft, why would he fall to 23 ?

He is a senior whose program didn't have a stellar year. His first two issues. His third strike is that he is an American without hype. Put them all together and you will be discussing why so many teams let Redd or Arenas get by them. Oh I'm sorry I mean Almond.

If you want to talk about draft hype talk to Chad Ford and ask him to describe why he and the other draft experts thought that Lampe was better than Dwayne Wade or Chris Bosh or Josh Howard for that matter. Hell I won't even throw in Milicic.

[Edited by - pharzeone on 22-05-2007 11:09 AM]

Posted by nixluva:

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by FrenchKnicks:

If this guy is the real deal, and is the best shooter in the draft, why would he fall to 23 ?

Yeah, that's basically the point I was making in another thread. Is he the next Hubert Davis or something like that?

I think he's a bit of a one trick pony. That may account for part of it. The other thing is his level of competition. Until the Camp and workouts, it's hard to say how teams will feel about him. From the scouting reports, he seems legit. They say he has a quick release and an excellent pump fake that looks just like his real shooting form. He gets to the line and hits a high %. It seems that he may not be very strong defensively, passing or slashing and finishing.

That does sound a lot like Hubert Davis

The real Houston was an interesting case, because coming out of college, he had played a good amount of PG at Tennessee and was probably expected to be a better all-around player than he turned out to be. In the end, he was a solid borderline all-star talent (as we know, he did make the AS team a few times). Very good overall considering his draft position.

If my memory serves me correctly, Redd was an awesome tournament player, but overall, he wasn't considered an elite athlete nor was he considered a pure shooter, certainly not one w/ NBA 3pt range. IMHO he's a better player overall than Houston ever was. Very surprising guy.

Arenas is a little different because he's one of those guys that came out too early, at least as far as draft position goes. He just didn't have a chance to strut his stuff fully on a loaded college squad. He did better than most 1st rounders by being able to sign a big deal after only 2 seasons.

Anyway, by spilling the beans on Almond this early, the Knicks can't possibly be interested in him. Isiah's regime is good like that. No one had any idea that the Knicks were interested in any of their 1st round picks from the past 2 seasons. Frye, maybe... but they held a secret workout for him.

yup. it's going to be someone we've never heard of.

stuckey

Hubert Davis??? Whoever said that has not even seen this guy for one second. He's built like Corey Maggette--he's a tremendous rebounder from the 2 guard--he has long arms--very good athletic ability and I think he's hands down the best shooter in the draft. At the end of the day--he will likely get picked BEFORE our pick. There have been a lot of tremendous players who have stayed in school picked very late in recent years that seem to keep turning out much better than the *potential* guys. This draft does happen to have a great deal of proven amateur talent sprinkled in with some of the hot 1 year guys and foreign players. Whoever does get Almond will be happy and my bet is you will see him lead the SL in scoring and be NBA effective right away.