Posted by BRIGGS:
Posted by Finestrg:
Jeff Teague. Huge fan. This kid's gonna be a good one. Also I'd love to grab as many of these 2nd tier guys as possible either by acquiring some lower picks or with camp invites if some go undrafted: DeJuan Blair, Sam Young, Taj Gibson, Trevor Booker, KC Rivers, AD Vassallo & Jack McClinton. I like these guys more than the end-of-the-bench guys we're carrying now (Sims, Crawford, Sene).
If the guys you listed above are gone, who do you like Briggs? Mullens?
I think the Knicks would look at Willie Warren and Chase Budinger there. I would also look into moving Jefferies to Minnesota for Brian Cardinal and flip picks 18+35 for 11 and Denver's 2 to see if I can get Mullens and look to see if I can catch a falling prize. There has been a nice prize at the top of the second round almost every year for the last several years.
7mm in Cap room Mullens[who will take 2-3 years to fully develop but can play off the bench now] and lets say Wayne Ellington falls to 35. There is also a big point guard from USC that is coming into this draft named Daniel Hackett who I like. He's a big PG at 6-5 and plays very hard. He's not on any draft boards but I think he will be a player picked up much higher than procrastinated. He's also from Italy:)
Budinger's a nice player but not at 11... I do like Warren a lot but have cooled on him just a little after a subpar tournament - invisible against Syracuse and even though he finished the UNC game with 18, if you saw that game, he didn't play well at all. Surprisingly turned it over a lot in the tournament even with less responsibility playing off the ball at the 2. Ideally I think he'd benefit from one more season at Oklahoma where he'd have a chance to really hone his skills at the point (he'd really be the man there with Griffin gone). Still, add Teague to your list of players who'll be gone by 11 and I'd take Warren there. Great size for a PG at 6'4", strong, athletic as ****, can get to the basket at will and has a real nice stroke from deep. There's a lot to like there...
If they're looking for a shooter I think Ellington will be gone by 35 - he had a great tourney and his stock has risen considerably, but guys like Christmas and KC Rivers will be there. I like Rivers a lot myself.
Saw Southern Cal. play a ton this season and I just didn't care for Hackett's play at the point at all to be honest. I don't even view him as a PG really - this lefty's a shoot-first type who just never bothered to make the best decisions with the ball and the right plays. Instead of looking to distribute to better options (he never really went out of his way to make sure Taj Gibson got the ball enough which never made any sense to me, esp. after reading they're supposedly roommates and good friends that grew up playing AAU ball together), this kid came down court and was looking for his about 90% of the time. He did manage to average an adequate 4.7 assts. per contest but that figure's deceiving, evident if you watched the Trojans closely this season. He was basically out there just looking to jack up shots at times. Now that's OK if you're a guy with Jeff Teague-type offensive skills and you're expected to score the ball at a high rate, but this kid Hackett's not on that level. Not even close. He was probably the 4th best option on that USC team this past season but went about his business like he was the 1st option. Part of that's on Tim Floyd who gave him way too much freedom when he should've reeled him in early and made sure he looked to facilitate the ball to open teammates first. I'd probably rather give Marcus Williams a shot at being my PG over this kid if it came down to it - they appear to be similar players at first glance, but to me Marcus Williams is much more of a truer PG if you compare the two. Still, he's not completely devoid of ability - he's got some size like you mentioned and some skills but to me, Hackett's got D-League written all over him...
[Edited by - finestrg on 04-12-2009 09:55 AM]
4/11/2009 8:36 PM
