Posted by djsunyc:

Posted by highfivesucka:

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

devik harker

"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."

"There's a lot more players ready to impact a team right away," Pistons director of personnel George David said.

Posted by Solace:

Posted by Pharzeone:

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.

Lampe actually had some good showings and you can't be right about them all. I think A LOT of people thought Lampe was a stud. Moreso, how about Nicoloz Tskitishvilli? The guy wasn't even a starter in Europe, but he hits 10 consecutive threes when the scouts were there and he goes #5. I thought that was one of the most insane reaches ever.

Posted by BigSm00th:

its the NBA eny, the fact that almond produced for 4-years at a small school means he's not a lotto pick.

look at the top of the first round. obviously there is durant and oden as the 'sure things.'

then you got brandan wright, julian wright, the chinese dude, spencer hawes, and thaddeus young who are all highly touted but have not necessarily produced.

then there are guys like conley and jeff green and hibbert and acie law that played at big time programs at won and produced.

then there are the florida guys in horford, noah, and brewer.

then there are the mcroberts and nick youngs of the world that played at good programs at put up #'s but aren't as highly touted as the other guys.

then the foreign guys like splitter and belineli and gasol and fernandez.

how many people is that already? i think almond is a prime candidate, A LA KEVIN MARTIN a few years ago, to drop just because GMs can talk themselves into taking so many people in this draft.

almond and belineli are my two preferences if they decide for a shooter. if its a shotblocker everybody knows where i stand on sean williams.

then again it doesn't really matter what i think because i never wanted renaldo balkman, i never wanted trevor ariza...fact of the matter is isiah can draft well (spare channing frye who is a coward) and i trust who he goes w/ at 23. my prefernce, in order: almond, williams, belineli. i think 2 of the 3 at least, if not all 3, will be there.

Posted by BRIGGS:

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.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by Solace:

Yes, there's one of two things in play here.

Either:
A) Almond is as good as you guys are making him out to be, and thus we can't be the only ones that know -- he goes lottery

OR

B) Almond is getting highly overrated on this board and he goes late first round, early second round, thus we have a shot at him.

That simple. Almost every team in the NBA is interested in a shooter; if Almond is as good as you guys say, it's almost a definite he's not there at #23.

[Edited by - Solace on May 23 2007 07:08 AM]

Very well put. You don't even have to have seen the guy to figure that out. That has more to do with logic.

[Edited by - bonn1997 on 05-23-2007 08:39 AM]

Posted by Solace:

Posted by martin:

how do guys like Balk and Lee fit into this equation?

Those were sleepers on nobody's radar. Nobody including this board had those guys coming anywhere close to the first round. That's the definition of a sleeper. If Almond is as good as everyone says and everyone knows it, surely the knowledge isn't contained to New York, so he will go higher, barring a miracle.

Posted by Bonn1997:

Posted by martin:

Posted by Solace:

Posted by martin:

how do guys like Balk and Lee fit into this equation?

Those were sleepers on nobody's radar. Nobody including this board had those guys coming anywhere close to the first round. That's the definition of a sleeper. If Almond is as good as everyone says and everyone knows it, surely the knowledge isn't contained to New York, so he will go higher, barring a miracle.

Here is the weird thing, no one has Almond going in the first round - check out Chad, DraftExpress, NBADraft.net - does that make him a sleeper?

Also, how can you characterize a sleeper after they 1) got MVP of the Chicago/Orlando workouts 2) were MVP of NIT tourney?

Were do you put Josh Howard? Sleeper? Small school kid?

This is an internet world and just because they are mentioned in forums as a first rounder don't make them such.

Lee is one of the very rare impact players taken around 30. Sure we have based on history maybe a 15% chance of getting an impact player in the mid 20s. 80% of the teams in the league have a better pick and better odds, though.