Jackson, unless it was a smokescreen, said we had our "lead guard." I even read a rumor that the Lakers might have asked him in a second time simply to go up against some second round prospects they were looking at to assess their value.

My issues with Mudiay:

Can he really be a consistent shooter?

If Phil wants to run the Triangle, and the Triangle is not a classic PG style offense- how do you take a guy who has a reputation as not being a good shooter? He is big, and can get to the hoop, but you wonder if he is Phil's type of guard.

Other things I have issues with:

He clearly went to a HS that was designed to minimize the academics and promote athletics- which is why it has since been shut down and involved in scandal. I taught, and I coached in HS- and when I hear this I really get suspicious. He seemed to be taking the easy way out in an attempt to showcase himself.

I would feel much differently about him if he had played with Brown, no doubt about it, but...

...He chose to play in an overseas league which is clearly inferior to the European leagues. At least Jennings tried to play in Europe. Jackson talked about the overseas games and the superiority of certain leages, and also talked about the maturity factor. Add to this the fact that the Chinese league seems to give players much more freedom.

Don't know what the circumstances were, and whether Mudiay tried to hook up with a European team, but if you look at the scoring for the two leagues you might get an idea of what kind of game is being played in China these days.

Errick MCCOLLUM
Zhejiang.
(185-PG-88)
Avg: 39.6
1. McCollum, Zhejiang. 39.6
2. Warren, Chongqin. 38.9
3. Jones, Manati 36.8
4. Wafer, Shanxi Zh. 32.5
5. Akognon, Partizan 31.9
6. Brown, DongGuan L. 31.3
7. Hudson, LA Clippers 31.2
8. Blatche, Xinjiang. 31.1
9. Douby, TianJin S. 30.9
10. Dentmon, Texas L. 30.4

RANK	PLAYER	               TEAM	                 GAMES POINTS	AVE.	PER 40 MIN.
1	 GOUDELOCK, ANDREW	Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul  29	493	17.00	22.80
2	 DE COLO, NANDO	CSKA    Moscow	                   28	403	14.39	23.58
3	 MARJANOVIC, BOBAN	Crvena Zvezda Belgrade	   24	398	16.58	24.31
4	 ROCHESTIE, TAYLOR	Nizhny Novgorod	           21	397	18.90	25.17
5	 SMITH, DEVIN	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	   25	376	15.04	18.89
6	 SPANOULIS, VASSILIS	Olympiacos Piraeus	   26	374	14.38	20.46
7	 PARGO, JEREMY	Maccabi Electra Tel Aviv	   27	369	13.67	17.09
8	 TEODOSIC, MILOS	CSKA Moscow	           24	354	14.75	20.93
9	 BJELICA, NEMANJA	Fenerbahce Ulker Istanbul  29	350	12.07	17.39
10	 ANDERSON, JAMES	Zalgiris Kaunas	           24	349	14.54	20.47

unless the knicks told him they were gonna draft him which i doubt happened...

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/13135005/top-guard-emmanuel-mudiay-quietly-climbed-draft-charts-playing-china

wargames wrote:He could know he's flawed and has a better chance of going top 10 if teams think he is a steal from #4 down.

in a PG league and with Denver and Kings needing a STARTING CALBIER PG, I do not see him slipping past those 2 teams as they want to go younger
With a ceiling of John Wall and weakness's being shooting *it is a skill that could be learned, however, his physical body is NBA ready now, though he will have to sharpen up those skills and need to work hard*
Which I think he does have a good work ethic and credit the story about him earning the trust of his team mates that did not like him to start the season but changed their perspective on him, though losing in the end...

Especially with this WCS injury, unless it is smokescreen, someone gets moved up as well and Kaminksi is unlikely to pass Bobcats now with these moves made

IMO,

if we stay at # 4, we should draft either KP or Mudiay

if Winslow was a legit 6-6 or 6-7, I would have felt differently, however, at about Iman's size, and without a LBJ or even at least a Jimmy Butler/Kawaii Leanard to pair with him, I just do not think he would be enough for our roster

ON WINSLOW AT #4

Think we could develop in to a much better DEFENSIVE team but would unlikely be LEGIT contenders, not good enough on OFFENSE or DEFENSE but could be play off pretenders as 1 or 2 and done with just CA

DO we trade down from 4th if Nuggets gets pick 6/7 to acquire 2 FITS for our system with

Winslow/Mario Henzjoa *might not come over till next year, when salary rises*
WCS/Kaminski

maybe add in draft rights to Jovic or Jsurkic??

Maybe a 3rd move for MCW, Henson, and their pick? Though I would much rather have Giannes if we keep CA, as I think he would compliment CA's weakness's and each other on OFFENSE/DEFENSE as CA can also teach him how to shoot and use his handle to score, maybe some bully ball as well, as we reunite the Greek Freaks
His ability to play, point forard/defend all 5 positions, and post up could be Scotty Pippen like, especially if we add Durant to play Jordan's role and maybe CA to Kukoc's role
Those verastile talents would allow us to theoritically play both SMALL/BIG ball in the Triangle as it is interchangeable as we fully learn to exectue the system
More importantly, they are YOUNG, so they can improve and build chemistry together as they are still in rookie contracts as well to allow to to target some TOP TEIR's talents

Either his agents are terrible, or that's pretty telling.

Same reason I ultimately think the Lakers just take Okafor - he never worked out for Philly or the Knicks.

nixluva wrote:IMO all these guys are very close but Mudiay has the highest upside. If he ever improves his jumper he's got so much game already that it makes him a guy with a lot of upside. He's got great size for a PG and will likely play the Kobe/Mj role in the offense and not the Fisher role. I would have no problem if they felt Mudiay was the BPA. I can't really argue given how little info I have on him or Hezonja or KrisP. Those are the high upside guys left on the board.

nixluva wrote:IMO all these guys are very close but Mudiay has the highest upside. If he ever improves his jumper he's got so much game already that it makes him a guy with a lot of upside. He's got great size for a PG and will likely play the Kobe/Mj role in the offense and not the Fisher role. I would have no problem if they felt Mudiay was the BPA. I can't really argue given how little info I have on him or Hezonja or KrisP. Those are the high upside guys left on the board.

Wall had an awful shot when he got drafted. It doesn't take anything but REPS to fix an inconsistent shot. Mudiay played only 12 games last year. It's a non-issue IMO. We should pick him. He's the next elite PG in the NBA, and as Nix said, he's cut from the Kobe mold. Would be terrible to pass him up for a big, unless we are trading down for value.