Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:I think that melo needs a guard more than anything else

I think he does too, but i would still take Towns or Okafor as a top 2, just because they are the top 2 players and you must go BPA. But i won't be mad as long as we stay top 4, because at number 3 or 4, Russell and Mudiay are both great options and will be great with Melo. Plus there just aren't a lot of great FA guards that will be available.

I would be really pissed if we get stuck with mudiay.

for me its:

towns
ok4
russell
winslow

everyone else

we have one draft pick in a gazillion years, I hope we don't wasted it on a guy playing in china who is completely unproven and is believed to be a suspect shooter.

NYKBocker wrote:I have 3 wishes for this draft.

1. Chance to draft OK4 or Towns
2. Get another 1st Rd pick from mid to late.
3. Buy 1 or 2 2nd Rd picks.

I want 3-4 drafted players.

You're setting yourself up for disappointment, as we are all skilled at doing

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:I think that melo needs a guard more than anything else

I think he does too, but i would still take Towns or Okafor as a top 2, just because they are the top 2 players and you must go BPA. But i won't be mad as long as we stay top 4, because at number 3 or 4, Russell and Mudiay are both great options and will be great with Melo. Plus there just aren't a lot of great FA guards that will be available.

I would be really pissed if we get stuck with mudiay.

for me its:

towns
ok4
russell
winslow

everyone else

we have one draft pick in a gazillion years, I hope we don't wasted it on a guy playing in china who is completely unproven and is believed to be a suspect shooter.

You just can't judge a guy like Mudiay as a waste because he didn't play in college. There is nothing unproven about him. Scouts and teams are well-aware of everything he does, how his china stats translate, and advanced metrics about him. If you personally wouldn't want to draft a player who you haven't seen live on tv, then that's your opinion, but he is no different than guys who played his college in today's drafting world. All those who write about him and have seen him project him as a top talent with all-star potential and no real red flags other than the typical things he needs to improve on like any other 19 year old prospect.

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:I think that melo needs a guard more than anything else

I think he does too, but i would still take Towns or Okafor as a top 2, just because they are the top 2 players and you must go BPA. But i won't be mad as long as we stay top 4, because at number 3 or 4, Russell and Mudiay are both great options and will be great with Melo. Plus there just aren't a lot of great FA guards that will be available.

I would be really pissed if we get stuck with mudiay.

for me its:

towns
ok4
russell
winslow

everyone else

we have one draft pick in a gazillion years, I hope we don't wasted it on a guy playing in china who is completely unproven and is believed to be a suspect shooter.

You just can't judge a guy like Mudiay as a waste because he didn't play in college. There is nothing unproven about him. Scouts and teams are well-aware of everything he does, how his china stats translate, and advanced metrics about him. If you personally wouldn't want to draft a player who you haven't seen live on tv, then that's your opinion, but he is no different than guys who played his college in today's drafting world. All those who write about him and have seen him project him as a top talent with all-star potential and no real red flags other than the typical things he needs to improve on like any other 19 year old prospect.

scouts have no idea how to "translate" his chinese stats.

mikesknicks wrote:

I like WCS - he may be a better choice than Okafor cause he will bring needed defense.

WCS is in no way a better prospect then Okafor. This is not the 80's & 90's basketball and last I checked you still ahve to score the most points to win. Look at who won the MVP Curry with Harden a close second and what are they known for defense????? You just need above average to very good team defense. You take Okafor over WCS every day of the week.

Of the 7 teams still left in the playoffs. Cavs, Wiz, Hawks, Clips, Rockets, Griz and Warriors.

I would say that WCS's skill set and abilities fit more closely with Mozgov, Gortat, Horford, Jordan and Bogut. These 5 are defensive centers first and foremost.

I might say that Okafor align's better with Gasol and maybe Howard because he scores on the block sometimes. These 2 score the ball in the post but again are defensive players as well. Okafor doesn't align with any of these 7 guys defensively.

So regardless if WCS is the better prospect or not --- I say his body/type, skill set, athleticism, game are more comparable to 5 of the remaining 7 centers -- regardless if it's no longer the 80s or 90s.

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:I think that melo needs a guard more than anything else

I think he does too, but i would still take Towns or Okafor as a top 2, just because they are the top 2 players and you must go BPA. But i won't be mad as long as we stay top 4, because at number 3 or 4, Russell and Mudiay are both great options and will be great with Melo. Plus there just aren't a lot of great FA guards that will be available.

I would be really pissed if we get stuck with mudiay.

for me its:

towns
ok4
russell
winslow

everyone else

we have one draft pick in a gazillion years, I hope we don't wasted it on a guy playing in china who is completely unproven and is believed to be a suspect shooter.

Do you realize what Mudiay would have done to the patsy (non-NBA) talent that Russell played against in the Big 10? Do you realize the Chinese guys Mudiay was playing against were men and that they were better than the cupcakes Russell faced at schools like N-Western, Purdue and Penn State.

Larry Brown said after watching Mudiay and recruiting him to play at SMU. "All I know is that if Mudiay had come to SMU we'd have got a good shot every time down the court".

I believe Brown said he may have had the best vision he's seen coming off the high screen & roll scenario. You can see this in his China film. Frascilla calls him a Jason Kidd type point guard.

For what it's worth...

The Portsmouth tournament was about a month ago. Just including their all-star team. The first 4 names all played on the same team, which won the tournament.

Complete stats are available at their site. I think you have to be a 4 years senior to play here, so most of the guys are 22+.

2015 adidas Portsmouth Invitational
All-Tournament Team

Treveon Graham, MVP VCU
D.J. Newbill, Penn State
J.J Avila, Colorado State
David Laury, Iona
Richaun Holmes, Bowling Green
Jabril Trawick, Georgetown
D'Angelo Harrison, St. John's
Chavaughn Lewis, Marist
Darion Atkins, Virginia
Cady Lalanne, Massachusetts
Matt Stainbrook, Xavier
Jarvis Williams, Murray State

LivingLegend wrote:

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:I think that melo needs a guard more than anything else

I think he does too, but i would still take Towns or Okafor as a top 2, just because they are the top 2 players and you must go BPA. But i won't be mad as long as we stay top 4, because at number 3 or 4, Russell and Mudiay are both great options and will be great with Melo. Plus there just aren't a lot of great FA guards that will be available.

I would be really pissed if we get stuck with mudiay.

for me its:

towns
ok4
russell
winslow

everyone else

we have one draft pick in a gazillion years, I hope we don't wasted it on a guy playing in china who is completely unproven and is believed to be a suspect shooter.

Do you realize what Mudiay would have done to the patsy (non-NBA) talent that Russell played against in the Big 10? Do you realize the Chinese guys Mudiay was playing against were men and that they were better than the cupcakes Russell faced at schools like N-Western, Purdue and Penn State.

Larry Brown said after watching Mudiay and recruiting him to play at SMU. "All I know is that if Mudiay had come to SMU we'd have got a good shot every time down the court".

I believe Brown said he may have had the best vision he's seen coming off the high screen & roll scenario. You can see this in his China film. Frascilla calls him a Jason Kidd type point guard.

did you watch his championship game against marbury?

I did ... really hope we stay away from him.

If you don't think that him playing in china hurts his stock against college players then you are way off.

dk7th wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:

Knixkik wrote:

mreinman wrote:I think that melo needs a guard more than anything else

I think he does too, but i would still take Towns or Okafor as a top 2, just because they are the top 2 players and you must go BPA. But i won't be mad as long as we stay top 4, because at number 3 or 4, Russell and Mudiay are both great options and will be great with Melo. Plus there just aren't a lot of great FA guards that will be available.

I would be really pissed if we get stuck with mudiay.

for me its:

towns
ok4
russell
winslow

everyone else

we have one draft pick in a gazillion years, I hope we don't wasted it on a guy playing in china who is completely unproven and is believed to be a suspect shooter.

You just can't judge a guy like Mudiay as a waste because he didn't play in college. There is nothing unproven about him. Scouts and teams are well-aware of everything he does, how his china stats translate, and advanced metrics about him. If you personally wouldn't want to draft a player who you haven't seen live on tv, then that's your opinion, but he is no different than guys who played his college in today's drafting world. All those who write about him and have seen him project him as a top talent with all-star potential and no real red flags other than the typical things he needs to improve on like any other 19 year old prospect.

scouts have no idea how to "translate" his chinese stats.

Of course they do. Plenty of NBA players play in that league. It's no different than translating college stats, just smaller sample sizes. In fact they just did it on espn.

yeah walsh did the exact same thing with gallinari and it worked out great so why shouldn't it be the same with someone in the chinese league?