After reading this I am sold on OK4.
Too many ifs with Towns.

BigRedDog wrote:https://rootingforgoliath.wordpress.com/2015/03/10/gunning-for-the-first-pick/

After reading this I am sold on OK4.
Too many ifs with Towns.

I will read it soon....but if we are picking the safest pick...its definitely OK4. If we are picking on potential its Towns. But thanks for the post....I will read it shortly.

BigRedDog wrote:Towns--Negatives – Outside of his jumper which he hasn’t been able to consistently flex thanks the the strength of his team he has no NBA level skills. His post game is rough and he constantly looks out of control and spastic, his defense is great but he jumps for everything, he fouls a lot, and he makes a decent amount of boneheaded plays. Physically Towns has a strange top heavy build, clown feet, and a weak lower body. He’s been moved off the block pretty routinely when matched up against 260+ pound guys. This worries me a lot about Towns

OK4-Positives – The post game Jahlil Okafor owns might be the most developed one ever seen in an 18 year old. His touch is possibly the best I’ve ever seen inside, his handles are strong, footwork impeccable, and his power game is the best I’ve seen since Shaq. He is built like an all timer should be with amazing quickness, size, and strength while also not even looking like he’s had high level weight training or diets yet. He also seems to have an ability to dominate the offensive glass and with his touch it makes him extremely efficient on putbacks. This man also has a habit of attacking and killing NBA sized bigs. Most impressively he physically dominated the 7-0 260 pound Satchel Pierce on his way to a career high 30 points on 13-18 shooting while fouling Pierce out of the game against Virginia Tech.
Overall his game reminds me of Moses Malone. Now he doesn’t have any direct comparisons because it is not common to see a big man with a fully developed post game at 18 nor is it common to see a player this skilled lacking a jumpshot from the foul line extended. If he can improve his conditioning, increase his freethrow percentage to 65-70% and become above average defensively he will end up as one of the best players to ever lace them up.

I pasted parts of the article. Towns's negatives worry me much more than OK4's and OK4's positives also are much more impressive.

may be a bit misleading and less biased if you posted Towns positives, no?

BigRedDog wrote:

mreinman wrote:

BigRedDog wrote:Towns--Negatives – Outside of his jumper which he hasn’t been able to consistently flex thanks the the strength of his team he has no NBA level skills. His post game is rough and he constantly looks out of control and spastic, his defense is great but he jumps for everything, he fouls a lot, and he makes a decent amount of boneheaded plays. Physically Towns has a strange top heavy build, clown feet, and a weak lower body. He’s been moved off the block pretty routinely when matched up against 260+ pound guys. This worries me a lot about Towns

OK4-Positives – The post game Jahlil Okafor owns might be the most developed one ever seen in an 18 year old. His touch is possibly the best I’ve ever seen inside, his handles are strong, footwork impeccable, and his power game is the best I’ve seen since Shaq. He is built like an all timer should be with amazing quickness, size, and strength while also not even looking like he’s had high level weight training or diets yet. He also seems to have an ability to dominate the offensive glass and with his touch it makes him extremely efficient on putbacks. This man also has a habit of attacking and killing NBA sized bigs. Most impressively he physically dominated the 7-0 260 pound Satchel Pierce on his way to a career high 30 points on 13-18 shooting while fouling Pierce out of the game against Virginia Tech.
Overall his game reminds me of Moses Malone. Now he doesn’t have any direct comparisons because it is not common to see a big man with a fully developed post game at 18 nor is it common to see a player this skilled lacking a jumpshot from the foul line extended. If he can improve his conditioning, increase his freethrow percentage to 65-70% and become above average defensively he will end up as one of the best players to ever lace them up.

I pasted parts of the article. Towns's negatives worry me much more than OK4's and OK4's positives also are much more impressive.

may be a bit misleading and less biased if you posted Towns positives, no?

The article is very long and I have a link to the article. I wrote why I posted what I did. Read it and respond.

I read it and its quite fair. I have the same reservations about Towns' feet. But there were huge positives in there too. HUGE! as well as some strong negatives for Ok4. Thought your post may have been misleading.

Towns-Many guys are calling Jahlil Okafor the safe pick but I’m calling BS on that. Karl-Anthony has the most well rounded skillset and athleticism in this draft. He is 6-11, 250lbs, and currently the best defender and offensive player on a team that might go down as the greatest NCAA team since Kareem and Bill Walton were at UCLA. After not being able to show off how great he really was early on this season he’s forced Calipari to play him more than 20 minutes a night.

Positives – Towns’ biggest positive is his lack of negatives. I’ve been on the Towns bandwagon early since 2012 when I watched him play against Team USA. He showed a nice jumper, good athleticism, and a natural passing ability all at the age of 15/16. Now at Kentucky he’s doing a little of everything well. He’s shooting 79% from the freethrow line, 43% on his jumpshots, 75% in the restricted area, keeping turnovers low (14% TOV%), and locking down the paint (12.6% of his opponent’s shots are blocked by him). A center at 18 with the ability to shooting close to 80% from the freethrow line, dominate from the midrange, and create faceup looks off the dribble has never been seen before.

Negatives – Outside of his jumper which he hasn’t been able to consistently flex thanks the the strength of his team he has no NBA level skills. His post game is rough and he constantly looks out of control and spastic, his defense is great but he jumps for everything, he fouls a lot, and he makes a decent amount of boneheaded plays. Physically Towns has a strange top heavy build, clown feet, and a weak lower body. He’s been moved off the block pretty routinely when matched up against 260+ pound guys.

Personally I compare him to a bigger, more athletic, weaker Al Horford or old man Tim Duncan. He at best seems like he will be similar to peak Dwight Howard in terms of impact. Defensively he’s great but not some special otherworldly monster like the last two future All NBA defenders that went to Kentucky and offensively he probably won’t have one thing he can go to consistently. I have a feeling in the tournament he won’t be as strong as he was against the weak SEC but with the tools his 31-0 team has Kentucky can realistically win the tournament with little to no challenge from the other teams.

Best fit among bottom 5 teams – The Los Angeles Lakers – I’d love to see Kobe, Clarkson and Randle play with this guy. Randle is the perfect frontcourt mate because his positives and negatives are almost the exact opposite of Towns’ and Kobe and Clarkson are pretty smart guards (outside of when Clarkson is driving and Kobe is feeling selfish). Towns also plays with a fire like Kobe and Randle do. I will say that as a Knick fan he fits them better (and he grew up a diehard Knicks fan) but I don’t want to use the same team twice.

OK4-The legendary Coach K’s one-and-done experiment has gone extremely well. In the last 5 years he has coached three of the most developed freshmen ever. The big (at 6-3.5 in sneakers), kind of slow, extremely quick, defensively iffy, and extremely skilled PG Kyrie Irving (who is a 3 time All Star and in the middle of his first All NBA level season), the big (6-8.5 with a 8-11 standing reach), kind of slow, extremely quick, defensively iffy, and advanced Jabari Parker (who was looking like the ROY and dunking on guys like Josh Smith at will before getting injured), and now the big (6-11 with a 7-5 wingspan and 9-2.5 in. standing reach), kind of slow, extremely quick, defensively iffy, skilled, and advanced Jahlil Okafor. Something about Coach K seems to attract young superstars and extremely mature high schoolers.

Positives – The post game Jahlil Okafor owns might be the most developed one ever seen in an 18 year old. His touch is possibly the best I’ve ever seen inside, his handles are strong, footwork impeccable, and his power game is the best I’ve seen since Shaq. He is built like an all timer should be with amazing quickness, size, and strength while also not even looking like he’s had high level weight training or diets yet. Down low he puts defenders in a coffin and he is so good Duke can have the 2nd best offense in the country (by both ORTG and Adjusted ORTG) while running 45% of their plays through him. He’s consistently doubled and he can handle them amazingly well and his best attribute might be his consistency (he only had one single digit scoring game and he only played 19 minutes that night in a blowout win). He also seems to have an ability to dominate the offensive glass and with his touch it makes him extremely efficient on putbacks. This man also has a habit of attacking and killing NBA sized bigs. Most impressively he physically dominated the 7-0 260 pound Satchel Pierce on his way to a career high 30 points on 13-18 shooting while fouling Pierce out of the game against Virginia Tech.

Weaknesses – Conditioning and defense. Okafor seems to get winded when running both ways constantly and at his size it’s not a surprise. He could always lose another 15 pounds and put on 10 pounds of muscle to keep his weight and power while having better conditioning. Players of his general build (DeMarcus Cousins, Marc Gasol, Kevin Love, etc) lose weight and become way better pretty commonly. Defensively Jahlil isn’t a big shot blocker and he doesn’t give consistent effort. When locked in he can maintain his verticality well to stop plays but even when trying his pick and roll and perimeter defense is bad. Defensively he reminds me of a smaller Shaq, Moses Malone, or a young Marc Gasol. His effort just seems to be an issue that the other 3 guys don’t have. Jahlil also lacks a consistent outside game. He has a quick turnaround jumper he loves to flex

Overall his game reminds me of Moses Malone. Now he doesn’t have any direct comparisons because it is not common to see a big man with a fully developed post game at 18 nor is it common to see a player this skilled lacking a jumpshot from the foul line extended. If he can improve his conditioning, increase his freethrow percentage to 65-70% and become above average defensively he will end up as one of the best players to ever lace them up.

Best fit among bottom 5 teams – The New York Knicks – A team with a system that enabled the last legendary low post scorer to flourish, a great scorer already on the roster in Carmelo Anthony (meaning that Jahlil must learn to coexist with another scorer and contribute in other ways early), and enough cap space to sign the specific players needed around him. I keep hearing how Jahlil is worse than Towns because he requires a specific type of player to be around him to be successful but Jahlil is so good I’m not sure if not building your team around him is a good idea.

That is the top 4 of this draft. Personally I can see all becoming future All Stars and I expect Russell, Towns, and Okafor to be at least as good as Carmelo Anthony/Paul Pierce level players. At this point guessing which will be the best not which will be good is what most are doing. I will definitely update this list after the NCAA Tournament and the NBA Draft Combine. So until then make sure you pay attention to these guys.

I ws just making a post when I saw this. Okafor has weighed 270 pounds+ since 2010 when he was 14. Thats his normal size. He s not fat or this or that--hes just big and also nimble. NOW lets throw in professional weight and speed training to a 19 year old. If he is a hrd worker and it seems like he is--he could add explosion and lateral quickness that he might lack some right now. hes a freshmen in college. Stein's build is mature--hes been in the UK weight room for 3 years with offseasons. Hes bigger and stronger now and he also played football. Waita nd see what OPkafor does when he does the same.

I will agree some on Towns but disagree that he wont also be very good and has more of a balanced two way skill game than Ok4. Im happy with either I dont think we lose if we get a chance to draft either.

1A Okafor
1B Towns

Ive been close on these guys and I realize that both can work on things physically to improve.

3-4

Same Russell and Hezonja---no other player I would take from the first 4. I might be willing to trade pick 3 or 4 but the haul I would want would be astronomical. I think all of these 4 are stars.