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Following potential 2015 draftees

I don't know enough about Hezonja. And he won't be there at 12. And I'm hesitant to trade Hood, 'cause I like Hood and, again, I don't know enough about Hezonja.
 
I think we have an opportunity to get to 10 by taking on McBob and his contract and giving the 12. They have a salary crunch this year and now that wade wants his Kobe contract they will want to cut some salary for next year to open up more space then... I'd do it
 
I think we have an opportunity to get to 10 by taking on McBob and his contract and giving the 12. They have a salary crunch this year and now that wade wants his Kobe contract they will want to cut some salary for next year to open up more space then... I'd do it
I'd gladly take McBob to move to 10.
 
If Jazz are really high on Payne like some have said and they really think he's BPA, I wonder if the following scenario is realistic:

-Jazz draft Cameron Payne at 12
-Trade Burke and one (or both) of the second rounders for a late-ish first (a team that doesn't want to add a guaranteed contract)
-Draft RJ Hunter, RHJ, or Kevon Looney (if he slipped a bit) etc.

Trade Burke to the Lakers for the 28th pick (or 29th)?
 
I was just reading Sam Vecenie's twitter feed... Seems like he's got a mini man crush on Vezenkov:

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 1h1 hour ago

It’s going to be hard for me to hide my excitement if Sasha Vezenkov stays in the draft. Just a ridiculous shooter.

https://gfycat.com/NegligibleThoseIberianmole

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 1h1 hour ago

He might be the worst defensive player in the NBA if he comes over, but I legitimately don’t care. He’s so fun.

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 1h1 hour ago

Vezenkov’s shot is so soaking wet that you could wipe off the ball and cure cancer with the liquid:
https://gfycat.com/DimwittedElectricDeer

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 1h1 hour ago

He’s like, the most tremendously flawed prospect that I think I’ve ever scouted, and I just kind of don’t care. I want him in the NBA.

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 1h1 hour ago

If his feet are set and you don’t get a hand in Vezenkov’s face, ball isn’t just going in, it’s not hitting the rim.
https://gfycat.com/FatWelllitKinkajou

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 51m51 minutes ago

He’s 19 and already has the one-legged Dirk shot in his repertoire. We need Vezenkov in the NBA somehow.
https://gfycat.com/VariablePoorKillifish

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 38m38 minutes ago

Like, if Vladimir Radmanovic can play almost 800 NBA games, we can get a solid 300 or so out of Vezenkov, right?

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 21m21 minutes ago

God, how badly would Vezenkov have destroyed college basketball this year. So disappointing he didn’t go to Xavier: https://collegebasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/05/17/xavier-lands-6-8-forward-aleksandar-vezenkov/


Caleb Nordgren ‏@chisportsguy41 1h1 hour ago

@sam_vecenie Is he a wing or a four?

Sam Vecenie ‏@Sam_Vecenie 1h1 hour ago

@chisportsguy41 it doesn’t matter, he’s not defending either lol.
lolol

Some of the sub-tweet exchanges are fun too... It's pretty much how I feel about him. He's so exciting, efficient and smooth shooting the ball, but damn is it scary on the defensive end. Aris is trying to hide him in some zone defense, but it's hard.
 
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I think the Jazz will be making a playoff push next year. I don't think they're going to be adding many more rookies.
Um, did you watch last season? Some of the rookies that played for the Jazz looked much better than Trey.

Not to mention you could you that pick on a draft and stash.
 
So lately it is being "reported" that Minny prefers Okafor at 1 and the Lakers are targeting Mudiay at 2. If Towns and Russell are available at 3 then is there anything you'd be willing to package to Philly to try and get one of those two?

Also, who are you targeting if you can move up?
 
Warning: long post with data –quit reading now if you’re not interested in the Locke/Kaminsky discussion.

I’ll take a stab at the Locke/Kaminsky question with some (semi-systematic, if also quick and dirty) research.

Locke’s argument has been that college players (or more precisely 18/19 and 19/20-year olds) who don’t demonstrate some kind of excellence their first two years in college are very risky – that they tend to flame out in the NBA.

To go through the data as quickly as possible, I used the EFF rating in DX’s player profiles, as it seems to be the single number that gives at least some sense of the combination of quality and the amount of play (which Locke seemed to stress). I went through six years of drafts (2006-11) because I simply don’t have time to do more, and I think the patterns probably become clear enough with this sample size. I typically tried to go through about the first 35-40 or so players drafted in each of these years.

Kaminsky’s EFF rating was 2.8 and 5.4 respectively as an 18-year-old freshman and a 19-year-old sophomore. Locke is right to say that these are extremely low numbers for an NBA draft pick in Kaminsky’s range. They are quite rare.

It’s not unusual for draftees to have somewhat low 18/19-year-old EFF ratings (though they’re still the minority). But I decided to concentrate on the numbers as a 19/20-year old, the typical age for sophomores, since Locke was really stressing this yesterday. Indeed I found it was very rare for NBA draftees to have such low numbers in that season.

In fact, I found only one real good comparison--Jon Leuer--Wisconsin skilled big man--coincidentally (or not coincidentally) enough. Though Leuer was a bit higher earlier in his career and a bit lower later, his career trajectory tracked pretty closely to Kaminsky.

Is this a good or a bad sign for Kaminsky? Hard to say, but I’d lean toward good. He’s become a decent, though thoroughly replaceable semi-rotation player for a very good team. But having been drafted 40th, that career trajectory probably doesn’t hurt Kaminsky’s case.

Another Big Ten guy – Maurice Ager – had numbers very similar to Kaminsky in his first two years (though slightly higher). He and a few other players with similar numbers – Nolan Smith, Justin Harper, Morris Almond (ouch!) are all probably fairly classified as busts, even though they were picked between the low 20s-low 30s. Maybe these support Locke’s case, but none of those players’ last two years numbers were nearly as good as Frank’s.

In support of Kaminsky, we can turn to Joakim Noah, who had a 5.3 EFF rating as a 19/20-year-old freshman and yet has clearly lived up to his high draft position.

Al Thornton is a bit more uncertain. Drafted at #14, near Kaminsky’s projection, Thornton was more than a year older than Frank in his college progression. His freshman and sophomore EFFs of 3.1 and 9.3 are quite low. Thornton had some decent years for bad teams as a pro, but kind of faded away as his game never really progressed.

If we stretch the match with Kaminsky a bit (ie including for freshmen, rather than sophomores – but only those who were within about 6 months of Kaminsky’s sophomore age; or getting a little further away from Kaminsky’s low sophomore EFF score), we can add the following names, roughly from closer to less close match with Kaminsky:
Cole Aldrich
Jordan Hill
Randy Foye
James White
Epke Udoh
Jordan Hamilton
Norris Cole
Chandler Parsons
Jimmy Butler
Aaron Afflalo
Joe Alexander
Larry Sanders
Nick Young
Isaiah Thomas
Sheldon Williams
Craig Brackins

Good or bad signs for Kaminsky overall? Hard to say, but any determination has to factor in draft position.

Overall, I’d say, as Stitches said earlier, it’s probably good to have a healthy respect for the argument that low production in the first two years is a warning factor. But I suspect (with Vashro) that it’s overplayed at times.

In reality, Kaminsky’s case is so unique – going from such low to such high production – that it’s really hard to know if past experience is any guide in this particular case. Maybe that by itself is even more risky than comparison with these quasi-similar cases I found.

But on the other hand, there’s an argument to be made that Kaminsky has shown an aptitude for improvement – one of the most important traits an NBA player can have. As Wes Matthews, DeMarre Carroll, Paul Millsap, and many others have shown, it’s hard to know where the ceiling is for that.

EDIT PS: The comparisons Locke has been providing: Wesley Johnson, Jimmer Fredette, particularly, aren't very good comparisons. Johnson was pretty good as a freshman, Jimmer as a sophomore. They wouldn't make my cutoff for comparisons.
 
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I think its awesome when people take time to do what you just did. Probably as valid as anybodies work, but you really should include a teal deer tl;dr.

Im at work and just cant sit and read all of that. Would hate to forget about it and miss what you found.
 
I think its awesome when people take time to do what you just did. Probably as valid as anybodies work, but you really should include a teal deer tl;dr.

Im at work and just cant sit and read all of that. Would hate to forget about it and miss what you found.

Short answer is, the data is mixed. I think the Locke has a point. I think Locke's critics have a point. But generally I think Locke is more scared about Kaminsky than he needs to be.
 
So lately it is being "reported" that Minny prefers Okafor at 1 and the Lakers are targeting Mudiay at 2. If Towns and Russell are available at 3 then is there anything you'd be willing to package to Philly to try and get one of those two?

Also, who are you targeting if you can move up?

Easy answer. I'd grab Russ. We already have favs and Rudy. I'd give 12 plus the next years pick and GS pick Exum

Russ Burke
Burks. Hood
Hayward. Ingles
Favors. Booker
Gobert. Free agent
 
Kaminsky will do well in the NBA because he's good at playing basketball. Yes, I'm saying he'll be good despite the fact that some completely different player with a distinct skill set, different work ethic and different coaching, among other things, drafted a few years ago, sucked.

Yeah, I'm bold like that.
 
Kaminsky will do well in the NBA because he's a good at playing basketball. Yes, I'm saying he'll be good despite the fact that some completely different player with a distinct skill set, different work ethic and different coaching, among other things, drafted a few years ago, sucked.

Yeah, I'm bold like that.

Good leader, good dude, good skill set. I just want people to evaluate the player based on his game most posters on here do that. Locke has said one thing about franks game and the rest of his analysis is based on pelton and other statistical models... Which ironically rate frank as a good prospect.

I'm fine with someone saying he won't be able to defend etc... I can appreciate that but just to make blanket statements based on just one factor in draft analysis is dumb and it's how guys slip through the cracks.

I think I'm happy with just about anyone probably other than lyles. I still haven't figured out what he does well. I'm not a huge looney fan purely based on the limited games I watched him in... I could be talked into either if we moved down.

I'm growing to be a bigger fan of booker. He sounds like he'll be a hard, smart worker and has an NBA skill. He wouldn't play much but sounds like the type that would use the time wisely and get better.
 
I really think people (in general) are over thinking this Kaminsky thing. While history can help to shed some light on the future, every prospect is different & should be judged on his skill-set, character, & potential room for improvement (as well as fit) rather than the past success or failure of similar prospects. Kaminsky is what he is & that's an offensively skilled big man who, despite giving good effort, is limited defensively & imo is likely to become a championship caliber 3rd big with the potential to become a fringe starter (alongside the right player in the frontcourt). The question comes down to fit & draft philosophy. Personally, I view him as a near perfect fit as the 3rd big along with Favors & Gobert. My only concern is whether or not DL is willing to settle for a defensively limited rotation player with a lottery pick (I don't think he is). I have Kaminsky at #12, more so because of the other options, but expect DL to focus on the long-term & favor ceiling over floor. I don't think he will make a "safe" pick such as Kaminsky this high in the draft or before the team has solidified itself as a legitimate contender, but that doesn't mean he isn't still the right pick (not that I don't trust DL). I still think the priority should & will be to trade up (or down if we are unable to do so).
 
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