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Following potential 2017 draftees...

Ball is getting a lot of hype near the top of the draft. I'm not sure how well his game translates to the NBA, where the game is faster and more physical.

He is 4th right now IMO, but he could easily take the place of Smith or Jackson depending on who is picking. I think Fultz is probably the pretty clear #1, even though I like Jackson potential better (just too risky to pass up on Fultz), but 2-4 could be in any order. No idea what happens past 5, I think this draft is 4 deep in terms of high potential picks w/ low risk.
 
this a deep class.If favors coming out from GTECH in this class he would be maybe a top 10 pick.. So no he would not be drafted top 5 like your silly example trys to point out.

No way. People forget Favors went ahead of players like Cousins, PG13, Hayward. Favors was a blue chip prospect. He might have not hit the very top of his projection but he's still a top 30 player in the league when healthy. There aren't 10 players in this draft that are going to get to the level Favors is now, let alone to the level Favors was projected to be at draft day.

And BTW I don't think there's anybody around who thinks higher of this draft class than me. I've said I'd trade Favors for a top 3-4... maybe 5 pick, but I think things get more sketchy after that and the chance is whoever you draft won't ever come to Favors' level. Saying a player that teams should draft outside of the lottery is going to be better than Favors or is Towns-like sounds asinine to me. If you value him this high, he's not an out of the lottery prospect - he should be at the very least top 10 pick and more likely a top 5 pick.
 
No way. People forget Favors went ahead of players like Cousins, PG13, Hayward. Favors was a blue chip prospect. He might have not hit the very top of his projection but he's still a top 30 player in the league when healthy. There aren't 10 players in this draft that are going to get to the level Favors is now, let alone to the level Favors was projected to be at draft day.

And BTW I don't think there's anybody around who thinks higher of this draft class than me. I've said I'd trade Favors for a top 3-4... maybe 5 pick, but I think things get more sketchy after that and the chance is whoever you draft won't ever come to Favors' level. Saying a player that teams should draft outside of the lottery is going to be better than Favors or is Towns-like sounds asinine to me. If you value him this high, he's not an out of the lottery prospect - he should be at the very least top 10 pick and more likely a top 5 pick.

If you look at positional talent distribution and overall impact potential in league and draft then you see there's been an influx of high level wings that are closer to PGs than bigs. You have a high entry level at PG but a generation of PGs is aging and may fall off a cliff in a few years. This draft contains a ton of guards(Fultz, Ball, Smith, Monk, Fox, Ntilikina and probably some more). Some of those will probably bust, but if a handful of those are starting caliber and better that's a deep draft on this position.
The NBA right now has a lot of wings in the middle/apex of their career like Butler, George, Leonard, Thompson, Durant, Hayward. There's a huge demand for those guys and the next gen right now is basically Antetokounmpo and Wiggins. Some other young guys like Porter(None else comes to mind spontaneously) have potential to grow and are young enough to make a sizeable jump but most have huge question marks attached.
'17 features a group of interesting wings - Jackson, Tatum, Isaac and Anunoby. Probably some more I don't know about ot that'll establish themselves later. Teams will want to have one of those. A ton of teams go the "either we have a wing star or we take a stopper" - preferrably one who can shoot from 3. Even some in between guys will be interesting for the league. Guys like Gay and Green started a lot of conversations about upside, attitude, consistency and overpaying.
The league has seen a ton of new age bigs in the last year to the degree that the first are rotting on beneches(mostly in Philly, but still...)
This draft still offers some high profile hit or miss prospects late in the first. The interesting result of that can be that it offers a perennial contender like the Cavs, Warriors or Spurs another gem which will allow them to restructure their roster in the most efficient way.
 
Ball is getting a lot of hype near the top of the draft. I'm not sure how well his game translates to the NBA, where the game is faster and more physical.

The speed of the game won't be an issue at-all, he'd prefer to be somewhere they play super-fast, you can't really like speed him up or anything -- not from what I've seen, he'll make you pay for that (because he's such a great passer)... even on a team that already plays fast, he'd push the pace even further IMO
 
I think this draft is 4 deep in terms of high potential picks w/ low risk.

idk how much of these players people have seen in this thread at this point, it's kinda early.. I'm certain there's way more than 4 high potential /low risk players tho. Lauri Markannen, De'Aaron Fox, Jonathan Isaac and Jayson Tatum... Justin Patton appears to be skyrocketing in that range...

I'm starting to be convinced Anunoby's a very low risk type..


There's a case to be made for Ivan Rabb who's an interesting player to compare to Favors IMO. Case to be made for Monk and Ntilikina.. Certainly there's a case to be made for Robert 'the rocketeer' Williams.. Giles can work his way back into this convo IMO


I think Terence Furgeson is high potential low risk, he's just skinny and a bit more of a project than the higher rated players. Isaiah Hartenstein (not skinny but could use major polish) and Rodions Kurucs seem to be like that too..
 
Pretty sure I'd take Markannen over Favors if he were in this draft pool. Obviously Derrick's much better defensively and on the boards but Lauri's offensive potential is on a completely different level.. (DeMarcus Cousins is a different story - He'd be the first big off the board IMO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UowrZCDOeY

I actually could see 10+ players from this draft reaching the level of Favors --- He'd be one of the first bigs off the board no doubt tho..


(The top 3 bigs projected in the 2018 class; Ayton, Bamba and Carter all stack up favorably vs Favors IMO)
 
btw - y'all have seen me classify players as "Flamethrowers" for awhile now. I still believe thats what Zach LaVine is more so than a SG, PG or combo.

Gilbert Arenas.. Lou Williams.. Jamal Crawford... etc ya know what I mean... Patty Mills qualifies.. There's varying degrees of it.

Obviously Malik Monk looks like an upper echelon flamethrower, just like Jamal Murray of yesteryear.


Markannen is probably a 7-foot flamethrower.. He's not 'good' at offense thats an understatement, he'll ****ing torch you and quickly.. Ryan Anderson qualifies..


What I'm talking about is kinda similar, but not the same as the "Microwave" scorer types you may have heard of (That get hot quickly like an Eddie House).. Malik Monk is also an obvious Microwave type -- Coach Cal is clearly grooming him for that type of play..



A key distinction to make the cut as a flamethrower IMO is what happens when the player gets hot, does the opposing defense treat it like an 'all hands on deck' situation? Like what Jamal Crawford did to the Jazz in that insane 4th quarter comeback at the end of last season...
 
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Pretty sure I'd take Markannen over Favors if he were in this draft pool. Obviously Derrick's much better defensively and on the boards but Lauri's offensive potential is on a completely different level.. (DeMarcus Cousins is a different story - He'd be the first big off the board IMO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UowrZCDOeY

I actually could see 10+ players from this draft reaching the level of Favors --- He'd be one of the first bigs off the board no doubt tho..


(The top 3 bigs projected in the 2018 class; Ayton, Bamba and Carter all stack up favorably vs Favors IMO)


Why would you say Cousins would be the first big off the board, when in an actual draft Favors was picked before Cousins? Not a great pick in retrospect, but it did happen.
 
Pretty sure I'd take Markannen over Favors if he were in this draft pool. Obviously Derrick's much better defensively and on the boards but Lauri's offensive potential is on a completely different level.. (DeMarcus Cousins is a different story - He'd be the first big off the board IMO)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UowrZCDOeY

I actually could see 10+ players from this draft reaching the level of Favors --- He'd be one of the first bigs off the board no doubt tho..


(The top 3 bigs projected in the 2018 class; Ayton, Bamba and Carter all stack up favorably vs Favors IMO)


I love Lauri(I think Lauri's offensive game is more polished than what Porzingis came into the league with) and I'd definitely trade Lyles for him, but there is a real chance he will be a liability on D and unplayable vs teams with the personnel to abuse his slow foot-speed on D(most playoff teams in the west). I would never trade a 2 way monster like Favors for a player with such a big liability in his game. No freaking way.
 
Why would you say Cousins would be the first big off the board, when in an actual draft Favors was picked before Cousins? Not a great pick in retrospect, but it did happen.

Cousins is like a 98+ grade in my book in pretty much all of these recent drafts, I'd have had him at 100 in 2013.. his particular skillset and build and rebounding prowess is just an extremely rare combination for a player that age... I had Cousins #1 on my board that year not John Wall.
 
I love Lauri(I think Lauri's offensive game is more polished than what Porzingis came into the league with) and I'd definitely trade Lyles for him, but there is a real chance he will be a liability on D and unplayable vs teams with the personnel to abuse his slow foot-speed on D(most playoff teams in the west). I would never trade a 2 way monster like Favors for a player with such a big liability in his game. No freaking way.

I can't get hung up on his defense, I don't think he's a stiff.. But I look at things differently than most NBA teams. To me he looks like a $100MM+ type of player easily..

I believe teams shouldn't have just 1 big (as many seem to settle on) or even 2-- to me 3 interchangable bigs all getting about 30 minutes a night is ideal, obviously these days one of the 3 has gotta be able to shoot 3's and thats where Lauri fits like a glove in most places.

He's not a one dimensional shooter, his ball-skills are phenomenal for a 7-footer.
 
How many points per game do you think Lauri Markannen can average in his prime? (in any sort of scenario - best-case would be nice but not necessary)

I'm gonna wait to answer but I'll give ya a hint that my # is going to be the highest..
 
How many points per game do you think Lauri Markannen can average in his prime? (in any sort of scenario - best-case would be nice but not necessary)

I'm gonna wait to answer but I'll give ya a hint that my # is going to be the highest..

This is the thing - I think it will depend not on his offense, but rather on his defense. It will depend on whether or not he can stay on the floor for a lot of minutes without getting abused on D. If he gets 36 minutes a game, I can absolutely see him averaging 22+ points per game. The question is - can you guarantee me he will be able to get those 36 minutes a game?
 
This is the thing - I think it will depend not on his offense, but rather on his defense. It will depend on whether or not he can stay on the floor for a lot of minutes without getting abused on D. If he gets 36 minutes a game, I can absolutely see him averaging 22+ points per game. The question is - can you guarantee me he will be able to get those 36 minutes a game?

If he's shooting 40+% from 3 on a high volume - why would you take him off the floor?? The Rockets love him I can guarantee you that.. I think he's capable of scoring 26PPG which is .6 less than Dirk's best season (in a best case scenario with a good PG and fast paced offense)
 
We can't get Lauri but can get Leaf, who is beating him on nearly every statistic. A testament to the strength of this draft.
 
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...... how bout that for some P'n'R defense from a 7-footer..... Announcers talking about his guard skills
 
Sumner's playing like **** in this game... His stock has gotta be dropping. He's too out of control..


I liked him as a prospect last year as a Fr. he's got some nice tools, I really don't see the improvement though in his So. year which is alarming considering the (lottery)hype he was getting in the off-season...
 
Sumner had another showstopping dunk but as per usual it was some good and some bad. He's definitely the closest player to DeJounte Murray in this draft.

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The legend of Justin Patton continues to grow - not a huge stat line but his play was much louder than the #'s indicate. He'll be debuting inside the top-10 in the next 2017 mock..
 
We can't get Lauri but can get Leaf, who is beating him on nearly every statistic. A testament to the strength of this draft.
Ya gotta mention that Lonzo Ball is helping inflate those stats though.. Every player on UCLA is having their best season because of him..

You're spot on about Lauri tho, unfortunately.
 
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