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Chad Ford on Utah Jazz picks and Jimmer

Jan Vesely is going to be an all-star in this league.

He's a super athletic 6'11" inside/outside scoring machine and explosive as heck.

His 39 inch vertical leap is incredible for a 6'11" player.

Much better prospect than Danilo Gallinari ever was and he's turned out to be a darn good NBA player.

Gallinari can shoot the ball.
 
I wish I could say they were, but it wasn't 100%. Nazr was getting a little heated so that one was pretty tough (and Kanter was a GIANT in that matchup ... not even fair). With Cousins, it was clear that Enes was the far better athlete, far more polished, and I believe would have won a head-to-head at 100%.

Wow.. if this is even remotely true we would have to pick him at #3 regardless of EVERYTHING.

Cousins with a Tim Duncan attitude would have been the hands down #1 pick in last year's draft.
 
I agree with all that. Let's just say this, seeing him practice, playing against Nazr and Demarcus ... I saw what makes me 100% comfortable .. I formed my opinion.

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i haven't read anything that would change my mind on Kanter to avoid him at #3
 
Wow.. if this is even remotely true we would have to pick him at #3 regardless of EVERYTHING.

Cousins with a Tim Duncan attitude would have been the hands down #1 pick in last year's draft.

I guess this is the lure of the draft. I've been more in the Knight-Singleton camp. But I really have no clue as to who will be best. If Jazz end up with Kanter-Jimmer, and KOC is convinced Kanter is the real deal, I might see if Jefferson-Bell could be swapped for Granger, and then see if we could re-sign Kirilenko & Fesenko.

At least for today, a lineup of Harris-Hayward-Granger-Millsap-Favors with backups Jimmer-Miles-Kirilenko-Kanter-Fesenko sounds intriguing to me. Starters would be well-balanced offensively (though who knows whether that would work), and backups would have an interesting blend of scorers/gunners, size, and defenders. For fun, we could swap Miles and Hayward and go with a black & white rotation. Throw in whatever contributions Memo and Evans can give. Might have to go with the Spoelstra strategy of practicing nothing but defense, but with my rose-colored glasses on it looks like a team that competes for the playoffs the first year together and maybe quite a bit more the second or third.

Edit: Ah ..., I guess salary-wise Millsap+Bell for Granger would be much closer to working than Jefferson+Bell. I guess that would give more size, but while I like Big Al, I'm a little uncertain that he'll ever contribute as much to winning as Millsap. I think Indiana might be more interested in Al's low-post scoring, however than Millsap's undersized hustle.
 
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i haven't read anything that would change my mind on Kanter to avoid him at #3

Don't blame you one bit. Over the past 20 years I've watched recruits come in and be the agressor, hit all their shots, and dominate practice day after day. Then, in in-game situations, do NOTHING, hit nothing ... worthless .. dozens of them.

I wouldn't expect to change anyone's mind, that's not the goal. Only goal is to share what I saw, what I think is true about a kid that is widely unknown by most everyone here.

I could write a book about everything I saw with Brandon Knight during practices (good and bad). Share insights, etc .. but no one is really asking for that and there IS video on the kid that's easily found.

Watching Kanter, there was VERY little that would suggest he was a euro. Different mindset, different style of play, I would have sworn he grew up playing prep ball in Texas (or wherever). I like the kid A LOT, but I'm not trying to 'convince' guys on a message board (that don't make the pick) to like him. Having said that, if KOC asked, I'd plead for him to take Enes. :cool:
/emoticon
 
He shoots under 50% from the line, and around 30% from 3. What makes you think he can shoot?

One thing you can say about him is that he does not take many bad shots. Almost all of the boxscores I have seen from him lately puts him at about 80% for 2pt field goals, but yeah the FT% is horrible.
 
One thing you can say about him is that he does not take many bad shots. Almost all of the boxscores I have seen from him lately puts him at about 80% for 2pt field goals, but yeah the FT% is horrible.

I agree. I think he is a perfect fit for a team that wants to push tempo 24/7 and has room to let him be a PF. We do not have that room. He would be a SF if he wished to see playing time. He would be left wide open ala The Brewer days.
 
I agree. I think he is a perfect fit for a team that wants to push tempo 24/7 and has room to let him be a PF. We do not have that room. He would be a SF if he wished to see playing time. He would be left wide open ala The Brewer days.

I'm not advocating one way or another for Vesely, but if he can cut to the rim like Brewer he'd score a lot of easy points in any offense.

I don't think the case for Vesely by NBA scouts is simply that he's an elite athlete. I think they see him as a guy whose talents aren't well suited to European ball -- slow, lots of structure. They probably think he'll flourish when the speed picks up and the chains come off.
 
I'm not advocating one way or another for Vesely, but if he can cut to the rim like Brewer he'd score a lot of easy points in any offense.

I don't think the case for Vesely by NBA scouts is simply that he's an elite athlete. I think they see him as a guy whose talents aren't well suited to European ball -- slow, lots of structure. They probably think he'll flourish when the speed picks up and the chains come off.

Sounds like he may just need a good shooting coach to at least improve the FT shooting. Got to like a 6'11" who can play SF.
 
Jonas Valacunias improved his FT shooting to 75% from being terrible and he is only 18. Why hasn't Vesely put that kind of work into his FT?
 
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