The Thriller
Well-Known Member
Lets ask coach Calipari what he thinks. He seems to know everything... According to some jazz fans...
Honestly, it's just nice to be in a position where we'll have a CHOICE between Knight, Kanter, Valanciunas, and possibly even Dwill.
I think with what Valanciunas and Kanter have each shown, that they would have been squarely positioned as the top 2 picks in this draft if we were back in 2003. I think the skepticism we see has purely to do with the track record between 02 and 07 of top international prospects in the draft. Common sense tells you its just a matter of time until we see the next Euro superstar. Dirk came in 98, Manu came in 99, Pau came in 01, and we've seen a bit of a drought since then. Bargs is good, but maddening. Darko busted. Yi busted. Skita busted. Rubio is on hold. Its just a matter of time until the next big thing from Europe comes along. When it happens, all the anti-Euro sentiment will likely push him down the board. JV could very well be that guy. I mean look at the combination between the skill set and the productivity at the highest level at such a young age. 8 years ago people would be going crazy for this guy. As is, all people can do is talk about what he can't do. And he's 18 freaking years old.
I read this post on realgm. I was interested in jazzfanz' reaction to it.
Boozer is a 20-10 guy while Noah is a 10-10 guy. Everyone on this board knows who we would rather have.
I might add that I would be happy with either Kanter or Valaciunas. On one side I think Kanter would be a better complementary player to Favors, on the other Favors and Valanciunas defensivelly should be pretty special. On one side Kanter to me is someone that is reminicent of Al Jefferson and I have some doubts that they can play together, on the other side Valanciunas is probably further away from having any sort of significant impact.
What I do believe is that the Jazz can't pass up on the opportunity of flanking Favors with one of this dudes. When all is said and done and those guys grow more (still pretty young) the Jazz could put together a pair of 7' footers on the floor at the same time and that's pretty special.
Quite frankly I believe they will be better than Irving or Williams.
I might add that I would be happy with either Kanter or Valaciunas. On one side I think Kanter would be a better complementary player to Favors, on the other Favors and Valanciunas defensivelly should be pretty special. On one side Kanter to me is someone that is reminicent of Al Jefferson and I have some doubts that they can play together, on the other side Valanciunas is probably further away from having any sort of significant impact.
What I do believe is that the Jazz can't pass up on the opportunity of flanking Favors with one of this dudes. When all is said and done and those guys grow more (still pretty young) the Jazz could put together a pair of 7' footers on the floor at the same time and that's pretty special.
Quite frankly I believe they will be better than Irving or Williams.
Honestly, it's just nice to be in a position where we'll have a CHOICE between Knight, Kanter, Valanciunas, and possibly even Dwill.
I might add that I would be happy with either Kanter or Valaciunas. On one side I think Kanter would be a better complementary player to Favors, on the other Favors and Valanciunas defensivelly should be pretty special. On one side Kanter to me is someone that is reminicent of Al Jefferson and I have some doubts that they can play together, on the other side Valanciunas is probably further away from having any sort of significant impact.
What I do believe is that the Jazz can't pass up on the opportunity of flanking Favors with one of this dudes. When all is said and done and those guys grow more (still pretty young) the Jazz could put together a pair of 7' footers on the floor at the same time and that's pretty special.
Quite frankly I believe they will be better than Irving or Williams.
if we are rebuilding the team and want the best player available, we should pick kanter and certainly trade Jefferson, because he really isnt a guy who can carry us to next level
Quite frankly I believe they will be better than Irving or Williams.
Fair enough. I don't watch enough Euro games to feel confident in making strong assertions on the matter, but I have seen game film on him from multiple matches, and the guy has a lot of things that jump out at you. But there are things to give you pause as well. But Euros are due. The next big one is coming, and he's coming soon.
I think its similar in many ways to the PG drought that we experienced between 96 and 2004. 9 straight drafts of the best PG prospects either busting (Jay Williams, TJ Ford, Antonio Daniels, Dajuan Wagner, Shaun Livingston), flaming out after promising starts (Francis), proving to be more of a shooting guard than a true point (Terry, Ben Gordon) or just not quiting becoming the great players that many expected them to be (Bibby, Baron Davis, Jason Williams). For so many years the great PGs in the league were Nash, Kidd and Payton (with Chauncey sneaking in at some points) who were long in the tooth but remained unchalleged by the up and coming young guns. Then in 2005 the numbers game finally caught up and we've been deluged by not just good, but great PGs. CP3 and Deron came in 05. Rose and Westbrook came in 08 and Wall came in 2010. That's 5 PGs who could all reasonably challenge for an MVP. It was just a matter of time after a lull in the pipeline, and now we have a bevy of great young PGs in the league.
I think we'll see something similar with Euros before too long. We actually have less big time Euro players in their primes right now than we did 8-10 years ago, and the popularity and quality of competition overseas has grown exponentially in that time period. The dam is going to break at some point, and I think that when it does the teams who don't have the anti-Euro goggles on are going to benefit massively from it. In much the same way that Dallas did with Dirk Nowitzki in 98. This could be the year. Especially with 4 young stud European players coming over. When teams look at JV, they see a guy like Martinas Andriuskevicius (once pegged as a possible top overall pick, who fell deep into the 2nd round and was never heard from again). When they look at Vesely, they see another Bargnani (skilled big guy who wants to play on the perimeter) or Maciej Lampe (inside outside PF who narrowly missed being picked in the top 10 before doing squat in the NBA). When they look at Kanter, they see shades of Darko and Tiago Splitter. And when they look at Motiejunas I guarantee they see visions of Skita :O.....they can't help it. Combine this with the natural sense for distrusting that which is alien or foreign, and you have deeply seated instinctual drives that are depressing the stock of European players, even though in many instances the personnel guys themselves wouldn't even admit it in the privacy of their own minds. To this point, it hasn't led to a big-time burn. But its going to, and its past due.