Post by Employee8 on Jun 18, 2016 3:40:44 GMT -5
espnmediazone.com/us/press-releases/2016/06/transcript-espn-2016-nba-draft-media-call-chad-ford/
I’m not sure that the No. 3 pick, along with the assets that the Celtics have, are going to be enough to get that sort of player [Superstar], and that’s frustrating for Celtics fans but it is what it is because you’re talking at the Jamal Murray level or the Kris Dunn level or the Marquese Chriss level, as a guy that doesn’t project as a sure-fire All-Star superstar down the road. They don’t project that way. And so teams being willing to give up a superstar for that become a lot harder, and the Celtics have a lot of nice pieces, a lot of interesting pieces, but again, none of them are necessarily guys that other teams really covet.
In fact, I actually think that the thing that the Celtics have, their No. 1 asset, is actually the Brooklyn Nets pick next year in 2017. They have the right to swap that pick. It almost looks like there’s no scenario in which the Nets are going to be good next year, and the 2017 draft looks absolutely loaded with talent, and that might be their best chip.
If they stay at 3, I think it’s safe to say — this is frustrating, but I think it’s safe to say that they’ve narrowed it down to four guys: Jamal Murray, Kris Dunn, Jaylen Brown out of Cal, and Marquese Chriss out of Washington. I think if they go upside, I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go Jaylen Brown. He fits a need. He’s a wing who’s very athletic. He did not shoot the ball well at Cal this year, but he shot the ball very well in workouts including the workout that he did with the Celtics, and if you’re saying at No. 3, look, let’s just swing for the guy who could be a superstar down the road and we’ll take a risk, then Brown seems like a pretty good calculated risk. If they want an immediate impact player, then I think that’s Kris Dunn or Jamal Murray. Dunn doesn’t necessarily fit a need. The Celtics have been drafting point guards for a while, but I will say that Dunn is a better point guard prospect than anybody that currently sits on the Celtics’ roster right now, which is appealing, and there’s a defensive ability, especially that’s very, very attractive.
Murray brings shooting, which is something the Celtics could use a lot more of and they need, as well. His defensive abilities, though, are very questionable, and I think that’s the concern there.
So I think what the Celtics decide to do, I don’t think they’ve even decided yet, and I think part of it is trying to figure out trades, figuring out what other deals they might be able to do, what’s going to happen at 16 and 23, and all of that may affect who they end up taking at 3 because the difference between a Kris Dunn, a Jamal Murray, a Marquese Chriss, a Jaylen Brown, it’s so negligible. I think they’re all similar types of prospects. It’s not you take the best player available. They’re in a tier of the best players available, and then you take the guy you think is going to fit the best need, and the Celtics may not know that until draft night, depending on the other sorts of deals that they do.
I don’t think they’re down on Bender. In fact, Bender will be in Boston on Tuesday for a workout, and the Celtics went to Tel Aviv and saw him there.
I just think that they see him a bit as more of an unknown, and I think that they look at their current roster and who they have, with Kelly Olynyk, for example, and wonder whether that’s the best use of this pick.
I think that if they were drafting today, Bender probably wasn’t in that conversation. I think he’s right on the fringes, on the outside of it. But he is going to come in and have a workout that they’re running and that they can do whatever they want with him, and there’s a possibility, given that they have more limited information on Bender than the other guys that he really comes in and wows them and becomes the No. 3 pick.
I don’t think it’s out of the question.
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They’ve [the Warriors] had terrific scouting over the years. And look, if Kevon Looney ends being able to solve his hip issues, that was an incredible pick where they got him in the draft last year, and if he can get healthy, he’s another versatile player. We all know what the Warriors like. The Warriors like guys that can play multiple positions, that can pass the ball, that can ideally shoot the ball, that are going to be unselfish in the way that they play, and when you get to 30, it becomes harder to find elite guys like that.
I think a couple things stand out to me later in the draft. One is that because of free agency, center becomes an issue and bigs become an issue for them, and they’re going to need them, and after what Oklahoma City did to them in the Playoffs, I think they’re sort of aware that this is an Achilles heel that they have and they need to be able to address it with teams like Oklahoma City. So you’ve got guys like Damian Jones out of Vanderbilt, you have Onuaku out of Louisville. You have a number of international prospects, whether it’s Ante Zizic or Ivica Zubac out of Bosnia.
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this isn’t a strong point guard draft, and I think your read is probably good, and I don’t even think that necessarily the Pacers are in love with Wade Baldwin, actually, either. He’s a very polarizing prospect. Some teams really do like him. Some teams struggle with him.
Look, if Dejounte Murray is there out of Washington — I don’t think the Pacers think he’ll be there, I don’t think he’ll be there at 20, but if he is there, because there is a lot of fluidity in the draft, I think that will be an obvious choice for them, a guy with a lot of upside, great size and length for his position, can play multiple positions, and just has a feel and swagger for the game that is impressive.
just on sheer talent and what he can bring to the table if he hit it, Larry Bird is the type of general manager that has a good feel for that and can ignore some of the weaknesses that players have in college. He did it with Myles Turner last year, as well, and takes swings, and it seems like Larry Bird is a lot better when he’s swinging for the fences than he is when he’s trying to play it safe. He seems to be much better at actually drafting when he swings, so if Dejounte Murray is there, I think that’ll be their guy. I think a couple of other 2 guards are also on the table there, Malachi Richardson out of Syracuse, there’s a lot of interest there, Furkan Korkmaz, if he’s there out of Turkey, another guy who can shoot the ball and pass the ball, I think are really attractive.
I do think that the most likely scenario is that they look to the backcourt. Timothe Luwawu out of France is another wing I think that can have some appeal, but they’ll look to the backcourt, and if they can’t get a point guard, then they go ahead and look for a 2 guard.
I’d say one of the guys that they really like, which is Domantas Sabonis, Sabonis could go as high as 8 or 9, but he could also be there at 20, as well, and I think that they feel that Sabonis is the type of guy who can come in right away and play a role very much like what a David West did or a Luis Scola did and pair up nicely with Myles Turner.
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As far as Jamal goes, I don’t think anybody is actually going to debate John, that if you’re talking offensively, this kid is special. He can shoot it. He can score off the bounce. He has a scorer’s mentality and instinct, and he’s not afraid to do his job, and that’s a huge plus.
But defensively there are going to be issues in the NBA. There were issues in college, and I think those issues will be compounded in the NBA, and I think that may hurt him via a Kris Dunn, for example, if you’re trying to compare those two guys together or Marquese Chriss or Jaylen Brown, all those guys, very elite athletes, and just that questioning, does Jamal Murray have the lateral quickness? I think he’s okay vertically and explosively, but does he have the lateral quickness to defend his position in the NBA? And I know that’s what every general manager from 3 to 8 is trying to figure out right now, how good is his offense versus his defense?
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you mentioned Skal and questions might be, does he know how to play basketball? Does he have the toughness? How are those kind of questions answered prior to getting him out on the floor in the NBA environment?
I think health is probably the most important thing when we’re talking about Valentine, like you have to be healthy to be a star in the NBA. You just have to be. I think mentality might be the next thing. You know, one of the things that we know now is that Draymond Green like tested off the charts on all of those mental and psychological profiles, and should have been a signal to NBA teams that this guy was going to figure it out, so he was so competitive, that he was so intelligent, all these things, he was going to figure it out.
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Can you name four or five guys who could potentially be the next Draymond Green, not necessarily in terms of turning into an All-Star or even playing style, but maybe second rounders who have a chance to stick or start in the league, just basically based on the skill set or what they bring to the table?
I think one of the strengths of this draft is when you get into the 20s and you get into the 30s there’s a lot of players that I think are going to stick in the league. There’s a depth to this draft. The star level and the starter level drops off really early which is why a lot of scouts are frustrated with this draft, a lot of teams are, but then getting into the 20s and 30s, man, there’s a lot of guys that I think could really have long careers.
Jarrod Uthoff is a guy out of Iowa who’s both athletic, can shoot the ball and can protect the rim, and those sorts of combinations tend to find a spot in the NBA. Onuaku out of Louisville, this guy has an NBA body, is a rebounding fiend. He is the type of tough, aggressive player, that if you watched what Steven Adams was able to do and how he was able to disrupt players, even though he’s not a great offensive players, just in sheer toughness and motor and physicality, Onuaku brings a lot of that to the table. He’s 19 years old, and I think there’s some interest there.
Taurean Prince out of Baylor is a 6’8″, 220-pound guy who can be a DeMarre Carroll-type in the NBA. He’s going to be a 3-and-D guy who hits threes, who can guard multiple positions. Carroll was another guy who slipped into the second round, and I think obviously that ended up being a huge mistake. He’s a really talented player. Isaiah Cousins out of Oklahoma, the Buddy Hield show all year at Oklahoma, but here’s a 6’4″ combo guard who’s an elite athlete, who can really shoot the ball, who’s a good defender, and I think some teams really believe that he’s got some real point guard skills to his game.
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having a 2 guard that can really shoot the basketball is another major need. For the Pelicans, and both Murray and Hield fit that role, I like Murray a little bit better for a couple of reasons. One, he’s 19, and if you look at what Buddy Hield did at Oklahoma at 19 where he averaged seven points a game and you look at Jamal Murray what he did at 19 at Kentucky, averaging 20 points a game, that’s a pretty huge disparity, and statistically if you look at it analytically, what players do at 19 is actually a very strong indicator of what they’re going to do at the NBA. Guys that don’t figure it out until they’re 20, 21, 22, can struggle more in the NBA, despite where they end up topping out in college basketball.
And I think the other thing about Murray is the ability to play multiple positions on the floor. He was a point guard in high school. He did not play that at Kentucky because Tyler Ulis was there. But he’s got that feel for the game that I think allows the Pelicans to use him in different sorts of lineups, which I think is really attractive to a team like the Pelicans.
Buddy is more just a pure shooter and scorer at the 2. He’s not a great ball handler. He’s not a great defender. Neither is Murray. If both of those guys are on the board, I can’t tell you which way they’ll go. I think they both have interest in a lot of them, and it really might be more how are they assessing the free agent market, how are they assessing trades, and do they think they have a chance to bring in a point guard that way or do they think they have a chance to bring in a 2 guard that way, and then the draft the other way. Don’t count out Dragan Bender and Jaylen Brown in New Orleans, either. Bender — the Pelicans have scouted him extensively. They’re losing Ryan Anderson or believe he’s a free agent. They may not lose him. They may re-sign him but they might lose him and I think Dragan Bender brings a lot of things to the table that Ryan Anderson does, and Jaylen Brown had an incredible workout for them and is a guy that I think there’s a lot of interest in on just sheer upside of adding an elite talent next to Anthony Davis.
And if he shoots the ball as well as he’s done in workouts and the whole shooting debacle at Cal was really an outlier, because he was actually a pretty good shooter in high school, then he’s worthy of that pick for sure.
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whenever you talk about a heart condition, and you see Sean Rooks just pass away from that, and a history of that with NBA players, it’s always a concern. I do think that teams are pretty confident that in some ways it was really great that Onuaku had declared for the draft, got to the combine, had that issue identified and was able to go through a surgical procedure that should help him in the future, and so I think that the read that I’m getting from most teams is that they’re comfortable that the procedure that he had should make him fine and be able to play basketball for a long time.
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Uthoff? He’s a unique player because you don’t find a lot of guys at 6’9″ who shoot the ball like he shoots it, but also has this ability to be a shot blocker, and one thing I think is appealing for him is that his ability to guard other perimeter-oriented 4s in the league because of his ability to move laterally and to get out on the floor.
Where he’s going to get — where he’s going to have problems is with physicality. He obviously needs to add a lot of strength, and if you’re thinking about trying to play him on the block. He’s going to have a real problem in the NBA. I think the other thing about him is that, you know, at Iowa, he didn’t just dominate games every game. He would be dominant in stretches, and I mean dominant in stretches, and then other times he would just completely disappear. We actually saw that in the draft combine, too. There was like spurts where Uthoff looked great, and then you wouldn’t even know he was on the court again for five, six, seven-minute stretches at a time.
So all of those things I think hurt his long-term draft stock as far as getting drafted really high, but I actually think he starts in the 20s. I think there’s teams like the Pacers, for example, that really liked him for a long time and see him as a good fit for what they do. I don’t think it’s likely he gets drafted there, but if he went that high, that wouldn’t shock me. And then he’s got several more spots in the 20s, and again, he’s a guy who I think once he gets to the 30s, he doesn’t get out of the 30s.
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On A.J. Hammons (C)
As far as talent goes, he is extremely talented. He is a gifted big man, and if you’re talking just on talent, he would have been drafted in the lottery. As far as a big man that maybe he has some like DeMarcus Cousins in him and how he plays and how he sees the game.
The question for him is many of the same things that have plagued DeMarcus Cousins over the years like commitment, conditioning, playing hard all the time, being a good teammate. He didn’t produce like DeMarcus Cousins produced at Kentucky, too. A lot of it was a little bit more theoretical. DeMarcus Cousins was a big-time scorer and producer as a freshman at Kentucky, and A.J. really didn’t start to produce at a high level until his senior year this year at Purdue.
so there’s the conundrum with A.J. The fact that he’s 23 years old, and there’s still questions about his maturity and still questions about his commitment, but that you see the skill set that is so enticing and so attractive that teams want to take him. I’ve talked to a number of teams about him, and I think he’s one of the most difficult prospects to pick. If I told you every team in the league liked him, that wouldn’t be an exaggeration. They love the skill set and if I also told you that every team in the league is afraid to take him, that also wouldn’t be an exaggeration. So where does that end up? I think it ends up probably in the second round where the risk is less and the guaranteed money is less and teams can use that lack of guaranteed money as a way to try to motivate a player by basically saying, look, every year you have to produce or your contract ends, right, as opposed to a guaranteed deal that you get in the first round that can protect you a minimum of two years and most of the time three or four.
... if you can’t defend anybody, it’s hard to make a living. The Sixers are figuring that out right now with Jahlil Okafor, who they would like to trade and get another pick in the draft, that they are having a hard time trading him, and it’s not because Jahlil Okafor is not a good player, because he is. He’s a really good player and he actually had a really good rookie season. It’s because teams aren’t trying to play that style anymore, and they want to play fast and they want versatility and they want guys that can face the basket and pass and do all those things, and so it is a harder miss for them. I will say A.J. in some ways has more of those skills than Okafor does, which to me is just a pure, back to the basket, brilliant in the post sort of player. I think A.J. actually brings a little bit more basketball skill, maybe not production but skill to the game.
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this is a strong international draft and that analytically our guy Kevin Pelton and our ESPN analytics team have said that maybe that’s the value of the draft right now. So whether it’s Dragan Bender or Furkan Korkmaz or Ante Zizic or Ivica Zubac or Timothà Luwawu or Juan Hernangomez, Guerschon Yabusele — we’re talking about a group that might include seven or eight international players drafted in the first round. Zhou Qi out of China is another one, and that’s — it’s been a long time since we’ve seen that in the draft, and this isn’t necessarily teams overreaching. I actually think we have a really solid group of international prospects that frankly might be better than some of the American prospects that are going ahead of them because of the familiarity that’s there.
... watch the trends in the NBA. Guys that can play multiple positions, guys that can shoot the basketball, guys that can pass the basketball, including bigs, and guys that can defend, that is what teams are really looking for now. Low post scoring doesn’t seem to be that big of an attractive feature anymore. Guys that are just able to create their own shot off the dribble but can’t shoot, those guys are also not particularly doing well in these workout processes. Every year it’s trendy, and right now everybody is looking at the Warriors, and they’re saying we want players like the players that the Warriors have, whether it’s Draymond Green or Steph Curry or Klay Thompson or Andre Iguodala. That is what we want, and so you’re going to see draft decisions that are going to reflect that, I think, throughout the draft, and guys that might have had a really good college career sliding because they lack some of those key components, and guys that maybe have not had as great a college career, like someone like Patrick McCaw at UNLV or DeAndrea Bembry out of St. Joseph’s rising in the draft because they have some of those coveted skills.