Sengun is a center. Strictly a center. He’s not even a pf, and certainly no one would ever mistaken him as a sf. Paolo is the size of a pf but plays like a sf. He has the ball handling of a wing. The two are not remotely comparable when it comes to position. Lebron and Jokic are both great passers. They don’t play the same position.
One thing to consider. Paolo's 3P percentage strictly based off catch and shoot was I believe above 36%. Which gives a lot of hope for improvement.
If Paolo can play at the 3 at a high level he would be the consensus number 1 pick. He’s not. Alp is a 4/5. Paolo is maybe a 3/4 but more likely a 4. He doesn’t have the perimeter game to play on the wing, if his shot develops he might be.
We just need Ranadive to fall in love with the Sharpe highlight YouTube clips enough to trade the 4th and extras to move up to #1.
Dude we went back and forth on what it means in another thread, you know exactly what it means and choose to discredit it, that's fine but stop acting like you don't know what it means and stop derailing this thread. Yes, your previous post was incoherent, and it seems you can't give any instance of me ******** on Holmgren and now want to remove the goalpost and put in a soccer net. You are better than this, my guy.
They both do not prioritize defense. This is difference with Green and Banchero. Green wanted to play defense and exerted energy and study to improve even with a limited wingspan and lacking muscle. Banchero should be a much better defender than he is in all honesty.
This misconception about Holmgren is baffling. Gobert and Chet have similar physiques and frames but their games are so dissimilar. And Ayton should not be in any conversation about elite defense.
U don’t even follow your own posts now? I asked what Durant 1.0 is supposed to mean… I never had any back and forth about Chet being Durant 1.0, so no, I have no clue wth Durant 1.0 is supposed to be. Are u better than the nonsense u keep posting?
Woj: We'll see how this shakes out but Chet Holmgren & Jabari Smith, consensus is right now those are the two players competing for number one with the Magic. Woj: Kings want to be in the playoffs, get better quickly. If there's any pick that might be in play, I do wonder if it might be that one. Mike: Chet is further along than Mobley at the same stage. Not as good as a switch defender. Not a projectable frame, especially in the lower body but better shooter, better rim protector. One of the more intriguing prospects I've ever seen. Not just the fun stuff. He's nasty. He's tough as nails. He's there well before his workout, there well before his physical training, headphones in, locked in. He has like this maniacal work ethic that's mixed with this kind of F U mentality but can also be one of the guys in talking ****. Every time I've seen him practice/play, I'm enamored by it. How is this 200 lb kid going to try and dunk on everyone and then talking **** and blocking everyone at the rim and then talking ****. He has the fascinating wiring. You combine it with the length, the shooting, all of that. I think he's going to be special. Not just best player in this draft but special special, someone we talk about for decades. He's one of these guys I've been enamored with as long as I've been doing this. Woj: Cat and mouse game at 1/2 will be fascinating. Orlando does a very good job keeping their thoughts under wraps. Woj: When Jabari Smith goes and meets with Orlando/OKC, what will you find with him? What's he like? Mike: Incredibly hard working. You're gonna find a professional approach. Dad was a 2nd round pick, kind of a journeyman. Anyone who has talked to people who were around his dad and watched him, they'll say he was ahead of his time. He had some perimeter skill. I'll ask Jabari who are you watching? He kept saying 'My dad showed me this.' He was almost molded to become this super polished player. Very focused. Very driven. Very personable. Still 18 years old. ... Incredibly focused, will fit in any locker room. Woj: Houston at 3, Sacramento at 4 ... I think Houston's in position there, if there was a different team at 3 who had a need for primary ball handler, we might be talking Ivey at 3. But Paolo, I can see him being a natural fit. It fits where they are. Green will have the ball in his hands. You can see Paolo complimenting him. At 4, Kings move up. They've taken a run on guards. Haliburton, Mitchell, Fox, move Haliburton for Sabonis. Kings want to be in the playoffs. It'll be interesting. Is that pick in play? Washington is desperate for a PG. I might generally assume Houston is taking one of the three forwards that's left. Mike: I would think so. Banchero is a talent, especially where they're at. You can add a guy who was talked about as a potential number one pick. Watching Banchero push in transition and Jalen catching lobs, that's exciting. It'd be really hard to pass on that. Defensively he needs to improve. And that's an area where Jalen this past year needed to improve. Area where Alperen Sengun needed to improve. The offensive upside of Banchero is high as anyone else in the draft. There aren't a ton of 6'10 250 lb guys who can create offense like that. In a strange way, they're very different players, but you'd almost think about how Denver would use Jokic and Murray. Murray wasn't seen as a traditional PG. Green isn't that and they have different strengths and weaknesses but you can play through Jokic as a PnR ball handler or from the elbows and ignite the best parts of Jamal Murray. I think you can see a similar tandem with those two. Banchero makes sense there. Personally, I've trended more towards Keegan Murray as the 3rd best prospect in the draft. I'm not there yet but by draft night, I can see that being my lean. When you talk about Sacramento and competing now, it's Keegan Murray. He'd be ideal along side Sabonis, Mitchell and Fox. ... Woj: (7th/Portland) They still want to build around Damian Lillard. Is that pick in play? ... Mike: Is the 7th player in this draft gonna put you over the top? Historically that's not the case. If it's me in that seat, I'm taking BPA. If Shaedon Sharpe is available, you gotta take a look at that. This is the most talked about, intriguing guy outside of the top 3. If he were there at 7, come with me. Sharpe, out of Canada, went to see him (as 14/15 year old). 6'4 at the time. Bouncy athlete. Didn't have much recruitment or buzz. Ends up coming to the states. Goes to Dream City Christian. Blows up. Gets a Kentucky offer. Ended up being the #1 player in the 2022 HS class. Killed it at Nike EYBL. Saw him at Peach Jam. Think like Anthony Edwards almost as a power guard wing who's really explosive, can shoot it deep and create space off the dribble. Goes to Kentucky. Reclassifies, enroll a semester early. Is he gonna play? He announces I'm not gonna play. Everyone is trying to figure out what's going on. Teams come to see him in droves. I went to one practice where there were maybe 12 scouts, a couple GMs, and he played 5-on-5 and he's the best player on the court by far, throwing left handed bounce passes, step back threes, watch him in warmups and you watch him in 1-on-0 workout, he should be the number one pick. But we haven't seen him in a competitive setting. There are guys where you put them in a 1-on-0 setting and that's all you saw, OMG, we're taking him number one. Teams are wrapping their head around "What do we do with this guy?" Could he be the best player out of this draft? I'm enamored with him. If I'm Portland or the Pacers, I'm taking a big ol' swing. ... Woj: Who are the guys in the top 10 who will be under a great deal of scrutiny? Who are people maybe confused about? They don't have figured out yet and are really trying to figure out? Mike: One is Patrick Baldwin. Highly touted recruit. We projected him as a top 10 pick and goes to play for his dad and the season was a disaster. He didn't have those wow moments. Teams are trying to figure out is this the guy we thought was a top 10 pick or is this the guy he is? Look at what Memphis did what Ziare Williams. He wasn't good at Stanford. We liked him in HS. He had a bad season. Scouts were not impressed. When they took him 10th, I was shocked. And look at him now, he was starting games in the playoffs. So is Baldwin this top 10 pick we thought or this is just who he is.
Do you think if he can lose weight he can switch? I think someone on here brought up that he weighed a lot less in highschool compared to now.
When the last time a top 3 team traded down to outside the lottery? The only trade of recent memory is Boston moving down two spots and they know Jayson was the best player in that draft,I can't see any scenario where rockets are trading out of the top 3.
If Chet/Jabari are gone, and you want Sharpe and you know that Sac won't take him but rather will go for Ivey, then why wouldn't you trade down to fifth to get the same player you want plus another asset?
Really my guy? So you think when I said 1.0 about Banchero the same does not apply? I really can't believe you are going to die on a hill of semantics. Maybe you are just not as bright as I thought, or you really need to feel you have won this disagreement, either way not a great look. Anyway i'm done you win i'm an idiot. Feel better now?
Looking at Bancheros work out vids and he looks and plays a lot like Cade same handles and everything
Getting Paolo could be a blessing in the skies for us. He could easily end up the best player from this draft.
The thing about PJ Tucker, no matter what hypothetical size you want to make him is this: he's a great defender because he's a really smart basketball player. Lots of players are more physically gifted and he definitely has some physical attributes, but most of all, he's a damn smart player who understands his position, his role, his team concepts, his individual opponent, and the opponent's team structure. (With the amount of money he spends on shoes I don't think he's a smart investor.) The kids in this draft have been to basketball elementary school, basketball jr. high, basketball high school, and basketball college. Up until now, they're like the really smart kid who got through all of that just on their natural smarts and love of learning. Now, they're about to enter basketball grad school which is a whole different animal. You have to put in substantially more work. You have to learn not only the game but the theory behind the game. Others are going to have more accolades and may be smarter than you. After your MA, you start work on your basketball PhD and then you do your basketball post-doc work. (Tucker's on the equivalent of his 4th post-doc gig.) Some guys think that's what they want to do and say the right things to get them admitted to basketball grad school, but a lot of guys can't handle the transition from the fun of winning undergrad arguments in the cafeteria to having conference papers picked apart by others who know the subject better. Some guys just want to write and can't handle the structure of the Chicago Manual of Style. Some guys don't like doing the solitary work in the library (gym and film room) it takes to be successful. Seeing the potential is easy. Figuring out who really wants to put in the work, who can handle the transition, and who has the capacity to earn a basketball PhD is much more difficult. That's only going to come out in interviews and interactions, not breakdowns of shooting motions or mountains of stats. Stone did really well last year. All four guys made the transition well and made substantial progress on their MA degrees. I think Stone has earned my trust when it comes to picking guys and I'll buy off on whatever he does even if it doesn't appear to be the obvious call. After all, we're only seeing the easy half of these guys.
Rockets could just smokescreen hard that they will take Sharpe and see if someone bites and jumps ahead of them to take him.
Yeah, this is definitely true. The obvious on Paolo is the obvious. 33% from 3 needs to be better. He was 10 for his last 19, pretty much all in the tournament. That's a plus. His defense needs to be better. He nonetheless as a 98.1 Drtg (to Tatum's 97.8), a 2.3 dbpm (to Tatum's 3.2) a 13.2% rebound % (to Tatum's 12.6%), steal rate of 1.9% (to Tatum's 2.3%), block rate of 2.7% (to Tatum's 3.2%). He's not Tatum defensively on tape or in advanced stats, but he's definitely not BAD in advanced stats. Defensive or offensively, all his stats compare very favorably to Cade's in the same way, and they do seem to have a similar feel to me. A lot of this is perhaps me talking myself into it lol. But he strikes me as Alpi-esque defensively. He's smart enough, moves his feet well, generally takes good angles... just 1/4 of the possessions will get blown by as if he's in mud or lost cause he isn't thinking or is overthinking. The defensive issues become overall team issues more than anything. And mostly coaching. I honestly think with the right coaching and getting them all to have the mentality if they are super springy, switching, disruptive defenders, taking away the paint and 3s, it gets them better offense, the ability to run, etc. and they all BUY-IN, that its a defensive lineup that could be middle of the pack or better. But its NOT going to happen without the coaching... On the plus side, Banchero has an offensive skill-set that truly could make him one of the best offensive bigs in a few years. with a 36%+ 3 point shot, with his passing ability (in college a 17.5% assist rate compared to Tatum's 12.7%)... the team should have no problem offensively, that's for sure.
