If Diop is around at 10 then we should try and swap 13 and a future pick for one of Bostons picks, because Seattle will definitely take him. The guy is HUGE. foxsports has some clipps on him and he does have a decent J along with good shotblocking. Boston is supposedly picking Kedrick Brown with either 10 or 11 so I'm sure he'll be there at 13. Radmanovic will probably still be around at 18 and if he isn't, then we could trade our last two picks to whichever team picked him. Also, Webber mentiond he wanted to play with a C. Diop is a true C. Put that dude on a serious workout schedule and he'll be an ox in the paint! Hunter is alright but he will not be able contain the Shaqs, Currys and (eventually) Diops. He really didn't have that impressive of a college career. I'd be just as happy (if not happier) with Dalembert or K. Johnson. CAN'T WAIT TILL THE DRAFT ------------------
The guy is HUGE. foxsports has some clipps on him and he does have a decent J along with good shotblocking Just because FoxSports can dig up a couple of clips of him hitting a mid-range jump hook, doesn't mean that he's got a good jump shot. Check out this quote from the Charlotte Observer: http://www.charlotte.com/hornets/wires/k8700.html Diop, though, has had his share of mediocre performances. One scout said, "He gets tired too easily. He's got 22 percent body fat." Keith Dambrot, then head coach at St. Vincent-St. Mary, took advantage of that last January when his Irish faced Oak Hill in Columbus. Dambrot devised a plan to take Diop out of the game. Diop was held to 11 points, and the Irish lost by just one point to Oak Hill, which eventually would finish 33-0 and ranked No. 1 in USA Today's final national poll. "He is a huge human being," said Dambrot, now a University of Akron assistant. "I couldn't believe how big he is. In fairness to him, we made it an up-tempo game, and he wasn't much of a factor. He was breathing hard. He's a big-time shot blocker, and he's strong physically. But offensively, he has a ways to go." Dambrot doesn't believe Diop would be an immediate offensive force even in college If he's got a ways to go offensively at the HS level, then he's not going to be much of a factor in the NBA. Radmanovic will probably still be around at 18 and if he isn't, then we could trade our last two picks to whichever team picked him. We'll be lucky if Radmanovic lasts to 13. No way he's there at 18 and our #18 and #22 won't be enough to get him. Hunter is alright but he will not be able contain the Shaqs, Currys and (eventually) Diops. Nobody is going to stop Shaq, including Diop. Hunter already killed Curry in a workout, that's when his stock started rising. As far as Diop, he doesn't have enough of an offensive game to really worry about stopping him. ------------------ [This message has been edited by aelliott (edited June 24, 2001).]
If we stay put at #13 the guys that I hope are available are Joe Johnson, Richard Jefferson, Loren Woods, and Troy Murphy!! Foreign players scare the crap out of me (I like what I hear about this years guys)but their contract status and defensive skills are way too up in the air for me. Just my opinion!! ------------------ "Somebody's gotta explain why I aint got ****" 2pac
I like what I hear about this years guys)but their contract status and defensive skills are way too up in the air for me. What's up in the air about Radmanovic? He's got a $350K buy out in his contract, so it's not a problem. What's wrong with Radmanovic's defense? You'd rather have Troy Murphy's defense? ------------------
aelliott, i said he had a DECENT jump shot, not a good one. he scores 11 or 12 points a game, and thats all we need from him right now. he rebounds and blocks really well and will be a project for a year or two. as for hunter, he sucked in college. just because he's been perfoming well in private 1-1 workouts doesn't mean he's gonna be a good pro. I'd much rather have senior alvin jones, who averaged a double double in his last year, or dalemburt than hunter. and talking about a way to go offensively, have you ever seen hunter shoot, its very ugly! it hurts me to watch him shoot its so bad. the guy lacked hustle in college and i don't think he's found it in the off season ------------------
also, i think rudy's game plan with radman is the same as it was with gasol. build these guys up and someone will try and beat you to him. if you think about it, the rockets already have 2 players in langhi and bull that fit the euro mold , so i don't think he wants another. and hunter seems to be climbing nicely too. rudy will only encourage that so the better talents will slip a few spots. notice how nothing at all has been said about joe johnson. the guy's got excellent ball handling skills to go with a nice stroke. i've even seen him do crossovers, at 6-9! i think rudy remembers last year's draft when he mentioned demarr's name. he was long gone when we came up. RJ is another possibility at 18 or maybe 13, but rudy will probably have him at the backup 2 instead of 3 . if gasol goes in the top 6 , then radman will go soon after, leaving another nice player to us. ------------------
drpepper: Errr... what makes you think Langhi and Bullard are "Euro" mold? The fact that they're tall and can shoot jumpers? Does this mean that you wouldn't want Dirk Nowitski or Pedrag Stojakovic because we "already have" Langhi and Bullard? Please. You'd really rather have Richard Jefferson than Pau Gasol and Vlad/Rad? If all 3 were available, you'd rather the Rockets draft RJ? ------------------ Newbiehad... coming to a bbs near you, October 31st. [This message has been edited by haven (edited June 25, 2001).]
aelliott, i said he had a DECENT jump shot, not a good one. he scores 11 or 12 points a game, and thats all we need from him right now Let me see if I understand; a 7', 300lb guy scores 11 or 12 points a game in high school and he's going to score the same in the NBA? At his size, if Diop had anything close to a decent jump shot, he'd have averaged 25+ a night in high school. Most of Diop's points came on rebounds and putbacks. ------------------
haven, until thursday morning i'm gonna take everything rudy says with a grain of salt. are you just gonna swallow up everything that comes out of the front office. and yea i do think they are very similar players, you don't? bull-6'10" good passer and shooter, sees the floor well, langhi- 6'11" very good shooter and somewhat athletic ,both a little thin. v.rad.-6'9" shooter and passer likes to post up a little(although i don't think he will as much in the nba), gasol- 7'0" its gotten redundant. now i got a question, do you think bull, walt, langhi, or v.rad will be able to put the defensive clamps on vince, kobi, stackhouse, r. white, odom, miles,t-mac, etc........NO. realisticly noone on the rockets can(shandon maybe, but he's prob. gone anyway) so we need a defensive player. when we need points langhi or bull are on the floor. we should draft out of need, not because he's a pure shooter. the only way we can justify drafting v.rad. is if we don't pick up bull's contract to save some cap. and i think rudy knows we need some veterans. maybe my years have taught me not to be so gullable. ------------------
alleiott, you forgot diop played on the best high school team in the country. they didn't need him to score alot of points. his main job was to clog up the lane, block shots, rebound, and get put backs. his coach knew diop will evetually develop some offensive skills, just not in his first few years ever to play the game. if he plays here the same thing would apply ------------------
Drpepper, Bullard is the epitome of one dimensional. Good passer? Langhi a good shooter? In practice, yes. In the games, no. Matt Maloney looks like an allstar shooting the ball in practice, but it doesn't carry over into the games. I've seen Dan up close and personal many times, and he has a midrange stroke, but I wouldn't call him a three point threat. From all the reports I've read about Radmanovic, his best asset is his passing skills, something that's lacking in Shandon's game. Langhi is not a playmaker, and besides, his job is not to create, it's to hit jumpers off of our guards passes from the interior. All of the players you listed can't be stopped by anyone. Some players can slow them to an extent, but no one can singlehandedly stop a Kobe or a McGrady. The way you force those players into bad games is keeping them on the perimeter, and the only way to do that is to beef up the middle. I'm pretty sure the Kings are pretty happy with how Turkoglu turned out even though they had a somewhat similar player in Peja. If Radmanovic is anything like Hedo, I'd love to have him on this team. ------------------
Yahoo Sports has Players Capsules entering the NBA draft.It says that Radmanovic only shot 25 percent from 3 point range in Europe for the last two years.I wonder if he is only a great practice shooter with more overall skills than Turkcan? ------------------
alleiott, you forgot diop played on the best high school team in the country. they didn't need him to score alot of points. his main job was to clog up the lane, block shots, rebound, and get put backs. his coach knew diop will evetually develop some offensive skills, just not in his first few years ever to play the game. if he plays here the same thing would apply Tyson Chandler sure managed to score points when Dominguez was #1 last year. Oak Hill beat St. Vincent-St. Mary by one point in January, and Diop only scored 11 points. It sure seems like they needed him to score more in that game. his coach knew diop will evetually develop some offensive skills, Wait a minute, before you were saying that he had a decent (not great) jump shot. Now, all of a sudden, he will eventually develop some offensive skills? Did you change your mind? How do you know that he will develop offensive skills? Lots of players never develop offensive skills. If it's something that we can teach him, then why haven't we taugh Cato yet? ------------------ [This message has been edited by aelliott (edited June 25, 2001).]
Yahoo Sports has Players Capsules entering the NBA draft.It says that Radmanovic only shot 25 percent from 3 point range in Europe for the last two years.I wonder if he is only a great practice shooter with more overall skills than Turkcan? I don't believe that Radmanovic's appeal is his 3 point shooting. After the Chicago workout, the talk was that he was a great ball handler and passer, a very good shooter (not necessarily 3 point range) and extremely athletic. ------------------
diop averaged about 14 points for oak hill because that's what they needed him to do. the team was stacked. dominguez needed all the points they could get from chandler. i'm not saying that diop has an offensive game or that he doesn't, but he didn't need to score, with oak hill having 3 of the top 30 players in the country and a fellow mcdonalds all american in rashaard carruth. chandler certainly didn't have scorers like that with him. and also, when you mention the game where oak hill almost lost, you don't mention that st mary's was the number 3 team in the nation...not quite the 'lockdown' on diop that it would have been if a crummy team had been playing against them. 11 points isn't much off his 14 average. as i recall, the reason they almost lost is because lebron james - the top sophomore in the country locked down carruth and poured in something like 30 points. still, i can see you saying diop should have stepped it up because you seem to have a passion for rhetorical questions but i really dun care to defend that for all i care you can put little quotes of my stuff and try to put something cute lol this is just a message board no need to get all worked up...maybe he was out of shape and tired, but the dude is a killer and i'm sure he can get into shape once he gets in the nba. also i don't know about how he's only been playing basketball for 2 years, and this may not be the same, but it seems easy enough to teach people who have only been playing for two years an offensive game (10 year olds such as mj, kobe, diesel, etc.) hahaha that's probably apples and oranges but i dun care just messing around ahh i dunno i think diop will be pretty nice [This message has been edited by jamsey (edited June 26, 2001).]
diop averaged about 14 points for oak hill because that's what they needed him to do. the team was stacked. dominguez needed all the points they could get from chandler. i'm not saying that diop has an offensive game or that he doesn't, but he didn't need to score, with oak hill having 3 of the top 30 players in the country and a fellow mcdonalds all american in rashaard carruth. My point was that Diop doesn't have an offensive game and that point is true. Read any scouting report on Diop and it says the exact same thing. Read the quote from the St. Vincent-St. Mary coach, he also says "But offensively, he has a ways to go." If you're Diop size and you have any offensive skills whatsoever, you should be able to average 20+ points a game simply on put backs, regardless whether your team needs your scoring or not. chandler certainly didn't have scorers like that with him. It doesn't matter if you get your scoring from 2 guys or 5 guys. Dominguez still blew people out and Chandler still scored, even though Domingues didn't need his points on most nights. when you mention the game where oak hill almost lost, you don't mention that st mary's was the number 3 team in the nation...not quite the 'lockdown' on diop that it would have been if a crummy team had been playing against them. Even more reason for Diop to step up on offense. The argument being made was that Diop didn't score because it wasn't needed. If that's the reason he wasn't scoring, then wouldn't a game against the #3 team be an appropriate time to show some offense if he had it? this is just a message board no need to get all worked up Who's getting worked up? also i don't know about how he's only been playing basketball for 2 years, and this may not be the same, but it seems easy enough to teach people who have only been playing for two years an offensive game Ok, then I'll ask again (it really wasn't a retorical question) : If we can teach a guy like Diop to score, then why can't we teach Cato? He'd only played something like 3 or 4 years before getting drafted. Diop's got a tremendous upside, but he's also got the potential to be a bust. ------------------ [This message has been edited by aelliott (edited June 26, 2001).]
hahaha let's see if i can't get the little quote people thingy working lol If you're Diop size and you have any offensive skills whatsoever, you should be able to average 20+ points a game simply on put backs, regardless whether your team needs your scoring or not. well curry has diop's size and he averaged 22 points a game...what, because he only averaged 22 points a game against this "crummy" high school competition he has no offensive skills whatsoever? wow, diop was 8 points less a game...you are right, he does have no offensive game whatsoever. dang wait. since curry averaged 22 and kwame averaged 26 that must mean they have no offensive game whatsoever too?? because to have an offensive game according to you, they must have had 20+ points on putbacks alone, leaving only 2 and 6 points respectively for them to average a game (hahaha yeah i'm probably taking it out of context, but hey, at least i'm having fun with it...) lol. and i know more than that came from shots/free throws, so they must have no offensive game whatsoever. good, now that that issues is settled (decides to try out the cool quote and italicize thing again) It doesn't matter if you get your scoring from 2 guys or 5 guys. Dominguez still blew people out and Chandler still scored, even though Domingues didn't need his points on most nights. precisely. when diop is in the nba, he will most likely assume the same role - that is, the nba team not needing him to be a dominant scorer. worked pretty well in high school, number one ranking his senior year, and top 3 his junior. ok, let's say chandler was on oak hill, and diop dominguez...do you think chandler would have poured in 26 points a game for a team as deep as oak hill? with as many stars as they had, it's unlikely. and do you think diop would have only put in 14 at dominguez? you know he wasn't getting that many shots at oak hill with everyone else wanting the rock, so he had to make a lot of the shots he actually got. at dominguez, he would have gotten the ball, just as chandler did. hahaha i'm not saying he's as good as chandler offensively, but he's a horse in the paint, and i don't think people give him enough credit offensively. do you know how long it has been since a big man has averaged your 20+ points a game at oak hill? they are always in the top 5, the best high school team if they were considered as franchises. once again next year, you will see them reload with a big man from africa, and they already have two of the top players in the class of '02. a big man's offensive numbers are deflated there, although they do seem to go for the bigger, powerful types who provide very strong defense/shotblocking/rebounding which there is always a market for in the nba. ooooohh can i do the italicize thingy one more time?? please??? i don't know jamsey, you have to be pretty elite to do it... whoo hoo! ahh, the novelty is kind of wearing off now. i guess i'll have to pass on doing it from now on lol ------------------
jamsey: Hmm... you know Rashard Lewis only averaged like 16 points. That's only like 6 more than Shandon Anderson. By your logic, we're set at small forward. There's a big difference between 22pts per game and 14. Don't take aelliot out of context, and don't distort. Isn't being accurate more important than cracking snide jokes? 22 points a game is a star. 14 with athetlicism like diop is sub-par. That's getting a bit redundant. And unfortunately, your sarcasm isn't even amusing. Precisely, what? You don't have a point here. For this argument to be valid, you'd have to establish the fact that there weren't other talented players on his team. Extending your argument to the NBA... Tyrone Lue must be better than AI, since his team won the championship. He might not have averaged 26 pts a game, but I have trouble believing he would average less than 20. Chandler's game is more refined. Face it. Even his coach acknowledged this. How long has it been since a big man from Oak Hill want to the NBA in the top 10 picks straight from high school? Oak Hill may have some nice players... but not franchise centers. who are some of these players? Why can't I just draft Jamaal Magloire and get these same qualities? Why draft a defender in the top 10? Doesn't make sense. Italics/bold/quotes are useful for clarity. If your arguments suck and are without merit, I suppose clarity works to your detriment. ------------------ Newbiehad... coming to a bbs near you, October 31st.
How about a quote from Diop himself. Apparently Diop doesn't think his offense is "NBA level" and he needs to improve on it. From www.chicagosports.com : The 7-foot Diop, who also has worked out for Atlanta, Washington and New Jersey, is considered a project, short on polish but long on potential. At a predraft function June 9, Diop said he believes his rebounding and shot-blocking abilities are at an NBA level. "But my offense has to get better," Diop said then. "I can shoot for a big man but I have to be able to move out farther." ------------------ "I had mine chewed off by a boss one time." -- Behad leaves us wondering if he gets hazard pay...
