Here's the thing about Drummond. He has so much talent and so little actual basketball skill that the only way a team picking him in the high lottery can possibly get good value out of him is to throw him out there for 30 minutes a night in the starting lineup as a rookie and feed him the ball. In other words, the best place for Drummond to go is to....a place like Charlotte. They're not in winning mode. They're definitely losing and going to the lottery next season. They have the luxury of being able to run him out there 30 minutes or more a night so that he can develop on the fly (if he is going to develop). They can let him turn the ball over double digit times, shoot in the low 40s to 30s, pop free throws at 30%, and watch him foul out game after game because they can take the risk. They're not trying to win next season. Washington....they just got done moving out one player that they couldn't develop. They've got another lottery pick that they can't get rid of because the guy is untradable. They've got a $16 million contract at the center position and a youngster (Seraphin) backing him up who is already actually developing. They are trying to improve in Wall's third season and challenge for the playoffs. They really can't afford to throw away year 3 of Wall's development running Drummond out there every night. If they drafted him, he'd ride the pine behind Nene and if this guys rides the pine at this point in his career, the bad odds of him making it in the NBA turn into overwhelmingly bad odds of him ever being a player. Cleveland...they're trying to win. Don't have time to waste games and minutes on this guy. Sacramento...they've already got a horse in the interior. And they've been bad for so long. THey're trying to win. Don't have time for him either. Portland..too smart. Warriors got a top 7 center. Toronto has a young 5. Detroit---sounds like they're already promising Moultrie. They've already got a young 5. N.O. ... They're not going to take him when they've got Davis. Doesn't fit. Portland again at 11. Milwaukee------maybe. I don't know what they're doing up there. Can't figure out if they are trying to win or rebuild. If they're trying to rebuild, they could throw him out there for 30 a night. PHX-They're in no man's land. Perhaps since Nash is likely leaving they draft Drummond and run him out there every night while trading away Gortat for another young player or draft pick and go to the lottery. Rox - we're trying to win. Morey doesn't have 3 years for a developmental project. We're trying to win now. IF we didn't go to the lottery in 2012, there is no way we are going to play to go to the lottery in 2013. Therefore, if we took Drummonod, he'd pine away at RGV, learning nothing and not developing enough. The point is Drummond needs to play and play immediately for a whole season to have a chance to improve his skillset and become an NBA player. He needs the gametime to develop and work on his game. If he goes to a team that benches him or sends him to the DLeague, his value immediately goes in the toilet. Once he rides the bench for one season or goes to Dleague for a whole season, he becomes almost worthless in trade. Remember Thabeet. Every year he doesn't make big strides and get big minutes his opportunity to be successful falls further and further, kinda like a penny stock being sold off, with no chance of potential recovery. There is no way Morey drafts this kid....unless he's drafting him to trade to some other team that wants to take a chance on him. (I actually think he has a 50/50 chance of being on the board at 14.) Drummond needs to go to a team that will commit to playing him as a starter full-time and just bear with all his flub-ups because they are going to be terrible terrible when he starts playing. And he either gets better on the fly or he busts just like he is probably going to do anyways if he sits the bench somewhere for 2-3 years....allegedly developing. He needs to go somewhere where he can play 30 minutes a night without any pressure to win immediately. And see if he can become something. That's not the situation the Rox or a lot of other teams are in.
going to a losing program with a new unproven coach and no winners or veterans who can provide a winning culture and show him the ropes...is probably the worst place for him. drummond would be better off almost anywhere besides charlotte.
Charlotte just hired a new coach. He's not a loser. He's a young coach that has been successful as an assistant. The only chance Drummond has to succeed in the NBA is he has to be given consistent minutes to learn the game, he has to be given gametime and possibly coached up during game time. This kid is too slow and his skills are too unrefined to be able to learn anything riding the bench.
If Drummond is not ready to be a full-time starter, he won't be. No purpose would be served by destroying his confidence and letting him embarrass himself. Not all learning and improvement by rookies is done during games. Ideally, Drummond will go to a team that has a serviceable starting C so he won't get thrown to the wolves if he isn't ready. His coach will have to be very careful about massaging his confidence and ego. IMO, the team that drafts him will have to baby this guy for a couple of years and get little in return. During his 3rd season, maybe he will prove himself capable of being a good starting C. Then he will get a max contract during the summer of 2015 after accomplishing little or nothing. The team will have to hope he is motivated and hungry after being guaranteed $80-$100 million.
Drummond may be ready to play some NBA minutes just based on his freakish size and athleticism. He can play defense too. Most of his points at UConn were put backs. lobs and offensive rebounds. He shot over 50% from the field. At very short range of course. Also there will only be a few selections in the draft that can really contribute on a decent NBA team their rookie season. Many will see some minutes, but picks like Parsons are extremely rare. Heck - Morey should take a flier on him if he is available.
Sure, if he's there in the second round. The dude can't play right now. There's a high probability he'll never learn how to play. He needs to go somewhere where he can play and not tear up anything.
I posted this in another thread butnim pretty sure you don't follow the draft that much. Or at least not as much as you like trade proposals. Too slow? Did you see the combine results? The guys an athletic machine. As to your point wrt to consistent minutes, what exactly are you saying? To get better the guy has to play? Um, yeah... Of course. How many James hardens have their been? High pick slow build potential stars? Not many. Because all these guys need consistent minutes. And they'd all be better off with stable organizations, good coaching, etc.
Mentally slow, Jay, mentally. He's dumb as a box o' rocks. Like I said, I'm a village idiot on the draft. You kinda just figgered me out dere. I just like dem big tall boyz that can run -n jump, you knows.
That makes more sense, true. I'd just say the dude compares VERY favorably height and athletically and in game style, IMO, to a young Dwight. Can't speak to his iq. His interviews seem intelligent enough. He looked a little confused at times in college, but consider e situation at UConn, where the guards so dominated the ball, and drummonds personal late arrival situation, and his age, and I think there are enough mitigating factors. Again, dwightnhad similar offensive issues and confusion when he was that age.
Not every raw big man needs to be thrown into the fire. The Lakers had Bynum riding the pine behind Kwame and gradually stepped up his time. They never tanked and didn't have seasons to throw away. Utah fought for the playoffs and still wanted to develop Favors and Kanter slowly. If a team thinks Drummond has the goods, they'll be patient with him.
It don't mean a thang man. Just cuz a guy is big and tall and is fast and can jump high does not make him a player nor does it make him even a prospect. Tell you what, you could take this guy and Perry Jones, give 'em a penny for each iq point they got and they'd still owe you change back from a single dollar spent on both of 'em. A lil' confused?? Understatement of the year. Look, 30% from the FT line man. 30%!!!?!!!! That's a dude that was supposedly a high school superstar. HE can't even hit 1 out of 2 from the charity stripe. He's shown nothing in his workouts. Everybody is saying the same thing....project. Dude, this is the pros. Dwight Howard??? Are you kidding me??? Dwight Howard started 82, count 'em 82, games his rookie season and put up 12/10 on 52% from the field in 32 minutes a game. He turned 19 in December of his rookie campaign. Does Drummond have a chance to get even close to averaging a double/double his rookie campaign???? And you're making my point. How did Dwight develop??? ON THE FLY! They put him in there and he played. HE didn't ride the bench....learning the game. If a team is going to draft Drummond, they gotta play him and be able to handle the losing. It's the only way he's gonna get better in a hurry. When you gotta park guys on the bench for 2 seasons so that you don't hurt their lil' confidence, you're talking about guys that are not superstar material. He shouldn't be in the lottery discussion if that is the case. He either plays or he shouldn't be drafted in the lottery.
Bynum and Kanter both had way more developed skillsets than Drummond has. And look what riding Bynum on the bench got the Lakers. It got them in a turmoil with Kobe because Bynum wasn't giving him anything. He wanted to trade the kid. Oh, by the way, 7 years or so into Bynum's career and he finally edges up to 18 ppg but totally bombs out of the playoffs. For those of you that don't know it yet, Bynum is fixing to bust too. Just as soon as he gets that $80 million contract or whatever, watch him turn into lukewarm leftovers. He doesn't have the heart for the game. Watch it happen. If you ran Kanter out in an NBA game against Drummond, he would eat Drummond alive. And that's after being brought on slowly for a year. Drummond could not stay with Kanter's skills. He's not even close.
I kind of think you're just making things up. Are you privvy to some special info about drummonds iq here? Does being a 30% ft shooter make him either dumb or a bad prospect? Only if Shaquille was also a bad prospect. He's clearly a project. Your point wrt to playing time isn't much of a point. It's obvious. You can't get better at anything without practice. Can Drummond average 12 and 10 his first year? Why not? Do I think he will myself? No, but I think 10 and 8 with a block or twois very possible with growth from there.
He'll average about 3 and 3 and will have to ride the bench because he is in foul trouble constantly. That is, if he gets drafted by a team that starts him and attempts to develop him quickly. In that scenario he'll get about 18 minutes a game as he will have to be taken out for large patches just to make his 6 fouls last a few more minutes. The most likely scenario is he plays in about half the games and rides the bench or plays in dleague for the rest of the season.
Exactly. Bynum is a good illustration. He had some basic concepts of footwork and other fundamentals, but he was extremely raw and the Lakers didn't play him much at all as a rookie. He looked awful when I saw him play. His 2nd year I saw enough to know Bynum had a very bright future. As raw as Bynum was as a rookie, he was fully mature compared to what Drummond is now. I think he'll be lucky to average 5/5 the final month of the season. His full-year stats will be close to nothing.
He wasn't as bad as Thabeet. And you're fixing to see someone that is significantly worse than Bynum. He'll be throwing down dunks in the layup line though. Which won't mean a blasted thing.
Couldn't agree with you more. If you are drafting Drummond, you are drafting a DeAndre Jordan clone, and you'd be a fool to expect anything more.
If we trade up for maybe #6 or #8 and he's available, we better not select him. We don't another Eddie Griffin type deal where it's all talent and no drive.
