ESPN Insdier...who the Rox would take at 1, 2 or 3

that would suck to pay 6+ mil a year for a non starter..

 

NJRocket,

I've gotta disagree. Grant Long guarded almost all of the opposing PFs, not Gasol.

 

A few comments from a memphis fans perspective ...

1) While Battier started at SG I think this was mainly due to Dickerson beeing injured the whole year and Memphis having noone else beeing even remotly able to play SG ... I expect Battier to eventually be a 3 but I guess that may depend on who we draft this year ... its not like this is a good draft for getting a 2 ...

2) I consider Gasol to be mainly a 4 now while beeing able to play some 3 and 5 ... main reason to move him away from 4 would be get more playing time for stro but he has to earn it first ... I think he will be almost exclusively playing 4 next year if Dickerson comes back which should move Battier to 3 ...

3) I really belive that Dickerson still is starter material but you never knows how a player mentally and physically recovers after a serious injury ... Hopefully he will be ok since I sort of like him ...

 

Who they'd take No. 3: Chris Wilcox. No offense to Danny Fortson, but if the team could grab an athletic power forward who can score in the post, run the break and rebound, it'll do it. Fortson, despite his strong rebounding skills, hasn't really fit in anyway and the Warriors would probably be able to move him this summer for a mid-level point guard.

Dunno how the contracts work out, but worth dangling the Mooch in front of them?

 

Aelliott, I wouldn't put too much stock in the ACC All-Defensive team. It's as much hype and publicity as a comparison of defensive talent. Frankly there were at least 3 or 4 ACC players that deserved that spot over Dunleavy.

As for Duke's defense; I'm not so deluded to say that they don't play any but their actual Half court defense isn't nearly as good as those stats make it out to be.

I really think it's Duke's offense that's their greatest defensive weapon. Most teams go in there seeing an aura of invincibility around the duke players and feel they have to play a perfect game to win. It throws them out of their game, and when Duke gets a signifigant lead, suddenly teams play a lot more out of control.

That's why teams like Notre Dame and Indiana played them close and/or won against Duke in the tourny. They didn't give up their gameplan because things weren't going right. It's also why Marylands had such better success against duke than anyone else in the last couple years. They've had the athletes and the understanding to play their game, not dukes game.

Dunleavy's not awful on defense, but he is very very far from being a good defender.

 

<i>Aelliott, I wouldn't put too much stock in the ACC All-Defensive team. It's as much hype and publicity as a comparison of defensive talent. Frankly there were at least 3 or 4 ACC players that deserved that spot over Dunleavy</i>

Let me see if I understand. You don't think that Dunleavy is one of the top 5 defensive players in the ACC? Instead you think that he's only in the top 8 or 9? Still sounds like a good defender to me.

 

I think the key word there is team. Duke plays great team defense. As for being a great individual defender and being all ACC defensively I agree with Jaybird, it is a lot of hype and publicity. It's also pretty political. Dunleavy got the lowest vote # on the team. I can remember many instances this year when he played the old ole' defense. He's a capable defender but his own teammate Chris Duhon is a *much* better defender than he is. Jay Will and Boozer aren't too bad either.

ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Juan Dixon, Maryland - 72
Anthony Grundy, N.C. State - 61
Chris Duhon, Duke - 45
Lonny Baxter, Maryland - 44
Mike Dunleavy, Duke - 33

 

LOL not quite aelliott, I think he's the third or fourth best defender at his position in the ACC. I'd maybe put him around 12-16th best overall defender in the ACC.

 

Dunleavy does not have to be the second coming of Billy King to be deemed a descent defender.

He has enough athletic ability to defend at the next level. If he can work, like most rookies need to, on positioning and weakside help, he has the potential to develop into not only a guy who won't hurt you defensively, but a good defender.

 

<i>I think the key word there is team. Duke plays great team defense. As for being a great individual defender and being all ACC defensively I agree with Jaybird, it is a lot of hype and publicity. It's also pretty political. Dunleavy got the lowest vote # on the team. I can remember many instances this year when he played the old ole' defense. He's a capable defender but his own teammate Chris Duhon is a *much* better defender than he is. Jay Will and Boozer aren't too bad either. </i>

You seem to be agreeing with my arguments. I was responding to the statement that Duke was the Dallas Mavs of the NCAA. I was pointing out that that statement was totally incorrect. You obviously agree with me since you say Duke plays great team defense.

As far as Dunleavy, I was responding to the statement that he was a poor defender. Again, you seem to agree since you say that he is a capable defender. By no means am I trying to say that Dunleavy is a better defender than Duhon or Battier, those guys are great defenders. For some reason people are assuming that Dunleavy is an awful defender and that simply isn't true.

 

<i>LOL not quite aelliott, I think he's the third or fourth best defender at his position in the ACC. I'd maybe put him around 12-16th best overall defender in the ACC.</i>

Ok, so if you think he's somewhere between the 12th and 16th best defender in the ACC, then you agree that he's not a poor defender. Right? That's exactly the point that I was making.

 

No, he's not a poor college defender. But I do think he will be a liability on defense in the NBA. The question becomes how great will that liablility be. That's a question I can't answer.

 

<i>No, he's not a poor college defender. But I do think he will be a liability on defense in the NBA. The question becomes how great will that liablility be. That's a question I can't answer.</i>

We'll have to disagree on his projection as an NBA defender. I was trying to come up with a previous example of somebody that was All-Defense in a major conference (ACC,Big 10, Big 12, PAC 10, SEC) and ended up being a liabilty on defense in the NBA. Excluding guys that were stricktly shot blockers, I couldn't come up with a single one.

 

<b>Public Service Announcement</b>

With how difficult it is to spell the Georgian's name, I thought I'd point out that we can call him

<b>Tziki</b> or Tsika

Anyhow, if we are to believe NBADraft.net, that's his nickname. It is kinda fitting that nbadraft.net has two different spellings.

As for me, I prefer to call him

Tsickville

btw: keep your fingers crossed. Tomorrow, the Official Early Entry List is released from the NBA Office. Have we seen a newswire announcement of Tziki's application for early entry?

 

heyparty-The list is out. Tskitishvili is on the list.

I prefer to call him The Skitish Villain.

Early Entries

Remember guys like Ming, Nachbar, Scola, Navarro, etc. are automatically draftable

 

Langhi has got to be one of the dumbest players who I've seen in the NBA. Deer in headlights dumb; bumps into teammates dumb; doesn't know when to shoot or pass dumb.

dumb dumb dumb

Langhi is DUMB.

He's pretty low basketball IQ, imo. That's spells DUMB. With a capital D and a capital UMB, and that rhymes with dumb.

 

woohooo, thx. I've been looking for that thing all week.