Frank "The Tank" Kaminsky

Part of me likes him because of the breadth of skills, but does he have one elite skill? 3pt shooting? Other part of me thinks he's a less athletic Josh McRoberts.

 

The Tank is already EXACTLY what we all are hoping DMo will BECOME. That is....an efficient and PROFICIENT 3-point shooter who can pull the trigger out there as many times as he's left open and who is so good out there that he forces the defensive bigs to have to overplay him on the perimeter, thereby opening up lanes for Harden and opening up the pick and roll for Dwight and opening up wide open spot-up 3-balls from our other perimeter shooters.

In addition, he's even longer and more athletic than DMo and thereby even better capable of playing backup 5 minutes and dominating in the post both offensively and defensively.

I love this guy's game. Because he is so skilled that he can sit on the perimeter comfortably and create space if playing next to another big whose offensive game is all in the paint or he can go inside and play in the post if playing alongside another big that is a perimeter oriented big. He's going to have a great career if he remains healthy and will be a constant mismatch and a pain in the opponent's derriere to match up against because of his incredible range combined with his length and ability to go into the post. I hope we can trade up for him. As you can see he's my #1 draft target. And I sincerely believe he'll be a rotation player (and possibly starter) from day 1 on this team.

 

This game against Duke,

https://youtu.be/HC7feDM8cIQ


and the game coming up against Kentucky (WCS/KAT) are going to go a long way towards cementing Kaminsky's draft status. Hate to say it but I'm actually hoping he picks up a couple quick ticky-tack fouls against UK and winds up having to sit. That could possibly chink his draft position enough that we may be able to trade up a few spots and get him. If he comes out and really plays well against UK he'll probably elevate his draft position to top 6.

 

So what do you make of Meyers Leonard?

 

Well....he's a much improved shooter. That's for sure. And he bangs in the paint. So...he's on a somewhat upward trajectory. But DMo flat-out torches him in the paint. So....nice, young big with obvious holes in his game still. At this point, I'd classify Leonard with Terrence. Improving. But not dramatically. And he puts up some situational numbers that I don't think will translate well in the playoffs (because his defense sux so baaaaad). I'm sure Portland is hoping Leonard becomes what Kaminsky is. But I seriously doubt he makes it. I wouldn't trade DMo for Leonard at this point. I would consider trading Terrence for him (mainly just because he's a better perimeter shooter than Terrence and has an extra year left on his rookie contract so it would give us a little better cap flexibility come 2016 free agency) but I'd probably be looking to package Terrence for something better than Leonard. I don't feel Leonard is a superior player to Terrence (once again because Leonard's defense sux really, really baaaaaaaaad, much worse than Terrence who is an average defender at this point). But he'd be a better fit than Terrence both on the court (because he can shoot from the perimeter) and on the cap going forward a year (because he's not a restricted free agent with a larger cap hold in 2016).

Now...if Leonard shows some DMo style improvement defensively...then he might become a serious player.


Kaminsky, right now, is a better defender and rebounder than DMo/Terrence and both DMo/Terrence are superior defenders to Leonard. Watch Kaminsky play. He's longer than any of DMo/Terrence/Leonard. He positions himself better than any of them defensively in the post, spreading out his base and lowering his center of gravity. He stays on his feet. He's good at staying vertical and not reaching but stretching out and forcing the shooters to shoot it way over the top. And watch him box out down there. He's superior to all 3 of those guys right now on the defensive end and on the glass.

 

ESPN's mock draft has us taking Frank at #13.

 

Lets wait till he plays a NBA game first

 

Neck and face too long. Wasted height.

 

Chad can always update his predictions after the draft... :grin:

 

Well, we do like to shoot 3s...

 

I think he is super talented in college, but reading this worried me if the Rockets go after him:

Rockets are pretty heavy ISO/James harden controlling the ball.

source: http://www.nbadraft.net/players/frank-kaminsky

 

Iso? Kaminsky is a terrific pick-and-pop player. ......at the 3-point line where pick-and-pop becomes a huge problem for defenses in the NBA. Not to mention Kaminsky is good enough offensively to get a team to vary their offense to incorporate stuff for him.

 

I've only ever watched Kaminsky play twice and those were his two Elite Eight games against Arizona. His defense yesterday did not impress me at all, and I actually think Arizona made a big mistake by not going to Brandon Ashley in the post against him more, because Ashley was having his way down low.

 

I think we're pretty good at the 4, even if if we can only keep 2 or 3 of the 4s we have now. There's enough PG depth in the draft, and our need at the point is so great, that I'd be shocked if we don't draft a PG. But, who knows? Morey may go best asset available, and package for a PG.

 

Go right ahead and wait. I'm confident kaminsky is better defensively and on the glass.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Looking all over but can't find Wisconsin anywh-oh there it is <a href="http://t.co/Rs9LAslKvU">pic.twitter.com/Rs9LAslKvU</a></p>&mdash; Ramzy Nasrallah (@ramzy) <a href="https://twitter.com/ramzy/status/583066975544455169">April 1, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-video" lang="en"><p>Warning, <a href="https://twitter.com/marchmadness">@marchmadness</a> media: Be careful if you ask <a href="https://twitter.com/BadgerMBB">@BadgerMBB</a>'s Frank Kaminsky about his video games. <a href="http://t.co/oRmYxQRJkn">http://t.co/oRmYxQRJkn</a></p>&mdash; Wisconsin on BTN (@WisconsinOnBTN) <a href="https://twitter.com/WisconsinOnBTN/status/583006538354204672">March 31, 2015</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

Stretch four. The article on Grantland about the death of the power forward is relevant here. Kaminsky's future role in the NBA will be to forget everything he learned about the post and to sit at the three point line, while not sucking too bad on defense. He can probably do this well, but so can a lot of other tall white guys who won't be drafted nearly as high because of their lack of post moves this upcoming summer.

Unfortunately, nowadays it's not about skills it's about value. For his position, you can probably find a guy that's 70-80% as likely to succeed, 30 or 40 picks later in the draft. I'd rather take more Capelas.

 

I see some Marcus Morris in him which is bill Simmons favourite type of player comparison, the "inter racial comparison"