From what I'm seeing Clingan has only worked out for 4 teams. Washington, Portland, Houston and Atlanta.
Jabari. I'm assuming Sarr/Risacher are both on the table for them even if they don't come in for workouts. I know Castle wants to go somewhere with zero PGs and the Rockets have FVV and Amen. But that still leaves Sheppard and some of the other players in this range like Buzelis or Holland.
People bring up the Lopez thing a lot, but I think that's a bit misleading. 1st, they targeted Lopez before Sengun really broke out and proved he could be a starter. 2nd, I think Lopez was targeted for a 2-3 year deal IIRC. I assume the idea was to start the first year, then hope Sengun was ready to start the 2nd or 3rd year (it turns out he was ready Year 1). I don't think the plan was to keep Lopez around long-term, and he would possibly be open to being a bench player over time. Also given his shooting ability, you can kinda squint and see a way those 2 could play together. Can't really do that with a Clingan IMO. For a #3 pick, you're likely wanting to lock up that player for at least 4 years, but possibly a lot more (9 or more?). And that would be a player that is improving every year and likely wanting more playing time/responsibilities. If your best player is 21 and also playing the same position, I'm not sure that really makes a ton of sense. Not saying you can't draft a backup, but if that's the goal, I'd just do that in a future draft (as I keep saying over and over). I don't think any of the prospects will find a lot of time right away, but it seems realistic to me that a guard will likely find time in the near future. If Aaron Holiday leaves, that opens up 15MPG or so. FVV only has 1-2 years left on his contract (and even if he sticks around beyond that, he'll possibly transition slowly to a bench role?). I'm hopeful about Jalen, but he's probably got the most to prove of the core, and his contract extension is coming up soon. Etc. I think it is pretty reasonable to expect a guard could get spot minutes this year (maybe somewhat comparable to Amen/Cam), and possibly 20MPG+ in a year or 2. A wing/forward has a more difficult time finding minutes IMO, but if you move Brooks or one of the other core guys (not saying I would), that would free up minutes too. For a back-up center, you'd really have to move Sengun to free up minutes, which I don't think is too likely, but who knows.
I'm starting to think Sarr is going to have a Jabari kind of moment come draft day. Right into the Rockets hands.
Shead at 44 would be a nice fit if he's still available there--I can see him impressing Ime and finding some rotation minutes in case of injury.
I've wondered and posted the same. With Dingleberry--er, Klingan--and his "private workout" for the Rockets, I wonder if it's more for Hawks representatives, with a swap at #1 and #3 in the works (as long as it involved nothing more precious than Brooklyn's future first). Hey. One can speculate and be wrong. But can't help but wonder, because Klingan and Sengun would mesh like Dwight Howard and Omer Asik.
Yeah, Lopez would have been a nice fit because he solves a rim protection problem AND stretches the floor at the same time. At this point Houston has already made plans to address those individually - that's why we acquired Adams. The pressure is still on for Sengun to increase his shooting range - all of the stretch big conversations are precisely because of Sengun's poor range and are only exacerbated by Amen's even worse shooting range. More so than a crowded big/wing/guard depth - is a conversation that we absolutely can't take on another poor shooting player in a rotation with Amen and Sengung getting big minutes unless they have considerable upside. Outside of Sarr, I don't see another player like that in the draft which says you prioritize shooting in those available minutes....and yes, that probably means Reed if we aren't able to trade down. ...I've said time and time again I don't love them drafting Reed at 3 but it's not because I don't like him as a player, it's because I think that's too high to pick someone with his relatively modest ceiling.
Yeah I was actually debating in my head about the Sarr fit earlier today. I haven't done a super deep dive on him, but I get the impression that while he's more likely than a Clingan to shoot 3s, he's still probably just an average-ish 3pt shooter at best. Which is fine for his player type, but yeah like you said you'd also have Amen with his shooting (lucky to be 30%+ I assume?), and Sengun (probably like Sarr, but maybe we can hope he's a bit better?). The other 2 guys in that lineup might need to be prime Steph and Klay in order to make up for the shooting deficiencies. I think Sam Vecenie threw out the idea that in order to really make the Amen + Sengun fit work on offense, you'd probably need 3 great 3pt shooters around them (great = ~40%). I think that's possible (even with the core we currently have), but that does give me pause in evaluating some of these non-shooters or even just average 3pt shooters that could be added to this roster/core. On a side note, I think I'm one of the few that actually has a high ceiling grade for Reed. I'd say somewhat comparable to most of the prospects in this draft, if not higher. That's probably why I have no problems taking him #3 (or if I really had issues with the Sarr fit...#1?).
Stevens - 5'11" guard Shead - 6'0" guard Thomas - 6'3" guard Dante - 6'10" Center (7'6" Wingspan) GAH-DERN!!!
Sarr has an outside chance at becoming the perfect big to pair with Sengun--if he can really get a lot better as a shooter and retain his mobility enough that he can guard modern 4s. I don't know if I'd bank on it. But at least he should be a good backup center if that doesn't work out. He also does have the greatest upside in this draft though, so there's an argument for taking him from the perspective of continuing to take shots at finding a potential franchise player.
Yeah, in theory on defense he would be great to pair with Sengun. I just have concerns about that shot. If it isn't there, then I'm wondering if a Tari/Jabari/Sengun lineup would be better than a Jabari (or Tari)/Sarr/Sengun lineup (even if Sarr is a better rim protector than Jabari). I think my issue is that Sarr has the most upside *if* he's developed as a center long term IMO. But that's not likely to happen in HOU. Even if he has the highest upside (I'd probably agree with that, though I think it is in the same tier as others, and all these prospects are below most of the core 6 IMO), he's not likely to reach that upside in HOU. So that introduces the possibility of other guys possibly having higher reachable ceilings with the Rockets. Reminds me of this:
The Ringer has Rockets taking Clingan and considering they were 5 for 5 at the top of the draft last year, I'm willing to bet they're right.
IIRC KOC just changes his mock on a near daily basis based on which direction the wind is blowing. I think just prior to the draft, he probably updates it with the latest intel and whatnot, which is probably pretty accurate, but we're probably not at that point just yet. I want to say he's had 2 or 3 different versions of the Rockets #3 pick already.
My observations on Sarr (I watched NBL) is that he is a better shooter than his %s show. They beat up young guys on defence and don't feature them. For me Sarr was a stand-up talent. Would be stoked if he fell to us
Did they play a lot of switching defenses? Was he defending smaller players a lot? I still love watching the play where he was playing for Perth vs Ignite, and he was guarding Ron Holland and Holland tried to juke him out of his shoes but Sarr stayed with him and refused to get juked or fall flat on his ass. A 7-footer guarding like that was pretty awesome to watch.
Players who have attended the Rocket’s Draft Workouts Statistical and biographical details are available via Tankathon. Donovan Clingan, sophomore center, Connecticut (No. 6 in HoopsHype’s latest aggregate mock draft) Dillon Jones, junior small forward, Weber State (No. 42) Jamal Shead, senior point guard, Houston (No. 43) Trentyn Flowers, small forward, Adelaide 36ers (No. 48, born in 2005) N’Faly Dante, senior center, Oregon (No. 63) Marcus Domask, senior shooting guard, Illinois (Not ranked, or NR) DJ Horne, senior point guard, North Carolina State (NR) Justin Moore, senior shooting guard, Villanova (NR) Mark Sears, senior point guard, Alabama (NR) Isaiah Stevens, senior point guard, Colorado State Tyler Thomas, senior shooting guard, Hofstra
