Jarrett Jack - Agreed. I knew that guy was a blood and guts baller when I watched him at Georgia Tech. Still like him immensely. I think he'd be a great fit at the 1 for us. Not saying go trade for him. Just saying he'd be a great fit. Underrated defender, and very, very good offensive playmaker and shooter. Jameer Nelson - I also felt he would be a good NBA baller even when everybody was killing him for his size.
I love my Rockets, but I used to really enjoy watching the Blazers (minus Quitten) I always said that Z-Bo, Rasheed, Jermaine and Bonzi were going to be good. You can argue about Bonzi, but when he was healthy, he was unguardable at times. Z-Bo is an all-star and put Memphis back on the map. Sheed didn't meet ALL his potential, but he is HOF material. Jermaine had some MVP-type years in Indy and was a great player until he was injured. I've been wrong, too: -I thought Glen "Big Baby" Davis would be a mini-Chuck. He's a scrub. -I thought Roy Hibbert was going to be great. I'm glad he's not ours. -I was young at the time, but I thought the Lakers were nuts for giving up Eddie Jones for Kobe. :grin: That was the biggest "wrong"
Speaking of people coming out of this draft. A more risque prediction, but I think McBuckets has star potential (everyone is writing him off as a role player).
Not risque to me. I have felt this way about him since last year. I think he could start at the 4 for us right now and knock down a ton of 3's and have a PER of around 22. (But I am biased in favor of shooters.)
I'll start in 1978, which is about the time I really started following hoops in a big way. Keep in mind that back then there was no ESPN or regular TV other than the ACC on Saturday afternoon so what I knew about players outside Texas/the SWC I got from those sparse, broadcasts and a column in the DMN or occasionally buying a Sunday paper from another region the following Tuesday when they would arrive. 1985 was probably when I started watching Big East bball on ESPN and started to gain a bit more knowledge about players outside Texas and the ACC. 1978: I thought Boston wasted a pick on Bird because he wouldn't be able to play for a year and I didn't think he would be more than a good role player. I knew Rick Robey was going to be a stiff. That's about it for that mostly uneventful draft. 1979: I knew Magic would be good. I thought Greg Kelser would be good, but I didn't realize Magic was so damn good that he got Kelser drafted #4. I knew Moncrief would be good. Everyone was comparing Bill Cartwright to Bill Russell because they both came from USF, but I knew he would not be close to Russell. 1980: Horrible draft. At the time: Joe Barry Carroll: stiff. Darrell Griffith: serviceable. Kevin McHale: stiff. Mike O'Koren/Gminski: stiffs. Kiki Vandeweghe: Beach bum. Hawkeye Whitney: Underrated and star potential. 1981: Aguirre and Thomas = busts. Buck Williams was a stud. Al Wood would be good. Danny Vranes = stiff. Orlando Woolridge: didn't care, went to Notre Dame. Jay Vincent, underrated. Danny Ainge, goofy white guy. 1982: Wilkins will be better than Worthy, Cummings serviceable, Bill Garnett = stiff, LaSalle Thompson would be a force, Chuck Nevitt = champion. Pressey would be good. 1983: Sampson = hopeful. If not on Rockets probably would have thought of him as a stiff (compared to his projections). McCray = disappointing. Dale Ellis would be decent. Darrell Walker would be good. Drexler would be really good and I wanted him at #3. Thought Micheaux would be a good role player/enforcer. 1984, the greatest draft of all-time: Dream: great. Bowie: stiff Jordan: meh. Thought he would be OK to good. Did not see him becoming who he became. I guess it goes back to the old joke about Dean Smith being the greatest defensive coach ever as he was the only one to hold Jordan under 20 ppg. Perkins: Did not think he would be as good as he was. Barkley: Had a lot of buzz, mainly from reports of him dominating the Olympic tryouts and Knight cutting him. Did not see him being as good as he became. Turpin: stiff. Alvin Robertson: Thought he would be good. Otis: Didn't know much about him, but had a vibe that he would be good. Probably came from the "man among boys" comment you always saw with his name. Same thing with Cage. Stockton: Did not realize he was a minion of Satan until a few years after the draft. Michael Young: Boston got a steal. 1985: Ewing and Tisdale were locks to be good. Benoit Benjamin was a stiff, Kocack and Kleine were the stiff brothers, Mullin was a weak punk who would not last. I could not believe the Mavs picked Detlef before Oakley and Ed Pinckney, both of whom I thought would be good. Keith Lee was too skinny to be good. I'd seen Karla play in college and was not terribly impressed. Wennington and Blab were the other pair of stiff brothers. I thought Joe Dumars would be good because I also saw him play in college and he was effortless but dominating. 1986: (At this point I was living in DC and had greater access to info, not to mention being able to go to ACC and Big East games... not that it changed my number of correct guesses much): Not impressed with Daugherty, especially compared to centers in the previous few drafts. Len Bias was going to be a star, no doubt. Washburn was a washout (it was clear even then) and Person was going to be good. Thought Mark Price was way undervalued, glad to see Sabonis get drafted. 1987: Admiral and Armen Gilliam were going to be good. Kenny Smith was going to be good. Knew nothing of Pippen. Olden Polynice was going to be a good role player/enforcer type. Reggie Miller was too skinny to amount to anything much. Joe Wolf was a stiff. Dallas Comegys was undervalued. 1988: Manning was soft, Smits was a stiff, Seikaly was a stiff, Hersey Hawkins was going to be good. Rex Chapman was intriguing, but also white, so maybe a decent role player. Willie Anderson was going to be OK. For some reason, I had a soft spot for Eric Leckner, but he screamed stiff. 1989: Pervis and Ferry would not live up to their billing. Glen Rice was going to be a star. Stacey King might be good while J.R. Reid would not be. Randy White was going to have a long career. Roy Marble was undervalued, good role player. During that year, I met the future Mrs. rimrocker and we were married in 1992, so the time I spent on college hoops greatly diminished. Still, I learned one thing from this exercise: Predicting who will be a star is harder than predicting who will be a stiff.
Cut From '84 Olympic Team, Barkley Rebounds-and How June 09, 1993|By Don Pierson. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-06-09/sports/9306090053_1_charles-barkley-defense-cut The 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball trials turned coach Bob Knight's Indiana gym into a spectacular showcase of talent. Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin, John Stockton, Chuck Person, Alvin Robertson, Wayman Tisdale, Joe Dumars, Terry Porter, Steve Alford, Roy Tarpley, Tyrone Corbin and Sam Perkins were among the college stars who dominated the 71-man roster Knight had to trim. The undisputed star of the early workouts was Charles Barkley, a junior from Auburn whose 6-foot-6-inch, 284-pound body had earned him nicknames like "Boy Gorge," "The Leaning Tower of Pizza" and "The Round Mound of Rebound." It was soon apparent he was a fat Michael Jordan. "Charles Barkley is standing out more than anyone," said Person, his teammate at Auburn. "The one that sticks out is Charles Barkley," said Oklahoma's Tisdale. "The way he's able to move around 284 pounds like a guard is amazing." "I went to guard him the first day and he grabbed my face, pushed me away and dunked with one hand," said Northeastern's Mark Halsel. "He didn't want me to interrupt him." "If they cut Barkley, they better do it by mail," said Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim. Knight did cut Barkley, ostensibly because of poor defense. Barkley accepted the snub with class, admitting his defense was "awful" and offering that the second 16 could win a gold medal. Knight, reluctant to talk about any individuals during the process, said this about Barkley before the cut: "The word `interesting' is a good word to apply to Barkley. He's an extremely talented player. He's got to become a much better defensive player. He has to work at sharpening what he does. If he can, he has an excellent chance. If he can't, he's not going to make the team." Barkley said Knight had talked to him about slimming down from 284 to 215. "I'd be in bad shape," Barkley said. Asked if he was fat or just built funny, Barkley replied: "Hard to say. If I peeled off the extra weight, I'd probably look like Hercules." Knight backed off the 215 as soon as he saw him play, saying, "Barkley at 215 would be like asking Raquel Welch to undergo plastic surgery." If Barkley's defensive shortcomings turned off Knight and his assistants, they were obscured by his sensational scrimmages. In the opening minutes of one, Barkley drove the baseline for a reverse left-handed layup, blocked a shot, stole a pass in the frontcourt and made a two-handed backward dunk. Then he snatched a rebound, dribbled the length of the court, avoided a defender with a behind-the-back dribble and banked a 15-footer. The best was yet to come. Jordan, college player of the year, tried to bounce a pass in front of Barkley under the basket. Barkley stole it and dribbled downcourt. As if to show his playmaking skill, Barkley fired a cross-court bounce pass to Duke guard Johnny Dawkins. When Dawkins missed the layup, there was Barkley slamming the rebound home. Barkley told the press: "If you all had a vote, I'd be on the team."
Thabeet, Bargani and Yi Jianlian. bust bust bust.... Evans - Tyreke and Turner. bust bust donte green.... Batum is my one saving grace.
No one can beet me on Ginobili and Ben Wallace. Look how low they were drafted and how high their win shares were. I win and /thread
