Amare Stoudamire went lotto, and I'm willing to bet Perkins will as well. It's all about potential. Most lotto teams are on long, seemingly eternal rebuilding plans anyway.
Stoudemire was way more ready than Perkins ever will be. Ask anyone who knows. Perkins is not anywhere close. If someone is stupid enough to draft Perkins as a lottery pick, then they should fire that GM. Now, Duhon as the #2 is even more laughable. Give me a break, Ridnour, Chris Thomas and TJ are way, way better than him. He's not even as good as Frank Williams and where did he get drafted? Of course next year's draft is extremely weak. Bosh is not lottery. It's also sad to see you putting McCants, Felton, Fraser, Anthony, and Villanueva as possible picks. This getting ridiculous to think every blue-chip HS player should leave after his freshman year of college. Gerald Wallace was lucky. Alton Ford was lucky. Don't expect this to keep on happening with all the love for Euros... I could see TJ as lottery, but I don't know about Rid. Definitely 1st round material, but we'll see. Dwayne Wade is a baller, so maybe... I think Chris Thomas is the best PG in the nation next year. Yep, better than TJ AND I go to UT... Ricky Paulding is better than Haislip, so he could be lotto Your new and improved mock still sucks, but I can't wait till the season starts, so revise it...
Perkins will go, at least, in the first round if he declares next year. He was dissapointing this past year in hs and the camps, but you can't deny the talent is there. But even as disappointing as he was, he is 5x more ready right now then diop was, and diop was picked in the top 8. If he shows improvement this next year, he'll be a lotto pick, and there won't be just one gm that will be willing to pick him also. Look for him to declare and look for him to go fairly early in the draft depending on what kind of shape he gets himself into. Duhon is a better nba prospect right now then thomas, ford and ridnour hands down. period. all of them are nice point guard, and if they play their cards right, can all be first round picks whenever they decide to come out. I love the way that ford plays but face it, he already has one strike against him because of his size. here's a question: who was the last sub 6 foot to be taken in the lotto and not be a bust? The only one i can think of is damon stouremire and a case could be made that he was a bust. And 14% shooting from the college 3pt line doesn't exactly help ford's case. TJ is already a great college player and has the potential to be a good nba pt guard, but he has a lot to work on and i won't expect him in the lottery any time soon. Thomas' size also works against him. While bigger than ford, a 6' 165lb guard will have a tough time in the league. duhon doesn't have the size problems that ford and thomas have, he's also older and more experienced. While splitting time at off guard and pt guard this past year he had as many assists as thomas and a better as/to ratio than ford. Look for duke to put the ball in his hands full time this year and for him to explode. Bosh is terrible weak. So are most good high school bigman though. obviously he need to get stronger, but that will come with time. He'll be the man at georgia tech, and in one of two years could very well be contending for the lottery. It seems that that phoenix and sacramento, rather than gerald wallace and alton ford, were the lucky one. Ford was tearing it up in the summer leagues and calangelo recently remarked that ford was one of their building blocks, and he'll even get a look for the starting spot this year. Sacramento also sounds pretty happy with wallace. Considering where they drafted them, they should be happy they got steals. With such a weak draft coming up, i wouldn't be surprised to see breakout freshmen entering the draft. Also foreigners don't look to be quite as strong as they were this year, but who knows, they have a tendency to just pop up on ya. All in all, for being a year early, wagner's mock draft is pretty good
I was doing the mock...on teams needs.....but ehen just players rankings it will be : 1) LeBron James 2) Carmelo Anthony 3) James White 4) Chris Duhorn 5) Nick Collison 6) Chris Thomas 7) Luke Rindour 8)TJ Ford 9) Kirk Hinrich 10) Rickey Paulding 11) Emeka Okafor 12) Chris Bosh 13) Charlie Villanueva
I didn't deny Perkins being a 1st rounder, but Lotto sounds pretty ridiculous coming out of last season. We'll see if he improves, but as of now it's pretty laughable. Yeah, he further than Diop, but that draft was the one where people went crazy on HSers and learned their lessons. (See what happened to DeAngelo Collins & Lenny Cooke) This is Duhon's time to prove himself. As of now though, I think he's vastly overrated. His defense is not all that hype, and his offense isn't much to balk about. His passing skills have yet to be displayed to full extent. With Jay gone, he'll have his chance, but I'm nost sold on him. Thomas was pretty damn good for a freshman. I'd hope he'd stay 3 years and could turn out pretty solid. He can score all around plus he has great handles and vision. TJ sucked at shooting last year, but he knows it and has been working on it. He is small, but he'll bulk up and is very athletic. 40" vertical, etc. Duhon is only 6'2, right? That's not much taller than Thomas. Also Duhon could be a lotto pick b/c next year's draft sucks, but #2 is still laughable to me. Period. I said Bosh is not lotto in 2003 draft, not ever... I'm saying they were lucky to be drafted. They should both turn out good, but for every one of these hyped up HSers who leave after their freshman year and get drafed, there are a bunch that will not be ready and not e drafed Yes, next year's draft is going to be a very, very bad one.
rhat time I did a PLAYER RANKING mock...but at first I did my version of LOTTO TEAMS...and their CHOISE.....
I agree with you Tozai. Like I posted earlier I was at the academy tourmanent and I was not impressed with Perkins at all. He's got all the physical tools to be successfull, but at this moment he's nowhere near ready to set foot near an NBA court
No, but people have learned their lesson. That was the HS draft-happy mode, now we're in Euro-hapy mode. Next year's draft is going to be ridiculously weak after #1 pick...
WHAT...?!?!??!?! rediccolously weak ?!??!?!?!??! NO.... what about.....Nick Collison , Carmelo Anthony , Emeka Okafor , Kirk Hinrich , TJ Ford aso......
Yes, even with those players it still is ridiculously weak. Compare it to the last few year's drafts and it's still pretty bad. The lotto is weak if someone like Duhon can be #2. Besides that, look at the draft from top to bottom, it's just not that great. Collison is a good college player, but I don't know if he'd even be better than Raef Emeka could be good TJ could be good, but he is very undersized and needs to prove he can score Hinrich is good in college, but nothing shows he wouldn't be better than 3rd string in the L Carmelo hasn't showed me anything other than HS hype, so we'll see about him in Syracuse...
