Players who are rising and falling in the NBA Draft...

The one name that pops to my mind of players likely to move up is Jared Jefferies. With his newly added muscle he now has the weight and strength of a PF with the game of a SF that can play with his back to the basket. He is probably as good as any SF in the draft at defense outside of Caron Butler.
There was a time when I thought he would easily be their at 15 but now I think he is probably a lotter pick and maybe a top ten pick.

 

Some good interviews.

http://www.nba.com/suns/news/2002_draft_notes.html

 

If all these guys are moving up, somebody's got to be falling. One of them is Mr. Clown Feet (Borchardt) and another is Woods. Of course, Woods will not drop out of the Top 10 but Borchardt will likely be there at #15. I know it's against logic and the odds, but IMO Marcus will be taken before Borchardt.

I still think we need to trade up to #10 / #11 / #12 to get a decent SF.

 

Woods can easily fall out of the top 10. The Suns have almost no use for him with Marion, and the Heat will NOT take a player with no D. Woods will go 11th or 12th.

 

How much weight has Jeffries added? Does anyone know, or are people just saying he looks bigger?

 

The article above states that he was 215 at the end of college, and now he is 234. That's 20 pounds of muscle he added. I agree with Hottodie...it seems to me that some serious 'roids were consumed by Mr. Jeffries. That is an awfully short amount of time to put on that much mass.

 

I don't think Borchardt drops out of the top 10. Woods on the other hand could easily drop out of the top ten based on this:
He can't play D and his offense is raw.

Other players I think will fall are Nene Hilario and Amare Stoudemire.

Another player I expect to rise is Jeri Welsch.

 

I think Nene may fall as well-everything I hear is eerily similar to what I remember of the more recent "Hakeem"0 Olumide Oyedeji...he slipped from lotto to 2nd round!

I think Borchardt won't fall out of lottery, but I wouldn't be shocked if he slipped to 10-12 area, though.

I wouldn't be surprised if Woods slips to 15 or so...raw, no defense, unproven competition, injury questions? With all the SFs, that's bad for him.

 

Crash, as I mentioned in the Jared Jeffries bulking up thread, I think Welsch would be a great pickup for us. At 6-6, he is a PG who can play SG or SF. He would give us height at the backup PG spot in case we can't get a true SF and if CD/RT don't like any of the project PFs (Stoudemire, Hilario, Ely, Haislip, etc.). However, if Marcus is there, they will take him over all others in order to back up Cato in Ming's absence.

 

Egriff-From my understanding, Nene is very raw offensively (especially his shot). There's also the Oyedeji factor-the Hilario description is a carbon copy of the Oyedeji description. He screwed up a LOT of mocks 2 years ago. Clutch compares him to Cisse. Who knows?

Also, IMO there's 3 guys that are fairly similar- Nene, Stoudemire, Ely, and workouts may cause one to fall down simply because the other 2 exist. All 3 are 6'10'', solidly built, fairly athletic, but not well polished (Ely is, sort of). Measurements may be huge-a good wingspan like Nene's reported 7'4'' or height could be the difference in if a team views the player as a center or a PF, which could DRASTICALLY affect value. If they're PFs, they've got to compete with Goodens and Haislips, as opposed to Chris Marcus.

Welsch is interesting. If the Rockets change their mind (or Doc Rocket is stringing the BBS), and make a trade that lands them a center and a SF via draft, Welsch would make a nice fit off the bench, hopefully making Moochie expendable. However assuming we pick Ming, it'd be extremely unwise IMO to draft him if one of the big 6 (Dunleavy, Butler, Woods, Tsika, Jeffries, Nachbar) SFs is on the board, one is available via trade up (ie w/KT) or an Artest/Miller type is available via trade.

 

It is impossible to gain 20 lbs. of muscle that quickly, yet every year every beanpole claims to have gained twenty pounds in two months by pumping iron (see: Woods, Loren). It's usually garbage, PR put out by agents, or water weight.

 

Check his phoenix workout pictures. He looks like he gained at least 15 pounds and maybe 20. And he looks solid.