With the 10th pick in the NBA Draft the Houston Rockets Select...

If you draft a slow footed 3 point shooter that can't play defense he's not playing or going to be developed.

You need to get him the closest athlete to Amen for defense purposes.

 

The Rockets have the draft capital to trade up... but Ime would never play him, so there would be no point in picking him.

Ime likes athletic guys who can't shoot, Knueppel is the exact opposite of that.

Ime would rather lose games than play guys like that.

 

I think it's very possible they might take him if they kept the pick. He seems like the Udoka type.

 

LOL Kon Knuepple is another Reed Sheppard, the draft combine shows he is only 6'5 with a 6'6 wingspan. That is enough length and height for a shooting guard, but not enough for a SF. He didn't really stand out on any of the shooting and athletic drills either. This leads me to believe he will struggle to adjust to the speed of the NBA and we will have another Sheppard/Jabari situation where the supposed best shooter we got struggles to put the ball in the hole. Kneupple did his damage under the shadow of Cooper, on this team he will be targetted cuz we have nobody who can reliably be the perimeter threat.

The player worth trading up for is Tre Johnson, that guy showed better measurables than Knuepple, crushed the shooting drills and actually led the entire draft on some athletic drills. Personally I have him top 3 in this draft, I like him more than Ace Bailey and VJ Edgecomb who are the consensus top 3/4.

Two guys that also stood out to me are Rasheer Fleming and Carter Bryant. Fleming lead the class in Cone Drills showing his lateral movement and lane agility. He also had a 37 iinch vertical. Everyone wishes to have a Tari Eason with a brain well that's basically Rasheer Fleming. Dude is 6'8 without shoes and has a 7'5 wingspan. He is a junior but at the same time is only 21 yrs old so not that old either. As you would expect from Tari Eason 2.0 he takes defense seriously. In college, dude shot 39% from 3 on 4.5 attempts and his 3 pt percentage increased every year in college. If we get Fleming I expect an instant impact guy who will threaten Tari, Green and Jabari at the wing and forward slots for PT.

Carter Bryant is like what if Reed Sheppard had Ron Artest's body. Basically you have a model citizen with Hulk's body type and pretty good athleticism. Everyone is raving about this kid's character, not in the "he Kobe" kinda way but rather he is very coachable and has intangibles like maturity and leadership. He platforms the deaf community and chose Arizona over flashier names like Duke. Size wise he is almost 6'8 without shoes and has a 6'11 wingspan. He also had 39.5 inch vertical so imagine someone being that tall and big just have crazy hops. Just like Fleming he plays defense like a dog and had good accuracy from 3, but unlike Fleming he is a lot rawer and saw limited PT for some reason. He will probably see a lot less PT than Fleming, but at the same time I don't see him getting in the dog house cuz this guy can defend guards despite being a bulky 6'8 dude. His ceiling is higher than Fleming though IMO, he has shown some passing on top of 3nD skills.

I think this draft is pretty deep and reminds me of the 2021 class. At 10 lots of guys look promising good thing Stone has a good track record picking outside the top 5.

 

Udoka would have played Usman Garuba 40 minutes a night.

 

After watching some videos, he's giving me some Kawhi vibes. I would draft Fleming. I love that the quick release 3.

 

Rockets trade with Philly

Rockets trade FVV, Cam and #10 for Paul George and #3.

 

why? This is a 2 man draft.

 

I think if we dont draft him OKC 100% takes him. They already struck gold with JDub they will want another guy with abnormally long arms.

 

I'm hearing toronto wants hims at 9

 

Yeah Kneppeul isn't going to be there at 10. I only didn't put him as a lock to to before 10 since it's not nearly the consensus as the top 4.

People who talk about there being too many young players are making very unreasonable assumptions like Cam and Reed definitely getting rotation minutes next year. Or that Steven Adams will be back. Or that we don't have to prepare for possibly Tari or Jabari leaving because they want too much money. The Rockets definitely can use a guy to develop at every position.

 

I just wish he could dribble. Lots of Bari parallels. I’d take him late lotto but with his insane measurements he’s rising up boards.

 

I think Kup is fool’s gold. I don’t even want him at 10. We don’t need unathletic guys just because they can shoot. We need athletic guys that can shoot.

 

Great info. Thanks for sharing some of that research. I will definitely research these fellas some more. But I hope the Rockets find someone they really like there at 10, and think about moving guys on the team that aren’t figuring in their core.

 

If kon is passed over by Utah I will be shocked. You know they want to get the white guy if everything else is even.

 

It would be better than playing FVV 40 minutes a night. Garuba might have even improved to an nba level player if he got decent minutes.

 

Things are changed since Ainge came onto the scene. He is methodically turning them into a very good team. He don’t give a flip about race. If he does take Kup then my opinion would change.

 

You and I generally share a lot of opinions. This is one we definitely disagree on. KK's ability on offense is beyond the wet shot. He's coming around screens and burying 3s, he's attacking closeouts, he's getting to a mid range at least and either throwing a real lob pass or hitting it off the glass. I'm not here to sell him as a playmaker or anything, but the guy is way more functional of an athlete than you are crediting. He's also got a higher DBPM according to tankathon than most guards.

The Rockets have plenty of athleticism, what they don't have is guys who can bury shots or make a difference on offense without the ball. I thought last year's K name off-ball SG would've been a brilliant pick. I'd be stoked to land Knueppel at 10 I just don' think he'll be available. Hell, Knecht, Knueppel, Kispert could form a... wait...

 

The agility drills with his size and wingspan give me comfort. He looks way stronger than Jabari, I don't think he'll get bump check by guards.

 

It's not that we have too many young guys, it's that we have a coach that is unwilling to play or develop a guy that knows how to shoot a basketball rather than just being a hyper athlete.