The 2015 NBA Draft Thread: Draft Day Is Here

[keel252]

kris dunn is gonna get in top 10

Stop it

 

[NickFolarin]

 

@WojYahooNBA: North Carolina junior J.P. Tokoto will enter the 2015 NBA Draft, he tells Yahoo Sports. http://t.co/xnGvZ767tC

Dude says he knows he's not a first round pick..... Then why leave with only one year left?

Dude really said "I know I'm not a first round pick" 

Christ

After that statement, his draft stock went...

 

[buc em]

Honestly...I think someone will take Tokoto at the end of the first round once he puts up ridiculous combine numbers and somebody falls in love with his athleticism.

 

[frshstunna]

Honestly...I think someone will take Tokoto at the end of the first round once he puts up ridiculous combine numbers and somebody falls in love with his athleticism.

It's possible...the bottom of the 1st round in every draft is always filled with random upperclassmen wings that get picked outta nowhere (jae crowder, Solomon hill, Lazard Hayward, etc)

 

[illoquent aka dsk]

 

@Sam_Vecenie 2015 NBA Mock draft, Version 4 is up. Check it out on @CBSSports. http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/mock-draft/expert/sam-vecenie

This right here...

Second, the Knicks seem hellbent on contending as soon as possible, and Okafor is the more ready of the two players. The readiness is an important factor here. Knicks fans will be expecting this player to become the savior of the franchise along with Carmelo Anthony. Neither of these guys are ready to play on defense in the NBA, but at least Okafor knows how to stay out of foul trouble, which should help him make an early impact in order to get the fan base behind him. And in New York, that legitimately matters. 

Is laughable and along the same silly *** line of thinking as previous regimes.

Phil has strongly hinted he'd take KAT #1, but that would require luck & good fortune to allow him the opportunity. Welp.

 

[Vincent Van Goat]

How is Towns not ready to play defense, you would literally have to have never seen him play to come to a conclusion like that

 

[ballinsam23]

p4l

 

[dman14]

if i am the knicks i unload melo and try and stack picks and start rebuilding through the draft
pawn that boy out to LA and get their top 5 pick and then some
look at what boston is doing. they got all them picks and still competing. even the sixers got some pieces right now

too bad phil is trying to win now and avoid another season like this one

 

[frshstunna]

Yea always figured the Knicks weren't in it for the long haul rebuild ...this draft pick n some free agent signings seems like the plan for them

 

[pmatic]

 

[100027]

Yea always figured the Knicks weren't in it for the long haul rebuild ...this draft pick n some free agent signings seems like the plan for them

Terrible terrible idea I seriously hope Phil builds the right way

 

[ballinsam23]

1 star, a top 3 pick, and enough money for 2 more all stars is a good hand to have in a rebuild.

Probably one of the best hands any "rebuilding" team can ask for honestly.

 

[ballinsam23]

I dont see us getting Gasol, Aldridge, or Love. We need defense and we're gonna have to overpay.

2 of Jimmy Butler/Draymond Green/Deandre/Monroe plus either Dangelo, Mudiay, Towns, or Okafor would be a HUGE step forward.

 

[dacomeup]

Please let's not make this a Knick's offseason pipe dream thread. . PLEASE.

 

[ballinsam23]

Its not gonna happen. With the no trade clause and all, only team I see biting is LA.

NY going after and getting second tier free agents isnt a pipe dream at all. Most of us already know we're not getting any of the top guys (LA, Love, Kawhi, Gasol, etc).

 

[ValarMorghulis]

*Wrong thread entry and exit*

 

[pmatic]

Eight Questions About Jahlil Okafor in the NBA

It’s one thing to say overreacting to NCAA tournament games is stupid — I, uh, wrote that last week — but the past few weeks of March Madness provided some of the only games in which we’ve seen Jahlil Okafor play against players his own size. For a guy who was considered the most “NBA-ready” of any star headed to the draft this June, it’s not a great sign that players like Jakob Poeltl and teams like Gonzaga were able to throw Okafor off his game. Monday night’s national title game made him look more ordinary than ever. But again, we don’t want to overreact.

So let’s put on our draft nerd pants and dig into this. Winning in March is supposed to make good players look even better, but Duke’s title run left us with more Okafor questions than ever. In no particular order …

Can He Make Free Throws?

Pretty basic place to start. Okafor shot 57 percent from the line in high school, and that dipped to 51 percent as a freshman this year. Five years is plenty of evidence to suggest Okafor will continue to struggle with this. Aside from the occasional outlier like Tim Duncan, this is one skill that doesn’t really change among big men. Compare the Okafor numbers to other NBA big men this season like Boogie Cousins (78 percent) and Anthony Davis (81 percent) and it reveals itself as a real weakness.

Of course, it could be worse. Andre Drummond and DeAndre Jordan are both shooting about 39 percent from the line, and they’re still very useful. Okafor isn’t in the same category. He’s bad at the line, but not quite awful enough to make “Hack-a-Jah” an NBA reality next year.

Can He Play Defense?

The biggest question. This is the difference between Okafor and guys like Drummond and Jordan. Okafor has a tendency to space out on defense. That part is fixable. But he hasn’t shown an ability to protect the rim or anchor a defense, and he’s too slow to guard quicker big men who float out to the perimeter. Those problems might be harder to solve.

The title game was a perfect microcosm of Okafor’s defensive issues. Wisconsin plays the same kind of four-out style that’s taking over the NBA, and it gave Duke problems for the first 30 minutes. Okafor got into foul trouble, and replacing him with a quicker, smaller big man was probably the best thing that could have happened to Duke. As Mark Titus wrote:

Mike Krzyzewski put Amile Jefferson on Kaminsky, and the game was never the same. Kaminsky stuck with what had worked all game: He tried to score on his man, only now he faced solid defense from Jefferson. Wisconsin’s problems snowballed from there, and seemingly everyone on the team tried to go one-on-one because nothing else was working.

Sitting Okafor ultimately helped Duke get back into the game.

He is long (7-foot-6 wingspan), and his awareness on D will get better. But as teams gravitate toward smaller lineups, big men will either have to stay near the basket to protect the rim or be quick enough to venture out and guard pick-and-rolls. Okafor hasn’t shown he can do either one.

Can He Dominate Smaller Players?

Definitely. That’s how Okafor spent his freshman year in college. He did it to Michigan State in the semifinals (18 points, 7-of-11 shooting), and he did it to San Diego State two weeks ago (26, 12-of-16). He can put it on the floor to beat people, he can knock down face-up jumpers, and his footwork is already better than most NBA big men. As he grows into his body, his offensive skills around the rim will only become more deadly.

Can He Dominate Bigger Players?

He didn’t do it this month. We never got to see him match up with Karl-Anthony Towns, but after watching Okafor struggle to take advantage against Frank Kaminsky, does anyone think it would have gone better versus Towns?

Against Poeltl, Okafor was pushed off the block all night and limited to six points. Against Gonzaga’s front line? He went 4-of-10 from the field for nine points. Against Wisconsin? Ten points and three rebounds.

All of this may sound like nitpicking. After all, this is a 19-year-old kid who just dominated college basketball all year. But given his limitations on defense, his offense has to be so good that defense is an afterthought. In that case, dominating people his size — the kind of guys he’ll face almost every night in the NBA — is more necessity than luxury. Otherwise …

Is He Worth Keeping on the Floor?

This is why the dominance question matters. Factor in the free throw struggles, the quickness issues against shooting big men, the rim-protection issues, and the need for post touches to be effective, and you start to ask whether Okafor will be good enough on offense to make it worth it.

Think about the way teams like the Mavericks and Knicks have had to get special pieces to surround Dirk Nowitzki and Carmelo Anthony with exactly the right supporting cast. The Mavericks did it with Tyson Chandler and Shawn Marion and won a title. The Knicks tried to replicate the formula by stealing Chandler, but it turns out that J.R. Smith on defense isn’t quite the same as Marion. In either case, it wasn’t easy to find the right mix. It hasn’t been easy for the Kings and Boogie. It probably won’t be easy with Okafor.

Look at what happened when Duke replaced Okafor with Amile Jefferson on Monday. Most NBA teams have already made the same trade-off with post players. They’d rather go with quickness and defense down low and flexibility everywhere else. Drafting Okafor means a team forfeits that opportunity.

How Did the Tournament Affect His Draft Stock?

It won’t change things any more than getting shelled in the national championship game hurt Marcus Mariota. People walked away from that game with louder questions about Mariota as the NFL’s no. 1 draft pick, but he’s still got a higher ceiling than almost anyone else in the field, and he might go as high as no. 2. That’s where Okafor is right now.

On the other hand …

Would You Rather Have Justise Winslow?

Good god. Winslow made it pretty tempting to say yes here. He tore apart the tournament for the past three weeks. I’ve already compared him to Jimmy Butler, Russell Westbrook, and a grizzly bear. Also, anyone who’s watched the NBA knows that post-up specialists like Okafor are marginalized a little more every year. At the very least, Winslow is going to lock people down on defense and go nuts in transition. As NBA teams go smaller and play faster, both of those skills will become more valuable than ever.

Think about it. Winslow’s tournament happened at the same time Kawhi Leonard turned into a weapon of mass destruction for the Spurs.



Meanwhile, Okafor’s skills are more suited to an NBA that doesn’t exist anymore.

There’s a good chance that the Winslow vs. Okafor question will define the draft the way Okafor vs. Towns was supposed to. Okafor was the obvious choice all year, but after the past few weeks, it’s closer to a toss-up. Who is more valuable between Sane Boogie Cousins or Insane Jimmy Butler? The answer reflects the direction of the NBA just as much as any of the players involved.

So … Is Jahlil Okafor Overrated?

Not exactly. Take the title game, for example. That wasn’t proof Okafor will fail in the NBA. It was just a vivid, nationally televised example of all the questions surrounding his game. There is a worst-case scenario in which building an NBA team around Okafor costs more than it could be worth.

The flip side of that argument is that the NBA is cyclical. Right now, everything revolves around the perimeter, but you don’t draft 19-year-olds for what basketball looks like in 2015. In five years, who knows what the league will look like?

If Okafor continues growing into his game and turns into a 25-12 monster every night, all the questions about defense and free throw shooting will seem overblown. The team that drafts him over Winslow won’t be thinking about Cousins over Leonard, it will be looking for Duncan over Leonard. Given the polish, quickness, and size Okafor has at 19 years old, that’s not entirely out of the question.

Okafor is overrated only if you consider him a guaranteed star. And for most of the year, NBA scouts have done just that. That’s where the tournament served as a wake-up call.

He could absolutely turn into a big man that carries an offense for the next 10 or 15 years. He could batter people down low and slow games down. He could become more and more valuable as guys like Drummond, Cousins, Davis, and Rudy Gobert come of age and usher in a new era of big-man dominance.

He could struggle to dominate NBA defenses, the league could continue to migrate out to the perimeter, and all of his weaknesses would only become bigger problems. For now, the only thing that’s certain is that Okafor isn’t the sure thing we heard about all year. He might be a bigger gamble than anyone.

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/eight-questions-about-jahlil-okafor-in-the-nba/

 

[pmatic]

Prospects who fit better in NBA

One of the challenges of projecting NCAA prospects to the NBA is that the two organizations are quite different in terms of style of play. Because of rule variations, quality of talent and other factors, some players have games that are better-suited for the NBA than the college game.

ESPN Insider's Kevin Pelton identifies seven 2015 draft candidates who might fit better in the NBA, and colleague Amin Elhassan goes to the videotape to confirm or deny that notion.

D'Angelo Russell
PG
Ohio State Buckeyes
Freshman

Pelton: Russell, one of the top prospects in this year's draft, would excel in any league and at any style of basketball. But his ability to penetrate figures to play better in the NBA, where coaches will put the ball in Russell's hands, give him a screener and let him go to work. He averaged 0.97 points per play on pick-and-rolls, per Synergy, which ranked second among major-conference players with at least 100 pick-and-rolls (behind Iowa State's Monte Morris). Yet pick-and-rolls accounted for less than a quarter of Russell's plays. That figures to increase in the NBA.

Elhassan: I love Russell's size and fluidity on the floor, and his size and length allow him to glide to the rim with minimal effort. His ability to navigate around picks and penetrate was somewhat dampened by the lack of shooters he shared the floor with, which allowed opposing defenses to condense and pack the paint when facing him. On most NBA teams, that won't be as much of an issue, as better shooters and a farther-back 3-point line will create ample space for Russell to attack and create.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Terry Rozier
PG
Louisville Cardinals
Sophomore

Pelton: The NBA's well-spaced floors and rules limiting contact on the perimeter are designed for quick, powerful guards, and Rozier fits the bill. The Louisville guard modeled his game after idol Dwyane Wade, and though Rozier isn't as big, he also excels at getting to the basket. If he could do that in college, playing on a team with limited outside shooting (the Cardinals shot 30.8 percent from 3-point range), imagine how explosive he'll be in an NBA offense.

Elhassan: I have concerns about Rozier's shooting from the perimeter and how it could affect his progress on the next level, where NBA defenses will go under on screens to lure him into attempting long shots. Rozier's release point is inconsistent, making it tough for him to be consistent with his shot. He also doesn't exhibit great court awareness when he has the ball; his passes and shots are somewhat predetermined.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Myles Turner
F/C
Texas Longhorns
Freshman

Pelton: Turner's game seems built for the modern NBA. He's a potent shot-blocker (he swatted 12.3 percent of opponents' 2-point attempts, good for 12th in the country, per KenPom.com) and a smooth shooter with the ability to play on the perimeter (he made 17 3s, though at just a 26.4 percent clip). As NBA teams look to complement interior behemoths who aren't rim-protectors, Turner is an ideal fit.

Elhassan: Evaluating young bigs can be a tricky proposition, especially when they come as young as Turner. I love Turner's soft touch, especially for a player his size (7-0 with a 7-4 wingspan). He was also a dominant force on the defensive glass. But the shooting numbers don't really correspond with the eye test, and he's going to have to prove that he can handle the complexities of NBA defenses, most of which demand a lot more movement and rotations than he was accustomed to on the collegiate level.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Justise Winslow
SF
Duke Blue Devils
Freshman

Pelton: There's little doubt that Winslow's athleticism will translate to the NBA at the defensive end. I'm intrigued by how it might help in a faster-paced game. For a small forward, Winslow is a capable ball handler, and his explosiveness and ability to use the Euro step make him tough to stop in the open court. According to Synergy, Winslow averaged 1.34 points per play on transition plays, including assists, excellent for a wing.

Elhassan: We might end up wondering how Winslow wasn't in the mix for the first pick overall. He combines excellent strength and athleticism with surprisingly accurate perimeter shooting. At 6-6 with a 6-10 wingspan, Winslow has the potential to be a perennial All-Defense selection, and his ability to rebound will give him great lineup versatility at the next level.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Michael Frazier II
SG
Florida Gators
Junior

Pelton: Frazier was left behind when three starters graduated from the Gators team that reached the Final Four in 2014. Without those talented teammates, defenses loaded up on the sharpshooting Frazier, who this season was unguarded on just 21.4 percent of his catch-and-shoot opportunities, according to Synergy Sports. No wonder his 3-point percentage fell from 44.7 percent as a sophomore to 38 percent as a junior. Frazier still declared for the draft, and could find more plentiful open looks in the NBA.

Elhassan: In the words of the late Cotton Fitzsimmons, you can never have too many shooters. I've followed Frazier's pure stroke since his days at Montverde High School, and I've always wondered why he wasn't utilized better by the Gators. More than perhaps any other player on this list, Frazier will benefit tremendously from playing alongside better point guards and in sets that will seek to better exploit his abilities.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Trey Lyles
PF
Kentucky Wildcats
Freshman

Pelton: Note that we've listed Lyles as a power forward, the spot he'll most likely play in the NBA. Because John Calipari amassed so much frontcourt talent at Kentucky, including two likely lottery picks (Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein), the easiest way for Lyles to get on the floor was by playing small forward after Alex Poythress' injury. Lyles did a credible job in that role, but at power forward his quickness and shooting ability go from weaknesses to strengths.

Elhassan: Lyles worries me a bit as a classic tweener who doesn't rebound well enough to play the 4 and doesn't shoot the ball well enough to play on the wing. Much of his effectiveness is tied to his need to have the ball in his hands, and without it he's a little lost on the floor. He'll have to earn his minutes offensively by remaining active on the offensive glass and turning his shooting disadvantage into a diversion to allow him to ghost-cut against less-than-wary defenders.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


R.J. Hunter
SG
Georgia State Panthers
Junior

Pelton: While Hunter actually got more unguarded shots according to Synergy (28.2 percent of his catch-and-shoot opportunities), consider him a more extreme version of Frazier's scenario. As a likely first-round pick playing in the Sun Belt Conference, Hunter was at the top of every opposing scouting report, meaning his 3-point attempts had a high degree of difficulty. As a result, his 3-point percentage slid from 39.5 percent as a sophomore to 30.5 percent as a junior. With a smooth stroke, Hunter figures to thrive from the NBA arc.

Elhassan: Hunter has elite size and a fluid stroke from the perimeter. His shooting numbers this season didn't impress, but I think that had a lot more to do with having to fulfill a role that's greater than his talent. Being on a team where he's able to zero in on his role as a shooter will make him more efficient, and his time spent doing other things will allow him to grow beyond that role eventually.

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draf...ngelo-russell-prospects-better-pros-nba-draft

 

[frshstunna]

As a magic fan I wondered about the possibility of taking Myles Turner ...on paper he fits the needs of rim protector n a player than can hit an outside shot ...but I just feel iffy about him when I watched him play

 

[mj 23]

if i am the knicks i unload melo and try and stack picks and start rebuilding through the draft
pawn that boy out to LA and get their top 5 pick and then some
look at what boston is doing. they got all them picks and still competing. even the sixers got some pieces right now

too bad phil is trying to win now and avoid another season like this one

We don't want him here boy

 

[nick.]

As a magic fan I wondered about the possibility of taking Myles Turner ...on paper he fits the needs of rim protector n a player than can hit an outside shot ...but I just feel iffy about him when I watched him play

feel the same way about Kevon Looney

 

[NickFolarin]

There is a guy arguing on Twitter with me that's saying the Harrison twins will be successful 2nd rounders like Monta Ellis, Chandler Parsons, and Manu 

..... Only after I had to beat it in his head that they aren't lottery picks 

 

[johnnyredstorm]

i think maybe they can be competent role players at the next level, but they won't be starters.

 

[User 37837]

8 chairs lined up at Kentucky's press conference. Looking like all 7 going pro

 

[nick.]

http://www.ukathletics.com/blog/2015/04/video-nba-draft-decisions-press-conference.html​