NBA Draft Thread

[C Mart]

Originally Posted by JetsKnicksYankeesRangers

I like what I see, but he is going rot on the bench under D'anton.

Don't understand why this is said..Fields, Mozgov, Douglas didn't rot on the bench...Now, if he isn't ready he will rot..But if he can come in and contribute I doubt he will...

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

Originally Posted by C Mart

Don't understand why this is said..Fields, Mozgov, Douglas didn't rot on the bench...Now, if he isn't ready he will rot..But if he can come in and contribute I doubt he will...

Let's hope he is ready, we need to keep Amare rest minutes throughout the season. I love the Shumpert pick, him and Tony will provide a nice defensive guard combo; especially when facing the Heat.

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

From Ewing Theory: ouch

2011 Draft Aftermath

Well, what can I say? I was 100% right, the Knicks totally screwed up this year's draft! Yay!

As usual, rumors had swirled for weeks that the Knicks were going to be very active on draft night, potentially trading up into the top-10 or purchasing a late first-round pick, none of which materialized. Instead, the Knicks sat on their hands and watched as other teams made smart trades that dramatically improved their roster. Even as Nikola Vucevic fell past the the Rockets, who opted for Marcus Morris at 14, and despite the fact that it had been reported for the past two weeks that the Sixers were very high on Vucevic after his strong workout there, the Knicks did nothing.

No, the Knicks were perfectly happy drafting Iman Schumpert, who darted up draft boards, because at this time of year, slow-witted teams decide to throw statistics and analysis of how players have performed in college the past 2-3 years out the window and decide that measurements and athleticism should dictate how they evaluate prospects. Yes, Schumpert is a great athlete with "tremendous upside potential." However, he has failed to demonstrate any of this in his past three years at Georgia Tech. Here is a scouting report on him from DraftExpress.com:

"Though Shumpert has certainly played quite a bit of point guard throughout his career at Georgia Tech, he's spent more time off the ball recently. In his first two years in Atlanta, he struggled with his shot selection, liked to dominate the ball, and proved fairly turnover prone looking to set the table for others. Now forced to score out of necessity as a junior, Shumpert's passing numbers have declined, but he's turning the ball over far less, getting to the line quite a bit more, and has gotten more and more efficient as the season has gone on, even if his sub 40% shooting remains disconcerting.

He still has a significant amount of work ahead of him in terms of learning how to play winning basketball—as evidenced by the lackluster season is Georgia Tech is having (11-14 overall, 3-8 in ACC), but we have seen some progress individually on Shumpert's part, even if it's been mostly in a losing effort. Georgia Tech's degenerate offense has plenty to do with this obviously, but Shumpert can't escape criticism for how bad his team looks in the half-court, since he's often the main culprit.

Still a streaky perimeter scorer, Shumpert is far too reliant on his jump shooting ability, and often looks to pull-up when he puts the ball on the floor. 68% of his shot attempts are of the jump-shot variety, but he knocks down just 28.4% of them, and gets even worse when pulling up off the dribble, making 19.5% of his pull-up attempts. While he's hitting his free throws at a very respectable rate, Shumpert's shooting still haven't caught up with his solid mechanics and remain by far his biggest weakness, especially when you look at the way he operates on the floor sometimes—usually taking the first shot available to him, regardless of whether it's a good or bad attempt."

Basically, the Knicks drafted an exceptional athlete, who as I predicted, is a shoot-first guard (who is a poor shooter apparently) with a low basketball IQ based entirely on his supposedly stellar workouts. Maybe he makes it up defensively, which is supposedly his key strength. But the point is, you do not draft a high-risk player like this with the 17th pick in the first round when there are a ton of athletic, defensive-focused guards available in the second round (i.e. Malcolm Lee, who the Timberwolves got for the 43rd pick and is considered an "elite defender"). You also do not do this when your two biggest needs are size (specifically a center) and outside shooting.

Hold the phone, you might say! We drafted more than adequate size in the second round in Josh Harrellson, a 6'10'' center from Kentucky! This guy is a beast, look at him go to work!

Here is what ESPN says on Harrellson's weaknesses:

A bit undersized for center position
Not an explosive leaper
Lacks lateral quickness
Conditioning issues in the past

Let's see...any undersized center, who is a poor athlete with no lateral quickness, terrible leaping ability, and has had trouble staying in shape and keeping his weight down as a 22 year old. As you can tell, I'm pretty ecstatic about this pick. What else do we know about him? He didn't play at all his freshman year, then played his junior year only because Enes Kanter was ruled ineligible to play by the NCAA. So, let's recap. He's not particularly good offensively like Vucevic, he's not particularly good defensively like JaJuan Johnson, he has no athleticism whatsoever, and he has weight issues. So basically, he's Eddie Curry without the offense. Okay, that settles it, Isiah is definitely still running the draft for the Knicks.

[IRONFAN 40]

Knicks screwed up as usually. Singleton was available and if they still wanted Shumpert they could of still had him in the 2nd round.There was nobody knocking down this kids door to get him. Singleton and Shumpert would of been great defensive additions to this lineup.Shumpert was a good pick at the wrong place..

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

Originally Posted by IRONFAN 40

Knicks screwed up as usually. Singleton was available and if they still wanted Shumpert they could of still had him in the 2nd round.There was nobody knocking down this kids door to get him. Singleton and Shumpert would of been great defensive additions to this lineup.Shumpert was a good pick at the wrong place..

Maybe they didn't want to spend $3 million buying Shumpert, I think he would've been more pricier that the $750,000 they spent.

[C Mart]

Originally Posted by IRONFAN 40

Knicks screwed up as usually. Singleton was available and if they still wanted Shumpert they could of still had him in the 2nd round.There was nobody knocking down this kids door to get him. Singleton and Shumpert would of been great defensive additions to this lineup.Shumpert was a good pick at the wrong place..

all due respect, but how do you know...smh

[IRONFAN 40]

Originally Posted by C Mart

all due respect, but how do you know...smh

Everybody knew he was a 2nd rounder or a lottery pick at best.That's why this pick caught everyone off guard and even the fact he didn't expect to be taking the 1st round that's why he didn't bother to make the trip.What bought his stock up was his recent work outs by the team. Not his play during the season.
With all due respect why don't you SYH to the fact they left the best defensive player in the draft on the board who had some size for another guard who everyone knows the kid plays good defense but struggles offensively and has no range.I hope the fact that him playing on a bad GT team really didn't show his skills and he surprises everyone but with the defense in the paint struggles and the fact Amar'e has history of breaking down during the season. C.Singleton or K.Faried made more sense then Shumpert.

[TerminatorJet]

Originally Posted by C Mart

Don't understand why this is said..Fields, Mozgov, Douglas didn't rot on the bench...Now, if he isn't ready he will rot..But if he can come in and contribute I doubt he will...

+1

Knicks don't have alot of depth if the kid can contribute he will get minutes. This was not a deep draft at all after Williams and Irving it's an abyss so I have no idea what the Knicks get hopefully they got a good find. Granted, the Knicks' draft history is an abysmal one since drafting Ewing in the 80's.

As for the #1 pick, I think Irving is a very intriguing player because he's a better shooter than Rose and Wall but if I was making the pick I would have taken Derrick Williams. Derrick Williams has Carmelo Anthony written all over him.

[TerminatorJet]

Originally Posted by IRONFAN 40

Knicks screwed up as usually. Singleton was available and if they still wanted Shumpert they could of still had him in the 2nd round.There was nobody knocking down this kids door to get him. Singleton and Shumpert would of been great defensive additions to this lineup.Shumpert was a good pick at the wrong place..

Hopefully this doesn't turn out like the Balkman pick in '06 did. Balkman did actually turn out to be a decent player but, like you said, they coulda had him in round 2 and guess who they passed on to draft him? Rajon Rondo.

[C Mart]

Originally Posted by IRONFAN 40

Everybody knew he was a 2nd rounder or a lottery pick at best.That's why this pick caught everyone off guard and even the fact he didn't expect to be taking the 1st round that's why he didn't bother to make the trip.What bought his stock up was his recent work outs by the team. Not his play during the season.
With all due respect why don't you SYH to the fact they left the best defensive player in the draft on the board who had some size for another guard who everyone knows the kid plays good defense but struggles offensively and has no range.I hope the fact that him playing on a bad GT team really didn't show his skills and he surprises everyone but with the defense in the paint struggles and the fact Amar'e has history of breaking down during the season. C.Singleton or K.Faried made more sense then Shumpert.

how can you be a 2nd rounder or lottery pick at best?? and then be viewed as a bad pick at 17? a lottery pick is 1-13.

And from what the "experts" say he was the best defensive guard in the draft, a major need against Ray Allen, Wade, Rose, LBJ. Allen killed them in the playoffs...

Sorry, I have no idea what you are saying, "who had some size for another guard who everyone knows the kid plays good defense "

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

The real question is can guard the 3?. I can see D'antoni using a 3 guard set occasionally with Billups, Douglas, Iman, Amare and Antony as the line up against the Heat and Celtics.

[Traitor Jay & the Woodies]

I'm okay with the pick. After seeing what Rondo did to them in the playoffs and having Rose, Wall, etc in the conference, they need some help outside. Singleton is a project too. I can't see getting too worked up about this selection.

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

So he can't shoot?

[Bay Ridge Jet]

Originally Posted by JetsKnicksYankeesRangers

So he can't shoot?

Most people can shoot in their hilight videos

Ever watch GA tech? He takes the worst shots ever. He shoots off the dribble with hands in his face.

He can slash and play defense but when hes on the court, teams are going to beg him to shoot.

[C Mart]

Originally Posted by Bay Ridge Jet

Most people can shoot in their hilight videos

Ever watch GA tech? He takes the worst shots ever. He shoots off the dribble with hands in his face.

He can slash and play defense but when hes on the court, teams are going to beg him to shoot.

So is it his shot selection or that his shot is terrible? Darrell Walker had a terrible outside shot, even when open...Was Shumpert just trying to do too much? Thats coachable, at least if he is willing to listen and learn.

Never saw him play..I look at his GA Tech stats..His FT% improved each year up to 80% this past season...Seems he would have a nice stroke and just needs to work on his 3 pt range...

People forget that Toney Douglas rep out of college was he couldn't shoot...I don't hear that now...

[Bay Ridge Jet]

Originally Posted by C Mart

So is it his shot selection or that his shot is terrible? Darrell Walker had a terrible outside shot, even when open...Was Shumpert just trying to do too much? Thats coachable, at least if he is willing to listen and learn.

Never saw him play..I look at his GA Tech stats..His FT% improved each year up to 80% this past season...Seems he would have a nice stroke and just needs to work on his 3 pt range...

People forget that Toney Douglas rep out of college was he couldn't shoot...I don't hear that now...

The problem is he didnt improve his shot in 3 years at Georgia Tech. At all.
His shot itself could improve with hard work just like anyone else. He is never going to be mistaken for Reggie Miller but hes going to have to become much more disciplined with the ball.

He chucked up a ton of 3s last year and shot like 25 percent on them. He isnt afraid to shoot, which is something I saw in Douglas when he was at Florida State.

The reason the Knicks drafted him is pretty simple. He is a relentless defender who can cover any non big man on the court. The other reason is he can run the court and is pretty creative around the rim. Just consider those abilities his good traits. Anything else thats comes from him is gravy.

[C Mart]

Originally Posted by Bay Ridge Jet

The problem is he didnt improve his shot in 3 years at Georgia Tech. At all.
His shot itself could improve with hard work just like anyone else. He is never going to be mistaken for Reggie Miller but hes going to have to become much more disciplined with the ball.

He chucked up a ton of 3s last year and shot like 25 percent on them. He isnt afraid to shoot, which is something I saw in Douglas when he was at Florida State.

The reason the Knicks drafted him is pretty simple. He is a relentless defender who can cover any non big man on the court. The other reason is he can run the court and is pretty creative around the rim. Just consider those abilities his good traits. Anything else thats comes from him is gravy.

That's Hewitts system...And I don't know a thing about Ga Tech's other platers but it could also be he was trying to do too much....If he is coachable his selection and discipline can improve...Billups has a great rep as a mentor too. And we all know with Melo and Amare the coaching staff isn't going to allow a rookie PG/SG to chuck it up 20 times a game...

[JetsKnicksYankeesRangers]

Originally Posted by C Mart

That's Hewitts system...And I don't know a thing about Ga Tech's other platers but it could also be he was trying to do too much....If he is coachable his selection and discipline can improve...Billups has a great rep as a mentor too. And we all know with Melo and Amare the coaching staff isn't going to allow a rookie PG/SG to chuck it up 20 times a game...

That's the key! The kid just turned 21, he has the whole world ahead of him and some of the best advisers in the game to teach, coach and mentor.

[cr726]

Originally Posted by JetsKnicksYankeesRangers

That's the key! The kid just turned 21, he has the whole world ahead of him and some of the best advisers in the game to teach, coach and mentor.

It was worth using a first round pick in hopes he develops in a few years? The Knicks are a mess.