you're assuming consequential players trying to make the league are going to prioritize geography and/or glamor status of the franchise? i think they want to pick the place most likely to afford future success as a basketball player. one could also argue that it would make sense that if the money is the same, players would want to play near home/family, too, right? anyway, i'd argue that in many cases, a crap team might provide more of a shot at becoming an nba player. in any case, i don't think you can make rules that make los angeles or the lakers franchise less appealing without applying unfairly regressive practices to the contracts, such as... no other business operates this way. again, they could have made more legitimate offers if they want someone so badly. if detroit wanted austin reaves, they could have told his agent they'd have a real contract available. and what are these penalties? a cap on future contracts?! players' association would smash that to bits. i think if this was happening a) with regularity and b) in the first round or the lotto, you'd see more efforts to counteract it. as it stands, the rule would have to be called the "austin reaves" rule, as it's the only time it's ever had a consequential outcome that i can remember. the draft rules have done a good job preventing something like tim duncan holding out of the draft to become a boston C bag or something like this. it's not worth the effort to do this on guys who are late seconds/udfas.
Have you guys/girls seen this: Some of those are Joker-esque... Also... look at the footwork on D. Damn.
Pretty small vertical and will get manhandled his first couple of years until he adds strength. But looks like he has skills.
can't believe i didn't see it immediately, but he actually reminds me of zubac. not quite as thick, but moves similarly and makes up for some of lateral quickness deficit with hoop iq.
same thing crossed my mind, but he seems a little more nimble with less weight in his back pocket. love to see him develop into a long term fit for us. For now, he helped us meet our quota, and that's enough.
His vertical, whether he uses it on the floor or not is 33-34”. See above or prior page. Kinda similar to Austin who can get up too off one or two legs as I’ve shown with screen grabs, but doesn’t or can’t power over people.
vertical for "the test" at the combine vs what you see on video highlights can be two very different things. In the highlights I just watched, the vertical wasn't being used more than 6 inches. Just didn't look like he had any hops, but glad to hear I may be wrong. Maybe he just didn't need them against that level of competition, but that type of vertical is respectable at that height. But he also didn't seem to crumble under the basket with contact, so that's good. Also fun to see a big go coast to coast handling the rock He may end up being my 2nd favorite white dude on the team, and I don't say that lightly.
Whoa! Best clip by far I’ve seen, but then I only saw one other. Love the foot work, handles and maybe with pro strength regimen he can add to his not bad legs and frame. Legit 6’11”+ with huge wingspan. Good passer, good D and IQ. That 2 Way will give us more than we got out of Swider and Pippen combined last year …. possibly. Scouts strike again! Looking forward to Summer League for sure. As @FrontOfJersey22 reminded earlier elsewhere …. 3PM today folks.
This is the guy we really need to show up during summer league. I know we don't want to put too much on a rookie but there is not much out there as far as bigs go. He may be thrust into minutes by default which would fine with me. Might as well develop a rookie with a lot of potential over some lead footed zombie we know can't play...lol.
Yes, I have seen this. He is better than anything left on the market. There just isn't much to pick from. Great pick up and likely an Austin Reaves type payoff. Hopefully we play him early so he has some experience by playoff time. Not many things I hate worse than when they sit a guy all year and then when someone is injured and they are forced to play him he isn't ready and many people say he sucks...lol. When that happens it is the coach that sucked for not having him ready.
I think if he sees the court this year in non-garbage time is a bad sign. Unless he's dominating the Gleague and really earns it. Hopefully we will have 2 backup Cs ahead of him
If you are trying to win a Championship, you can't just go out, and gift guys playing time. They have to earn that.
It is not gifting anything. It is called developing players in position of need. Players get hurt and then others are expected to just fill in without time to develop. Coaches have to have the foresight to prepare for such situations. That isn't a gift. It is called being smart and being prepared. During the regular season is when you do that. If you plan on winning a championship you have to do that. Especially with LeBron and AD having to take time off. There are few if any good back ups out there which makes it even more imperative. From now till the playoffs start everything we do should be to prepare for them. If we somehow land a great back up big then it isn't as pressing of an issue.
No..you don't have the luxury, to try and "develop" an undrafted rookie FA, during the season, if you are trying to compete for a chip. Who does that? Any team comes to mind? That kid might not even be on the team after training camp. It's way too early, to be talking about preparing him for anything.
I like his handle and size. He’s a G-League project for at least a year. Like others said, he needs to pack on more muscle.
saw a highlight of him making a nice catch and finish on the break in traffic in that first sl game. pretty impressive for a guy that size.
