2015 Nba Draft Discussion: Russell, Nance Jr., Brown

Yeah. For rookies, they are kind of stuck in the city they are drafted in for 8-9 years under this CBA. If All I have to do is tank one workout and give up a little money, and I can be in LA as opposed to Siberia, I TANK HARD.

 

Re: Towns' potential for injury: no he has no history of it, but I'm a trainer who has specialized in developing young athletes. They key to young basketball players is teaching them two things when they hit that growth spurt: strong core and strong legs. They don't have to be bulky, but strong.

Towns jumps and lands awkwardly, often in traffic. He does a good job of boxing out which is a GREAT sign, but he needs a ton of development in that area. There's a lot of technical points I could get into but I don't really have the time (or knowledge) on how to make a video of what I'm seeing. Basically his mechanics are reliant on fast twitch muscles which can and will put strain on ligaments/tendons. On top of that he's got a bulky and heavy upper body which will put even more force on those joints when he lands awkwardly. It's important to build strength in your core and legs to help take pressure off of your joints. He needs a LOT of work in that area and until he's caught up, he's at risk for major injury.

It's easy to say "well he just works on it and he'll be fine" but once you hit the pros, you don't often find kids willing to listen to the changes they'd have to make. Years ago I called Derrick Rose having knee problems for basically the same reason: he uses what you'd call "natural athleticism" which I define as fantastic fast twitch musculature but it puts an enormous strain on his knees laterally. With big guys it tends to wear down their knee cartilage really quickly. The problem is once you get to the pros these guys are stuck in their ways and don't really have time to change. He'll go through workouts with teams, get drafted, and immediately he's in Summer League. Then he's got some time off, but he needs that to develop a post game and to work on his jump shot. Then the pre-season starts and most lifting sessions are out the door because we can't overwork him during the year. Then he goes up in traffic, lands on one foot which lands on top of another person's foot, and since he's so off balance his ankle twists and he suffers some ligament damage. It's pretty much what happened to me so I'm pretty familiar with the process. The reason it's taking Randle so long to recover from a broken bone is that they're retraining him how to jump properly and put the proper loads on his body.

Now all this said, he's got great box out form. That's indicative of a kid who CAN bend his knees and put the proper load in the proper areas. He's got the room to grow. It'll just take a long time and the right training staff and frankly some good luck to make sure he doesn't suffer any injuries while he plays. I wouldn't at all be opposed to taking him though and our training staff is really developing into a strong group. But if I can pick a kid who is a little more naturally built and used to being that size AND he's also just as talented? I'm going to take him instead.

Either way it doesn't really matter. We'll just pick whoever Minny doesn't and we'll win!

 

Awesome breakdown real.

I think most of us that would prefer Okafor saw something wrong with Town's base and legs but it's nice to have it confirmed and explained by a professional trainer

 

No problem. It can be hard to see it, but there's a huge problem with training at a fundamental level in the NBA today. Guys have specific goals and don't really have the time for the kind of overhaul I would insist on for Towns. Randle is getting it now so it'll remain to be seen how it works out for him. Keep in mind though he was forced into it because of a lost season. Griffin probably got similar training too when he was out for a year. I don't want Towns to have to go through the same thing, but it might need to happen to him too. It's a conundrum because these high picks need to get out on the floor right away and that doesn't leave enough time for proper basic training.

 

Hopefully our training staff has gained some perspective from the Bynum and Randle injuries and are even more focused on building that kind of base for our young bigs going forward.

 

This is definitely a good point. Over the last few years we've built our teams around older players so injuries are just going to be more common. Nash, Kobe, Pau, Artest, we traded for an already injured Dwight Howard... The young guys we got usually had problems some of which might have been injury issues like Xavier Henry. The only one that was just really bad luck was Julius Randle. I didn't see any obvious signs of balance issues in him, but I didn't get to see him up close or anything. I definitely didn't watch him in college the same way I watched this next group of kids like Towns, Okafor, and Russell.

With a younger team we're less likely to have the same kind of injury problems the older teams have had. I'm still going to bet on us having some problems, but hopefully we can build a deep team this season to help fight that.

 

Informative stuff TRD. Learn something new from time to time reading places...

I'll be blunt: I like Okafor because he will just move someone's a** out of the way...maybe two or even three. In my own fantasy, echoes of the late Chick Hearn bellowing: "Slam dunk Okafor! Bodies everywhere!" Maybe Lantz and McDonald in tandem saying: "Too big, too strong...too good!"

 

Fast forward: 25th of June, 2015

David Silver: "...and with the 27th pick of the draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select Frank Kaminksy, Wisconsin."

All hell breaks loose on Lakersball Forum!

 

If Kaminsky is there at #27 and the Lakers DON'T take him, I'll be shocked.

 

I can dream, can I? You never know, I mean, with all the love-fest for athleticism, metrics and all that jazz. Frank The Tank has none of those eye opening tests that make scouts lose their minds. In fact, in watching him, Kaminsky does not jump out of the screen but there he is...drawing defenders outside with that outside shot, making these goofy looking flip shots, smart passes, rebounding, drawing fouls and have viewers saying: "Look at that guy, what the...!?"