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

.... the long way at an angle greater than 45. Don't forget this guy has been training state of the art with body motion suits and analysis and with the best trainers up north (I think) to change him physically and improve him in those same areas since those clips above were captured. Julius the Beast, oh hell yeah. But can it possibly be this good for us? (hell yeah it can) ..... I think and expect we're looking at Jahlil the Beast too.

 

I've been away from the forum for quite a while. Could someone tell me what's the general opinion around here?

Do people here prefer Towns or Okafor? (even though Towns will likely go #1)

Assuming Towns is #1, do people here prefer Okafor or Russell? (I've seen quite a lot of hate for Okafor lately, some people almost talk like if he was a scrub or something)

Am I the only one who's just as excited for finally watching Randle as for the new rookie, or people here suddenly forgot about Randle (I imagine it's not the case, since there's a post about Randle just 3 above this one.

 

And don't sleep on Boom Boom (re: beasts)

 

I don't think you'll find any Towns vs Okafor discussion here. Too scary.

Are you the only one who's just as excited as Randle about anyone? No. But lots more about that in the Randall thread. Glad to see you've gotten straight with your priorities.

 

Man in those gifs not only do I love the quickness, but the aggression he has finishing.

 

Wait...so are we saying there is some conspiracy against Okafor and that's why he dropped a bit in scout's eyes?

 

Welcome back

We had a poll up of who we prefer and the results were about 6:4 in favor of Okafor. Russell was a distant third.

 

And defenders. 2-way players get a little expensive, though.

 

That's something I'm actually always thinking about. I can't just simply forget how I was before the lottery, just hoping we could keep the pick. I didn't have time to be thinking about moving up or something like that. Even going down to fifth would've been fantastic. While sad, I always thought that the most important day for the Lakers this season was the lottery, and I still think it was the most important.

Right now, I feel so blessed to actually be thinking about if I prefer Okafor, Towns, Russell, or heck, even Mudiay or Porzingis (ps: no, I wouldn't take them right now). I just think about the realistic chance we had to lose the pick and pretty much waste a historically horrible year (for our standards) without even developing our top rookie. I mean, it was a hard year. Sure, everyone (non-Lakers) might say that is normal... except it's not for the Lakers. Because of this, I already feel we won the draft. Even if Mitch surprises with a pick I'm not thrilled (let's imagine those Porzingis rumors are true for a moments and it does happen), it would still mean getting a top prospect, actually getting something out of that pick (I'd hate our scouts and Mitch until/unless Porzingis -or whoever were to be an unexpected pick- proves to actually be a correct choice at #2, but I'd still be thankful we actually have something).

I'm definitely in the group of people that'd be happy with either Okafor or Towns, and while part of my head does say Towns, there's also a part that say Okafor. There's a lot of analytics lately showing how Towns was better than Okafor with all thos per minutes stats, but honestly, while those are fine, and I do think you have to take them into account, Okafor was THE man in his team, doesn't need a per minute stat because he actually did his thing with full minutes, while being the main focus of every defense, and still have some fantastic numbers, a great display of skills and actually led his team to the championship (even if he did play bad in the tournament). I can actually agree with Towns probably having more upside, but I think Okafor is almost a sure bet, definitely the most sure bet in this draft, and I agree with the Duncan comparison. He's still no Duncan, specially on defense (though he's not as bad as people make him out to be), but he's freaking 19 years old... and has a 7'5 (or was it 7'6?) wingspan. He can be a great rim protector, but yeah, he won't be stopping John Wall on the perimeter.

I'm also thrilled to see Randle, because he showed some great skills, though still needed to learn to really read the game... but he supposedly spent a lot of time watching videos, which is something I think he really needed, because those kind of things will help him learn when he should dribble and when he shouldn't, when to do what, instead of always trying to do everything. He definitely had a problem there, but he does seem like a hard worker, I don't think he's stupid and, well, he's kinda really, really young. He could be quite a force. I still think we had a lot of luck taking him at #7.

 

I prefer Towns, but I won't disappointed at all if Okafor comes here. Either way, we'll be acquiring a talented big on a rookie salary. Bigs cost major $$ on the FA market, so it's a huge break for us.

Randle showed a lot of promise during the preseason. He can pass dribble, drive, and post up smaller players. Hopefully, that can translate into the regular season next year.

 

Beautiful HORNS sets run under D'Antoni. This is a 5 minute breakdown. It goes through we utilized Pau and Howard in the HORNS set. Maybe we potentially we could adopt some of those same principles, motion concepts, into our offense this year? Just an idea;

 

not a conspiracy. the effect of having all the attention, both in terms of press and in terms of opposing teams.

this article touched a bit on the idea, i think:

http://grantland.com/the-triangle/2015-nba-draft-jahlil-okafor-willie-cauley-stein/


i think the media has enjoyed elevating towns as the no-brainer #1 once the lakers got the second pick, though. also not technically a conspiracy but the product of mass bias.

i had towns and okafor basically neck and neck all year; i don't see it any differently now.

 

Gotcha.