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

Outstanding. Thanks!

 

Is WCS too raw offensively to be lusted after possibly still above Russell or Mudiay? I was floored with his lateral foot speed in that one clip keeping up with the opponent driving full boar toward the rim. And obviously his protection and seeming love of that manliness around the rim. There's going to be numerous BIGs for next 10 years that will always kill us if we don't have a stud on defense to slow them down.

 

If the choice were Okafor/Towns I prefer Okafor because he is a legit 1st option. The versatility of Towns is great, but clearcut 1st options are invaluable when the game is on the line.

As for Mudiay/Russell, I still think both players are going to be mediocre, so I would go with Stanley Johnson. But out of two I prefer Russell because he can shoot. He is a better fit next to Clarkson.

 

He's a very temping prospect for anyone picking outside the top 5. I wouldn't be surprised to see him anywhere from 6-12. All depends on how much teams like the SFs in the lottery and how intrigued they are by the two Euros. I could see Detroit taking him as insurance if Monroe leaves or the Nets since everyone on their team is up for grabs and they already tried to push Lopez out the door at the deadline.

 

I think the 76ers or any other team taking Russell number 1 would be brilliant forward thinking....

 

The thing about Ohio State making a run in the tournament is if they run into a team with decent post players they are probably done. They are not a great rebounding team and bigger teams like Wisconsin pretty much do whatever they want in the paint against them. You can never count out a team with a great guard in the tournament, but I don't see a magical run happening.

 

Can anyone teach the "puss" to jump on defense, or have I seen too small a sample of his work there? I'm dead serious about needing a tall defending force at the rim as there are going to be a lot of good offensive players that are 6'10" to 7' in the league over the next 10 years that we are going to have to either outscore or slow them down in some way if we can't match their firepower.

 

Agreed. I think they get bounced fairly early. The team just isn't very talented outside of Russell.

 

lakerjones, thanks for the corroborating observation. No one has been saying much about it except me so I figured the one or two youtube highlights clips I saw probably were not a big enough sample. This is what we killed Pau about in later years. And he was battling plantar with the feet some of the time just to be out there. Seems like yeah, maybe he's too good for that in his head...... get in there and do the dirty work and D up people too. How much effort does it take to jump 12 inches at least. Not much more needed at near 7'. Unless the other 7 footer is jumping and has offensive game.

 

I was thinking about that, maybe him being told to stay out of foul trouble by playing D that way. Because he's too valuable to them to be out there on offense.

Your 2nd paragraph kind of depresses me to hear. Wow. How much could be crappy effort though and laziness. No idea.

Your third paragraph. OK little confession. I literally have not yet taken the time to watch ANY of his offensive highlight clips. Me being lazy and also just not that excited after me seeing him and "thinking" he looked lazy. I have to do this. Will get to it today. Does he have Bynum's finesse yet compared to when Drew was at his mobile peak on offense before the injuries?

 

See that's the big difference between Duke and Kentucky right now. Duke has Okafor and not much else. Everyone knows he's getting the ball and the D is just trying to slow him down. With Kentucky you don't know who's getting the ball, they have so many options. Their entire team is chock full of soon to be NBA players. The bigs aren't called upon to be THE guy offensively and they're deep up front in case one of them does get into foul trouble.

 

I wouldn't call Bynum finesse, more kid with big frame, long arms, who can jump and throw the ball over you, but with a soft touch. That will be Towns. Towns I think will be around 2007 Bynum without the NBA experience. He has the same physical tools and style as Drew did.

Compare Okafor to someone like Al Jefferson. Not the most athletic big, but knows his way around the basket and uses his body well to get high percentage shots.