Tuesday Junk - Which of you predicted our recent drafts correctly?

I liked Batum, Bayless, Rudy, and Roy… but I also liked Jarrett and Martell. I wanted to stay away from LMA.

Oh, and I liked Derrick Byars.

Nate made a bad move not doing it, Oden is a bust.

There’s been some good calls in the past (“I think they should try to get Bayless”) but KP does such surprising moves that there’s no consistently correct guessing.

In fact, half the fun is trying to figure out what he might do. With all the teams who may make moves for financial purposes, it makes it that much tougher to guess.

The true purpose of the discussion here, for me at least, is to read through it and learn about players you might otherwise not know. But you can’t take it too seriously… KP seems to always do the unexpected. I mean, Zach for Frye, Jones, Francis and the rights to Rudy? Wow.

http://ulyssesseen.com/

- Elgin

I also wanted Brandon Roy. I didn’t want LaMarcus (or Tyrus). I first heard about Durrant and liked him, but when we got the #1 pick and the Oden-Durant debates started I wanted Oden. Last year I wanted Joe Alexander, I didn’t think that Bayless or Westbrook would be available to us. I had Bayless at #4 on my draft board.

Early before the draft last year I thought we’d move down to get Batum. Then as I saw Bayless dropping and I latched on to that idea.

www.blazersedge.com/2008/6/24/557880/bayless-falling

I didn’t figure that Portland would get both. (I also thought we’d move up from the 2nd round to get Koufos.)

The year before I wanted Oden. (No clue on Rudy.)

other than Oden of course, and Bayless was a pretty unsurprising KP pick also.

Where’s broyposse been lately?

(Not necessarily who is a bust, just who will get picked significantly lower than e.g. projected by DraftExpress or Chad Ford at the moment. Last year it was Darrell Arthur, DeAndre Jordan and to some extent Bayless.)

loved the Telfair pick… and thought Shawn Respert was the future of the franchise…

sometimes it’s better to be wrong than right

I doubt Rubio wants to go from Spain to Minny, but whatever. That would be a great draft for Minny if they could get #2 and #6.

http://www.canishoopus.com/2009/6/16/910896/no-gm-in-the-nba-is-apparently

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2009/06/15/daily17.html

I apologize.

with rapt fascination.

but that’s what junk drawer is for. Haha love this pic.

and convince Paul Allen to buy all their first round picks for the next 5, non-protected.

“Tell you what, Robert, why don’t you bundle your first round picks for the next five years, and we’ll give you $20mil straight up for them. Think of all those non guaranteed deals you won’t have to pay!”

BUT, I really wanted both LMA and Roy, and I hated hated hated Morrison and he’s still even a bigger bust than I thought I’d be. I tend to second guess myself when I don’t like a college player that everyone else loves, but USUALLY I am right.

I wasn’t following the NCAA as much the Paul/Deron year, and I would have been fine drafting them BUT if we wanted a shooting guard/shooter I liked Danny Granger and Martell.

I thought Bargnani would be a better scorer than he has been, but everything else has been what I figured. I didn’t like Tyrus because I didn’t think we needed another all-athletic no-skill NCAA Tourney standout type guy (not that we had another NCAA standout I can think of, but the first part is true). I was seriously bummed when we had drafted Tyrus and then Foye, because it MADE NO SENSE WHAT THE HELL is what I said.

I was happy when we made the trades. I liked LMA, even though he was stick n’ bones, because he’s got lank for days and had skill while still being pretty raw. That only gets better.

Roy was just totally solid and I thought he was the sort of guy everyone underrates because he was in college for a few years and was totally solid and didn’t have that many holes in his game. Roy, Josh Howard, Danny Granger, that sort of thing. I thought he’d eventually be a 20/5/5 guy, and he’s been even better so that’s suh-weet for us!

I didn’t think Lopez would translate as well because he moved so stiff, and I don’t think Love will be a star but will be good and skilled. Right now I don’t think Blake Griffin will be a star either. Rubio could be a star but I really worry about his boy-like body. I know he’s real young, but he looks 13 and that is not a good thing.

I really enjoyed Durant in college, figured he’d be sweet, but when we got the #1 pick the right choice was Oden. I played Devil’s Advocate for Durant during that time, defending him from the Darius Miles type comparisons people were using, but at the same time saying Oden was probably the right choice. I’m glad we got Oden, because Durant has actually been worse than I expected. He is a pretty bad playmaker, doesn’t post up like in college (he’ll get stronger, but he has a ways to go), and his defense has been the kind where the other team targets you specifically… like how Martell was his rookie year.

Oh, and I always liked to think it’d be fun to go for those high intrigue foriegny picks. I was happy about Sergio, I wanted Rudy, I didn’t think we’d get Batum the year before his draft but when he fell I agreed with Spencer Butte and felt we should get him (just to see how it’d turn out, I didn’t think he’d start and be good and whatnot), I wanted us to get the Finnish PG guy (though I thought he was pretty bad in summer league), and thought Taurean Green and McBob were good picks because they are good ol’ fashioned “good in college let’s just see how they do in the NBA” type picks. Low risk, could be a big gain.

I tend to make my judgements after I watch the person for a bit, through one media or another, based on how they move, how they score, what their body is like, how fluid they are, etc. I base a lot on how they look when I watch ’em, and then I like to consult the numbers.

Since the Paul/Deron draft, and our subsequent suckitude and then uprising, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about player scouting and development potential… as much as a fan sitting at home can, of course.

Mortimer

http://www.draftexpress.com/blog/Jonathan-Givony/#Word-on-the-Street-June-16th-3263

Monta may be an available cat

he BYC till 07/01/09 at 5.5mil

Is that the type of player you throw Bayless at? Does he fit the team at all?

I am not a big Monta fan, but I thought I would throw this out there given it is a tuesday.

I knew Portland was going to pick LA I didn’t know they would have to trade with Chicago to get him though

I thought they were going to draft Jameer Nelson though when he became available

when we gave up Khryapa in the LMA trade? I can say I was not super pumped about that part of the deal.

Can somebody with intimate knowledge of the Knicks masterplan enlighten me on the process for aquiring LeBron and then winning a championship? The fashionable talk these days says LeBron will be lured away from Cleveland so that he can win a championship in NY. What the team that surrounds him in NY looks like and how it is better than that which surrounds him in Cleveland is always conveniently ignored. It seems to be a foregone conclusion that LeBron + New York = Dynasty.

So what is the NY plan and situation? I know they are scrambling for the cap room. What would the team look like post-LeBron in the best case scenario? What does it look like in a realistic, attainable scenario? What other variables are they counting on to fall their way?

Being a mistake,LMA and Batum. Every other pick took me by suprise.

I called Bayless in December 2 years ago

http://www.blazersedge.com/2007/12/19/181434/04

I will now call my shot at the 2008 NBA draft:

Jerryd Bayless.

and in my offseason 2008 plan was pretty right on as well

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/2/29/409/17188

In conclusion I would do the following things

#1. Trade Jack and maybe more to move up in the draft

#2. Draft a combo guard

#3. Keep Webster, Frye and Sergio, let them have one more year and then decide in the summer of 2009 and see who is avalible, Paul or Williams, if anybody, if not we will be able to trade for a good PG and a bad contract as we will be able to take back a lot more salary than we give out.

Unfortunately much like this year, (but better) the upcoming year will be one of growth again, incorpoating Oden, Rudy and our #1 into the mix will take some work and I expect to be in the thick of the playoff race, probably division champion with 50-55 wins.

Lastly I was only 1 game off of what our final record last year would be in July 08

http://www.blazersedge.com/2008/7/7/563250/why-it-should-matter-to-yo#7237134

56wins and the NW title 3rd seed in the playoffs.

link.

Was watching the 1997 NBA Draft this morning and saw

Chauncy Billups
6’3 203 pounds
32.7 MPG
.401 3 Point%
.413 FG%
.854 FT%
19.1 PPG
4.9 RPG
4.8 APG

This reminded me a lot of Jerryd Bayless

Jerryd Bayless
6’3 202 pounds
35.7 MPG
.407 3 Point%
.457 FG%
.839 FT%
19.7 PPG
2.7 RPG
4.0 APG

If Jerryd can even get to 80% of Billups, I think that’s a solid pick. I think he’s got the chance to be as good or even slightly better. I voted for Bayless over Westbrook, who is still largely unproven, even though I love both of them.

I stick by what I said…I think Bayless will bloom later and be a stud of a player.

link.

I would like to see the Blazers trade their 13 pick Up with JJ to get Westbrook. However, if they can’t, and if Westbrook is gone at 13, I’m all for picking up Batum. You can stash him in Euro for a few years, allowing him to develop "au natural"

Your risk-reward is pretty good there as well. He’s not going to be coming in crying for minutes or upsetting team chemistry. It gives you time to see who on our roster is worth keeping, and who isn’t. It helps alleviate our minute crunch, so we can give Rudy some time to see what he can do. Heck, maybe we even give Sergio some time if he comes back next year with an improved game and attitude.

Funniest VIDEO you’ll see all week

I’ve been digging through some archives and there are funny predictions. Dave has a pretty good track record, with a few pretty notable misses. (i.e. the Raef trade)

but lo and behold…we get aldridge with the 4th pick and khryapa and roy for bassy and ratliff essentially.

greg oden was an easy pick to make. i didn’t guess it, but i would have liked to see rudy fernandez as a blazer..and was happy when it happened. i liked brandon rush too…but he got turned into bayless.

The chances of this happening are about 1000%. They will also do something weird that makes the life of another GM miserable by screwing up the natural draft order and presenting him with a choice he didn’t want.

And we thought Oden vs. Durant was complicated and polarizing

argh

how r u
s