The Raptors and the 2014 Draft

[Mr.Z]

TJ Warren - 28.7% from 3
Kyle Anderson - 48.3% from 3

Stop.

... Hammer time?

[ceez]

yeah, deep perimeter shooting isn't warren's strong suit

that said, anderson sucks and i'd take warren over him any day

[white men can't jump]

my dream scenario is Lavine or Ennis falls to us

we get a motoriffic big with our first second rounder

and my boy melvin ejim with our late late second rounder. i feel like he can be a contributor and if absolutely nothing else, spice up practices.

I might be LaVine's least big fan around here. I get that he's crazy athletic...He's also pretty much terrible in every basketball sense except a somewhat decent shot. Only goes right, super skinny, doesn't defend, hates contact (and doesn't get to the line as a result), poor decision making (not a good passer and takes bad shots)...Just a really big-time project, and for a guy without a clear niche that's just not worth it. See him as a bench scorer in the long run.

I hope he's off the board when the Raps pick, because I can see how he'd be tempting and hard to pass up, so I'd rather the Raps don't have to deal with that decision.

[magoon]

I want us to stay clear of LaVine so badly. Terrible assist rate, terrible steal rate, didn't really create for himself - I mean, I get that he's a project and super-athletic and blah blah blah but man, if we're going to take on a project I want to see some evidence of actual basketball skill, something to show that in at least one aspect of the game he's something special, and I don't think he's done that at all.

LaVine's biggest value to us is his probable 10-14 draft rank, which will cause better players to drop to us. Let's use him for that! Masai should be calling around the league to see if he can get a higher draft pick saying "yeah, I want to get Zach LaVine."

[grindhouse]

TJ Warren - 28.7% from 3
Kyle Anderson - 48.3% from 3

Stop.

Quiet god dammit I want Anderson to fall to us


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[grindhouse]

Hopefully there is a run on pg early and we may get lucky


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[Mediumcore]

I might be LaVine's least big fan around here. I get that he's crazy athletic...He's also pretty much terrible in every basketball sense except a somewhat decent shot. Only goes right, super skinny, doesn't defend, hates contact (and doesn't get to the line as a result), poor decision making (not a good passer and takes bad shots)...Just a really big-time project, and for a guy without a clear niche that's just not worth it. See him as a bench scorer in the long run.

I hope he's off the board when the Raps pick, because I can see how he'd be tempting and hard to pass up, so I'd rather the Raps don't have to deal with that decision.

You can't list things he doesn't do at the collegiate level like he is a finished product. At 20 if you can nab a guy with that sort of elite physical ability then I think its a low risk high reward scenario. You aren't likely to find a player that contributes too much with a pick that low anyways. Why not take the chance on someone with a high ceiling instead of a player with a clear, meh, ceiling?

[magoon]

You can't list things he doesn't do at the collegiate level like he is a finished product. At 20 if you can nab a guy with that sort of elite physical ability then I think its a low risk high reward scenario. You aren't likely to find a player that contributes too much with a pick that low anyways. Why not take the chance on someone with a high ceiling instead of a player with a clear, meh, ceiling?

I'm not looking for a finished product, but I am looking for a product that has at least started, and LaVine isn't there.

[white men can't jump]

What magoon said. I'm not looking for a finished product, but I am looking for someone with indicators n that he has a solid basketball skill base that makes me believe he can turn into a good player in some way(s).

His ceiling is based entirely on what he can do with physically, and nothing to do with how he has an impact on the court. Even the most athletic projects who become good usually have some demonstrated ball skills that give reason to be optimistic.

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[white men can't jump]

Compare him to another physical prospect this year in Aaron Gordon. Gordon does many things well. He has a high motor and high bball iq. He impacts the game statistically by understanding how to be effective on the court and trying to make high % plays on both ends. LaVine is not even close to this.

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[stretch]

They have Payton going 21st to OKC.

I have a hard time imagining Ujiri skipping Payton especially if he is trying to find players to fit Casey.

Can't wait for draft night!

I was reading today in Mark Titus' Grantland article about some concerns about Payton playing in the NBA. Full article: http://grantland.com/the-triangle/ti...ary-tj-warren/

This is what makes it difficult to figure out how good Payton is. He led his conference in assists (5.9 per game) and steals (2.3), he was second in scoring (19.2), and he was named the conference’s defensive player of the year while playing for the only Sun Belt team to make the NCAA tournament. (And yet he somehow wasn’t named conference player of the year.) But what does that really mean? Only three guys — Derek Fisher, Courtney Lee, and Jeremy Evans — from the Sun Belt were in the NBA this season. History says that NBA starters almost never come from the Sun Belt, which is why the best way to gauge Payton’s talent is to examine how he played against Arkansas, Louisville, Baylor, and Creighton.

As you may have guessed, Payton had his ups and downs in those four games. He averaged 20.8 points, 5.5 assists, and 2.5 steals, but he also averaged 4.5 turnovers. And to be honest, that turnover average is skewed downward thanks to his one-turnover game in the NCAA tourney against Creighton, which was so bad defensively this season that if you handed the Bluejays the ball, they’d probably just hand it right back and say, “You accidentally didn’t score on us.” Remove that game and Payton averaged 5.7 turnovers, including a nine-turnover game at Arkansas and a five-turnover game at Louisville (two teams that emphasize ball pressure on defense). Yeesh.

Another big concern for Payton is that he’s a 27 percent 3-point shooter who made only 30 threes in 3,155 minutes, or one triple every 105 minutes he played. (For reference, I made one 3 for every 24 minutes I played at Ohio State, and my goal every time I took the court was to stand in the corner and do nothing.) So, to recap, you might be telling yourself, Payton is a guard from a crappy conference who can’t shoot and turns the ball over way too much. Why, exactly, is he projected to go in the first round?

[Employee]

For the record I just wanna say that I sent an email to Jonathan Givony complaining about how they got rid of the thing that said when it was last updated and how the mock draft history button didn't work. He sent me an email back apologizing and now they're both fixed.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

[mcHAPPY]

For the record I just wanna say that I sent an email to Jonathan Givony complaining about how they got rid of the thing that said when it was last updated and how the mock draft history button didn't work. He sent me an email back apologizing and now they're both fixed.

YOU'RE WELCOME.

That made me laugh.

[imanshumpert]

The Denver Nuggets have some options going into the 2014 draft, and they're apparently exploring them.

According to The Denver Post's Christopher Dempsey, "The Nuggets have already taken — and made — their fair share of trade phone calls concerning their draft pick weeks ahead of the NBA draft."

Per Dempsey, general manager Tim Connelly admitted, "We've had a lot of conversations about a ton of different things — picks, trades. We're pretty active right now."

Denver holds the No. 11 selection in this summer's draft, which stands to be very attractive to any number of teams looking to either move up in the draft or move down and secure an additional pick. The Nuggets could look acquire a veteran by trading with the former, or to move up in the draft by dealing with the latter.

Not sure if this has been posted already but Denver's shopping #11. Wonder if we could make a deal worth with them. Most of our guys aren't really guys I'd give up for the #11 pick though.

Getting this pick would open up a world of possibilities for us though. All of a sudden guys like LaVine, Saric, Gordon, etc are legitimately in play.

[planetmars]

Not sure if this has been posted already but Denver's shopping #11. Wonder if we could make a deal worth with them. Most of our guys aren't really guys I'd give up for the #11 pick though.

Getting this pick would open up a world of possibilities for us though. All of a sudden guys like LaVine, Saric, Gordon, etc are legitimately in play.

If Denver is looking for a veteran I'm not sure the Raptors have anything to offer because you could say the Raptors are looking for the same thing. Plus, I think they are the thinnest at SG.. and the Raptors don't really have one to offer.