The Raptors and the 2014 Draft

[ceez]

How so?

every year it's "will saric be in the draft??" and every year it's "nope" right before it happens. he's more indecisive about his basketball career than my pregnant wife is about what she wants for dinner

[magoon]

Ejim's an excellent player - perceived to be a low ceiling, high floor kind of guy. He's the sort of guy you draft when you want an Alan Anderson type to make your bench that much deeper, and those guys usually go in the mid-40s. Which is why I would take him at 37 (or try to buy Philly's 39, if we can draft T-Po as a project at 37).

[planetmars]

Hearing: Knicks have explored possibility of swapping Iman Shumpert for late first-round pick heading into Thursday's draft

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 23, 2014

Knicks apparently interested in Ennis or Hairston.

Hairston is projected at 22 via DE.

... interesting but we have too much depth at SG anyway and Shumpert had an ACL so won't be as explosive as he once was.

[Demographic Shift]

Dario Saric has just agreed in principle to a three-year deal with the Turkish club Anadolu Efes. It's safe to say he's going to drop hard and fast; I don't know if he'll be available at #20 but it's now at least possible that he will be.

If the Bulls don't get an understanding/trade done on draft day to move Boozer to free up cap room for Melo Madness and they still have their first pick at 16 and are "on the clock" they are a good candidate to grab Saric and stash him so they can keep cap space free. Then post draft the GM has to take the dreaded walk down the hall to ask owner Jerry Riensdorf to write Boozer a cheque, a 16.8M cheque, to not play for the Bulls next year. That session with Jerry is going to be one very loud and ugly meeting if they have to have it to make room for Melo.

[OptimalOptimist]

More stuff on Stokes:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2...eport-and-more


This guy is now my target at 20. I'd take him over Payne as Payne is really looking worn out after all the workouts, his lung concern is a big red flag.

[magoon]

As an aside: I am quite certain we can simply buy one of Phoenix' first rounders (if they don't use them to try to trade up). Robert Sarver loves to sell first-round picks. This is known. Simply offer them a few million for #18; if they say no, same offer but for #27. Toronto is a large-market team in terms of money available and we should act like it.

If we're not buying another first-rounder, then buy second-rounders. There's lots of talent in the second round and lots of picks that should be available. If we refuse Salmons/Hansbrough/Buycks/Stone, trade Novak (it's doable, possibly for a second-rounder - Novak is basically a shooting coach who can play minutes for you at this point) and don't bring back Nando, we have up to six roster slots available. There's no reason not to put 3-4 rooks, at least, on the bench - especially if we're looking seriously at immediate-contributor types like Ejim and Bachynski.

[ceez]

yeah but who would casey play?

[Demographic Shift]

Hearing: Knicks have explored possibility of swapping Iman Shumpert for late first-round pick heading into Thursday's draft

— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) June 23, 2014

... interesting but we have too much depth at SG anyway and Shumpert had an ACL so won't be as explosive as he once was.

And so it starts. The non stop mildly interesting banter on what the Knicks - Nets want to do.
Its laughable in that they are equipped with no assets, no cap space and no draft picks. They do have no shortage of media coverage looking to fill airtime though on incredulous "what if" material. They couldn't even sign a coach and when they did they had to pay tampering fees to boot. What a shit show.

[magoon]

yeah but who would casey play?

Clearly he would try to have Chuck Hayes play every position for 36 minutes per game. The All-Hayes strategy.

[thead]

the good thing about Hayes is if Lowry bolts, he can step in and start at PG

[OptimalOptimist]

the good thing about Hayes is if Lowry bolts, he can step in and start at PG

[Employee]

Can someone explain why Saric would do this?

http://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap...h-Anadolu-Efes

[ceez]

because he's a flake

[Bendit]

The Saric news says "in principle"....which one can run a truck thru. Among stipulations might be that he stays in Europe if drafted below a certain number (which also means dollars) etc etc. It just sounds fishy that he would do this in the draft week.

[ball4life]

I understand NBA is a business and players often consider business part of their careers... but this dude is ALL BUSINESS straight from the get go. i would seriously doubt his passion for the game. reminds of Hedo.