This is nothing more than a post for you guys to flood the comments with pre, during and post NBA Draft talk. Sixers or other. And keep it all in one central location.
I will lead off with my ideal scenario for the Sixers.
With all the recent shuffling and moves Chad Ford (and others) in his most recent NBA Mock Draft has Mario Chalmers dropping to 17. I say the Sixers “buy” a later 1st round draft pick and take Chalmers at 16 which would sure up our PG needs with a guy who can also shoot the three and lock up on defense. Then take J.J. Hickson with the later first round pick the Sixers would have acquired. The slightly different version of that would be to draft two PFs with the picks and let them battle it out which would increase the chance we land a guy who will actually become a real player in 2-3 years.
This recent development by the Spurs supports my idea as a real possibility for the Sixers.
The Spurs sent an e-mail to every team in the league at 3:30 p.m. saying that they were willing to move the 26th pick. The e-mail asked league executives to “E-mail us your interest and your offers to 26.”
That’s the first time I’ve heard of something like this in all of my years covering the draft. Make your Spurs pitch below in our comments section. - Chad Ford, ESPN
Open discussion…
24 comments ↓
When you are out of the lottery, quantity is king. Throw crap at the wall and see what sticks.
Thanks for the open floor with random thoughts Dannie!
Here are my final pre-draft thoughts. If we stand pat with the 16 pick, my order is:
1. Mareese Speights
2. Darrell Arthur
3. JJ Hickson (I’d be fine putting Hickson as my #2 and Arthur my #3)
Guys I’d be ok with drafting, but annoyed we’d pick these over the above three:
-Kosta Koufos
-Jason Thompson
Guys I’m petrified the Sixers will draft:
-Javal McGee
-Alex Ajinca
-Robin Lopez
-Donte Green
Guy I think will be a good NBA big someday…but don’t feel like waiting 5-6 years to groom:
-De’Andre Jordan
My ideal scenario: we somehow acquire one more 1st round pick and one 2nd round pick:
1st round: Draft two PF’s…any combo of Speights/Hickson, Speights/Arthur, or Hickson/Arthur
2nd round: Draft Jamar Butler or Brian Roberts as our backup PG that can also shoot the 3 ball.
Other option with this scenario:
-#16 pick: Speights, Hickson or Arthur
-#mid 20’s pick: Mario Chalmers
-2nd round: My man RICHARD HENDRIX…Paul Millsap with offense, the most underrated player this draft!
whew! well we dodged the McGee/Jordan bullet and we got the guy that most of us wanted. Hope you’re wrong Dannie. Since Portland ‘bought’ New Orlean’s pick, why can’t we do the same? Or just give away Willie or Evans? I would LOVE to pick up CDR in the second half.
Stefanski better have a good plan going forward, because all of our needs are still unmet. He said all along that he was targeting a big man and a project was ok. He said we didn’t need our pick to step in and play immediately. Since this was his thinking regarding our pick and he followed through on it, he must be confident that he will get a very good PF who can step in now either via trade or free agency. If he doesn’t have something solid in the works, we’re not going anywhere next year.
PETE: You were way more right than me regarding Chalmers. He started out a low first rounder and rocketed up the draft board as a result of his workouts to be….a second round pick?
I’m glad we had a choice between Arthur and Speights. It’s probably a toss-up as to which will be the better NBA player. I’m very happy we didn’t take Koufous, Jordan, Anjica, Randolph etc.
I am cool with Speights compared to who we could have ended up with. Still preferred Hickson but I would rather have Speights over Arthur or any of the foreign dudes. I am extremely pissed off the Sixers did nothing in such a deep draft where players like Chalmers drop so low to address other needs.
Bski - CDR got drafted 40th I guess I was right about him at least right now. His game won’t translate to the NBA.
Chalmers was traded to Miami where he could easily be their starting PG and like I said all along the 2nd or 3rd best PG in this draft. Miami’s draft was fantastic.
Portland is ridiculous Pritchard is a freaking genius. That team is loaded with talent at almost every position.
I’m disappointed, I really wanted Arthur. I’m glad we didn’t take a project, though. I don’t know what to say except I wish our front office was a little more creative. Ed Stefansky = Brad Greenberg? I’m not excited about Speights at all, he has to play defense, if he can’t, that cancels out what his low post abilities will contribute. We’ll see… I need some time to talk myself into this pick, and to convince myself that the Sixers’ collective low basketball IQ isn’t gonna be too big of a problem. Take it easy, fellas.
BTW, Dave T, if you can get Dannie’s name right, surely you can get mine right - it’s Zack with a “k”.
Having Paul Allen and getting lucky with the draft order would make any GM look good (except, of course, for Michael Jordan)
No… Pritchard is the kind of gm I want. Unbelievable… Bayless and a top prospect. Have to admit, I’m a little disappointed.
I was looking at the comments made on the deep sixer site and someone brought up the very good point that Speights will be exposed to our one and only Reggie Evans. Considering his influence on Dalembert last season, I think it’s safe to say that Speights will have his focus and intensity level in the right place.
Wow…I just rechecked ESPN to see if anything else happened…major trade: Memphis gets OJ Mayo, Greg Buckner, Antoine Walker, Marco Jaric…Minny gets Love, Mike Miller, Brian Cardinal.
This is a brilliant move by McHale. He turned what was one top 5 pick…into a top 5 pick, + Mike Miller (18 ppg, lights out shooter, heady vet player that has improved his game each year), + clearing up major backcourt logjams, +ridding themselves of bad contracts…all in one move. Gives them:
PG: Foye SG: Mike Miller SF: C Brewer PF: K Love C: Al Jefferson. Telfair and McCants back up PG and SG, Gomes and C Smith backup the forward spots. That’s a huge improvement for the T-Wolves.
Dannie I def agree: Portland pulled off one hell of a swipe landing Bayless. I’m STUNNED Pritchard also didn’t draft CDR when he had three chances to…but wow. Landing Bayless was huge, and Diogu is a nice piece to sneak in there as well. Adding Bayless, Oden, Rudy Fernandez and Diogu to last year’s team, are you kidding me? Brilliant.
After some late night moves, here are what some teams acquired:
Memphis: OJ Mayo and Darrell Arthur
Houston: Donte Greene & Joey Dorsey
Portland: Bayless & Nicolas Batum
Minny: Kevin Love & Mike Miller
Boston: Billy Walker & JR Giddens
Anyone think we have a shot at making a play for Raymond Felton? I’m assuming he’ll be shopped either now or at the end of the 09 season given their Augustin pick.
Will do up a Sixers only post in a little but, but we can keep talking general draft talk here if you want. Who are you guys top 3 winners and top 3 losers and why?
Winners : Miami, Portland, and Minn. You can tell those teams had a plan in place and went out and got the guys they wanted.
I can’t do the losers because I don’t know enough about the 2nd round picks to make an educated guess but I’ll never understand why teams would use draft picks on guys that won’t join the team for a few years.
I would “sell” the pick instead of wasting it on a guy that will stay overseas. Maybe you can enlighten me as to why this is a good idea.
Gotta like what Portland did. Gotta not like what Indiana did. I think the Sixers did want to get another pick in the 2nd round, but weren’t able to get it done. I watched the press conference with ES, and he looked kinda pissed off, maybe that was the reason.
I’m not sure what to think about Minn. and Mem. I mean Al Jefferson is a PF, not a C. Also, Cardinal’s bad contract is merely swapped for Jaric’s bad contract. They only got the good contract, Miller, off their books.
In fact, Jaric’s contract is longer than Cardinals. Was Mayo worth that much? I doubt it.
So Mem. now has 4 guards , Conley, Lowry, Crittendon and Mayo. I oyu were a Mem. fan, how much confidence would you have that they make the right move trading 2 of those 4?
So, Minn. gets the better of the “deal,” but is a PF and a PF masquerading as a C really what they want?
As for the Sixers, it really seems to me like after Beasley and Love, Speights has as much chance as any other big man drafted ahead of him to be good. He certainly projects as a double digit rebounder. Rebounding is supposed to be about desire as much as anything else, so for all the talk about his heart, he did average 8 rebounds in only 24 minutes. And he can use both hands as well as hit the 15-18′ jumper.
Morty-
In today’s NBA there is so little difference between a C & PF that Minn should be OK. Gone are the days of Hakeem, Ewing, and even Shaq (lol).
I don’t know if there is much left to say about the draft. Speights seems like he has the potential to develop into the low post player the Sixers wanted/needed to acquire this offseason, we’ll just have to see how he develops. Solid pick.
On another note, though, James Jones opted out of his contract with Portland. If one of our needs is a sharpshooting swingman, this is the guy. He has some injury concerns, but I hope they take a solid look at him.
In choosing my top 3 winners and losers, I am going to focus solely on who they got through the draft. I am not going to factor in other players that moved (Mike Miller, Ike Diogu, etc…). Don’t ask me why. Just being literal, I guess.
Winners: 1) Miami. They picked Beasley instead of trading the pick and they got a steal in Chalmers. 2) Memphis. They came out with Mayo and Arthur. 3) Tie between Seattle and Indiana. I like the Rush pick better than the Westbrook pick, but I like D.J. White better than Hibbert.
Losers: 1) Washington, for JaVale McGee. 2) Sacramento. I think Jason Thompson is going to be a lottery bust to be remembered. 3) San Antonio. Picked George Hill while Chalmers was still on the board.
Head Scratcher: Milwaukee. Why would they pick Alexander after they just traded for Jefferson?
I believe Dannie is going to do a post just on the Sixers draft, so I’m going to do a post with a short blurb about every team. essentially what it will be is how I would feel if I was a fan of these teams (pumped, ticked, bored, confused)
look for that post later tonight
Top 5 winners:
-Portland: I think a pass first PG like Augustin would have been ideal, but having a Bayless and B-Roy backcourt means they have two guys that are capable of either running the offense or playing off the ball. Gives them a huge scoring punch…nice job. And Diogu could still turn into a productive bench guy.
-Miami: Nothing new I can say here than what others have said…real savvy move landing Chalmers. I’ll also add that Darnell Jackson is a real good pick…total bucket and pale blue chipper, I think he’ll add some toughness.
-Clippers: They have to be thrilled. They essentially have no backcourt other then an aging Mobley…and landed a future 20 ppg NBA scorer. And I don’t care what the knocks are on De’Andre Jordan, landing a project center with that much upside in the mid 30’s is an absolute steal. With their forward glut (Maggette, Thornton, Q Ross), I’d expect them to pursue Felton now that TJ Ford has been traded.
-Rockets: For where they had picks (25th and 2nd round) to get basically a mid 1st round talent in Donte Greene, when they desperately need bench SF scoring…and Dorsey, who I see in the Ben Wallace mode to give them backup C help…is a real successful night.
-Cavs: I have knocked the Cavs for years for being the worst run, and worst architected team in the NBA…so I was surprised when they made, aside from us, probably the best non lottery pick of the 1st round. Speights and Hickson have the most upside of any PF’s that didn’t go top 10…great move.
-Nets: Brook Lopez really boosters their frontcourt, giving them a nice young and up and coming core in Josh Boone, Sean Williams and Brook Lopez. IMO, CDR should have gone in the 18-25 range, so I think he’s a steal at 40. Ryan Anderson is a nice piece.
-Golden State: Lots will disagree with me here…but like the Nets, they now have a great trio of PF/C’s to grow (Biedrins, Brandon Wright and A Randolph). And they picked up my favorite player in the 2nd round in Richard Hendrix. I got the chance to see LSU a lot (sadly) this past year…I really, really like Randolph’s game. He is a guy that would look awful in workouts and draft camps…but get him on the floor, he produces. This guy can ball, skill set is great…great shot blocker, great team defender, has legit post moves on the block, can slash to the basket, nice feel for the game. In two years, G-State is going to look real smart for having Brandon Wright and Anthony Randolph.
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