Built Ford Tough

Depending on how the first 4 picks of the draft went, I don't think I would mind a 5th for Jennings and 10th trade. Of course there is no way the Bucks do that trade unless they are ridiculously high on somebody like Knight (if he is still there), but even then, I'd probably just rather take a chance on Knight than trade for Jennings anyways, unless somebody like Valanciunas falls to 10, which will never happen. As far as general trades go, I'm sure the Bucks would love to move him considering his style of play and how poorly he has played so far in his career, but the problem is that I imagine they would want much more for him than he is actually worth. He could be a nice fit on some teams, but I would guess that very few teams will likely be prepared to give up what the Bucks would want for a shoot first, inefficient point guard who struggles with decision making.

It makes sense for the Hawks if they are getting somebody like Kaman. Him and Horford would be one of the more talented 4/5 combos in the league and would be very good on both ends of the floor, especially offensively considering Kaman's skill on the low block and Horford being probably the 2nd best mid range shooting big in the league. Horford's ability to step outside the paint and consistently hit the 15-20 foot jumpers would provide Kaman with ample room to operate down low, especially considering Johnson and Crawford (assuming he is re-signed) scoring ability from the perimeter. That would also be a pretty good duo defensively as well, considering both are good shot blockers, Horford is a very good post defender when he isn't giving up too much size and Kaman, from what I recall, is solid when it comes to help defense and isn't a complete pushover when he is forced to D up. However, it makes absolutely no sense for the Clippers considering Smith is much more effective at the 4 than he is at the 3 due to his poor jumper and suspect handles, which basically turns him into nothing more than an athletic finisher on offense and takes away some of his great shot blocking on defense considering he spends more time on the perimeter which will obviously limit the opportunities for shot blocks. There is no way that Griffin should be moved to the 5 considering he isn't that big of a power forward to begin with and would get killed defensively by some of the more skilled 5's in the league. Not going to lie though, a lineup of Bledsoe Gordon Smith Griffin Jordan would be absolutely nasty to watch in the open court. Hell, they would be awesome to watch in a half court set considering all of the lobs that can be throw to a trio of Smith, Griffin and Jordan.

I'm just going off of speculation, but I imagine Knight will be picked at 3 by the Jazz. I don't see them being too interested in Kanter with Jefferson, Millsap and Favors already on the roster, in addition to Kanter blowing off an interview with the Jazz earlier today at the combine (blew off the Raptors and Bucks as well). I would imagine that the Jazz go for a point guard considering they don't seem to think of Harris as the point of the future and they have always struck me as a team who likes having size at the point, which Knight definitely does. If they don't take him, I am almost certain they will draft Walker at three, but I think Knight will be their pick. The only other scenario I see is maybe the pick Jan Vesely with the hopes that he can become their new age Kirilenko in a few years. Should the Jazz take Walker at 3, I imagine you are right about him not falling past the Raptors. Colangelo has mentioned his name at least 5 times in interviews since the lottery, there has been a bunch of speculation from people who follow the Raptors that they are very high on him and they have already met with him two or three times, including going out for dinner with him the other night. He also seems to be the kind of player who Colangelo has had a history of being interested in. A point guard with good size, solid defensive potential but a bit of a project when it comes to being a true floor general considering his interest in guys like Jrue Holiday, Russell Westbrook and Jerryd Bayless over the past few years. I would definitely say that he will be their pick at 5 if he is there, at least at the moment. If he isn't there, I would guess that their pck would be Walker especially after measuring out better than a lot of people expected. I don't see the Rockets trying to move up for a guard considering I honestly think both of them will be gone by 5 as the Jazz will likely take one at 3 and the Raptors will take whoever is left at 5. I think that Valanciunas may be their target. The Rockets are a good enough team that I think they would be completely comfortable with taking a project big man like Valanciunas, even if he won't be coming over to the team for at least 2 years down the road and may not be ready to contribute for another year or two after that. Outside of Val and maybe Biyombo, I don't really see why the Rockets would move up in the draft considering how wide open the entire draft is outside of the likely top 5. Maybe they want somebody like Kawhi Leonard to replace Battier at the 3? I'm not sure, though.

Hs jumper needs a lot of work. He is good at getting to the rim, has nice size at the 2, good athleticism and has quite a bit of upside but he is going to need to greatly improve his jumper in order to actually be able make use of his excellent slashing ability and athleticism in situations outside of transition ones. Teams are going to be able to sag off of him and dare him to shoot from the outside, so that is definitely going to be the biggest area that he needs to work on. DX has a nice scouting report with video breakdown up that you would probably be interested in because I definitely think that the Bucks will be taking him. He wasn't going to declare unless he was certain that he was going to be a lottery pick and from what I heard, he got a promise from some team in the lottery. I think that team is probably the Bucks. Anyways, here is the 5 minute video on Burks from DX: http://www.draftexpress.com/article/Alec-Burks-Video-Breakdown-3692/

So supposedly Kanter denied interview with three teams and of course, Toronto was one of them. He also blew off the Bucks and the Jazz as well. I like his skill set and all, but he seems like he is trying to dictate where he gets drafted with him denying interviews and workouts with specific teams and mentioning constantly how he wants to be drafted by the Wizards. DX has all of the measurements up as well. http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-pre-draft-measurements/?page=&year=2011&source=All&sort2=DESC&draft=0&pos=0&sort= None of the athletic testing for any of the guys who the Raptors are likely to pick are up. I'm not sure if that is because guys like Knight and Walker didn't participate in any of it or it they did and it will just be updated later. They do have Walker and Knight's height, weight, wingspan etc... up, though.

I'm still now quite sure where the foul occured there. I might've missed something, but it sure looked to me that Terry didn't even make any contact with Harden. Even Harden looked surprised to hear the whistle and he certainly made no attempt to illustrate that contact had been made. This latest 3 point play was a pretty weak call as well. Harden has played very well off of the bench, though. In a series like this one where the Mavs don't really have any legitimate perimeter threat offensively, there is absolutely no reason why Harden shouldn't be playing at least 33 minutes a night. Sefolosha is an ace defender, but his defense isn't needed in this series as Harden is more than capable of defending any of the Mavs wing players in addition.

I think the Raptors pick will inevitably be one of these two, depending on which one is still available at 5 (I think the Jazz will take one of them at 3). Based on what Colangelo has said about being interested in players who are preceived as raw and not worried about getting an immediate impact player, it makes me think he is leaning more towards Knight over Walker, but unless something unexpected happens, I think the Raptors will walk away from the draft with one of these two players.

It is kind of nuts how much the respect the Thunder are giving Barea on offense. They are completely sagging off of him and allowing him all kinds of room to get the jumper off due to his ability to get into the paint. He is a pretty solid shooter and is more than capable of knocking down long range jumpers, but the Thunder are still giving him open looks simply because of the havoc he creates when getting into the lane. Not bad for a guy who was basically considered a complete non factor heading into the playoffs.

That dunk was nasty. Holy shit.

Some DX interviews are up. Kyrie Irving http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErMV6N5WyHc&feature=player_embedded Kemba Walker http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiH5lzK_Tzg&feature=player_profilepage Brandon Knight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSYUJl_Cws0&feature=player_profilepage Travis Leslie http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5dDSFwy5cU&feature=player_profilepage

I think you can say that it has already changed the way that he plays the game. Prior to his knee injury last season he was one of the quickest players in the league with an absolutely dynamite first step. There wasn't a player in the league that he couldn't break down off of the dribble, but from what I saw him him this season he didn't have nearly the same explosiveness and was much more methodical in his approach. He could still get to the rim, but it wasn't to the same degree as he did before. This could be because he wasn't 100% recovered from his injury as it does take a long time to get back to full strength from the surgery that he did have. The thing about Paul is that his play this year just goes to show how good he is. Even with arguably the best attribute of his game cut basically in hal, he was still one of the top 5 point guards in the league and, in many people's opinion, he is still the best point guard in the league.

Just play George at the two. It was where he was predicted to play coming out of college last year and, as far as I know, he has the game to more than adequately play that position. I don't know where he played last season, whether it was the 2 or the 3, but I don't see why he can't play the shooting guard spot for the Pacers and have Williams slot in at the 3, which is where he has repeatedly said he wants to play. I don't really see the problem here, unless I am completely mistaken about George. A lineup of: Collison/George/Williams/Hansbrough/Hibbert is a decent enough young core to build around. They would also have an abundance of cap space to work with if they are moving Granger, although I don't envision Indiana as a very desireable destination for free agents.

Some stuff from the combine that I have read around various sites. I will probably watch a bit of it when it airs on NBATV Canada in 2 hours, so I may add some more later, although I doubt I watch much of it as it is uaully a waste of time. No real shock here as Colangelo has mentioned Kemba and Knight before, and he spent about 3 scouting trips to UCONN to watch Walker play. He mentioned something along the lines of not caring if they get an impact player right off the bat and is perfectly fine with taking a guy who may take a few years to make an impact as the team is still in the midst of a rebuilding process. Maybe a sign that he would take Knight over Walker if both of them are still on the board at 5 considering Knight is considered to have the higher ceiling? Maybe a sign that he is seriously considering one of the high risk, high reward International players such as Valanciunas or Biyombo? It isn't official yet, but a lot of people are saying that Walker measured just around 5'11 3/4 without shoes one, which would make him pretty much the same size as a guy like Chris Paul and would mean that he is probably about 6'1-6'2 with shoes on. If this turns out to be true, he is a lot taller than I thought he was as I was expecting about 5'11 with shoes. HIm not being extremely undersized at the point guard spot makes me a lot more interested in him, again, assuming this is true. I think he is going to have very impressive athletic testing results as well. With that said, I still am not huge on either one of Knight or Walker as I still don't think either one is really much of an upgrade as a prospect over Bayless. Enes Kanter was apperantly impressing everybody who watched him as well. http://twitter.com/#!/chadfordinsider/status/71281554055372802 Unfortunately, I highly doubt he falls to 5. I think the absolute latest he gets drafted would be at 4 as I don't see Cleveland passing on him. Him and Irving would be a great duo to come away from this draft with. The only way I see him falling past 4 is if the Cavs really like one of Walker or Knight and they decide to go with Williams first instead of Irving. I just wish that the Raptors didn't fall to 5 as it basically eliminated him from contention for them. Even falling to 4 would've been fine with me as I still think that they would've had a real shot at landing him at 4. Oh well. Kind of irrelevenat to us, but Williams continues to mention that he is a small forward at every possible moment.. Some speculation from Ryan Wolstat on trading up for number 2. Nothing more than speculation, though. Just in case anybody wants to know, Tristan Thompson supposedly measured out at 6'9 with shoes. He mentioned that he thinks he would be a great fit next to Greg Monroe and seems to want to go to Detroit, but it was a Pistons writer who was interviewing him at the time, so it could just be him being politically correct.

The Combine has beconme a huge joke over the past few years. I used to love watching it, even if it was on a tape delay (I can watch it on NBATV in Canada in 3 hours), but with the large majority of the top prospects not doing anything other than measure, the whole thing has become a bit of a joke. It is basically a bunch of mid first rounders, late first rounders and 2nd rounders trying to boost their draft stock. As far as I know, none of the top 3 point guards are doing any of the workouts so you won't really get any sort of glimpse at Kemba, Knight or Kyrie outside of measurements, Williams isn't doing any workouts as far as I know and so on. The only thngs that are worthwhile to find out about the combine are the athletic testing results, the measurements and the interviews. I couldn't care less about anything else now, considering how lackluster the drills are.

Nice pass by Wade to "Queen" James for the easy layup off of the backdoor cut. Late, late call on the Bosh jump shot, but a good call regardless. Bosh did get hit on that shot, even though it was the non shooting arm that was hit.

Because technically he did measure out as 6'10? I honestly have no idea, but according to everything I have heard/read he was close to 6'11 when they measured him at the Hoops Summit last season, and I believe that considering pictures of him that I have seen back that up reasonably well. Does it really matter who is listed as the center or the power forward in a Biyombo and Love duo? Either way they are vastly undersized and would be at a disadvantage on the defensive end of the floor, as well as the offensive end considering neither one of them are much of a threat down low considering Love is more of a jump shooter and only scores in the paint off of put backs and offensive rebounds. Just to make it clear, I don't think a Kanter/Love pairing is very appealing, either. The only center prospect in this draft that I think would mesh well with Rose, at least in terms of a stylistic/size standpoint is Jonas Valanciunas, but he is a huge project (much like Biyombo) and that, in addition to him being at least 2-3 years away from coming to the NBA makes picking him a terrible decision from a Wolves standpoint.

Kanter measured just under 6'11 at the Hoops Summit last season as a 17 year old. I don't think it is too far fetched to think that he could've grown to a legit 7 feet in the past year. Even if he didn't grow an inch, I wouldn't say that in this day and age that a near 6'11, 260 pound center is undersized. He is lacking in athleticism, that is for sure, but I wouldn't say that he is undersized unless those measurements from the Hoops Summit last year were inflated or something. Besides, if a Kanter/Love front court is undersized, what would you classify as a Biyombo/Love front court? Biyombo is like 6'9 and I don't care how long he is, how ridiculous his wing span is and how athletic he is, but that is an undersized center. I doubt he actually plays center in the NBA anyways considering his height. You have to be a special kind of player to actually make a bonafide impact at center if you are 6'9 at best and Biyombo certainly isn't a Ben Wallace type of defender.

Well, it was one of the most efficient games in NBA history. 48 points on something like a 94 TS%? That is absolutely absurd. PS: Dirk rocks. http://i53.tinypic.com/2mfdvsg.gif

Never thought I would say this, but I actually agree with David Kahn. Call me bitter or whatever you want, but it is just way too convinent that the Cavs move up with the Clippers pick, which has a 2.8% chance of getting the first pick, instead of their own which just so happens to give them two picks in the top 4. If the Cavs moved up with their own pick I wouldn't be skeptical at all, but this played out way too nicely for the Cavs.

And Durant didn't get ticky tack fouls? Chandler is straight up in the air, Durant launches himself into Chandler and draws the foul. Durant flails his arms wildy and falls down, Terry gets called for a foul even though he didn't even make any contact with Durant at all. Both stars have gotten weak calls all night, so why only single out Dirk?

That shot by Dirk was just ridiculous. Chandler with some excellent hustle to not only prevent an easy two on the defensive end, but also to manufacture a point on the offensive end by simply out working everybody else on the floor.

Gotta love Jonsey's spelling of "Valanciunas".

And he gets applauded for it, yet a guy like Ginobili does the same thing and he gets ridiculed for flopping.

The problem I have with that is do you honestly think that the Cavs and Wolves were the two worst teams in the league this season? I can maybe get on board with thinking that the Wolves were legitimately the worst team in the league, but there is no way in hell somebody can convince me that the Cavs were the 2nd worst team in the league this season. Their play this year was the most disgraceful form of tanking that I have happened to witness. There is no way in hell that team was bad enough to lose nearly 20 straight games and go something like 12-54 after the first month or so of the season. If there was no lottery process at the end of the season, you would see teams like Cleveland go 0-82 throughout the year. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm not serious about them not winning a single game, but Dan Giblert would certainly have no problems doing something like that considering how badly they tanked this season and what they did in 03 for LeBron.

Better question. How the hell does a professional basketball player shoot 36% from the free throw line|?