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  • #31
    Another draft analysis of Goga from some website that covers the Hawks ( who I assume were scouting him ).

    NOTE - It maybe be easier to go to the link directly to view it since I can't figure out how to embed the Streamable links.

    https://www.peachtreehoops.com/2019/...-atlanta-hawks

    It’s been what you could call a crazy season for 19-year-old Georgian center Goga Bitadze.

    Having started out the season in the Adriatic League with Mega Bemax in Serbia — the same club as draft hopeful Adam Mokoka plays for — Bitadze received an opportunity to move to Buducnost in Montenegro mid-season on loan.

    While Buducnost also play in the Adriatic League — where Bitadze stood out all season long for both teams — they also play in EuroLeague and it was there that Bitadze put many on notice with solid performances, as he averaged 12 points on 55% shooting from the field on over seven attempts, 31% from three on one attempt, 71% from three on over five attempts, six rebounds, one assist and 2.3 blocks per game in an average of 24 minutes in 13 games, per RealGM.

    This strong showing in Europe’s elite competition earned Bitadze the honor of being named the EuroLeague’s Rising Star for 2018-19, an award shared with the likes of Danilo Gallinari, Nikola Mirotic (twice a winner), Bogdan Bogdanovic (also twice a winner) and Luka Doncic (...also twice a winner!).

    While Bitadze’s EuroLeague showing has only helped his draft stock, he enjoyed a fine season across all competitions averaging 14 points per game on 58% shooting from the field on eight field goal attempts, 39.5% from three on 1.5 attempts, 68% from the free throw line on six attempts per game, six rebounds, 1.9 offensive rebounds and 1.9 blocks in an average of 23 minutes per game across 48 games, 26 of which he started in all competitions with both Buducnost and Mega Bemax.

    Bitadze now plans to enter the NBA Draft, where he’s seen as a first round lock, and for some a lock for the lottery.

    When you look at mock drafts from major outlets, however, it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

    The Athletic have Bitadze 17th in their mock, Sports Illustrated have him just inside the lottery at 14th overall while ESPN have gone to the other end of the spectrum and have Bitadze at 26th overall.

    Bitadze is a very popular player amongst the internet/NBA Twitter and there’s definitely a lot to like.

    Starting with his physical tools, Bitadze is listed as 7’0 with a 7’2 wingspan and weighs nearly 250 pounds at age 19 (turning 20 in July). With the exception of a few matchups, Bitadze held a physical advantage over most opponents with his size and body, often proving himself to be a handful for defenders and I think this is reflective when you consider his offensive rebounding and his free throw attempts per game (which we’ll look at soon). I wouldn’t call Bitadze supremely athletic but he is certainly athletic and I think has more to tap into with his athleticism.

    Offensively, there’s already a lot that Bitadze has already tapped into.

    The offensive end is certainly the best aspect of Bitadze’s game right now and when you look at the numbers, they really are very impressive — 58% from the field, 40% from three, an effective field goal percentage of 62%, a true shooting of 66% and an average of 1.7 points per possession.

    Around the rim is where Bitadze is most effective — it just felt like every time he got there it was either a made basket or he drew free throws. Obviously, he missed every now and then but more often than not, there were points to be had in one way or another.

    Pick-and-roll seems to be a good place to start, it’s where Bitadze was certainly active.

    (Note: Bitadze wears number 11, and if you recognize a few familiar faces, such as Norris Cole, that Bitadze plays with, congratulations)

    Here, Bitadze sets the screen, rolls, receives the ball and attacks the driving lane hard and there’s no defense that’s going to prevent him dunking this ball:

    https://streamable.com/t/15nx8

    This time Bitadze slips the screen, drifts towards the rim, receives the ball and finishes at the rim with the layup:

    https://streamable.com/t/1cyr1

    Here, he receives the pass out of the pick-and-roll and finishes with a dunk at the rim:

    https://streamable.com/t/0djfg

    A bit of a travel but, hey, refs didn’t call it.

    It felt as though Bitadze drew the majority of his fouls and free throws in pick-and-roll situations.

    Some side pick-and-roll action this time as Bitadze spins out of the pick-and-roll, receives the ball, takes it towards the rim, uses his body, goes up and draws the foul and free throws, the ball rolling off the rim denying him the three-point play:

    https://streamable.com/t/ywbgk

    We’ll be looking at a few more instances I’m sure, but this is one area that Bitadze could improve on to take him to the next level — just a little more than you’d like, he wasn’t able to convert these opportunities and convert the play, to finish the play after the foul takes place. Being a 67% free throw shooter, he sometimes leaves some points at the line but finishing the play would help limit this, by reducing the free throw number from two to one. Sometimes maths is easy...

    But carrying on with the pick-and-roll/free throw stuff, Bitadze sets the screen, rolls, receives the ball and puts down a strong drive to get to the rim, drawing contact and free throws:

    https://streamable.com/t/998f7

    A bit of a quicker action this time as a quick exchange takes place between the ball-handler and Bitzade, who takes it strongly to the rim and draws free throws:

    https://streamable.com/t/sbicm

    Again, Bitadze sets the screen, rolls, receives the ball and takes it inside with intent, drawing the foul and free throws:

    https://streamable.com/t/4dot7

    Obviously success in pick-and-roll situations has as much to do with the roller as it does the ball-handler/the pass, and Bitadze was often the beneficiary of good, sometimes great, playmaking — pick-and-roll or otherwise — and Bitadze was able to just finish the job.

    Here, Bitadze receives the pocket-pass and he takes the ball to the rim, finishing despite a lot of contact:

    https://streamable.com/t/pkeyd

    Again, baseline, Bitadze catches and finishes at the rim despite the contact and draws the foul:

    https://streamable.com/t/ieeia

    On this possession, Bitadze receives the drop-off pass and has the simple task of dunking it home:

    https://streamable.com/t/wk19j

    This is a good example of comparison for Bitadze’s athleticism, which you could call inconsistent at times? If you were to look at just that clip, you wouldn’t think he was especially athletic.

    However, when you look at this play — where Bitadze trails the play and receives the pass — he explodes:

    https://streamable.com/t/jta1j

    Some transition stuff — you can get an idea for how he runs the floor — as Bitadze (at the top of the picture) is rewarded for running the floor as he is found for the oop:

    https://streamable.com/t/3tofb

    You don’t get to see him run on that play but you can get another dose of some athleticism.

    Same game, he runs the floor in transition off of a miss, receives the pass and finishes with the dunk:

    https://streamable.com/t/upqgb

    Though he is a very effective pick-and-roll player but Bitadze is able to do damage without the benefit of screens and platter set-ups from his teammates.

    In the post — where he is able to do some work and it’s arguably something he should probably do more of (and the counter-argument to that is that he often looked for the ball in the low-post but didn’t always get it) — Bitadze spins, fades and scores:

    https://streamable.com/t/1o88f

    Here, Bitadze hits his defender with a jab-step, gets to the rim and finishes despite the crowd:

    https://streamable.com/t/ggdh6

    On this play, Bitadze jostles for position, catches the ball down-low, spins and drives to the rim, powering his way to the bucket for the score:

    https://streamable.com/t/bcnx8

    This is a great example of Bitadze using his body/physicality to his advantage.

    Bitadze also used this advantage on the boards, grabbing nearly two offensive rebounds per game, and this — as you can imagine — led to second chance scoring.

    Off of the miss, Bitadze secures the offensive rebound and muscles his way to score:

    https://streamable.com/t/27ipx

    On this play, Bitadze somehow one-hands this offensive rebound and despite the crowd, muscles his way to score the second chance opportunity at the rim:

    https://streamable.com/t/1s57x

    This next play didn’t result in second chance points this time around but Bitadze’s activity here did lead to another possession out of basically nothing:

    https://streamable.com/t/px2f9

    As you can see, Bitadze can score in a variety of ways and it’s capped off with a three-point shot, shooting 40% from three on the season on 1.5 attempts — which is important, because though the percentage is good, Bitadze is not a volume three-point shooter.

    Instead of rolling after the pick-and-roll, Bitadze looms on the perimeter, receives the ball and hits the three:

    https://streamable.com/t/2b3xk

    Here’s a three I enjoyed as Bitadze trails the play, is found at the top of the perimeter and hits the three:

    https://streamable.com/t/cfy03

    Let’s move briefly onto some Bitadze passing stuff...

    There’s not a lot to say here, just some clips to show.

    He is capable of making the extra pass, doing so on this possession out of the pick-and-roll to an open teammate:

    https://streamable.com/t/vf9qp

    Here was a possession where Bitadze could easily chosen to take the mid-range shot but finds his teammate for three:

    https://streamable.com/t/2yhmh

    On this play, he makes a nice touch pass — the idea was good but it was deflected out of bounds:

    https://streamable.com/t/l8oig

    Not a ton to say here, Bitadze averages less than an assist per game, isn’t placed in the high-post to make passes
    to cutters etc. He can make a few passes, make the extra can be unselfish at times — it’s enough.

    Let’s move onto the defense, which the one polarizing aspect of Bitadze’s game.

    For all the ups he brings offensively, the general consensus is that the defense is where the stock begins to fall.

    I’m in two minds about this as a whole...

    It’s definitely fair to say that Bitadze’s defense is behind his offense but it’s hard to make a proper judgement on his defense because with Buducnost, they played in a 2-3 zone for the most part, which meant that when he was on the floor, Bitadze was often camped in the paint guarding no one unless they came to him and guarding the rim. This meant it was hard to get a true measure of Bitadze as a one-on-one defender.

    While he was parked in front of rim more often than not, he at least protected it well as he averaged 1.9 blocks per game.

    Again, less so in one-on-one situations and more so on drives where he’s there to snuff out shots either as the pick-and-roll defender or help defender.

    To open the second quarter in this game, Mega Bemax run a pick-and-roll action and not only is Bitadze able to prevent the ball-handler from making a layup, he’s also able to turn in time to block the shot of the roller who received the ball at the rim:

    https://streamable.com/t/v197s

    On the rotation, Bitadze contests the first attempt before blocking the second chance opportunity:

    https://streamable.com/t/fgd5s

    Again, Bitadze gets back to the roller blocks the shot, blocks it off of his opponent and out of bounds:

    https://streamable.com/t/caxiy

    If he isn’t blocking shots at the rim, Bitadze is certainly contesting them and altering them, such as this possession here:

    https://streamable.com/t/ooz1u

    You can debate the effective of the actual contest here but the shot itself was definitely altered by Bitadze’s presence.

    On this possession, Bitadze rotates over after the pass to the wing and forces a very wild shot near the rim which misses:

    https://streamable.com/t/9qjyr

    Here, Bitadze again deters a shot at the rim following the pick-and-roll:

    https://streamable.com/t/0ymc1

    And even if he’s not blocking or contesting shots, there’s no doubt that even simply his presence in the paint can have an effect, such as on this possession where the offensive player is put off by the presence of Bitadze:

    https://streamable.com/t/wfkqs

    You can understand why there would be hesitancy to drive with Bitadze is close proximity — his size and his length as well as his athleticism are more than enough for someone to think twice.

    This is such an instance, as his length literally closes off the driving lane:

    https://streamable.com/t/lm89b

    Bitadze contested decently to end that possession, and it’s something he decent at in general — his size and length certainly help him contest, both at his own position and occasionally on switches.

    Here on the pick-and-roll switch, he gets a good contest in to help force a miss:

    https://streamable.com/t/cx6rb

    On this play, Bitadze does a good job sticking with the switch before contesting well:

    https://streamable.com/t/qku46

    But don’t get too excited. While this is all good, it’s not always good.

    Here, Bitadze moves well initially but ends up being beaten on the switch this time:

    https://streamable.com/t/kftgr

    On this play, his length isn’t enough to prevent the score at the basket:

    https://streamable.com/t/9bwif

    There were just other times in general where Bitadze just kind of lumbered off-ball defensively — these didn’t really lead to baskets I saw but he just dragged around at times, which I still think is partly due to the zone meaning he is just planted in the middle, guarding an area more so than man.

    The other issue — and this is my main issue — is defensive discipline. He draws nearly four fouls a game and that’s with a limit of five fouls per game — it’s a problem. And these came just in every shape and size.

    On drives:

    https://streamable.com/t/9dzii

    At the rim:

    https://streamable.com/t/112te

    Going for an offensive rebound:

    https://streamable.com/t/l6bfm

    Etc. Etc. He just breathes fouls and this is a big problem.

    Let’s bring this home, and I’ll summarize the defensive stuff...

    Defensively, I don’t think Bitadze is as bad as advertised but I don’t think he’s stellar either. His rim protection is good, I don’t think that can really be denied but it there’s another element you could argue. You could make the argument that the fact he did play in that zone — and the being planted near the rim — actually helped him and his reputation a shot blocker, that it put him in positions to succeed and look better than maybe he actually is.

    The physical tools are great building blocks to work with defensively. Good size, good body, good length and good athleticism — there’s lots to work with for whatever team drafts him. As a help defender, he’s pretty decent — knows when to rotate and is usually effective. As a pick-and-roll defender, I like what I see but switches are an issue at times — as you can imagine when someone smaller goes to take a seven footer off of the dribble.

    As a one-on-one defender, I’d say it’s still inconclusive — the zone defense really adds an unknown element with Bitadze heading into the draft and leaves a giant question mark over his individual defense. The fouls are an issue, the discipline an issue and effort at times are also an issue. I think if you’re thinking about drafting him, you’ll just have to take the gamble on Bitadze defensively.

    Offensively, there’s so much to like. Good athlete, great body to carve out space, causes havoc on the boards, he can score both inside and outside and he’s so good around the rim in so many different situations and scenarios — and he’s only about to turn 20 years old. There’s a lot of upside here.

    For the Atlanta Hawks with the No. 8 and No. 10 overall picks... if they want to get ahead of the curve with Bitadze, they’re going to have to get in the action at 10. It could be a little too high to spend that pick but if they really like him and want him to be apart of their squad, that’s probably what it’s going to take. Sure, they could trade down but it’s risky but there’s surely going to be a team in the lottery who are going to be in on Bitadze — and why shouldn’t they be? He’s very talented with a ton of room to grow.

    Will it be ‘Go-go-Goga’ ringing from the 6th man section at State Farm Arena next season?

    Time will tell...
    I have a feeling that Rubio / Dipo / Aaron and Goga are gonna PnR the opposing Team to death. This kid is quick for his size, is built like a bulldozer and rolls to the basket hard. I'm gonna guess that he will have foul trouble in the NBA at first, but hopefully he will learn as he gets more experience.
    Last edited by CableKC; 06-21-2019, 03:06 AM.
    Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
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    • #32
      I'm pleased with the Goga pick. Not at all what I expected. But I watched his strengths video in another thread and was very impressed. He looks like a player. Very skilled, he'll be a better center than Domas. He has length and is still 19, maybe he'll grow into a 7 footer.

      I loved the Warren trade. He's a legit player. Plus we got the 32nd pick. I'd been hoping we'd buy a high second round pick. Getting one for free was awesome, plus it was higher than I thought we could buy.

      But trading the 32nd? How was there no player that could help us at 32? I admit the players I thought would be there had mostly disappeared. But KZ Okpala was still there. And I wanted him. He must not have impressed during his workout.

      We picked up 4 second round picks. Hard to get excited about that when there was no one this year we wanted with the 32nd. Unlikely any of those 2nd rounders will be as high as the 32nd.

      Brian Bowen on a 2-way? He was a 5-star recruit. A McDonald's All-American. He got his college career derailed by legal issues. Could he be another Roger Brown? I hope so! Welcome to the Mad Ants, I'll be rooting for him.

      Nothing like what I expected. But I'm happy. And optimistic.
      Last edited by Strummer; 06-21-2019, 03:33 AM.
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      • #33
        Based off of what KP said, we did what we should have done in past seasons. Pacers drafted who they think was the BPA regardless of position. Many so-called experts think that he could go in the early teens to the mid 20s. Looking at this from a BPA and what KP was saying about their scouting of Goga, I look at this as a medium risk / high reward pick. The kid is Young, has a lot of expertise playing against some experienced Euro talent and has a lot of upside. They only problem is him staying out of foul trouble and hitting his FT. After the whole Kawhi debacle, I am fine with picking BPA ( which the Pacers think they did ). Btw...This did fill a minor need. Pacers needed to fill whatever small hole that O'Quinn filled last season. If he is able too get 10 mpg for now, I will be fine with this draft pick.
        Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.
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        • #34
          Goga actually seems like a combination of Turner & Sabonis.
          Where Turner & Sabonis really excel (passing & shot-blocking) he isn't quite as good, but everything else he seems to be on par & could get a lot better.
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          • #35
            I think Goga will be a beast, we took the best available player. I also think it's a clear indicator that Sabonis is not part of the future plans of this franchise, and it's unfortunate that the staff at the FO still hasn't resolved this problem. If this were 1998, Sabonis would start at PF. But in 2020, the way the game is played right now, Sabonis is not a PF. We're going to have 3 young and talented guys playing the same spot.

            Warren trade? mixed bag, he came off a decent season, he actually has almost the exact same numbers as Bojan except he's younger and less clumsy. It's a fundamentally good trade but I don't think this is a trade that puts us over the top and remains consistent with the "low-risk, medium reward" type of moves we always pull off. If we don't make any additional big moves, we should expect another year of "good enough to make the playoffs, not good enough to contend". Still, I am not really sure we had better options out there, so I guess overall that's a positive.
            Originally posted by Piston Prince
            Bobcat fans telling us to cheer up = epic fail season
            "Josh Smith Re-building the city of Detroit one brick at a time"

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            • #36
              I like the pick, i conditionally kinda like Warren-pickup - especially as it was for free & he has a good value contract.

              But what we need now is a distributor/defender at the helm of point guard position. RUBIO OK, D-LO/KEMBA NO!

              Warren is a traffic cone in defense - we can not afford another one for our perimeter. Acquiring Warren (or giving him any major minutes anyway) will also demand a lot of rim protection from Myles/(Bitadze?) so we will not see Center-Sabo much. He either swims as a power forward or gets sign&traded next summer.


              So - going for a free agency we have now :

              ????, Holiday
              Oladipo, ????, Sumner
              Warren, McDermott
              Sabonis, Leaf, Alize
              Myles, Bitadze

              Alize & Sumner are unguaranteed contracts at this point.

              Roughly 71 million used for 10 players.



              How would I fill this?

              1) Let most free agents walk

              Thad - gone.
              Collison - gone.
              Kyle - gone.
              Wes - gone.
              Tyreke - banned.
              CoJo - too large a cap hold, spot in a team uncertain. Tough for me, but gone.
              Bogie - try to keep.


              2) A new point guard

              - I am ok with Rubio
              - I think we should forget about Brogdon. Milwaukee is working hard to open up cap space for retaining the core
              - I don't want a ball-dominating scorer. There is only one basketball in a game and that's way too little to share for f ex Kemba/Dipo/Warren -trio. None of them are off-the-ball players. No for D-Lo too... He ain't efficient and he is a defensive sieve.
              - despite the worrying injury history I really want Beverley. He is a winning player with an attitude. He is also much more willing & better shooter than Rubio. He could truly work off Dipo while not demanding ball much. Clips will want to retain him, but I would be ready to go "crazy" here. 2 years + a team option at 16 (upto even 20 if necessary) mil annually. Yes - indeed.


              3) Get SOME return for McDermott

              I don't think he has much value anywhere, but with f ex Milwaukee cutting costs, we could probably do McDermott for Jon Leuer + 2026 unprotected 1st-rounder. (that is the 1st pick they can trade).


              4) Use the rest of your cap space

              Minor signing in guard position for 3-4 million. (I actually love the idea of making us Indiana TJ's! TJ McConnell would be a great small-money pick-up)


              5) Re-sign Bogie with Early Bird Rights

              18 million / 2 years + a team option.


              6) Use MLE for a veteran stretch-4

              Anthony Tolliver



              Line-up :

              Beverley, Holiday, ???
              Oladipo, Sumner, ???
              Warren, Bogdanovic, Alize
              Sabonis, Bogdanovic, Leaf, Tolliver, Leuer
              Turner, Bitadze, Sabonis

              Starters + Bogdanovic (backing-up in both forward positions) all play 32 mins per game leaving less than 50 minutes for the rest. Holiday 22 minutes, Bitadze 15, Tolliver 10.

              Leaf/Sumner/Alize/Leuer/the 5th guard - court-time limited to emergencies & garbage time mostly.
              Last edited by PetPaima; 06-21-2019, 08:46 AM.
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              • #37
                Listening to the Pritchard press conference was enlightening to say the least. If you listened to the entire thing you can hear the Pacers overall philosophy about team building and depending on who you are and what you believe you either hated it or loved it. I can see BillS sitting shaking his head in agreement while I could see vnzla with gun to his head. His statement that you have to spread the money around and can't put all of your eggs in one basket so to speak is exactly the Indiana Pacers way. So while I saw Kevin Pritchard speaking I could hear Donnie Walsh talking. What he described is exactly how you build a winning culture and franchise and playoff team. What it did not describe was a championship level team.
                Some are okay with that others are not. It is what it is at this point.

                As to the drafts and trades and new two way player signings here are my quick thoughts.

                I have no idea who the hell this Coga Bitdaz is. That doesn't mean anything really, I have no idea who any of these players are other than I had actually heard of Zion williamson before. On the surface this is a curious pick. We have two centers already and we are so short at many other positions that it was a head scratcher. However then it hit me that if we don't sign Thad then this guy can play the Kyle O'Quinn role and be much cheaper than Kyle. I like Kyle and would have been okay keeping him but right now he is redundant. So if they start Domas with Myles then this draft makes sense. If he is nearly as good as he scouts out to be then it might even be an okay pickup going forward. Only time will tell. However if we re-sign Thad then barring a trade this was an idiotic draft and well we basically wasted the entire night because he traded away all of our second round picks. I really hated that 32 pick being traded. None of the future draft picks are going to be that high most likely. However i guess they are also trad-able assets that can be moved for something else going forward.

                Getting T.J. Warren and I guess now three future second round picks for cap space and money does alleviate some of my anxiety going forward that they were just going to run back the same exact team and sell it off as "if only victor hadn't been injured we would have been in the finals". It's not a championship move but it actually might be a move that moves the needle.

                That being said I will say this. I am going to wait to pass any form of judgement until we get into free agency. I do NOT want to see Wes Mathews or Thad Young on the team. I do not want to see both Cory Joseph or Darren Collison on the team, if we have to take back one because we can't get anyone else (although I fear Rubio is coming) to fill in the gap for Holiday then fine on a short term deal. But to be blunt I would rather not see either back.

                I have a feeling that my hopes of D. Russell are shot but I won't fret until I see us once again stock up on washed up veteran players who have no growth potential and will be played huge minutes because Nate will not play people who might make a single mistake.

                So I'll say my draft day grade is incomplete on the draft itself. The trade for T.J. Warren gets an A from me though.


                Basketball isn't played with computers, spreadsheets, and simulations. ChicagoJ 4/21/13
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                • #38
                  I am really starting to like the day we had, especially after having a deep dive into Bitadze as a player. There is a lot of comparatives to Nikola Vucevic & if he appears likely to hit that ceiling I would be all for moving Myles & not Domas in a trade. I'd probably be targetting a guy like Aaron Gordon in a 3-team trade to get Magic a wing scorer of their choice. Gordon reminds me Thad Young a little bit, but has more offensive upside - AG is a very good defender.
                  (Boston, Miami, Sacramento could all have interest with guys like Jaylen Brown, Josh Richardson & Buddy Hield as potential trade pieces)

                  I would still try lock-in Domas long-term as well, as our 6th man & primary facilitator/player in the 2nd unit. Imagine a team in 2020-21 when Vic will have had a chance to play & get a full healthy offseason in with:

                  C. Goga Bitadze - Could be a potential 17-18ppg 10rpg guy in his 2nd season.
                  PF. Aaron Gordon - Athletic 3 & D PF with some solid offensive game on a good contract.
                  SF. Bojan Bogdanovic - He can just keep being Bogie!!!
                  SG. Victor Oladipo - He said he wants to come back the best in the league, if he even comes back a top 15 player that'll be outstanding.
                  PG. Aaron Holiday - Should be ready to takes the reigns by year 3, nice scoring guard who is tenacious on D our own mini Bledsoe.

                  Still have Sabonis, Warren & maybe Rubio/Collison (whoever our stopgap veteran is) as core guys off the bench we would have one really solid squad in a position to compete.
                  Last edited by festar35; 06-21-2019, 06:55 AM.
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                  • #39
                    The Warren trade was great.

                    The draft day pick and moves? garbage, Pacers got another center in a league that doesn’t play them anymore, just get Kanter if you want a backup center so bad and call it a day.

                    And also if the plan is to play Domas/Myles together because you are stuck in 1980 at least don’t be stupid and get a power forward just in case this stupid experiment doesn’t work (Warren is not a PF).

                    But knowing Pritchard he is going all in with the stupid experiment that is guarantee to blow up on his face and then he is gonna have to make some desperate middle of the season trade for a power forward and might need to give up the second round picks they got last night to cover up for their stupid mistake
                    @WhatTheFFacts: Studies show that sarcasm enhances the ability of the human mind to solve complex problems!
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                    • #40
                      Looking at the highlight reels, the thought came to me. Did would’ve been a top 5 pick 20 years ago.

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                      • #41
                        I don’t feel especially good about the direction of the team at this time.

                        They need at least one more PG and a combo guard.
                        Need at least two SG.
                        Need at least one SF, probably two.
                        Need at least one more PF, probably two.

                        The cupboard is really bare. Allowing all these deals to expire rather than cash them in at the last deadline probably wasn’t the wisest decision. So many roster spots to fill.

                        I am extremely skeptical about KP bringing in a FA who dramatically improves the overall talent level.

                        I am definitively not part of the gloom and doom group on here, but the roster seems mismanaged. Team is worse today than a year ago.


                        Name-calling signature removed

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                        • #42
                          Goga will turn out to be one of the best value picks of this draft. I'd have actually picked Clarke or Grant W at 18 as they were both up but I'm extremely happy with Goga too. He was at 7 on my board (yes, I'm crazy high on Clarke and GWill, had them both top 5 haha).

                          Best center in this draft imho with a chance to become a top 10 center in the league. Very skilled. He's somewhat similar to Vuc but with actual positive defensive value. His offense is not quite there yet at Vuc's level of course but it will be close, he's clearly very capable on that end as well and has a good feel. He's also more mobile and athletic compared to Vuc. Worst case scenario, we have a skilled back up on the cheap for 4 years but I'm very positive that he's gonna be more than that.

                          I don't buy the Domas at PF stuff long term. I think there has to be a trade at one point. It's possible that we actually trade Myles. His trade value is higher than most think. Without knowing what we get back, I wouldn't like trading Myles in a vacuum but having Goga would certainly ease the pain.

                          The Warren trade was kind of a no brainer, he's got a relatively cheap contract and we needed some offense for sure. I'm hoping he can keep up his lights out shooting from 3. He is really bad on defense but I think we've got one of the best systems to offset that. I think he'll play some at 4.

                          Very glad we didn't pick Okpala at 32, he was one of the guys I just absolutely didn't get. Really good size and length, looks good at first glance then you dive deeper and see that he's got no clue about the game. I love the future second round picks, this was most certainly a subpar draft. Even if they'll be lower picks, they may turn out to carry better value than this year's 32.

                          I feel very iffy about signing Russell to a 25+ mil contract. I understand we're in dire need of his playmaking skills but I never liked him that much. Inefficient, doesn't defend, doesn't drive to the rim, doesn't earn free throws, issues with concentration etc.. Not a huge fan, especially at the money he's gonna get. Caris LeVert is clearly a better player to me.
                          uno, due, trezegol!
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                          • #43
                            I don't really get the clamoring for Rubio. This team needs shot creation and distance shooting, and you want Rubio?
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                            • #44
                              PREDICTION TIME!
                              Goga is going to beast in summer league. That first SL game where he posts a 17pts, 8reb, 3 3pts, and 5 blocks will make everyone here a fanboy, and he'll have a great pickNroll thing going with Holiday. People here will be raving about our second unit.... He will be a PD favorite sooner rather than later. He's used to playing against men and will not be intimidated by 19-21 year olds.

                              Sometime in November and due to minor injuries, the Pacers will, for one game, have a starting lineup of all white players. Stephen A. Smith will say it's racist. We will all say it's just circumstance but secretly wonder to ourselves if he is right.

                              By January there will be a PD faction on here loudly calling for the Pacers to trade Turner and give Goga his shot. Numerous threads about it will appear. The argument will be that the season is a lost season as Oladipo recovers, and the Turner trade will free up cap space and recover assets, setting us up for 2020-2021. Also, see prediction 1. Goga will be a fan favorite.

                              Pritchard turned some cash into a 3 second round picks and a 25-year old who has averaged nearly 20 points and 5 rebounds over the last two years. People who have been complaining that Pritchard wasn't buying draft picks will somehow find reasons to complain about this trade.
                              Danger Zone
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                              • #45
                                I think a lot of people consider Boba among the BPA available, but not the best fit here. I also wonder how many of the same people were flipping out over trading Kawai with DG and PG here.
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