Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

[DGPR]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

Tyreke Evans with 33 points in Memphis' loss last night, to go along with 4 assists, 5 rebounds, and two steals. I didn't see the game but I am disappointed that Memphis lost. What are the chances Evans bolts for the draft this year?

[Doddage]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

Pretty high, I'd say. If the league didn't make the college rule, then he'd have declared for the draft coming out of high school.

I've said it before and I will again, Evans is a hell of a player and I'd love to have him on the team. Unfortunately, I don't see if the Pacers would make room for him with Rush and Granger as the apparent owners of the starting wing positions in the future.

[croz24]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

Pretty high, I'd say. If the league didn't make the college rule, then he'd have declared for the draft coming out of high school.

I've said it before and I will again, Evans is a hell of a player and I'd love to have him on the team. Unfortunately, I don't see if the Pacers would make room for him with Rush and Granger as the apparent owners of the starting wing positions in the future.

thedoddage has been all about evans for well over a year now. and it's pretty clear why. evans and derozan are my two guys at the pacers' slot. unfortunately, bird will deem neither of them "nba ready" and draft budinger instead.

[Jonathan]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

thedoddage has been all about evans for well over a year now. and it's pretty clear why. evans and derozan are my two guys at the pacers' slot. unfortunately, bird will deem neither of them "nba ready" and draft budinger instead.

No way Bird will draft a wing player this year. I believe he does have a plan for this franchise and hopefully it is going to work out and get the Pacers in the playoffs in 2010. I think he is looking to draft a shot blocker on Defense.

The longer you stay in college the more holes these "experts" find in your game. Keep in mind Budinger was projected as a top 5 pick even before he played a single collegiate game. I remember reading an expert writing about Chase being an U.S. Olympic voleyball hopeful. Croz if you laid Jessica Albia you would complain it was not Megan Fox. Criticism is your fortay!

[Infinite MAN_force]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

A couple of the draft sites make references to potential off court issues with T'Will. Does anyone know anything about that?

[CableKC]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

oh god please we dont need thebeet, hibbert is in my eyes better and will become better than him

I sort of disagree....we desperately need a Player that can deter players from penetrating our Frontline....but unless Roy can become that deterrent ( which I still hope he can be )....we need a shotblocking presense like Thabeet.

I'll defer to most everyone's opinion that Thabeet is ( at worst ) a carbon copy of DeSagana Diop......but at the 9th to 11th pick......IF he was available I wouldn't be disppointed at picking him up cuz I feel that he does fill a need for us....having a Frontcourt player that actually block shots and rebound.

[CableKC]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

No way Bird will draft a wing player this year. I believe he does have a plan for this franchise and hopefully it is going to work out and get the Pacers in the playoffs in 2010. I think he is looking to draft a shot blocker on Defense.

The longer you stay in college the more holes these "experts" find in your game. Keep in mind Budinger was projected as a top 5 pick even before he played a single collegiate game. I remember reading an expert writing about Chase being an U.S. Olympic voleyball hopeful. Croz if you laid Jessica Albia you would complain it was not Megan Fox. Criticism is your fortay!

There is only one solid Shotblocker.....who probably won't be on the board when we pick. I agree that I would much rather draft a decent Low-Post scorer that can also block some shots at the PF spot....but there isn't one that I really think will be ready to contribute at the 9th to 11th spot.

But if the best player is a GF, I think that Bird would draft one....most notably an athletic GF that can play some solid perimeter defense ( we can never have enough of those players given our lineup ), isn't as dumb as a rock and ( hopefully ) a good Ballhandler ( a player like Terrence Williams as Seth has suggested ). At the very least, there is a need....no matter what we do to add another GF to the rotation. We're gonna have to add some depth at the PG/SG/SF rotation no matter what....whether it be through resigning Graham, Jack or Marquis....or through FA ( Quinton Ross ) or through the Draft. Personally, I'm hoping that some decent Player falls to the 2nd round and we not only spend the $$$ to buy a 2nd round pick to get him ( assuming that he doesn't fall all the way to the 50th pick )...but we actually spend the money to sign him to a contract.

[owl]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

I have a very short list of players I would like the Pacers to obtain.
Thabeet is high on my list and I would make every effort to get him within reason.
Blair also high on my list. I believe the Pacers need more defense and rebounding.
Look what has happened since the Pacers decided defense is good. Has Obrien
had a change of heart. T Williams would make my list mainly due to Naps promotion
of him. He plays team ball, rebounds and plays defense. I strongly believe this will
be Birds direction, defense and rebounding. Hibbert, Granger, Jack, Ford, Dunleavy,
and Troy are scorers. The Pacers don't need more of these, unless they are good
defender and rebounder also. The only guy in this draft who does both is Griffin.

[croz24]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

No way Bird will draft a wing player this year. I believe he does have a plan for this franchise and hopefully it is going to work out and get the Pacers in the playoffs in 2010. I think he is looking to draft a shot blocker on Defense.

The longer you stay in college the more holes these "experts" find in your game. Keep in mind Budinger was projected as a top 5 pick even before he played a single collegiate game. I remember reading an expert writing about Chase being an U.S. Olympic voleyball hopeful. Croz if you laid Jessica Albia you would complain it was not Megan Fox. Criticism is your fortay!

don't believe i critisized evans or derozan, two guys that i have been pimping. the fact is, this draft is incredibly weak, a weak draft means the few low post players around will all go top 5-8. if the pacers draft a pf/c it'll be a wasted pick, much like rush has been and will continue to be...and to be honest with you, i don't find alba or fox all that attractive. but i'll gladly take jessica biel.

[Infinite MAN_force]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

Well I just got my first real look at T'will and I am impressed. Looks like he is gonna finish with 14 pts, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists. There is no doubt he is the PG of this team. After watchiing him I feel Seth's description is actually more accurate than what I had been reading on most of the draft sites, I am all for drafting the guy as a PG. He runs the team, he has the court vision, excellent passer. He is big but he is very quick.

[Naptown_Seth]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

And again on T'Will. Look, I'd take Blair if he played the mental game that T'Will does. But he doesn't. Even today I heard ESPN Radio (forget who) saying explicitly what I said about Blair, but instead about all of Pittsburgh - they get lazy. They do. I didn't just catch one game on them, this happens a lot.

I did hear one interesting theory on Blair, that he backs off early now to avoid fouls so he can bring it in the 2nd half. Okay, that's better than lazy but it's effectively the same problem. Either way you have a guy that can't play hard all the time. I'd rather have it such that Blair could control his game enough to play hard without fouling instead.


I'm just so frustrated because there are a lot of interesting guys but they each end up coming up really short in some way. I want to like Blair or Thabeet but then they make me pull my hair out.


Side note - watching so much college ball makes me hate it that much more. So many awful mistakes and then going the other way the other team flops when it comes to making them pay for those mistakes. It's just sloppy all-around.

Watching Purdue have 2 guys both run at the same guy because of confusion and then watching UConn fail to take advantage of this huge mistake, over and over. It gets old. College ball is the dog's butt compared to the pros, I just don't see how anyone could think otherwise.

Maybe you like to see those spunky kids trying in spite of those errors, that I get. Hey, my favorite baseball is the 11-12 age group where they've maxed out the 60' basepath field and just have this unique competitiveness. But I don't think it's MLB quality ball.


PS - had to go eat with the family so I have L'ville/AZ on Tivo. Ironically we went to H&Izzy's and therefore were in the heart of the mess. Not exactly my idea of good timing but it wasn't my call. It was fun to see the massive crowds down there having a good time.

[Naptown_Seth]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

would you consider drafting him?

Yeah, but because of what Croz said, and what Shade referred to as well. If you can rely on Hibbert to be your on-man post defender and your decent low post offensive guy, then Thabeet gets just what he has in UConn - the freedom to roam. In that role he would hurt people and would help the Pacers.

But OTOH you can just see how the pros will put him in tough PnR, drag him to the arc with guys like Murphy and just blow his game up in so many ways that it seems like he'll struggle to impact a game other than the 2-3 blocks he'll get. That's a nice number but not if that's all you bring. Then it means you are only impacting 2-3 plays a game and that's not enough for a top 5 guy.


And it's a huge contradiction to say he'll be a top 6 pick but won't be expected to be a savior. Yeah, because Mayo, Westbook and Love were supposed to have minimal impact, just average joes.

thedoddage has been all about evans for well over a year now. and it's pretty clear why. evans and derozan are my two guys at the pacers' slot. unfortunately, bird will deem neither of them "nba ready" and draft budinger instead.

There was a time I could see this but I no longer think that's true. I think Evans will get looked at. So much depends on what they want to do with the PG situation, and of course Quis. (One thing about T'Will is that he does easily fill the Quis hole)

And Budinger is pretty good now. I hated him by the end of last season but he's turned it around totally.

I don't need "ready now" guys per se, I just think too often guys get a pass as "projects". But then you see a Mayo or Love and realize that even by that age you can really know the sport. And flip it back to Thabeet and realize that talent or not some guys just don't seem to learn the sport at all. Thabeet made nearly zero progress from last year.

Compare that to Griffin who somehow found even more to his already very strong game.


IMO there is a truth to the statement "You can't teach size", unfortunately I don't think it means what people intend it to mean. I think if you have a guy that just hasn't learned the sport he's not about to magically just because he's big, and a big with limited game is mostly worthless. Certainly as worthless as a small guy with no game.

[Plax80]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

I have a very short list of players I would like the Pacers to obtain.
Thabeet is high on my list and I would make every effort to get him within reason.
Blair also high on my list. I believe the Pacers need more defense and rebounding.
Look what has happened since the Pacers decided defense is good. Has Obrien
had a change of heart. T Williams would make my list mainly due to Naps promotion
of him. He plays team ball, rebounds and plays defense. I strongly believe this will
be Birds direction, defense and rebounding. Hibbert, Granger, Jack, Ford, Dunleavy,
and Troy are scorers. The Pacers don't need more of these, unless they are good
defender and rebounder also. The only guy in this draft who does both is Griffin.

I agree with most of this post until the end. Im intrigued by TWIll as well. I( think Thabeet as a chance to be another Olajuwan........which if you remember his early career at the U of Houston you see many similiarities to Thabeets game.

We won;t be in position to draft either he or Griffin who will be the first two picks unless we get real lucky and Stern won't let that happen.

I could care less about who is on our current roster right now other than Granger. Dun, Murph and Ford likely won't be here when we get good again so why build with them in mind. Brandon Rush is terrible so he may be out of the league in two years anyway.

[ReginaldWayne]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

I agree with most of this post until the end. Im intrigued by TWIll as well. I( think Thabeet as a chance to be another Olajuwan........which if you remember his early career at the U of Houston you see many similiarities to Thabeets game.

We won;t be in position to draft either he or Griffin who will be the first two picks unless we get real lucky and Stern won't let that happen.

I could care less about who is on our current roster right now other than Granger. Dun, Murph and Ford likely won't be here when we get good again so why build with them in mind. Brandon Rush is terrible so he may be out of the league in two years anyway.

what ?

[Placebo]

Re: Official 2009 NBA Draft Recruiting Center

This draft isn't terrible. Let's say we have the 10 th pick. Here are the 10 guys I like for Pacers:

1. Rubio
2. Griffin
3. Evans
4. Harden
5. Jennings
6. Derozan
7. Holiday
8. T-Will
9. Aldrich
10. Henderson

(Turner said he is going back, so he's out)
Realistically, Rubio, Griffin, Harden, Jennings, Henderson will be off the board... Evans could be gone too, but I'd LOVE to see him in blue-gold uniform. The kid is really really good. I rank him higher than Harden and I have a feeling that after the workouts Evans will climb up the draft boards. I wish he falls to us. He can help us tremendously...

Next guy Demar Derozan... Considering the overall mediocrity of this years draft, I think Derozan is worth the risk. We need talent more than anything and DD has the star potential. Let's just face it, guys like him attracts more crowd. Instead of a potential mediocre role player, why not go with a potential star?

If he declares, I would also be happy with Holiday because I believe he will be a very solid PG in the league. I think Holiday-Rush-Granger compliment each other very well.

I already wrote about how much I like T-Will's game and I think he'd be a good fit for us. After the workouts, the kid is lottery bound IMO.

If we go big, there are not many options but I could live with Aldrich if all the other guys that I mentioned are off the board (which is highly unlikely). Next season Hibbert and him could share the minutes at C. (ie Hibbert ~25mins Aldrich 14-18mins~)

I'm not a big fan of Henderson. Undersized and still limited offensively. But still I'd take him over the likes of Hill, Warren, Clark, Teague, Aminu, Curry, Lawson, etc...