2011 Draft Rumors & Discussion

[Apollo]

Man what is nbadraft.net smoking? Do they know something everyone else doesn't? They've got Kemba going at #13 now but brouight Kanter back to #4 after his brief respite at the #1. I don't even know why I check that site.

I think DraftExpress.com is by far more respected. I always go to DraftExpress.com for my primary source of information and then NBAdraft.net is an after thought. Kemba has been doing well in workouts based on what I've read and so I don't know why anyone would have him at #13.

[Employee]

I think DraftExpress.com is by far more respected. I always go to DraftExpress.com for my primary source of information and then NBAdraft.net is an after thought. Kemba has been doing well in workouts based on what I've read and so I don't know why anyone would have him at #13.

Yeah me too. Following the guys at DraftExpress on twitter you know that's their full-time job and are constantly traveling around the world looking at prospects.

I know he gets a lot of slack but I also think Chad Ford does have some merit (even though I don't agree with him right now). I've seen DraftExpress praise Ford on how well connected he is. Which can also sometimes be a problem. A lot of GM's, scouts, and especially agents try to use him because of how much leverage he has working for ESPN. Having to decipher through all that bull would be pretty daunting.

[dballa21]

I think DraftExpress.com is by far more respected. I always go to DraftExpress.com for my primary source of information and then NBAdraft.net is an after thought. Kemba has been doing well in workouts based on what I've read and so I don't know why anyone would have him at #13.

Even David Alrdridge of nba.com apologized for even thinking about Kemba slipping that far, and raised him up to the raptors at 5. There is no way he falls below 8, and if the raps pass on him, I'll be pissed.

[grindhouse]

if kemba dropped to #13 I would be surprised jameer nelson dropped to 20th after a amazing season

[Apollo]

if kemba dropped to #13 I would be surprised jameer nelson dropped to 20th after a amazing season

Good point about Jameer. He did drop and I remember people saying the Magic got a total steal. Meanwhile the younger Telfair, with much more "upside", got drafted seven spots higher and we know what's happened since then. "Upside" is fools gold as much as it's real gold.

Rolling the dice on "upside" can mean the difference between Jameer Nelson and Sabastian Telfair.

[Quixotic]

Upside is usually a nicer word for lacking.

[Raptorsss]

I see Kemba being drafted at #7 by the Kings.

[ceez]

steve kyler is saying kemba and burks will probably freefall on draft night. don't really buy it, though.

[octothorp]

I don't see it in either case. One of the key things to a guy falling is typically a number of similar players at the same level as him. Davis is a great example of this: he fell in part because of question-marks, but also because there were so many big-men at a similar level. GMs thought that guys like Cousins, Udoh, and Monroe were similar players with fewer questionmarks. With Kemba, he's clearly the third-best PG in the draft. Nobody's going to be taking Fredette or D. Morris over him. Similarly, Burks is the undisputed top SG in the draft. That really limits how much a player is going to drop. And in both cases, there are teams that have specific needs for their talents and would be willing to trade up to grab those guys.

[HuskyRaptor]

unless knight or someone projected to be in the top 4 falls to us, we're going to have leonard or kemba in a raptors jersey next year

[Apollo]

Empty challenge from Knight

Big workout for both Knight & Jazz today RT @tribjazz: Brandon Knight: "The guy I'm trying to work out against is Kyrie Irving."

Source: Twitter/ @chadfordinsider

Translation: "I will only workout against a guy that I have no pressure to best and who probably isn't giving a workout to anyone who is interested in me. Hopefully this helps kill the assumption that I'm scared to face Kemba and Jimmer as this is the path where I don't actually have to do anything."

[HuskyRaptor]

screw utah! why do they need brandon knight anyways?

[Chr1s1anL]

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/pos...ight-vs-walker

Kemba Walker might be the most polished collegiate player in this year's NBA draft. He won the 2011 NCAA title with Connecticut, he finished fourth in Division I scoring (23.5 points per game) and won numerous individual awards -- All-American, Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four and Big East Tournament, Cousy Award -- and he had his number retired at UConn before he even declared for the draft.

Brandon Knight, the next in the line of one-and-done John Calipari-coached guards, was a first-team All-SEC player and set Kentucky freshman records for scoring and 3-point shooting.

Which point guard would you choose?

One of the many questions that key NBA decision-makers will face in the draft (June 23 on ESPN, 7 ET) is how to measure the experience of Walker, a 21-year-old junior, against the potential of Knight, a 19-year-old freshman.

To help us, let's use one of the key metrics for evaluating point-guard prospects: pure point rating (PPR), which calculates assists and turnovers into a single number projection of how a particular player will fare as a distributor in the NBA. The average PPR of all current NBA starters while they were in college is 1.2.

Walker had a 1.5 PPR in college. It also took him only 18 minutes per game to get a steal or block and he was able to score inside. His upside is the same or slightly better than Knight's, but he is definitely a safer pick -- his chance of failing is less than one out of 10. There are no red flags on Walker, making him a one-out-of-three shot of becoming a good player at the next level.

Knight, meanwhile, has a one-in-four chance of being good, but the numbers suggest that his chances of success ride heavily on his shooting ability, not his passing. Knight had a minus-1.4 PPR in college, which is extremely low for a point guard -- lower, in fact, than any NBA starting point guard’s college PPR except for Stephen Curry, who did not play point guard until his third and final year at Davidson.

Knight’s youth and specific metrics on steals and rebounds also raise red flags. In short, studies show that point guards with his characteristics don't live up to first-round expectations. Knight has about a one-in-three chance at failing -- he is an NBA player, but he is a poor risk for a lottery team.

Other guys have succeeded with such a low PPR; for example, Gilbert Arenas and Jerryd Bayless are point guards who are better as shooters than distributors. But it takes more than 40 minutes for Knight to get a steal or block, far more than either of these guys. And while his shooting is probably good enough to keep him around, Knight's defense could prove to be a problem, too.

After looking at advanced metrics it seems clear that Walker, whose Huskies beat Knight's Wildcats twice last season, wins again.

[RaptorsFan4Life]

[JoePanini]

Do you have any videos of the workouts?