NBA Draft

2015 NBA Draft: Ranking the Small Forwards

June 24, 2015 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

The 2015 Small Forward crop is a top heavy bunch. Where the PFs are a group of 12 prospects that could go either way, the SFs have a wide gulf between the likely stars and the others. After Winslow, Hezonja, Johnson and Oubre the pickings get really slim. I just can’t find more than a few SF prospects outside of the ones we all know about who are even worth mentioning. But the young guys are a very impressive bunch. If players like Anderson, Tokoto and Dekker step up their games in the pros, … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: Ranking the Small Forwards

2015 NBA Draft: Ranking the Power Forwards

June 23, 2015 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

The 2015 PF class is one that could go either way. There are no sure fire stars in this group and overall it could be mediocre or worse. There is a lot of good, raw talent though that could make this a pretty impressive class. The most intriguing players are freshmen and sophomores. There are several young PFs in this draft with intriguing upside, but none that look like locks for stardom. There are some interesting upperclassmen too. One thing to know about PFs is shooting the 3 is going to … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: Ranking the Power Forwards

NBA Draft 2015: The Young PFs

June 17, 2015 by Ed Weiland Leave a Comment

I like the 2015 draft. I feel it has the potential to be historic in terms of the talent that comes into the league. One position where the talent is ordinary is PF. There are no surefire stars at PF in the 2015 draft. Kristaps Porzingis is apparently wowing ‘em in workouts and interviews, but I have my reservations about him. The PFs who intrigue me are 4 youngsters, 2 freshmen and 2 sophomores. The statistical benchmarks I look for in NCAA PFs are .580 2-point percentage, 18.0 P40, 10.0 … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2015: The Young PFs

2015 NBA Draft: The Young SFs

June 15, 2015 by Ed Weiland 1 Comment

There are many reasons the 2015 draft will be one of the deepest in years. The bigs and the PGs are both deep. One of the most intriguing group of players is the young SFs. I already profiled Justise Winslow and Mario Hezonja in earlier pieces. Here I look at what I would say are the next tier of SFs, Stanley Johnson and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson of Arizona and Kelly Oubre of Kansas. All are young and talented, but have some work to do on their games. With the SFs I look at a lot of numbers, … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: The Young SFs

2015 NBA Draft: The Freshmen Centers

June 12, 2015 by Ed Weiland 1 Comment

The role of the center is in decline in today’s NBA. With analytics valuing the 3-pointer over back-to-the-basket offense the best teams are filling their center rotations with defensive-minded rim-protectors and stretch 5s whose range can pull the opponent’s rim protector away from the rim. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. It is probably correct. It is also possible there’s a shortage of elite centers. This table shows how the center position has changed in this decade. It shows the … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: The Freshmen Centers

2015 NBA Draft: Top 2 PGs Mudiay and Russell

June 5, 2015 by Ed Weiland 2 Comments

There are some excellent PG prospects in the 2015 draft. The best are a couple of 19 year-olds, one who played college ball and one who went overseas. Those are the two I’m going to look at here, D’Angelo Russell of Ohio State and Emmanuel Mudiay who played his post-prep ball in China. First a look at their pace adjusted numbers: PG Prospects 2PP 3PP P40 A40 S40 RSB40 A/TO Emmanuel Mudiay 514 342 19.4 6.4 1.7 8.5 1.8 D'Angelo … [Read more...] about 2015 NBA Draft: Top 2 PGs Mudiay and Russell