This being a relatively new category of prospects, I don’t have the history to draw on that I do with the 5 traditional positions. While I could give the combo standards to pass, like the 7 RSB40 for SGs, the best thing for now might be to look at how well they do the things that are most important. To me that would be showing the ability to play PG in a pinch, good scoring ability and strong defense. While his numbers were pretty awful overall for a guard prospect last year, Daniel … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2007: Combo Guards

For the PGs the important standards seem to be as follows: A FG pct. of .450, 18.0 P40, 5.0 A40 and 6.5 RSB40. Unlike SGs, it seems that the better a PG does in each one of these categories, the better he plays as a pro. Of particular importance seems to be a high number of assists. The 5.0 A40 number I tossed up there is more of a minimum. The best pro PGs racked up at least 7 assists per 40 minutes in college. Scoring isn’t as important as it is for the other positions, but scoring … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2007: Point Guards

One thing I found looking at past SGs is that it’s more important for them to reach certain levels of performance in a number of stats rather than excel in one or two particular areas. Specifically there are four numbers that seem to be important for SG prospects to reach: A FG pct. of at least .420, a P40 of 20, an A/TO of at least 0.8 and a combined rebounds, steals and blocks per 40 minutes of at least 7. While it’s great if the player excels in any one of these four areas, it’s … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2007: Shooting Guards

Of all the positions, the SFs have been hardest for me to get a handle on. With the other 4, I can point to certain statistics or a combination of statistics that seem to be a pretty good predictor of success. With SFs, that just isn’t there. The reason is because there are two types of SFs out there. There’s the 2.5, who is more guard-like. This player can slide into the backcourt as either a point forward or a SG in a big lineup. Paul Pierce and Richard Jefferson are examples of … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2007: Small Forwards

With the PFs, rating them turns out to be fairly simple. Or so it seems according to recent history. There are 4 categories that seem to be important: FG pct., points per 40 minutes, rebounds per 40 minutes and the sum of steals and blocks per 40 minutes. I would say that rebounds and FG pct. are probably most important, but the rospect can’t be weak in any one area. It’s also nice of they’re over 6’8”, or at least have real long arms, and play in a strong conference. As is the case … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2007: Power Forwards

A few months ago, as the college season was just getting revved up, I pondered the idea of whether or not the 2007 draft had a chance to become the greatest center draft ever. At the time there were seven to eight centers looking like solid pros while destroying non-conference schedules. Then the conference season started and these monsters, except for Greg Oden and Roy Hibbert, suddenly looked more human and rather ordinary.  Then Hibbert decided to head back to Georgetown and that … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2007: Centers