Transactions 4/18-7/6 (Coaching Edition)

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Atlanta Hawks 5/28       Named Mike Budenholzer Larry Drew didn’t actually do anything wrong that merited him losing this job.  The Hawks had a little talent and not much depth and played accordingly.  The Hawks apparently decided that the decent team of the past six years was over and it is time to rebuild.   It’s not clear if the Hawks will be terrible without Josh Smith.   A core of Al Horford and a free agent or two to be named later is not an awful team (or at least not bad enough to … [Read more...] about Transactions 4/18-7/6 (Coaching Edition)

An Early Look at Wiggins, Parker and other Top Freshmen

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The 2014 draft class is already being called one of the strongest in years. We’ll see on whether that becomes the case, but it seems promising. The two most talked about players have been SFs Andrew Wiggins and Jabari Parker. In December of last year Jabari Parker landed on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the caption, “The Best High School Basketball Player Since LeBron James is Jabari Parker.” That was some heady praise, but Parker quickly became yesterday’s news when Andrew Wiggins … [Read more...] about An Early Look at Wiggins, Parker and other Top Freshmen

2013 Draft Grades

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This may have been the most entertaining draft ever. There was drama, plot twists, comedy and surprises. We got David Stern basking in the glory of his 30 years as the best commissioner in sports. We got the entertaining ESPN crew actually giving some critical analysis. We got Shane Battier auditioning for his post-playing career. That was fun. My MO is to grade on a curve with 3 As, 6 Bs, 12 Cs, 6 Ds and 3 Fs. I try to focus on what exactly was gained by the first round pick in the draft, … [Read more...] about 2013 Draft Grades

NBA Draft 2013: Top 60

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Here’s my top 60 on the morning of the draft. The top 3 stand out above the rest. I believe all 3 will have a big impact. The next 5 are a mix of players who are likely solid pros and high upside players with a little more risk than the top 3. Next are 4 centers with upside and high potential for turning out ordinary or worse. After that there are a lot of decent prospects with red flags and question marks. I suspect many of them will go on to have long, productive NBA careers, but more will … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Top 60

NBA Draft 2013: Centers

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The centers are a varied group this year. There are a lot of draftworthy prospects, most of them starting in round 2. There are also a lot of potential specialists. There are stretch 5s, shot blockers, rebounders and youngsters with upside.  A good number of these guys are older than the typical prospect. My feeling is that in 10 years when we look back on the 2013 draft one of the stories will be how many of these players went on to decent NBA careers. My advice to any team drafting in round … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Centers

NBA Draft 2013: Power Forwards

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This is a very weak group of PFs this year. Probably the only group that lives down to the ridiculous “worst draft ever” assessments we’re hearing about 2013. I did write ups on the two best prospects, Cody Zeller and Tony Mitchell. The rest I put in groups without much comment, because there isn’t much to add other than all are marginal prospects who are worth a look, but probably not a draft pick. There were no foreign PFs who looked worthy of a mention. The PF benchmarks I look for are 2PP … [Read more...] about NBA Draft 2013: Power Forwards

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