"You Gotta Love It Baby" Official Jazz thread

[MartyFunkhouser]

I read something that said he's Brandon Roy before the jumpshot. A lot of the description in that article seems to match the comparison.

I'm a big fan of Brandon Roy, but when did he ever have a jump shot?

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

WARP projections are out...headed up by one Mr. Smart.

1) Smart
2) Capela
3) Nurkic
4) Exum
5) Adams
6) Embiid
7) Parker
8) Vonleh
9) Hairston
10) Ennis
19) Wiggins

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft...s?refresh=true

[Jacob]

Exum and Smart are tied at #4 on my secret top 10 list. I don't know how to break it down after that. I liked the very little I saw from Vonleh, but not enough to know anything, really. Same for Exum. Parker is still #1 because he is the only top tier alpha dog scorer.

If Randle slips to #10 like people are saying is possible, then Philadelphia is going to have one hell of a draft night.

[MarkGrace]

But GA wasn't a top 5 pick. also, he was pretty bad last year. It still remains to be seen if he will be any good.

He wasn't awesome last year, but based on what he showed plus his potential given that he was one of the youngest players in the league, he would have been worth a top 5 pick relative to his class. I'd bet someone takes him top 5 now in a redraft. At least I can't name 5 guys right now that I'm certain will be better. That was the point of the next line after the one you bolded. If someone suggested last year that he should go top 5, people would have made all the same arguments you want to make against Exum (and did), but in the end he would have been worth it and I'm sure there are several teams that regret taking the guy they did instead of him. Exum's situation also isn't a lot different than Kanter and there wasn't much hesitation to take him in the top 5. I also think he will be worth it relative to his own class.

[smokymountainrain]

He wasn't awesome last year, but based on what he showed plus his potential given that he was one of the youngest players in the league, he would have been worth a top 5 pick relative to his class. I'd bet someone takes him top 5 now in a redraft. At least I can't name 5 guys right now that I'm certain will be better. That was the point of the next line after the one you bolded. If someone suggested last year that he should go top 5, people would have made all the same arguments you want to make against Exum (and did), but in the end he would have been worth it and I'm sure there are several teams that regret taking the guy they did instead of him. Exum's situation also isn't a lot different than Kanter and there wasn't much hesitation to take him in the top 5. I also think he will be worth it relative to his own class.

You could say that about any number of low draft picks over the years. It doesn't change the fact that guys like GA and Exum, from a risk/reward standpoint, simply shouldn't be top 5 picks. There is a reason GA went #15 in one of the worst drafts in NBA history.

I disagree that GA would be a top 5 pick this year, but at least now we do have a full season of real games against top competition with which to judge him, so a top 5 pick could be justified depending on how good you think he was.

In regard to Kanter, at least he dominated when he played against HS kids. Exum was mediocre against HS kids.

[Jacob]

Exum was mediocre against HS kids.

I haven't researched Exum's stats, so I'm confused why you say he we medicre against HS kids. He was the best player in the world in his age group, which included Smart, who was older, in the U19 tournament. Did he play HS basketball in Australia this year?

[MarkGrace]

You could say that about any number of low draft picks over the years. It doesn't change the fact that guys like GA and Exum, from a risk/reward standpoint, simply shouldn't be top 5 picks. There is a reason GA went #15 in one of the worst drafts in NBA history.

If they end up being one of the top 5 players from their class, in hindsight they were worth a top 5 pick. I don't think there's much to it than that. At this point nobody cares where GA went, they care what they got with the pick. There was a reason Anthony Bennett was a projected top 3-5 pick, and how did that work out? And the draft is all a measure of risk-reward, so I'm not even sure what that's supposed to mean.

I disagree that GA would be a top 5 pick this year, but at least now we do have a full season of real games against top competition with which to judge him, so a top 5 pick could be justified depending on how good you think he was.

Not a top 5 pick this year, a top 5 pick in a redraft of his own class.

In regard to Kanter, at least he dominated when he played against HS kids. Exum was mediocre against HS kids.

I remember there being very little information about Kanter's HS career. Could be wrong, but doesn't seem like there was much. His stock was based primarily on some really good showings in international exhibition tournaments, just like Exum, and that was about it. But this is just getting more into the silly tit for tat of distinguishing facts that don't seem particularly noteworthy. Bottom line, as I said before, is you could go round and around all day on guys who made it and guys who didn't on some loosely based set of facts.

[MarkGrace]

I haven't researched Exum's stats, so I'm confused why you say he we medicre against HS kids. He was the best player in the world in his age group, which included Smart, who was older, in the U19 tournament. Did he play HS basketball in Australia this year?

Yeah, played HS in Oz.

[cougjunkie]

Yeah, played HS in Oz.

I thought Exum sat this entire year out. He just trained for the draft and didn't play at all this year.

[MarkGrace]

I thought Exum sat this entire year out. He just trained for the draft and didn't play at all this year.

Yeah, i don't know. I seem to remember reading that he played but the season finishes much earlier than here, and instead of potentially coming over for college he decided to just start prepping for the draft.

[MarkGrace]

I'm a big fan of Brandon Roy, but when did he ever have a jump shot?

His 3pt% at UW in sequence:

10%
22.2%
35%
40.2%

Based on that I would say sometime around his junior year is when he started having a reasonable jumpshot. 3pt% obviously doesn't account for all of jumpshooting, but it's easy enough short hand. I'm not saying he ever became a lights out shooter, just that he learned to shoot it some versus not being able to much at all. I don't recall his 3pt shooting being amazing in the NBA, but I don't remember it being particularly bad either. He also always seemed pretty solid from midrange.

[smokymountainrain]

I haven't researched Exum's stats, so I'm confused why you say he we medicre against HS kids. He was the best player in the world in his age group, which included Smart, who was older, in the U19 tournament. Did he play HS basketball in Australia this year?

His most extensive basketball was in the U19 tournament last summer. He averaged 18, 4 and 4 on 44% FGs and 33% 3pt FGs.

What makes you think he was the best player in the world in his age group?

[Jacob]

His most extensive basketball was in the U19 tournament last summer. He averaged 18, 4 and 4 on 44% FGs and 33% 3pt FGs.

What makes you think he was the best player in the world in his age group?

That's what everyone who watched it seemed to say. Maybe its just Chad Ford and a few others. Here's DX's note after their video of him VS Smart in that tourney:

Note: Exum averaged 25.5 points and 4.8 assists in the next four games after his encounter with Team USA, almost single handedly willing his team to the semi-finals and an eventual fourth place finish. These were essentially the last competitive games Exum played in before his eventual NBA debut next season, and thus a substantial part of his evaluation as a NBA prospect.

Looks like Aaron Gordon was the MVP of the tourney (USA won) and Exum was part of the All tourney team:

Joining Gordon on the All-Tournament Team were his USA team-mate Jahlil Okafor, Serbia's Vasilje Micic, Dante Exum of Australia and Croatia's Dario Saric.

Maybe I just heard one guy say he was the best and extrapolated too much.

[Jacob]

Remember how Favors was not that impressive of a college player? Thought I'd compare his stats with Vonleh:

Vonleh: 6'8"; 7'4.25" wingspan; 31" and 37" verticals
Favors: 6'8.75"; 7'4" wingspan; 31.5" and 35" verticals

Per 40 minutes as freshman:
Vonleh: 17 points; 13.6 rebs; 2.1 bloks; 0.9 assists; 6.8 FTA; 22.2PER
Favors: 18.1; 12.3; 3.0; 1.0; 1.5; 5.8; 24.5 PER

It probably doesn't give us any real insight. I happened to look up Lamarcus Aldrigde as well. His college stats were slightly less impressive than the two others, and his stats didn't change at all from freshman to sophomore year. He also didn't play much as a freshman.

[smokymountainrain]

Apparently Marcus Smart has turned the Jazz down several times to come in for a workout.

Perrin references the fact that Smart had a tweet which was later deleted saying the Jazz weren't interested. Perrin states that the team has done substantial work on Smart and are interested in him at No.5. When asked whether they plan to have him in for a workout, Perrin says "I've talked to his agent four times trying to get Marcus in," indicating they tried and were unsuccessful. "Whatever the reason that they don't want Marcus to come in, Perrin said,"that's on them."

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-...k-out-for-them