Who's No. 2 on your board, Kevin?
Pelton: After Davis, the choices get brutally difficult. Of the three great candidates for the second spot, I'm going to take a player who went in the second round in 2012:
Draymond Green of the
Golden State Warriors. Hopefully, by this point, we've squelched any notion that Green is a product of the Warriors' system.
As his performance in Stephen Curry's absence last week proved again, Green's versatility would help any team win games. How many other players in the league can both defend centers and run an offense?
Right now, I think Green is one of the league's 10 best players. So while this might be the peak for Green, who recently turned 26, I'm not sure anyone in this class will reach that level.
Who do you like second, Chad?
Ford: Hard for me to vote against Green, though I disagree with you a bit about him not being a product of the Warriors' system.
He slid to the second round in part because he didn't tick off the boxes that most NBA scouting departments value. Green didn't have elite size or athleticism for his position. He didn't have any particular elite skills other than perhaps work ethic and basketball IQ. Even Golden State passed on him at No. 30 to draft
Festus Ezeli.
However, the way the Warriors played gave Green a chance to show what he could do. I don't know if he would've ever gotten a real chance on most NBA teams. Getting a chance and being put in a position where you can succeed is critical to virtually every player not named LeBron or Durant.
Fit can be everything and Green was the perfect fit for Golden State. He has since proven that his skill set is so potent that he could help any team. But I'm not sure he ever would've gotten the chance to show it on other teams.
This is a good time to point out to agents and draft prospects that they should be less obsessed with how high they go in the draft and more concerned about fit. Opportunity is everything in the NBA and Green has made the most of it.
I still doubt, if the 2012 NBA Draft were re-held today, that Green would go No. 2 ahead of
Andre Drummond or Lillard. The NBA is stubborn that way. But he would
deserve to go No. 2.
So who do you have next Kevin, the big guy or the little guy?
Pelton: I'm going with the guard. Over the past month, Lillard has carried the Blazers in a way I'm not certain Drummond will ever be able to do for his team.
That's not a knock on Drummond -- it's an indication of how good Lillard has become offensively.
Per Basketball Reference research, there are five players in the NBA who have used at least 30 percent of their team's plays with an above-average true shooting percentage and at least six assists per 36 minutes: Lillard, Curry,
James Harden, LeBron and
Russell Westbrook. That's impressive company.
Where do you side in this debate, Chad?
Ford: Well, this isn't turning into much of debate. I also have Lillard No. 3 for the same reasons you do. He's a warrior -- an unbelievable scorer with a crazy drive to compete.
His workout in Oakland before the 2012 draft was the single greatest pre-draft workout I've ever seen. It was relentless. His trainer was killing him. Lillard was grunting and grinding like his life depended on it.
Afterwards, we all walked away thinking, "This guy is so hungry, working so hard and he's so talented. How does he fail?"
Sometimes the workout process is really misleading. But in this case, the guy who killed that workout in Oakland has been the same guy playing for the Blazers the past few years. I love players with Lillard's toughness and will to win. I almost put him ahead of Draymond because of it. He's really, really close to No. 2 for me.
