I can see where you’re coming from. But let’s just assume the safe guess that we stay put in the lottery and aren’t in position to draft him—there’s about 3-5 centers that will go after Holmgren, Duren, and Williams, probably at least one of them will slip into the 2nd.
Orlando Robinson: his skillset reminds me of KAT’s. 6’11 with a 7’4 wingspan and moves pretty well. Maybe his defense develops under Chauncey. Junior—so that may be a reason for falling past 37 if it happens.
Yannick Nzosa: international prospect. Right now, he is pretty much a pure athlete and defensive specialist and can really run the floor. 6’11 with a 7’6 wingspan with a chance to really be special on defense. He reminds me of early OKC Ibaka pre-jumpshot, I’ve seen Capela as a comp as well.
Christian Koloko: rim protector. 7-1 with a 7-4 wingspan. Played 3 years at Arizona so he can probably contribute sooner than we’d think.
Even Kessler and Tshiebwe are intriguing. I would skip on C’s in the lotto and just focus on drafting the two best wings at our position.
I’ve been on the ‘bring Jalen Smith here’ bandwagon since post trade deadline. I think a C rotation of Nurkic/Johnson/#36 (and you can include Brown as an undersized C) is a diverse core at. Smith is young enough that you still prioritize his development, but our third string center will get minutes whenever Nurkic is injured. A rotation of Nurkic/Duren/___ (still assuming we’re not in position to get Holmgren) will probably be better than, say, Nurkic/Johnson/Nzosa. But consider where we’d be picking with a number of wings on the board, I’d say Nurkic/Johnson/Nzosa is more worth it for its price.
And right now, besides TJ Warren, I don’t know any other forwards I’d give the MLE to—and I don’t necessarily think he’d be a good fit on the team. I’d be interested in Smith, Bamba, and Ibaka though. So free agency also steers me in the direction of not drafting a C in the lotto.
