The Center Position: Whaddya wanna do?

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How should we obtain a Center?

  • draft one (e.g. Gobert)

    Votes: 9 27.3%
  • sign a journeyman on the cheap (e.g. Birdman)

    Votes: 8 24.2%
  • spend half or more of our cap space on one (e.g. Chris Kaman)

    Votes: 4 12.1%
  • Spend the bulk of our space, picks, players on one (e.g. Andrew Bynum)

    Votes: 12 36.4%

  • Total voters
    33
The ONLY advantage to that would be the cap space for next summer on what is supposed to be a good free agent market but thats a pretty big gamble

That minor upside (hard to sign FAs in Portland) is nothing compared to getting a player who has been drenched in piss as long as Gasol.
 
That minor upside (hard to sign FAs in Portland) is nothing compared to getting a player who has been drenched in piss as long as Gasol has been.

100% agreed. Makes me shudder. It would be a long year to tolerate
 
Pretty sure their first mock to actually take teams into account will come tonight after the lottery. Until then, I'm pretty sure he's still just ranking players.

I understand your reasoning. Not sure why he would rank Oladipo so low then. He's a top 5 IMO. If we get the 3 we should take him there.
 
Hmm, actually, nevermind, I think on the front page, he has it based on rankiing, but he has that as a rough draft with team needs, sorry.
 
Hmm, actually, nevermind, I think on the front page, he has it based on rankiing, but he has that as a rough draft with team needs, sorry.

No need to be sorry when you are correct.

Team needs have NOT yet been taken into account in this mock draft.
See our transactions page for an explanation of the traded picks listed here.
This Mock was last updated on Tue May 21st at 08:58:27 AM
 
No need to be sorry when you are correct.

Yeah, but I think that might be an old disclaimer, as he has a link from his twitter account saying here's a rough draft of what his first mock could look like. Oh, who knows.
 
I think Zeller jumps back into the top 9. I don't want him, but other than his reach, he measured out pretty well. He seems to have surprised a few people with his athleticism.
 
I think Zeller jumps back into the top 9. I don't want him, but other than his reach, he measured out pretty well. He seems to have surprised a few people with his athleticism.

Maybe so, but just seems odd to me that teams will watch a guy play, and make a judgment of his abilities, and then be swayed to not believe what they saw because he ran and jumped well. You can train real hard in between end of season and combine to improve what drills are testing for, but it doesn't, or shouldn't, alter what happens when games are played.
 
Maybe so, but just seems odd to me that teams will watch a guy play, and make a judgment of his abilities, and then be swayed to not believe what they saw because he ran and jumped well.
Yeah, for the most part I couldn't care less about those drills - running and jumping in isolation doesn't really tell you much of anything with regards to basketball. Open-court sprints between sets of cones aren't creating anything remotely close to a live game situation. And fundamentals and intelligence will trump athleticism in the end.
 
Maybe so, but just seems odd to me that teams will watch a guy play, and make a judgment of his abilities, and then be swayed to not believe what they saw because he ran and jumped well. You can train real hard in between end of season and combine to improve what drills are testing for, but it doesn't, or shouldn't, alter what happens when games are played.

Yeah but didn't he take a step back "athletically" last year from his freshman year? I can see the case where scouts may think his injuries or extra weight negatively effected him last year, but now he is back to where he was before.
 
Maybe so, but just seems odd to me that teams will watch a guy play, and make a judgment of his abilities, and then be swayed to not believe what they saw because he ran and jumped well. You can train real hard in between end of season and combine to improve what drills are testing for, but it doesn't, or shouldn't, alter what happens when games are played.

His DraftExpress vid (I watched Indiana a lot this past season) does him justice. I think he just needs to get stronger (a lot stronger). But the intangibles are there.

[video=youtube;Wvb2SNJ9T4w]
 
How about fishing for an overlooked European talent?

I was just looking at some of the European league playoff results and ran across this guy -

http://basketball.eurobasket.com/player/Boban_Marjanovic/Mega_Vizura/65526

7'4", 286 lbs., 24 years old
16.9 ppg, 11.8 rpg in the Serbian league

Here's his nbadraft.net profile from nearly five years ago -

http://www.nbadraft.net/players/boban-marjanovic

He put up those numbers in the Serbian league, which only has one Euroleague team (Partizan), but those are still numbers that would sort of suggest the guy's developing into a basketball player.
 
Here's a name for you: Kyle Hines. I've mentioned him elsewhere, but as this is about centers, and that's where he plays...

He's very under-heighted (6'6"!) but built like a brick shithouse with Close Encounters-like arms. Think of him as a young Chuck Hayes. He's spent the years since going undrafted working up the ranks in Euro basketball, to the point where he's been arguably the MVP of the back-to-back European champion Olympiacos. He's always going to be looked down on (pun intended) as a starting center, but he kicked the ass of MVP candidate and former Celtics and Thunder player Krstic, and he's everything that Meyers Leonard isn't, so maybe they can complement each other.

This season Joel Freeland was supposed to be the big-name center for CSKA Moscow, but sadly Joel's body betrayed him again and Kyle Hines continued to get big minutes, which led to this:



He seems to have more ups than Chuck Hayes. I'd be very happy with an offseason that signed Boban Marjanovic and, if not Hines, then somebody like him who can be our defensive enforcer. Of course, I'd be equally happy with Ekpe Udoh, although I'd worry about him staying healthy:

 
How about fishing for an overlooked European talent?
I was just looking at some of the European league playoff results and ran across this guy -
http://basketball.eurobasket.com/player/Boban_Marjanovic/Mega_Vizura/65526
7'4", 286 lbs., 24 years old
16.9 ppg, 11.8 rpg in the Serbian league
Here's his nbadraft.net profile from nearly five years ago -
http://www.nbadraft.net/players/boban-marjanovic
He put up those numbers in the Serbian league, which only has one Euroleague team (Partizan), but those are still numbers that would sort of suggest the guy's developing into a basketball player.

Good call!
 
Whiteside please!!

Damian(PG) - McCollum(SG) - Aminu(SF) - Vonleh(PF) - Whiteside(C) cures many ills.
We also need more consistant scoring from the 3 position. Would love to have Barnes and Whiteside, but not enough money for that.
 
Whiteside please!!

Damian(PG) - McCollum(SG) - Aminu(SF) - Vonleh(PF) - Whiteside(C) cures many ills.
We also need more consistant scoring from the 3 position. Would love to have Barnes and Whiteside, but not enough money for that.

For those of you that are so high or low on Whiteside, why? I've only seen highlights and box scores. Does he pass the eye test? How's his BBIQ?
 
Poll answer options are incomplete. There is no "Let the cake bake"
 
For those of you that are so high or low on Whiteside, why? I've only seen highlights and box scores. Does he pass the eye test? How's his BBIQ?
He's pretty much deandre Jordan with more upside.
 
He's pretty much deandre Jordan with more upside.

DAMN really? Are people really overrating Plumlee so much that they don't want us to go after him?
 
Whiteside plays limited minutes but is very effective. Scores down in the paint, rebounds really well and blocks a ton of shots. He's quickly becoming one of the best post players in the league. He would help us greatly.
 
Whiteside in his 2nd season came in 3rd place in Defensive Player of Year voting, and he had a case that he should have won it. He's #2 in rebound rate in the NBA, only behind Andre Drummond this year. He was #1 in blocks per game and 48 minute rate. Anyone talking poorly about him hasn't watched the Heat much and is just grasping at straws. He's the best FA on the market this summer that isn't named KD or LeBron.
 

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