Good stuff,
Russ. I want to be sold on Deni because he seems like a Spursy pick -- but I'm just not there on him.
Deni ran pick-and-rolls in FIBA action but that's about the extent of his playmaking history. If a team drafts him thinking he'll be Doncic or even Orlando Turkoglu, they are going to be disappointed, IMO. His playmaking ceiling is more like a Tobias Harris in that he will be ultra active and make the right passes when given the opportunity.
That's the same argument I've made and it's why I'm 100% okay drafting a player of any position. No player is good enough to factor in positional fit.
That said, as a tie-breaker for prospects on the same tier, I think it's fair to factor in current fit. And considering the Spurs are already shooting challenged and two of their three most accomplished shooters could be leaving, adding another non-shooting quasi-playmaker would be sub-optimal. Adding Deni to the current group would result in a lot of clogging. The Spurs could absorb another non-shooter but that player would have to be a center to replace Poeltl, a project who doesn't need minutes right away or a player who could work with Chip to become a shooter. Deni, conversely, is ready for minutes right now and with his long history of being a 55% free throw shooter despite getting great coaching for 5+ years, it's difficult to see a situation where either he or the Spurs will flourish.
I've said that if the Spurs think Deni is the best player on the board, they should go ahead and pick him. But after they do, then they need to tear down what they currently have so that there are at least lineups that make sense. Specifically, if you draft Deni you probably have to trade DeRozan and not re-sign Poeltl -- and probably see if there's a market for Murray. I'm not super high on Deni but he's going to be ready for minutes quickly and the Spurs will want to give him those minutes to see what it is that they have on their hands.
Fair enough but my point was I think Deni would be an especially great fit next to a superstar, particularly one who is a superstar scorer and playmaker. I mean, you can make the case that he's the best fit the Timberwolves with the first overall pick. Put him between Towns and Russell and he can fill in the blanks, while his weaknesses aren't a big deal.
Again, if the Spurs see him as that guy (I don't, for the record, but it's possible I'm wrong), pick him. And then start reshaping your roster.
Eh, that's not really fair. The Israeli league (and Israel itself) has had players make it. My issue with the Israeli league has nothing to do with the country. The issue is that it's a super unbalanced league. Maccabi, Deni's team, has won something like 55 of the 65 league les. Last I looked, Maccabi and the Jerusalem team pay more in salary than the rest of the league combined. Maccabi has far and away the most talent on the league. They'd win games in the NBA. If you compare that team to all the other teams in the league outside of the Jerusalem team, it's a joke. On top of the salary difference, the Israeli league has some quirky rules like paying bonuses to teams based on how many minutes their Israeli players play, which results in the teams that didn't have a chance to begin with signing the cheapest possible Israeli players and then giving them big minutes to chase those bonuses.
The Deni MVP award that people point to was the MVP of that Israeli league. His team was so much better that they could play him big minutes and force feed him the ball and still easily win. Even with the force feeding, he still didn't really deserve the MVP but they gave it to him anyway -- probably to make him look better for the draft and because he's the league's most popular player. Understandable decision, tbh, but his performance in that league in general and the MVP specifically needs to taken with a few grains of salt.
Yeah, I love the edge he plays with and that will help him in his transition to the NBA. He's not a player who is going to be too bashful to assert himself -- it'll be closer to the opposite. But, again, that's another reason why picking Deni would have to be step one of a complete rebuild. You can't pick him and then stash him in the G League or bury him at the end of the bench. He's going to need minutes ASAP.
I think we're on the same page on Okongwu. At 11, you pick him and you don't have to worry about the center position for another decade at the earliest.
BTW, we need to fix your sig. That GIF is too awesome to be missing