USA TODAY Sports
Overall Grade: A+
No. 30: Kyle Anderson, SF, UCLA
Bill Simmons said it best during the ESPN broadcast.
"Typical."
Was this the most San Antonio Spurs pick of all time? The defending champions gained access to one of the smartest, most skilled players in the draft. He's now going to be playing in the league's best system, potentially learning from Boris Diaw, who he's been compared to time and time again. That depends on free agency, but this pick will work no matter what.
In the interest of full disclosure, Kyle Anderson was one of my least-favorite picks in this entire draft class. For 29 teams, I'd have been hesitant to take him in the first round.
Want to guess which one is the 30th?
This pick is so good that it borders on cheating. Can the NBA veto it for basketball reasons?
Seen nothing but people raving in love, or hatred about this pick. We don't need a starter, we have a Championship team. We need a plugin to help with ball control and to relieve our bigs on small ball. He fills both at the least.
Is also only 20 years old.
Working with professionals and people keeping him in the gym, he has plenty of time to grow and get better.
So much for your sarcasm. rofl
Gotta give them an "A" for getting Anderson at #30. The more I read about the kid, the more shocked I was that he fell so far. Great basketball IQ, unselfish, averaged 14.6 points, 8.8 rebounds and 6.5 assists in sop re season, killer wingspan, and he just seemed to be the type of kid who would fit well with the Spurs. I think R.C. and Pop may have pulled out another rabbit.....
At this point, why anyone would trust the Spurs front office is absolutely beyond me. Those guys clearly only know one way to win, they never adjust to the changing face of the NBA, they look for the wrong things in players, they really can't identify talent, and they whiff constantly on the players they choose to acquire (who almost never end up doing anything useful for the club).
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Draft Grade: A, maybe A+
Kyle Anderson may well not pan out, but his ceiling is VERY high for a #30 pick. He has lottery talent, maybe even top 10 talent, with some deficiencies most teams aren't built to deal with. I was expecting a flyer on a decent SF prospect to back up Kawhi but instead we get a guy who could impact the second unit in many beneficial ways.
Nemanja Dagubic means little to me. He seems like a big project and I do wish we didn't use two picks for him. But they were two almost worthless picks anyway. He smells like Sanikidze to me, but the Spurs didn't spend any future assets on him, so it's a wash.
Ultimately the Spurs drafted a guy who may not just help right away, but keep some wear off Ginobili with his playmaking in the second unit, and potentially be one of the top 10 guys in the draft. Perfect situation for him and an intriguing, entertaining player.
It's interesting to me that one of Anderson's best performances as a sop re came on the third night of a back-to-back-to-back in the Pac-12 tournament in the final against a strong Arizona team with a 21-15-5 that saw him get to the line 13 times in 38 minutes.
I also think it's noteworthy that his averages didn't come from a bunch of crazy games surrounded by a bunch of bad ones.
He scored 11 or more in 30/36 games as a sop re (and 15 or more in 18 of 36).
He had 7 or more rebounds in 28 of 36 games and had 9 or more rebounds in 21 of 36.
He had at least 5 assists in 32 of 36 games and had 7 or more assists in 17 of 36.
He had 3 turnovers or less in 22 of 36 games and was well above 2:1
He may not have the greatest collegiate numbers, but there's a pretty deep consistency in his ability to contribute in a variety of ways. He may well wash out at the NBA level; any late first rounder is an absolute crapshoot and most players picked in those spots, historically, don't put together long or productive careers. But the versatility of his game suggests ability that does not depend upon crazy athleticism and a feel for the game that could be helpful at the NBA level. Let's hope.
Last edited by FromWayDowntown; 06-27-2014 at 11:24 AM.
I think you make a good case in both examples. My question for the first, is, if he is top 10 talent (possibly) why did he fall to 30? I mean, there had to be things other teams REALLY, REALLY, REALLY, didn't like, and why wasn't that negated for this "high ceiling?" Why would you fall 15+ spots in the draft?
Two, I don't look at it like a wash. They traded 2 picks for maybe someone we will never see in the US. I dont understand why you wouldnt draft at least 2 that you work out? If you draft a big you can see if ayres/baynes is worth keeping..?
With stats like his, I can understand why the Spurs were overjoyed to see Kyle Anderson at #30. Great passer, solid scorer, and way big rebounder for SF. At different times this season, I have seen him as high as #14 (last lottery pick) in different drafts. I can see him signing for the 2nd round money and heading off to Summer league with the desire to show what he can do. If he plays within the system, he will be on the roster in Oct and will see time early with the Spurs then back and forth between Austin and SA, much like CJ last few seasons. No he will not see starter minutes and likely only garbage time in the early going. By the trade deadline we should know if he is a keeper or not. 20 years old. Lots of time to grow into the system before he is left behind. Watching the draft, I was surprised he was available at #30.
If the 2011 draft happened again, Kawhi would have been selected at #3 at the lowest, possibly #2 or even #1. Yet he fell into the teens. You suppose that NBA teams are fantastic evaluators of talent... they aren't. They rely far too much on stupid things like "eye tests" and "gut feelings" instead of statistically and methodically breaking the game down.
To put things into perspective, the Spurs did draft someone who outplayed all of this year's lottery picks in the same game:
With this year's pick, the future of this team isn't looking too shabby.
Groundhog Day. Yep, definitely a Spur.
He has glaring deficiencies in his game. Terrible athleticism, poor lateral quickness, slow shot release, quite a few turnovers. There are only a few teams in the league that would know how to use a point forward to great effect, so his strengths matter more to us than pretty much anyone else.
But Pop is a master of hiding deficiencies, putting players in a position to succeed, and teaching smart players to use the scheme to mask defensive weaknesses like a lack of lateral quickness. We're also the best team in the league at shot doctoring, so if anyone can speed up his release, it's us. And once he learns the offensive scheme, he'll be making easier, scripted decisions on the floor that he's practiced over and over, so his turnovers should go down.
As long as he's willing to work hard enough and he doesn't get injured, his floor for this team should be to be a solid rotation player once he acclimates.
"Ginobili who?"
excellent take, with that being said, would you classify this as a "steal" for us, since no one really wanted him/could utilize him?
You speak Truff. Bright future indeed, especially if all our young talent over seas develop into at least simple role players. We will surround Kawhi going ahead.To put things into perspective, the Spurs did draft someone who outplayed all of this year's lottery picks in the same game:
With this year's pick, the future of this team isn't looking too shabby.
Lamar Odom 2.0, imo. 1.0 went as high pick, helped win some 'ships.
Most teams really suck. If you don't know why Anderson could excel in the Spurs system and possibly not in other sucky teams' sucky or nonexistent systems, I suggest you watch the Spurs play basketball sometime. They're quite good tbh.
Thanks for that photo. Unbelievable that Spurs got a guy that scored more than Exum, Wiggins or Embid. Well, hope he recovers from that injury.
Interesting that Spurs didn't trade Livio for a higher draft pick this year.
My thoughts are not that he cant fit in with the system, I worry about his attributes and think that McDaniels would have been a better fit to contribute immediately. I posted a grade on my opinion of the picks. I thought they were average. Did we fit a need? Maybe. It's an unknown. It's like you just bought a scratch off ticket and give yourself an A for purchasing the ticket without scratching it off. It could win you millions or it could leave you out. The freak outs by the "Kposters" are quite entertaining, keep it up!
It's an oxymoron to use the word "system" with any other team other than the Spurs IMHO.
So just how many times do you plan on saying the same thing?
"Anderson was the best fit at 30"
"I know nothing of Dangubic"
"B+"
Holy do you even know how grades work
If there's no better fit than Anderson then there's no room for grade improvement.
early is not going to be anything tbh
It was the 30th pick. I would have taken the tree named Tavares. If he becomes a C-level center. We win just due to hight and a short league. If he sucks, we wouldn't have lost anything. Isn't Tavares pretty young?
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