Chuma Okeke - 2019 NBA Draft Prospect

[timvp]

Chuma Okeke

School: Auburn
Position: SF/PF
Age: 20
Height: 6-foot-8
Weight: 235
Wingspan: 7-feet
Draft Range: 25 to 45

Why: Every team wants big wings and that's exactly how he's built. Sturdy physique, long arms, light on his feet. Really good passer for his size, sees the court well. A 38.9% three-point shooter on a healthy number of attempts during his two years at Auburn. Not an explosive athlete but very fluid in his movements. A really attentive help-defender -- uses his long arms to disrupt offenses. Plays a team-first, smart style of basketball.

Why Not: Tore his ACL in the Sweet 16. Whether he has the mobility to be a small forward was a question before the injury. If he's a PF, he's not nearly as intriguing. As a big, he'd be a questionable rebounder and would struggle to hold down the fort in the paint. His lack of elite athleticism hurts when he's trying to finish in a crowd. His individual defense can be iffy at times out on the perimeter, mostly due to inconsistent technique.

Spurs Fit: He'd miss all of next season due to the torn ACL. Would probably need to spend the entire following season in Austin to adjust to being a full-time perimeter player. He'd be a pick for the 2021-22 season.

Spurs Comparison - Ceiling: Sean Elliott minus some athleticism

Spurs Comparison - Floor: JR Reid

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[TrainOfThought5]

He’d be a high upside gamble at 29. Do it RC

[BWS-1994]

I hope if the Spurs get who they want with pick 19, they’ll then take Okeke with 29.

A first round pick means he’ll count in the cap, even if he’s out for the season?

[Play Boban]

Cancer

[exstatic]

I hope if the Spurs get who they want with pick 19, they’ll then take Okeke with 29.

A first round pick means he’ll count in the cap, even if he’s out for the season?

Yes, but it would be a very small number at 29, like a bit over $1M. That’s on a huge cap, slightly over $100M.

[ZeusWillJudge]

So here's the ideal way to get him on the team, assuming someone doesn't take a flyer on him earlier in the first round: trade Brooklyn straight up the 29 pick for the 31 pick. Take Okeke with the first pick of the second round, so he's not a guaranteed rookie contract. Give him a 2 year deal at the minimum, which is about $900K per. He gets paid well to rehab and play in the G-League, earns his Bird rights, and gets a chance to get paid in two years instead of four. If he's as good as a lot of people think, he'll more than make up for the rookie scale money on the back end.

Obviously the deal would include Brooklyn not being able to take him with our 29 pick, so you'd only have to sweat Milwaukee.

Yes, but it would be a very small number at 29, like a bit over $1M. That’s on a huge cap, slightly over $100M.

I think the minimum for a 29 pick is close to $1.4M. So paying him $900K would save about a half million per year. Not a huge chunk, but it counts, and it gives both team and player some potential benefits if he works out.

[D-Robinson 50 fan]

So here's the ideal way to get him on the team, assuming someone doesn't take a flyer on him earlier in the first round: trade Brooklyn straight up the 29 pick for the 31 pick. Take Okeke with the first pick of the second round, so he's not a guaranteed rookie contract. Give him a 2 year deal at the minimum, which is about $900K per. He gets paid well to rehab and play in the G-League, earns his Bird rights, and gets a chance to get paid in two years instead of four. If he's as good as a lot of people think, he'll more than make up for the rookie scale money on the back end.

Obviously the deal would include Brooklyn not being able to take him with our 29 pick, so you'd only have to sweat Milwaukee.

I think the minimum for a 29 pick is close to $1.4M. So paying him $900K would save about a half million per year. Not a huge chunk, but it counts, and it gives both team and player some potential benefits if he works out.

I love the idea!

[BWS-1994]

Hopefully, teams with multiple picks will not gamble on him.

[timvp]

So here's the ideal way to get him on the team, assuming someone doesn't take a flyer on him earlier in the first round:

Meh, good idea but if the Spurs like him and he's available at 29, just take him. It's a tiny amount in the grand scheme of the $109 million salary cap. The Spurs routinely spend more on players who they never had intentions of playing in the short-term or long-term. No need for machinations when you're talking about like 0.4% of the cap in salary difference if the plan pans out.

[Chinook]

There's no upshot to giving up two option years just to save less than $2 Million on the front end. The only way I could see that having any value is if we were looking at a 2015-esque situation where the team was trying to preserve every bit of cap space possible (and as a lot of people on here remember, I wasn't a fan of that tactic). Then having Okeke not count as a cap hold could save some money. In this case, you pay him a bit more to rehab with the idea that he'll get legit run for the 2020 summer league. After that, if he has any NBA skills, you can bring him up for a few games here or there just filling in while he works on his perimeter game in the d-league. Then come summer league 2021, he'd get a shot as the featured perimeter player with the hope he builds momentum for the upcoming season.

The idea that this is a pick for 2021 is not that scary. The Spurs usually wait two years to give their guys legit run anyway. , Lonnie might be the highest-ceiling guy they've drafted since Tim, and he still looks to be out of the upcoming season's rotation. If they want a ready-made guy, they should be able to find someone at 19 who can bolster the rotation. Just replace Cun and Pon with guys who deserve to be on a court, and you can carry a dead roster spot easy.

[kobyz]

It's also possible to promise him the #29 pick for him agreeing not to sign a contract the first year and instead signing in Austin for rehab, kind like what spurs did with the French guy from Tony Parker team...

[ZeusWillJudge]

No need for machinations when you're talking about like 0.4% of the cap in salary difference if the plan pans out.

There's no upshot to giving up two option years just to save less than $2 Million on the front end. The only way I could see that having any value is if we were looking at a 2015-esque situation where the team was trying to preserve every bit of cap space possible (and as a lot of people on here remember, I wasn't a fan of that tactic). Then having Okeke not count as a cap hold could save some money. Just replace Cun and Pon with guys who deserve to be on a court, and you can carry a dead roster spot easy.

The $500K isn't a big deal. Throw in the cap hold, and roster spot, and there's a little more math there. I know a lot of people (here) think it terms of throw-away roster spots. But I still think that even those last couple of spots should be players you're developing. Cunningham and Pondexter aren't that, then replace them with someone who is.

But the biggest thing is handing a 4-year contract to a known 2-year player. He's not like a Dereck White, that they don't know if he'll be ready after one year of G-League. They know that Okeke will almost certainly be two years from making the roster at best. Right now there's a lot of talk that teams don't want to throw a first round contract at him, but that he'll probably go early in the second round. If the Spurs were somehow able to buy the 30 pick for cash, what I said is probably exactly what would happen - with the possible exception of offering him less than $900K.

Throw in TIMVP's list of "why-not's" and a 2-year deal would hedge a lot of bets, but give the option of being able to hang onto him if he pans out (because of the Bird Rights). If you look at all that and still think it's better to give him a guaranteed rookie contract, then you should probably be saying "This is my guy for the 29 pick". He was my guy before the injury, but it's hard to pass on the possibility of drafting another Dereck White with that pick, while taking a kid who won't possibly be on the roster until his third year.

[sasaint]

The $500K isn't a big deal. Throw in the cap hold, and roster spot, and there's a little more math there. I know a lot of people (here) think it terms of throw-away roster spots. But I still think that even those last couple of spots should be players you're developing. Cunningham and Pondexter aren't that, then replace them with someone who is.

But the biggest thing is handing a 4-year contract to a known 2-year player. He's not like a Dereck White, that they don't know if he'll be ready after one year of G-League. They know that Okeke will almost certainly be two years from making the roster at best. Right now there's a lot of talk that teams don't want to throw a first round contract at him, but that he'll probably go early in the second round. If the Spurs were somehow able to buy the 30 pick for cash, what I said is probably exactly what would happen - with the possible exception of offering him less than $900K.

Throw in TIMVP's list of "why-not's" and a 2-year deal would hedge a lot of bets, but give the option of being able to hang onto him if he pans out (because of the Bird Rights). If you look at all that and still think it's better to give him a guaranteed rookie contract, then you should probably be saying "This is my guy for the 29 pick". He was my guy before the injury, but it's hard to pass on the possibility of drafting another Dereck White with that pick, while taking a kid who won't possibly be on the roster until his third year.

Great tactic. Of all teams, though, Milwaukee would be the one that caused me the most concern. Chuma would be a great player in the pipeline for s pretty stacked team like the Bucks.

[cd021]

It's also possible to promise him the #29 pick for him agreeing not to sign a contract the first year and instead signing in Austin for rehab, kind like what spurs did with the French guy from Tony Parker team...

I don't get the point, just draft and sign him and have him "red shirt" next season. As is, dthe Spurs are going to have a very deep team. Having Okeke on the end of the bench is better than Pondexter.

[Chinook]

The $500K isn't a big deal. Throw in the cap hold, and roster spot, and there's a little more math there. I know a lot of people (here) think it terms of throw-away roster spots. But I still think that even those last couple of spots should be players you're developing. Cunningham and Pondexter aren't that, then replace them with someone who is.

But the biggest thing is handing a 4-year contract to a known 2-year player. He's not like a Dereck White, that they don't know if he'll be ready after one year of G-League. They know that Okeke will almost certainly be two years from making the roster at best. Right now there's a lot of talk that teams don't want to throw a first round contract at him, but that he'll probably go early in the second round. If the Spurs were somehow able to buy the 30 pick for cash, what I said is probably exactly what would happen - with the possible exception of offering him less than $900K.

Throw in TIMVP's list of "why-not's" and a 2-year deal would hedge a lot of bets, but give the option of being able to hang onto him if he pans out (because of the Bird Rights). If you look at all that and still think it's better to give him a guaranteed rookie contract, then you should probably be saying "This is my guy for the 29 pick". He was my guy before the injury, but it's hard to pass on the possibility of drafting another Dereck White with that pick, while taking a kid who won't possibly be on the roster until his third year.

No. A rookie contract is already a two-year deal with two option years. If the homeboy is not progressing the way you want after the first year, then you just don't pick up that option. Spurs did that with James Anderson. Worse case is that he shows just enough after the first year to get year three locked in and then just sucks, leading to the Spurs cutting him and eating that additional $2 Million. That'd be a loss of about a $6-Million investment. Compare that to the downside of having to pay market value for Okeke if he has a better second year than expected in this thread. Even if he only gets what Simmons got, that's about $15 Million over those fours seasons rather than the $10 Million is total rookie-scale deal is WITH options factored in.

As I said, zero upside.

[CGD]

I liked him at 19 pre-injury. 29 makes sense post.

[pad300]

It's also possible to promise him the #29 pick for him agreeing not to sign a contract the first year and instead signing in Austin for rehab, kind like what spurs did with the French guy from Tony Parker team...

This proposal from a week ago

https://www.spurstalk.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=279274

Makes some sense for both parties. Much more guaranteed money for the player. SAS doesn't waste a year of the rookie contract on rehab, and keep a roster spot & the cap space in 2019-2020.

[TXstbobcat]

hope the Spurs pick him if he is available at #29.

[TheGreatYacht]

Nope. Don't like his name. Chuma Okeke sounds like a name you'll see 6 years from now when you revisit the 2019 draft and will read past it because you have no idea who the that is. He's the Arnett Moultrie (who? 2012 Draft - pick 27) of this Draft

[sasaint]

I liked him at 19 pre-injury. 29 makes sense post.

This.

Package a young guard, 19 and ? To move up for Hunter, too.

[DesignatedT]

This is who I want at 29. I think he was a top 15 talent before the ACL.

[Gordy58]

Nope. Don't like his name. Chuma Okeke sounds like a name you'll see 6 years from now when you revisit the 2019 draft and will read past it because you have no idea who the that is. He's the Arnett Moultrie (who? 2012 Draft - pick 27) of this Draft

Who’s your pick for this draft guy?

[BackHome]

Just ignore him he is a Raptors aka KY fanboy.