Bol Bol - 2019 NBA Draft Prospect

[Gordy58]

I don't see him being able to play enough minutes to be a minor star, let alone an All Star. He can be played off the court on defense by repeated switches. He's not like Claxton, with the overall twitch and quickness to switch onto guards. His lateral quickness is for , and he'll get blown by. I see a really skinny weak Ibaka, minus the lateral quickness.

From probasketballtalk on NBC's web site, today:

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/06/13...ay-or-another/

We can’t judge a player of his talents based off his lateral quickness on the perimeter. Any big man in the league can get blown by guards. I’ve seen Gobert and AD get toasted so many times on perimeter pick/roll switches. Jokic is super slow, Marc Gasol...... Bol is an elite rim protector, with crazy guard-like skills for a guy his size, if he’s there you HAVE to take the chance.

[cd021]

The Stepien is extremely high on Williams. They see him not only as a post player, but as an offense initiator, sort of a Diaw, I guess. Anyway, in a recent article, they said that after Zion, Williams picked between 24-40 would be the draft's second best move.

I think the Stepien also projects him as being an above average 3pt shooter on high volume, despite him not currently being either. If he ends up becoming that then that makes him a more viable NBA player but I am doubtful of that and his post game may not translate against NBA length, nor his above average ability to get to the line. Could be wrong but we'll see, I guess.

Just one other minorly relevant factoid: the NBA wants 20 players in their green room. They basically discretely canvas teams about who they might pick. The list, so far, with 16 players on it:

Zion Williamson, Ja Morant, R.J. Barrett, De'Andre Hunter, Jarrett Culver, Darius Garland, Coby White, Cam Reddish, Jaxson Hayes, Sekou Doumbouya, Nassir Little, Brandon Clarke, Rui Hachimura, P.J. Washington, Tyler Herro, and Romeo Langford.

These players have not yet been chose:

Keldon Johnson, Oregon center Bol Bol, Georgian center Goga Bitadze, USC guard Kevin Porter, Virginia Tech guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Georgia center Nicolas Claxton, North Carolina forward Cameron Johnson and Tennessee forward Grant Williams

Good find. That does seem to jive with most of the major mocks drafts. Though Claxton seems to believe that he may be taken in the lottery because he shut down non-lottery team workouts.

He's a prospect of extremes, good and awful. His height and length are outstanding. His weight is appalling. He blocks shots very well and shoots the 3 very well. Other than shotblocking, he really can't defend at all against any sized player.

Interestingly enough, that is a big concern with Goga, a player frequently mocked to the Spurs. Re-watching his clips, he is really bad defending on the perimeter. Bad at contesting- as in he doesn't sometimes or is very late. Laughably bad at containing drives. Really good shot blocker though but doesn't look that great defending in the post.

Some of those defensive issues that were in that link that you posted are correctable but he is going to have to improve significantly to be even an an average defensive player which hurts Bol's upside, same with Goga.

[Chucho]

We can’t judge a player of his talents based off his lateral quickness on the perimeter. Any big man in the league can get blown by guards. I’ve seen Gobert and AD get toasted so many times on perimeter pick/roll switches. Jokic is super slow, Marc Gasol...... Bol is an elite rim protector, with crazy guard-like skills for a guy his size, if he’s there you HAVE to take the chance.

Seriously. It's the 19th pick in the NBA draft. You take away DJ and DWhite and you realize the Spurs haven't drafted a solid contributor since drafting DeJuan Blair (sorry, Fathead was terrible). And we need help outside of the PG position, so you realize the Spurs haven't drafted any solid contributors post Parker/Ginobili outside of Splitter and Blair and MAYBE George Hill (who got better outside of the Spurs, tbh) and you get a little discouraged and the legitimate players we have drafted (Dragic, Barbosa, Scola and to an extent John Salmons), we gave away for nothing.

You got to take the upside in a place where we can use help. Bol fits that better than almost anyone else available at that spot.