Spurs' future draft picks

[mountainballer]

the measurements and athletic testing numbers are fun and interesting to read as usual (and there should be some doubts as usual)
I don't think the top prospects tried very hard in the athletic test, especially not Durant. (he obviously didn't at the sprint and agility test. he isn't slower than most centers)

Dudley didn't do great, as expected, but his numbers also don't look as if there was that much of an athletic deficit compared to other SFs. (see Julian Wright)
(Dudley doesn't have a good wingspan, but a decent standing reach)

Conley's numbers are impressive. wow. quickest player and 2nd best leaper.
(his numbers are much better than those of Chris Paul two years ago)

Nick Young has a no step vertical of 39.5"! that's 4" more than the 2nd best (Conley) maybe the most impressive number of all athletical test numbers.
(wonder why his max. vertical was only 1" more. usually there is a difference of 5").

also impressive: Nichols was 10.39 in the lane agility test! I guess that's the best number of the last 3 years.
it was reported, that he displays nice lateral quickness, but this number makes him look like a living pinball.
I wonder why we've not been talking more about him.
he is an outstanding shooter (best shooter at the camp), has nice lenght and wingspan, is a decent rebounder and seems to have all tools that are needed to also make him a great defender. he will be available at 28 for sure, but likely also at 33. any thoughts?

[Bruno]

Some measurements for players in Spurs range :

PG :

Taurean Green
Height with shoes : 6' 0.75''
Wingspan : 6' 2.25''
Weight : 173

Petteri Koponen
Height with shoes : N/A
Wingspan : N/A
Weight : N/A

Zabian Dowdell
Height with shoes : 6' 3''
Wingspan : 6' 10''
Weight : 191

Bobby Brown
Height with shoes : 6' 1.75''
Wingspan : 6' 4''
Weight : 170

Gabe Pruitt
Height with shoes : N/A
Wingspan : N/A
Weight : N/A

Aaron Brooks
Height with shoes : 5' 11.75''
Wingspan : 6' 4''
Weight : 161

Jared Jordan
Height with shoes : 6' 1.75''
Wingspan : 6' 0''
Weight : 183

[naico]

Any chance the spurs would want to take a look at Stephane Lasme? An amazing shotblocker, who is a bit undersized for his position but he has a 7' 2''
wingspan (better than Noah) and is a good athlete and if worked on could really develope into a nice player on offense as well. Nichols and Dudley(if he slims down, seems to run a bit on the slow side) i would welcome as well. I'd love to have Young, but he's out of our reach.

[Bruno]

Some things to note without to forget that height/combine doesn't tell the whole story :

For the SF :
Nichols, Terry and Mcguire are very close body wise : 6'8" with long arms, 210/220lbs and with quite similar results at the combine test.
Dudley is behind them : he is less athletic and has shorter arms but he is still decent. he seems quick enough to play SF.
Trey Johnson is likely too short to play SF in nba.

For the PG :
Dowdell is big enough to play SG. A 6'10" wingspan is quite impressive.
Brown has a quite good size for a PG and is very athletic.
Green is quite small and his combine results are average. He is just 1" bigger than Aaron Brooks, he has shorter arms than Brooks and is way less athletic. You can wonder if Green size and average athletic abilities will hurt him in nba.

[Bruno]

Holy crap Oden has a 32 inch no-step vertical and a 3/4th court time of 3.27? That guy is going to be a monster. 6-foot-11 without shoes with the athleticism of a small forward and the speed of a point guard?

[Bruno]

BTW, maybe we can trade Scola to portland for the first pick.
They don't like Zach Randolph and they will need a PF if they trade him.
After all, Scola is more nba ready than NCAA freshmen like Oden or Durant.

[colargol]

Isn't Dalembert one of those stinky cheeses from France?

It's camembert!

[mountainballer]

Any chance the spurs would want to take a look at Stephane Lasme? An amazing shotblocker, who is a bit undersized for his position but he has a 7' 2''
wingspan (better than Noah) and is a good athlete and if worked on could really develope into a nice player on offense as well. Nichols and Dudley(if he slims down, seems to run a bit on the slow side) i would welcome as well. I'd love to have Young, but he's out of our reach.

I would rather consider Carl Laundry than Lasme.
he was one of the nice surprises of the measurements. for the whole year it was mentioned, that he will be undersized for an NBA PF, but at 6-7.75 (6-8.5 in shoes) and at 248 lbs he isn't huge, but quite not as much undersized as usually mentioned. and his athletic results were excellent.
he played great at the NCAA tournament and was the one who kicked Arizona out of the tounamnet. also against the Gators he had a very good game and gave Noah and Horford quite some trouble and kept Perdue in the game for longer than expected.
I never had him on my list for the no.33 pick (like Hill or Fazekas), because I also bought the to undersized and not athletic enough argument. but right now he looks like a sleeper in this draft.

[wildbill2u]

It's camembert!

Next time I'll put (joke) in parenthesis for those who are challenged by subtlety in humor.

[wildbill2u]

Has anyone ever done a scientific statistical study on whether a long wingspan is actually better --or even as good as--a tall and athletic body? Any examples?

Does the fact that a player drags his knuckles on the floor when he walks actually translate into basketball prowess? I remember Romain Sato's claim to fame was that he had a tremendous wingspan. He still has the wingspan--he doesn't have an NBA job.

Or am I asking for too much reality over fantasy here?

[Mr. Body]

I'm guessing, in typical fashion we'll have little idea who the Spurs are working out. All I've heard so far is Jared Jordan.

[yavozerb]

I still believe the spurs will not draft a pg this draft. We could address other postions such as: 2 (Almond or Belinelli), 3 (Dudley,Tucker, or Mcguire), 4 (Fazekas or Tomic), 5 (Gray or Visser). I would be happy with any of these 2 players and find our back up pg in FA.

[K-State Spur]

The more I look at it, the more I really like Dudley. His collegiate career and stats draw a lot of parallels to Josh Howard. Now, they obviously aren't the same player - I think JH is more athletic while Dudley is stronger and better in the post.

[Mr. Body]

I still believe the spurs will not draft a pg this draft. We could address other postions such as: 2 (Almond or Belinelli), 3 (Dudley,Tucker, or Mcguire), 4 (Fazekas or Tomic), 5 (Gray or Visser). I would be happy with any of these 2 players and find our back up pg in FA.

I could definitely see drafting a point. There aren't many on the FA market, they're either very expensive or old. Plus there are a handful of good points floating around the early second round. If Dowdell is still there at 33, we could do much worse; but true, there might be another decent guy at another position there.

Tomic is pulling out of the draft, I hear.

[Mr.Bottomtooth]

Any chance we take a look at Justin Williams this offseason?

[Darkwaters]

I've been reading up on Dowdell and I think hes probably our man. He just seems to fit. Everything points to him being a good spurs type of player. Of course, I also think Dudley is probably our guy as well.

Can you imagine a second unit of Dowdell/Ginobili/Dudley/Scola/Oberto?

The 3 Argentine players already click very well together and would thrive in the NBA as a team. Dudley is a very smart basketball player and would quickly learn to play off of those guys and find his spots quickly. Dowdell would run the point, but would also be able to play off the ball a fair amount as the offense generally flows through Ginobili for the second unit anyways. Since hes really an undersized shooting guard with some refined PG polish it seems ideal. Obviously the interior defense wouldn't be the best with that group. But that unit has several legit shooters, a couple playmakers, low post scoring and a lot of chemistry already. We could do a whole lot worse.

I am simply salivating at the prospect of extending leads with Duncan AND Parker on the bench.

[Mr. Body]

Can you imagine a second unit of Dowdell/Ginobili/Dudley/Scola/Oberto?

Awesome.

But...

I think it's Nocioni starting, the bench of Dowdell/Ginobili/Dudley/McDyess/Elson.

[mountainballer]

I think it's Nocioni starting, the bench of Dowdell/Ginobili/Dudley/McDyess/Elson.

wow. we get McDyess. this one came out of nowhere.

[Mr. Body]

wow. we get McDyess. this one came out of nowhere.

I made the decision in the McDyess thread. Hope that's okay with everybody.

[wildbill2u]

Has anyone ever done a scientific statistical study on whether a long wingspan is actually better --or even as good as--a tall and athletic body? Any examples?

Does the fact that a player drags his knuckles on the floor when he walks actually translate into basketball prowess? I remember Romain Sato's claim to fame was that he had a tremendous wingspan. He still has the wingspan--he doesn't have an NBA job.

Or am I asking for too much reality over fantasy here?

Here's the answer to my own question at DX, one of the sources of all this wingspan and 'best athlete at the combine" idiocy.

http://www.draftexpress.com/viewarticle.php?a=2096


But Can He Play? Analyzing the NBA Pre-Draft Combine Results

by: Jonathan Givony - PresidentJune 5, 2007He has a 7-6 ¾ wingspan, and a 9-3 ½ standing reach. He jumps out of the gym with a 39 inch one-step vertical, bench presses 185 pounds 24 times and runs a 3.3 in the three quarter court sprint. But can he shoot? Dribble? Catch a rebound? Play? Do we even care? (see rest of article)

[Bruno]

To me, measurements results are way more interesting than combine results.

NCAA constraint aren't at the same than NBA constraint. Size, weight, wingspan are interesting to know how the player will translate his skills in nba.

Combine results are quite useless. One of the main problem is that the players aren't tired when they do the runing test. An heavy player can have good results but he will be tired quick and will be less effective. His "in game" athletism won't be the same at all than his combine athletism. A combine without a test to see if players have a good motor isn't very interesting. Bench press is too totally useless to me.

BB isn't track & field, it's a skills games. Measurement and combine results will never tell the whole story.

[Darkwaters]

Awesome.

But...

I think it's Nocioni starting, the bench of Dowdell/Ginobili/Dudley/McDyess/Elson.

So where does Bowen work into this? If Nocioni is starting and Dudley is coming off the bench...

I think I take McDyess (at the 2 yr, 6M deal you stated in that other thread) in a heartbeat. Especially if Horry retires. Thats just an absolute seamless transition. Win now. Rebuild once Duncan is gone.

I think Elson is either traded or bought out. The guy is downright worthless at this point and I'd much rather have Ian over here in the DLeague taking up that roster spot than a worthless vet sitting on the bench making 3M.

What trade do you think we make that nets us Nocioni? Barry/Beno/Scola for Nocioni in a S&T? I wasn't sure what we decided would be the best trade scenario?

[ChumpDumper]

I think Elson is either traded or bought out. The guy is downright worthless at this point and I'd much rather have Ian over here in the DLeague taking up that roster spot than a worthless vet sitting on the bench making 3M.

Didn't we say the same thing about Oberto last season?

[Darkwaters]

Didn't we say the same thing about Oberto last season?

Yea, but Oberto was getting garbage time at best last year. Elson has been pulling starters minutes for much of the season and hasn't been very attractive in the least. Oberto was never given the opportunity to succeed in his first season...Elson was handed the starting job and ended up becoming a peripheral player.

[ChumpDumper]

Pretty much everyone sucks their first year as a Spur. It's an interesting phenomenon.

[Darkwaters]

Pretty much everyone sucks their first year as a Spur. It's an interesting phenomenon.

Ok, I'll give you that one. But I still think that with as many options out there as there are the Spurs could find a much better option. Of course, 3M is really a rather meager sum to pay for a big in this league. Especially when a lot of people are paying their backups 6M or 7M per. But still, I think Elson is on the block for the right deal.