Interesting that it says Atlanta was supposedly targeting him at 20
This may be posted elsewhere but it’s likely to get lost in very long threads about the picks and the FO.
I thought it was interesting on its own and separate from the complaints and bickering about the picks. This should be of interest to the draft aficionados. There’s some information about how teams ended up with the picks they did.
There’s tidbits like Giddey holding a secret workout for OKC. If OKC didn’t take him it was believed GSW would have taken him at 7.
Grizzlies did want Giddey and Franz but were unable to trade higher for them and Ziaire was next on their board. Further despite Ziaire’s offensive struggles at Stanford thee was interest on him from lottery teams and it’s believed he was the only player to workout for Orlando twice, they liked him a lot. Kleiman believed there was sufficient interest in him that he wouldn’t be available at 17.
Anyways there’s a lot of interest there. Like how some players don’t attend the combine specifically because they have promises. Adama (picked by the Grizzlies at 30) had a promise from OKC in the second round and therefore he didn’t participate at the combine.
IMO this makes relying on combine showings tricky because some of the players who stand out enough already don’t attend it, even the ones who already have guarantees in the 2nd round.
Some of the Spurs and Primo is explained. Anyways it was an interesting read.
Interesting that it says Atlanta was supposedly targeting him at 20
Yeah and there were some rumors about OKC, but OKC had so many picks that’s difficult to know how high they would have taken him.
Thanks for posting. Interesting read. There's definitely a bit of disconnect between all these mock drafts and what teams are thinking.
I really did think Giddey was not going past #7 and that Golden State really liked him. I suspected OKC did, too, because Presti is smart. Ergo, Warriors must be pretty pissed. They wound up with Kuminga, who they don't want, and Moody, who I think is just okay.
Now that the stories are rolling in about Primo, it feels less savage as a pick. I will still want Sengun until Sengun capsizes as a bust.
I've said elsewhere, but media mocks clearly lag behind what the teams are actually doing. That's why Ziaire slipped down and only a few sites picked up the vibes that he was actually top 10 in some cases. IMO, then, if the draft was another week later, Primo's rise would have started to be captured by the sites and there'd be less of a suicide watch.
i dont buy into the spurs fo being complete re ed. Primo had to be rising somewhat but to what extent ? Who knows
Thanks for sharing. I'm starting to see the other side slowly after this pick. How much of other teams' interest was real or just smoke is hard to say, but I'm seeing enough of other teams being interested that I feel less perplexed from a market standpoint, and have to accept that he impressed in closed room situations that we'll never see.
On a tidbit, the article mentions him growing to 6'6" already. I keep seeing that height mentioned. He's 6'4" w/o shoes at the Combine, 6'5" with shoes. I also see talk of growth plates. I'd love for him to grow or actually be taller, but that may be a letdown.
well, . if this is true then I have to acknowledge I was likely wrong. if SA really thought he was the best on the board then you have to take him if other teams are showing interest around 20.
that said, if Sengun develops, man...
At the end there’s mention that because of COVID live scouting was limited this past year and thus in person witnessing of players at the combine reaped benefits for the participants.
Agree with you the combine measurement was 6’4 barefoot and 6’5 in shoes. Easily verifiable. That’s good size for a combo guard which appears at a minimum that the Spurs view him as (they even see him as a potential PG, but that’s still TBD), with good length for his size and he may even grow a little yet bc he’s 18. Not unreasonable to think he can reach 6’6” and will get stronger but if one misrepresents Him as already measuring that then there will be others that expect he will grow to 6’7” and there we are getting to something that may be an unrealistic hope. But he definitely is a kid who may grow a little more yet for sure. He’s already a good enough size.
Now for the Spurs to add some size to the team that’s going to have to happen elsewhere (Free agents, trades -ha! Right!- and future drafts I guess).
Thanks for sharing SAGirl. That’s a good bit of info/opinion. The Spurs obviously see something we don’t. They must see a LOT of potential.
Other teams will say they show interest in a certain player to see if a team will take the bait and draft a player too early. The Spurs went slurp, slurp.
Spurs definitely worked him out so they saw him aside from the combine and he may have smashed his compe ors there. I can see the Spurs knowing other teams that worked him out etc through his agent.
I'm not sure this happens.
agents do it, teams not so much, i mean you can claim it works by subliminal suggestion, but it's not like the spurs would throw away their draft board because the hear Indiana has a hot tip. That's a stupid suggestion.
The spurs absolutely had primo as BPA at 12, no argument. The waffle was trading back and acquiring an asset. That's were this alleged subterfuge would take place.
Damn right it does. It happens constantly. There’s millions of $ at stake. You get all kinds of games being played. Teams, agents, the purveyors of tweets, all play the rumor game, looking for any advantage they can get. And it’s gotten even worse since online gambling. (Think about the odds you could have gotten on a bet a month ago that Primo would be the Spurs pick.) Not saying it happened in this case, but don’t just dismiss the possibility that somebody tried.
Yeah, teams don't do that . There's too much at stake with ing around with players. If anything, teams will hide their interest, but screwing around with expectations of actual players is a no-go.
It's true. Only a stupid FO would start claiming they were after players like that. This isn't fantasy.
There you go. There were multiple teams that were interested in Primo with picks in the late teens, and the Spurs felt they had to take him there and then, otherwise he would be gone. This is consistent with Wright’s post-draft interview when he said the “intel doesn’t always match the mocks.”
The Spurs felt he had untapped potential and better upside than publicly believed. Clearly they weren’t alone in thinking this.
On another note, it's interesting that the article says other teams were "interested" in Primo but the Spurs "loved" him. That means while others liked Primo, it was the Spurs that clearly wanted him the most.
i swear i'm not trying to be a but its "post mortem".
it means "after death" in latin. have a good day.
Do you know what typing with one finger in one tiny cell phone screen does?
Yeah have a good day.
no in this case it's "after morten" -- legendary basketball analyst bob morten used to do the SI draft recaps but RIP
so insensitive
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