With the 4th Overall Pick, The Knicks Take… Who?
The New York Knicks are in the unenviable position of wanting to win right now but needing a to improve at just about every position in order to do so. There probably isn’t another team so ill-equipped to make a playoff run that is not trying to rebuild. Carmelo Anthony, at the age where most players hit their physical peak, is surrounded by a cast with little NBA experience and that Knicks fans would be hard pressed to be able to name. But yet, he is under contract until 2019 so it seems like the team is committed to winning with him. So with the goal of winning now, you’d think the Knicks would try and fill out the team with rookies ready to contribute immediately, right?
Well, in one of the deepest drafts in recent memory and with the highest pick the team has had since 1985, the New York Knicks selected Kristaps Porzingis, a 19-year old 7’1” Latvian who played
professional ball in Spain for the last few seasons. Now, I’m not going to pretend I know much about him or his game, because I don’t. All I know about Porzingis is from what I see in his highlight reels and what I read about him from scouts. What I do know is that he isn’t NBA ready and does not look prepared to contribute to a team that wants to make a any sort of a run in the playoffs in the next couple of years. He is a thin big man who can shoot, but doesn’t seem to have a good nose for getting rebounds or being physical. The issue with picking a player who was overseas is that stats and highlights are often water downed due to a lack of competition, even if he did play in the ACB in Spain, which is considered the second best pro league in the world behind the NBA. League history is riddled with horror stories of big, thin European players who are known as “stretch 4s.” For every Dirk Nowitzki there are 50 Nikoloz Tskitishvilis (5th overall, 2002), Darko Milicics (2nd overall, 2003), Andrea Bargnanis (1st overall, 2006), and Jan Veselys (6th overall, 2011). Knicks fans remember Frederic Weis I’m sure. The 15th overall pick in 1999 that never even suited up in the NBA and is best known for taking Vince Carter’s crotch to the face in one of the most epic posterizations you’ll ever see. Bottom line, taking Porzingis was a big risk the Knicks did not need to take. Unless they plan on trading ‘Melo and truly starting to rebuild, it makes no sense.
professional ball in Spain for the last few seasons. Now, I’m not going to pretend I know much about him or his game, because I don’t. All I know about Porzingis is from what I see in his highlight reels and what I read about him from scouts. What I do know is that he isn’t NBA ready and does not look prepared to contribute to a team that wants to make a any sort of a run in the playoffs in the next couple of years. He is a thin big man who can shoot, but doesn’t seem to have a good nose for getting rebounds or being physical. The issue with picking a player who was overseas is that stats and highlights are often water downed due to a lack of competition, even if he did play in the ACB in Spain, which is considered the second best pro league in the world behind the NBA. League history is riddled with horror stories of big, thin European players who are known as “stretch 4s.” For every Dirk Nowitzki there are 50 Nikoloz Tskitishvilis (5th overall, 2002), Darko Milicics (2nd overall, 2003), Andrea Bargnanis (1st overall, 2006), and Jan Veselys (6th overall, 2011). Knicks fans remember Frederic Weis I’m sure. The 15th overall pick in 1999 that never even suited up in the NBA and is best known for taking Vince Carter’s crotch to the face in one of the most epic posterizations you’ll ever see. Bottom line, taking Porzingis was a big risk the Knicks did not need to take. Unless they plan on trading ‘Melo and truly starting to rebuild, it makes no sense.
It’s easy to criticize the pick without providing other viable options. Well, here are some thoughts. My obsession with D’Angelo Russell has been well documented. When he was taken 2nd overall by the Los Angeles Lakers, my heart dropped. So without Russell, if the Knicks were intent on keeping the pick, point guard Emmanuel Mudiay would have been an easier pill to swallow. Mudiay, who skipped out on a year of college at SMU to play professional basketball for a year in China, is in a similar boat as Porzingis, a mystery man who played abroad and is a risk simply based on the fact that he played against less superior competition abroad. I would not have been happy about the Knicks picking Mudiay, but he does look like less of a project and a more complete player.
The best option I think the Knicks could have made was to try and trade down to a lower spot in the lottery. It seemed like there were teams who wanted to move up in the draft and maybe take the risk on Porzingis. Trading the number 4 pick for a more veteran player and a pick in the 8 to 14 range would have worked out very well. Players linked to those kinds of trades were Eric Bledsoe from the Phoenix Suns and Roy Hibbert from the Indiana Pacers. Getting hold of one of those players while then drafting someone like Cameron Payne from Murray State or Justice Winslow from Duke would have given the Knicks more pieces necessary to fill out a skeleton of a roster that looks more like a D-League lineup than an NBA one.
With just one pick in the draft this year, the Knicks maneuvered their way to collecting two more, an extra first and one second. New York sent Tim Hardaway, Jr. to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for the 19th overall pick, which turned into former Notre Dame star Jerian Grant. I guess the idea here was to try and improve the ball handling in the backcourt, but I just don’t completely get the move. Hardaway was continuing to improve on all assets of his game and although I am not dismayed that he was traded, I think the Knicks could have gotten more for him. Grant did score a lot in college and was a Naismith Award finalist this past year, but it looks like his production was more of a result of him being the man on his college team. He did not shoot particularly well and made a habit of bad shot selections. Grant, the son of former NBA-er Harvey Grant, brings a little bit of everything to the guard position, but can he produce when he does not have the ball in his hands for most of the game? Remember, he’s going to have to play with Carmelo Anthony, which means a lot of standing around, moving without the ball, and needing to hit shots when your man sags off to help on defense. The other pick was Guillermo Hernangomez 35th overall, who the Knicks received from the Philadelphia 76ers for two future second rounder. I know nothing about Hernangomez other than he was a teammate of Porzingis in Spain and does not seem intent on coming over to the NBA for at least another year. The only thing I don’t like about this trade is giving up two second round pick. Draft picks are valuable and the Knicks don’t have many of them in upcoming drafts.
My final word, I’m all for rebuilding the Knicks from the ground up and I would actually prefer it. The organization, though, seems to be in this weird limbo where they want to commit to Carmelo Anthony through the end of his contract, 2019, but also wants to take the time to develop young immature players.
Winners
Adrian Wojnarowski
The Yahoo! And Fox Sports reporter made ESPN look silly by tweeting out the selection of just about every first round pick minutes before Adam Silver announced it on television. Woj, who in my opinion is the best NBA insider around, was on top of his game during the draft with picks and trades. With only a handful of people who could possibly know each selection before it is officially announced, the NBA and ESPN better find out who was leaking this information because otherwise the allure of a live, televised draft goes out the window pretty quickly.
Miami Heat
I was adamant about Justice Winslow not being quite good enough to go in the top 5, which is where many mock drafts seemed to have him. However, I was surprised that he slid all the way to 10, where the Heat finally snatched him up. Winslow is built for the NBA and is a very good defender. He needs to work more on his offensive game, but with his skills right now, not to mention his potential, this is a very good selection for a Heat team hoping to re-sign Dwayne Wade this offseason as well as planning for the post-Wade era. Winslow does not have too much to contribute on offense right now, but he will be able very good defender in this league and has the ball handling skills to develop on the other side of the court.
D’Angelo Russell
The whole year, all indications suggested that Karl-Anthony Towns and Jahlil Okafor would go 1-2 in the draft. As the draft got closer, it was clear that Towns would edge out Okafor as the top pick. Still, it was fully expected for those two players to be the top two selections and that the real draft would not start until the third pick, when the dominoes would really start to fall. The Los Angeles Lakers, however, threw us a curveball and selected Russell over Okafor, who went third to the Sixers. I am 100% all for this pick. I had never been a big fan of Okafor and was adamant about Russell being the most talented player in this year’s draft class. Russell comes out a huge winner here because instead of being stuck in Philadelphia, where they seem to be in a black hole of a rebuilding phase, he winds up in L.A., a much better market where he can learn and improve with the help of Kobe Bryant. This section could technically be dedicated to the Lakers being a draft winner, but I figured that was too easy a choice since they had the second overall pick in the draft. So I went with Russell, who I got to see a lot of in college and cannot wait to see him develop in Los Angeles. His vision and ball handling skills are incredible, especially for such a young player. His shooting needs some work, but Kobe will certainly help out with that. Russell gets to enjoy his time in the sun while Phili continues to do whatever Phili is doing.
Losers
Jalen Rose
The ESPN analyst took some well-deserved heat on the Internet, some of it by current NBA players, for his strange comparisons between rookies being drafted and veteran counterparts. The judgments seemed to be less about actual skill set and more about a player’s dominant hand or skin color. He started early by comparing D’Angelo Russell to Lenny Wilkens, players with an age difference of about 60 years and whose biggest resemblance seems to be that they are both lefties. The evaluations continued with Mario Hezonja and Chandler Parsons, Frank Kaminsky and Ryan Anderson, and Devin Booker and Klay Thompson, among others. Notice anything? He liked pairing white players with other white players and black players to other black players, often the two players looked alike.
One of the reasons he mentioned for comparing European guard Henzonja to Parsons was that Henzonja is coming in as probably the most confident player in the draft. Parsons, according to Rose, has confidence because he needs to based on some of the fashion choices he makes. There you go, both players are white and have confidence, one on the court and one off the court. They must play the same way.
As a Wisconsin fan, I find the Kaminsky/Anderson comparison especially appalling. Not that Anderson isn’t a good player, he is. But they have fewer things in common than they have in common. Anderson is primarily known as a three point shooting forward that doesn’t spend too much time in the paint or dribbling the ball. Kaminsky is a center that, yes, can shoot the three but his biggest asset lies in his footwork and ability to put the ball on the floor. Yet they are both white big men who can shoot the three, and that is good enough for Rose.
Boston Celtics
The Celtics desperately wanted to move up into the lottery. So much so that is was reported they offered the Charlotte Hornets six total picks, four in the first round and two in the second, in exchange for the 9th overall. The Hornets declined and the Celtics, with both the 16th and 28th picks in the draft, selected guards Terry Rozier from Louisville and RJ Hunter from Georgia State. Boston; with Marcus Smart, Isaiah Thomas, and Avery Bradley; seems to have a solid structure in the backcourt, so taking two guards with your two picks in the first round is a bit of a head scratcher. Rozier is a good player but seems like a stretch in the middle of the first round. He’ll be a dog on defense after playing for Rick Pitino, but he does not seem to have too much of an offensive game and may struggle to find playing time in a crowded backcourt. Hunter seems to be the complete opposite. He’s a volume three-point shooter who averaged 19.7 points per game last season at Georgia State, but only shot 30.5% from three. He grabbed national attention after hitting the game winning three in a first round upset over Baylor in this year’s NCAA tournament, but if he cannot hit from deep consistently in the NBA, he will not be able to last very long. Jordan Mickey is a solid second round pick out of LSU who will bring energy, but it seemed like the Celtics whiffed in the first round after not being able to trade up. They also drafted Marcus Thornton out of William & Mary in the middle of the second round. The only reason I can think of for those two first round picks is that they want to try and stock up on talent with the hopes of making a sign-and-trade to land a top tier free agent this summer.
Young Players Using Social Media
Last night we had three examples of a player’s tweet from years ago coming back to bite them. Frank Kaminsky, during his time at Wisconsin and when the Charlotte Hornets were still the Bobcats, tweeted out “…"I know the NBA has their crazy fans and all, but . . . there are games when teams like the Bobcats get hardly any fans, and it looks flat-out boring." He wound up getting selected by the now Charlotte Hornets and has since edited the post. But wait, it gets worse.
Bobby Portis, the forward out of Arkansas, was apparently a huge Miami Heat fan (or just a LeBron James fan) back in 2011. During that time, he sent out a couple of tweets, one about Bulls MVP point guard Derrick Rose and one about then-Los Angeles Lakers forward Pau Gasol. Here’s what he said about Rose: “…it don’t matter fam!!! Fxck D Rose and tha Bulls! #teamHeat over here” And the one for Gasol: Pau Gasol not as good as everybody think/say!” Well, guess where he got drafted? That’s right, the Chicago Bulls, where he will be a teammate of both Rose and Gasol. Portis responded after he was drafted with a tweet that said “Bulls Nation sorry for the tweets I sent 4 years ago. I was a boy then. I'm a man now. And a Bull. DRose, Pau, what kinda donuts yall like?”
Finally, Larry Nance, Jr. in 2012 poked fun at Kobe Bryant and his rape charges in Colorado when he sent out a tweet that said “Gee I sure hope Kobe can keep his hands to himself in Denver this time… #rapist” And with the 27th pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, the Los Angeles Lakers select Larry Nance, Jr.
Let this be a lesson to everyone, the Internet does not forget anything.
Sleepers
Tyus Jones
It pains mean to say this considering how he pretty much single handedly beat the Wisconsin Badgers in the Finals of the NCAA Tournament, but this kid is good. He is not very big , he’s listed as 6’2” but that seems quite generous, and he is not particularly quick, but when he needs to step up, you better believe he steps up and hits big time shots in big games and down the stretch. Jones was selected 24th overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers and then traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves. At the very least, I see Jones as a quality backup point guard in the league. I see a lot of Aaron Brooks in him, both are undersized but can bring a scoring spark off the bench.
Montrezl Harrell
Harrell, a Louisville product, has issues on the offensive end that he needs to improve on. However, he is a high motor player who is tenacious on the defensive end and on the boards. Taking a guy like that with the 32nd overall pick in the draft should be worth it for the Houston Rockets. He is unbelievably athletic and a great rim protector who will fight for every rebound that caroms off the rim. He may never develop into an offensive threat, but his intangibles should be enough to contribute to any team, especially one poised for another run in the playoffs.
Robert Upshaw
Upshaw is one of the biggest question marks in this draft, which is why he went undrafted. He has the size and skills to be an NBA center, but the questions lay in what sits between his ears. Is he too mentally immature for the NBA? Upshaw began his college career at Fresno State, where he was dismissed after his freshman year for violating team rules. He sat out the necessary season due to NCAA transfer rules before starting up again at the University of Washington where, early in 2015, he was dismissed once again for violating team rules. Upshaw, who is listed as a seven footer with wingspan longer than 7’5”, can become a very good rim protector and rebounder if he can get his head straight. That “if” seems to be getting bigger and bigger though.
Shout Outs
Need to take the time to mention the kids from Wisconsin, Frank Kaminsky (9th overall, Charlotte Hornets) and Sam Dekker (18th overall, Houston Rockets). Frank The Tank sported a coat at the draft with two pictures of tanks stitched on the inside. He will get to play under the watchful eye of His Airness, Michael Jordan, as well as partner up with the underrated Al Jefferson. That duo of Jefferson and Kaminsky I see working well because of how they complement each other. Both have very good footwork; Jefferson uses his on the block while Kaminsky takes advantage of his on the outside.
Dekker will be along side one of the top players in the NBA, James Harden. I think Dekker’s skills were hindered by Wisconsin coach Bo Ryan’s swing offense, where everything is slowed down and there is more of a focus on ball movement and running down the shot clock. Once Dekker gets out and runs in the Rockets’ fast paced, up-tempo offense, we’ll see a player who can create off the dribble. He is not just a three-point shooter, but he does need to get more consistent from deep if Harden is going to be commanding double teams. Dekker will be able to flaunt his ball handling and ability to get to the rim in Houston, and I think the Rockets are going to see that they were lucky he fell to them at 18.
My pick for Rookie of the Year: D’Angelo Russell. He is the most talented player in this draft class and, with his playmaking ability, will hopefully be able help Kobe remain fresh for the end of the season/playoffs. Russell is a jack-of-all-trades player; he’ll contribute in a number of ways both on and off the stats sheet. The only thing that may stop this pick from coming to fruition is how much Kobe wants the ball in his hands this year.
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