Very nice Dwight Howard article

[slinslin]

He is a very good defender. That's what makes him much better.

 

[Chaplin]

Ummm

I think I would much rather have Tayshaun Prince, Carlos Boozer, Dan Gadzuric, Flip Murray than Casey Jacobsen.

I think I would rather have Josh Howard, Boris Diaw and maybe Zaza Pachulia than Zarko.


If we drafted perfectly we would have taken Boozer in 2002, and Josh Howard in 2003.
Boozer is much better than Zarko and Josh is much better than Casey.

And we could still get Luke Jackson with the Cavs pick who is at least as good as Casey IMO.

Hindsight is 20/20 as they say. So who you'd rather have is irrelevant. You probably wanted Prince more than Casey on draft day, but those other guys, you're basing on their performance this season.

 

[George O'Brien]

Everyone is brilliant in hindsight. Since I was one pushing to take Boozer, I enjoy the chance to say "told you so". But everyone in the NBA blundered too. Josh Howard and Boozer may have suffered from too much exposure, but Boozer's biggest problem was that he was overweight in college. He lost a lot of weight before going into the NBA, but the scouts already had made up their minds.

There are a number of players that were taken ahead of Carbakapa that have not shown much either. Darko has been healthy all season and hasn't played hardly at all. Sweetney has just begun to get minutes. Troy Bell and Marcus Banks have not shown much. Reece Gaines is considered a total failure. Collison has been injured all season.

Are they all total failures? Give them a year or two. Some will simply not make it. As for whether Zarko will be a solid player, I am still hopeful he will be. The talent is there, but he has a lot of conditioning to do and needs to work at lot on his defense. But as many people have pointed out, Dirk wasn't a super star his first season either and he wasn't slammed with injuries.

 

[Joe Mama]

Tayshaun Prince is a much better player than Casey Jacobsen at this point. He's a much better defender. He may not be shooting as well from beyond the arc, but he is a better and more versatile scorer. It was a mistake to pass on him. That's the guy I wanted at the time of the draft.

There's no doubt in my mind that Carlos boozer would have been getting regular minutes here in Phoenix. Look at the guys the Suns have been starting at Center. Are you guys honestly saying that with their love of small ball Carlos boozer and Amare Stoudemire wouldn't play a lot together? I say they would have.

Really the point of all of this was slin's lame attempt to show that the Phoenix Suns scouting is not as great as we all think. He does this by pointing out one mistake (the Cabarkapa example is bad) the Scouts have made over the last several years.

Joe Mama

 

[SweetD]

The Suns were drafting for need and Casey was the best fit. We needed an shooter and Casey was one of the best coming in to the draft. We needed a SG and he fit the bill. We didn't need to go under sized center ala Boozer or a skiny sf to play back up minutes behind JJ and Penny. I am sorry I just don't agree with everyone that says they new Boozer was going to be as good as he is. The draft is about luck and at the position Casey was picked it was about need not what ifs.

 

[George O'Brien]

Tayshaun Prince is a much better player than Casey Jacobsen at this point. He's a much better defender. He may not be shooting as well from beyond the arc, but he is a better and more versatile scorer. It was a mistake to pass on him. That's the guy I wanted at the time of the draft.

There's no doubt in my mind that Carlos boozer would have been getting regular minutes here in Phoenix. Look at the guys the Suns have been starting at Center. Are you guys honestly saying that with their love of small ball Carlos boozer and Amare Stoudemire wouldn't play a lot together? I say they would have.

Really the point of all of this was slin's lame attempt to show that the Phoenix Suns scouting is not as great as we all think. He does this by pointing out one mistake (the Cabarkapa example is bad) the Scouts have made over the last several years.

Joe Mama

I agree. The Jacobsen pick was a "need" pick. The Suns needed a Steve Kerr pure shooter to come off the bench and hit threes. He is actually a better overall player than they expected, but by drafting a role player they passed on some better overal prospects.

Drafting for "need" or drafting the "BPA" is always a tough call. This year the Suns could easily face the question of whether they should take another combo guard if that is the BPA even though there are other, more ugrent needs.

Even BPA is a bit confusing. One player may be able to produce more quickly but has less upside than another. How much more upside and how much longer to wait? So even if both have equal value as BPA, which is the better choice?

 

[Joe Mama]

The Suns were drafting for need and Casey was the best fit. We needed an shooter and Casey was one of the best coming in to the draft. We needed a SG and he fit the bill. We didn't need to go under sized center ala Boozer or a skiny sf to play back up minutes behind JJ and Penny. I am sorry I just don't agree with everyone that says they new Boozer was going to be as good as he is. The draft is about luck and at the position Casey was picked it was about need not what ifs.

I know Casey Jacobsen was a great scorer in college, but I'm not sure that he was necessarily a great shooter. I can't remember exactly. I thought his three-point percentage was something like 36% in college. That's pretty average. The thing about Prince is that he had the ballhandling skills and shooting to play the 2. He does it at times for Detroit.

Joe Mama

 

[F-Dog]

Jacobsen was the bail-out shooter for that Stanford team. In the games I saw, he took a lot of shots with a high DoD--it's not like he was standing open on the line and clanking them.


Boozer is a nice player, but so was Gary Trent. Boozer is still short, and he's still a terrible defender; I don't think he's fit to play PF in the Western Conference, especially on a team without a true center. Boozer and Amare together in small ball would give up a ton of points.

Prince is the guy I wanted, and I agree that he's the better player. People in Detroit aren't exactly thrilled with him, though--hell, a few might even prefer Casey. ;-) IIRC, the problem is that Prince's shooting seems to have gone downhill lately.


The thing with Casey is that he's turning into a player the Suns can use--a role player who can shoot threes, plays smart and with discipline and can hold his own on defense. Plus, he's a guy who probably won't be asking for a ton of money down the road.

I feel better about that pick now than I did when they made it, that's for sure.


As for the #1 pick, IMO it's going to come down to the players' true heights. If the Suns get lucky, but both players turn out to be shorter than listed (say, 6'8" for Okafor, 6'10" for Howard), I expect the Suns will try to trade down.

From the latest JC chatter, it sounds as though the Suns have already targeted their guy, if they stay in the mid-lotto area. I'm still holding out hope that it's Perovic...

 

[SweetD]

I'm still holding out hope that it's Perovic...

Not sure I agree with you. He seems to be a Big Jake Look a like and I think that didn't work the way we wanted and might move us away from Perovic.

 

[F-Dog]

Not sure I agree with you. He seems to be a Big Jake Look a like and I think that didn't work the way we wanted and might move us away from Perovic.

The difference is, Perovic is supposed to be very agile for his size--agility was the main problem with Big Jake.

Perovic is also supposed to be very smart.


Maybe he sucks anyway, though--if that's the case, I'm sure the Suns will take someone else.

 

[Joe Mama]

With the limited knowledge I have about the players in the draft (except Okafor), Perovic is my early choice as well.

Joe Mama

 

[JS22]

This guy is 250 pounds?

You must be registered for see images

 

[George O'Brien]

The difference is, Perovic is supposed to be very agile for his size--agility was the main problem with Big Jake.

Perovic is also supposed to be very smart.

Maybe he sucks anyway, though--if that's the case, I'm sure the Suns will take someone else.

There are five Euro big men that get discussed as possible lottery picks:

Pavel Podkolzine Ht: 7-5 Wt: 303
Martynas Andriuskevicius Ht: 7-2 Wt: 240
Kosta Perovic Ht: 7-3 Wt: 240
Andris Biedrins Ht: 6-11 Wt: 240
Predrag Samardziski Ht: 6-11 Wt: 245

They are all very young, inexperienced, and have not played much against top level opposition. No one knows which ones will make themselves available nor how they will test out when the come to the combine.

It's too bad the Olympics are after the draft. It would be nice to see some of these guys against serious competition.

 

[slinslin]

This guy is 250 pounds?

You realize that those pictures most likely are older than 1 week?

He might not even be 17 in that picture.

 

[PhxGametime]

The pic says 2001 on it - although he is built like Theo Ratliff game I saw against Randolph Morris this year...

 

[JS22]

I didnt even notice the 2001 on the picture. I just automatically assumed a pic would be more recent than 3 years.