2023 draft thread

But we still got “our guy” at 15, and saved some money. What a deal! lol

This is pretty much exactly what I’d hope we’d do with the 27th pick if we thought we didn’t want to have another guaranteed contract on the roster.

https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/1671569492034322438

I think there’s still a big bias against g league players. Guys like Leonard miller and sidy cissoko are way too low in ESPN big boards. I just think there’s a bias to view college players higher.

Glad to see cam Whitmore largely slip down big boards. Projecting him to go as high as 4 or 5 was really wild. No playmaking, low BBIQ, not an efficient scorer, and projects to be a poorer shooting miles bridges. Yikes.

My ideal draft for Charlotte: take scoot at 2, if Taylor Hendricks for any reason is available at pick 9 or 10, if I’m charlotte I’m making aggressive trade offers to Utah at 9 or Dallas at 10 to select Hendricks.

In order to execute the trade with Dallas we’d need to take on some contracts like the bad Bertans deal. But he’d only have one more season after 2023/24 at 16m per season. And the rozier deal has another year after that anyways at 25m through 2025/26.

To step away from this draft with scoot and Hendricks, and trade away a contract of rozier or Hayward would be phenomenal.

Even with this being the final year of the expiring Hayward contract, I still don’t feel like anyone in the league would want to take that on. It would have to be a contract situation in Dallas of players with 2-3 more years that they want to unload to make room for the Kyrie/Luka cap hit.

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I concur with this sentiment.

I don’t know if I’d be down to take on bad money but I’d like to see us try to package 27 and our one million seconds to move up to 15-20

Ideal night we draft Scoot and move up

Worst case night we draft a Thompson twin and take cash for all our seconds

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Yeah I’m anti taking on bad money, but it would have to be for a guy like Taylor Hendricks who I think will be very very good. But I’d still feel kinda meh about it. I love the idea of getting Hendricks but the money to take on is a very hard sell for me.

I’m with you.

I was surprised to hear his name mentioned the way I did earlier this week

Nick Smith Jr falls all the way to 27. LET IT HAPPEN!

Caesars Sportsbook has Scoot at -370 to go 2 and Miller at +200 now.

Lol.

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DK has Scoot -700

I’m wearing my tin foil hat, but I’m not getting any good readings from the mother ship. I’ll try to adjust it as the lines continue to fluctuate.

To back off the Miller/Scoot myopia for a moment, I think a lot of this debate over the last several weeks has updated my view of the league as well as LaMelo Ball. The potential integration of either Brandon or Scoot has reminded me of the ever progressing trends the league is evolving into. It can’t be overstated enough, the league has rapidly departed the tendency to compartmentalize positions, and is evolving towards guards/wings/bigs-who share responsibilities and can do a little of everything.

Whereas in the past having a player who was a triple threat was a weapon, now it’s starting to become more of the expectation. For example, the sudden influx of big men that could shoot threes was treated as some exotic weapon, now it’s almost a requirement.

And this is where I just cannot understand why it matters that both Scoot and Melo run point, and how this is some sort of impediment on roster fit. When the league has rapidly shifted towards an expectation that all 5 positions needing to be triple threats-who cares if you have two competent point guards on the floor together? Fans of Miller love his handling and passing, but Scoot can do these things also, but it’s a potential problem?

If anything, I’ve started to shift my basketball paradigm more fully towards this position-less approach. Why would it be a problem to have two guards who can initiate the offense or be available to push the ball off the defensive rebound or outlet pass?

Melo wants to shoot deep threes, and is fairly competent at this. So let him do it. He likes to push the ball on the break. So let him do it. Ball is not good at aggressively attacking the basket, and the offense can sometimes stagnate in half court sets. I see both Melo and Scoot as combo guards who can do similar things, but also compliment each other’s skillset in different ways. One likes to catch and shoot from deep and throw fancy passes on the break, and the other likes to attack the rim and has a mid range game in half court sets.

So let them do it. The league is moving towards guards who act more as combo guards anyways. We all like “big wings” (like Miller) who have the potential to play multiple positions. There’s PJ, Miles, Oubre, etc.

So let Melo play both on ball and off ball, as a “point guard” or “shooting guard” if that’s what you want to call it. We want wings and players to be positionless, so why would we not want the same for Melo to allow him to play off ball more? He’s a very good shooter, so what’s the problem?

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Well if Scoot is generational then we would have 2 potentiallh generational talents on the roster at the same time. Lets hope that comes to fruition.

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We fans are simply not in a position to know if there’s a problem or not. LaMelo has hinted in the media that he wants the ball in his hands. Behind the scenes, it might be a known fact that he absolutely wants a traditional PG role.

We can sit here and look at them as chess pieces. We can sit here and say, “Well, if I were LaMelo, I’d be willing to play off ball more. It’s a no brainer if you have Scoot.” But we aren’t LaMelo.

Another factor is Clifford, of course.

All I know is that, as a fan, if they pair LaMelo and Scoot, there had better be some free flowing entertaining ballin’ out going on. Maybe if they both rack up the stats/wins, things will be kosher.

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What you’re saying is valid and fit has never been a sticking point for me with Scoot. I can see it working with Melo. But how position-less is Scoot. If you have the option of a highly skilled, highly accomplished wing prospect who may lack the burst of Scoot but has all the other attributes to be a versatile, position-less two way wing…

I’m with you.

  1. I just don’t see scoot’s presence on the team as “taking the ball out of melo’s hands” like other people seem to. Melo is still going to handle the ball, an absolute ton. I just see it as two guys that can interchange ball handling roles and help each other. Modern offenses need to have multiple ball handlers, facilitators.

  2. People act like Melo is going to have some sort of big ego problem with scoot. Melo is one of the most liked guys around the league. He’s a fun young guy that has a light attitude, so when has he been heated about something or had a big ego in the last three seasons?

Melo will never, ever be a leader or an alpha type of guy. Personality wise, that isn’t who he is. To me, Melo would enjoy having Scoot who IS more of that alpha leader, which would keep Melo in his comfort zone of who he is. But Henderson is so humble, he doesn’t bring the destructive ego that comes with guys who bring that leader/alpha mindset.

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the term generational is not being used correctly

Yes, we get it. But you aren’t LaMelo. You aren’t the PG who’s already hinted in the media that he wants the ball in his hands more. Let’s not forget that he can make phenomenal passes. So it really doesn’t matter how WE see it. It’s about the human beings participating in it.

I’m reminded of Run TMC with Mullin/Richmond/Hardaway. Don Nelson would tell those guys, “You don’t have to run any plays tonight. Just go out and share the ball.” Some kind of updated version of that would be cool. Get Charlotte rockin’ with some high octane, unpredictable offense courtesy of Scoot, LaMelo, etc.

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