• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

2019 NBA Draft Lottery

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
In a hunt to find potential superstars when picking at #5, I think you need to look hard at either Bol Bol or Sekou Doumbouya. Both are a work in progress but are big, young and athletic. And since you are looking to hit the lottery draw next season, you don't need them to be impactful from day one.
 
Zion sort of reminds me of the "Best Case" scenario that I imagined for Anthony Bennett back in the day. An athletic "Fat Forward" , ala Charles Barkley, who can do many things.

Zion is just much more athletic than Bennett and he seems to have his head screwed on right. Hard to imagine him failing. Zion's biggest weakness seems to be his stomach. Seems like the guy could go over 300 lbs if he takes a week vacation. Not a problem when you are 20. Could end your career when you are 27 if you get too heavy for your cartilage or tarsal bones.

Cavs could still grab a quality piece at #5. I just don't know who it is right now.
 
One has to find it funny that a (at this moment) generational player has been exiled to NBA siberia because of this bullshit.

Really doesn't look good for the league.

A lot of people in the NBA felt that way about the 2003 draft, and Cleveland's climate is a lot closer to Siberia than New Orleans'. Screw the major market cities. I don't need to see Boston or NY or LA or Chicago get Zion. I'm glad a small town got him. Plus Stephen A is pissed off -- that alone is worth it.

I heard Frank Isola on NBA radio briefly this morning. He was actually very good along with his broadcast partner. They were clearly bummed about the Knicks, but very happy for Griff (who had a show on that Sirius / XM channel). They were hilarious when they started talking about how Griff prays to ALL the gods, he beat out the Knicks who stiffed him, passed up Cleveland, passed up LeBron, passed up the Suns -- as they said, he was Michael Corleone and he took out ALL of the families. They even made a very nice reference to Nick Gilbert, and pointed out that it's now Griff, not Nick. Great stuff.

They also went on about how the NBA is happy that tanking took a hit and it's better for the NBA that tanking teams did not get rewarded. Isola is a Knicks guy -- but he works on NBA Radio so maybe Silver can fire him, don't know. Isola lost his NY Daily News gig so he probably needs to eat.

It was Griff all along ...
 
So, now that the NBA has "fixed" bad teams from gaming the draft, when are we going to see them "fix" the large market teams from gaming free agency? The Knicks are such a poorly run franchise that any other owner would've won a title with them by now with how unbalanced free agency is. Will be interesting to see if they get rewarded Irving & Durant despite being the league laughingstock since the 90s.

If they do sign there, how would that be any better than the bottom 3-4 teams tanking for draft position?
 
The Lakers MOVING UP 7 SPOTS is what rigged it for me. That was strictly done to get Lebron his what, 4th superteam? Sometime by Iuly you will hear AD to Lakers and boom, Lebron has his superteam,,,,all made possible by a riiged ass draft lottery.

Makes the pick worth more, but #4 doesn't instantly give him a super team. Outside the big 3, the pick isn't that valuable. I think you are talking more on emotion than actual logic.

The format worked, it just sucks the year we suck again is the year they want to stop rewarding tanking....which we clearly did. Love played maybe in half the games he could of played.

We had some major lottery luck in the past, especially the Kyrie one. We sold our soul for that title, now that Lebron has left we are into the suck for 5-6 years phase. At this point lets suck for one more year, keep next years top 10 pick, then hopefully this years rookies and sexton and others come together and start to make the playoffs.

We won a title, now we suck. Before title all of us would do anything for that title. This is what happens in the NBA
 
Zion sort of reminds me of the "Best Case" scenario that I imagined for Anthony Bennett back in the day. An athletic "Fat Forward" , ala Charles Barkley, who can do many things.

Zion is just much more athletic than Bennett and he seems to have his head screwed on right. Hard to imagine him failing. Zion's biggest weakness seems to be his stomach. Seems like the guy could go over 300 lbs if he takes a week vacation. Not a problem when you are 20. Could end your career when you are 27 if you get too heavy for your cartilage or tarsal bones.

Cavs could still grab a quality piece at #5. I just don't know who it is right now.

Zion is big, not fat. Not even close to fat actually, he is a beast.

And everytime I watch him play I do see a more athletic Barkley, yet Barkley was very athletic back in the day. Sucks we don't get him, but I am really hoping Davis stays as a basketball fan, would love to see that frontcourt.
 
Bol Bol is my guy. Swing for the fences. What's the point of making a "safe" pick at this point in the rebuild?

Bol was considered a top 5-6 guy by just about everyone before the injury. He is supposedly going to be cleared to play in 3-4 weeks. If the Cavs don't feel it is a career-long risk, then take him. The guy was crazy good when he did play.

21 ppg, 9.6 rebs, 2.7 blk

7'2 with a 7'8 wingspan. Not a big sample size, but he showed great touch shooting 13-25 from 3 and 76% from the line.

He has a ton of the Porzingis "Unicorn" qualities where you just don't see guys his size able to do the things he does. He can put the ball on floor, shoot turn around fade aways, eurostep, etc.
 
In a hunt to find potential superstars when picking at #5, I think you need to look hard at either Bol Bol or Sekou Doumbouya. Both are a work in progress but are big, young and athletic. And since you are looking to hit the lottery draw next season, you don't need them to be impactful from day one.

I wouldn’t mind Bol Bol but not at 5. No way. I’d try to move up with the rockets pick up get him. He’ll probably be there on the early teens.
 
You literally don’t get good players at every pick. Someone will inevitably throw out “Giannis was drafted at 15”. Ok, cool. Now list every non lottery pick in that same range, over the last 30 years . 1 transcendent, aberration is an argument for possibly introducing perpetual mediocrity for truly bad team? Why is this nonsense repeated by people who pay any attention to the draft?

Go count the number of teams who have won a title without a top 3 pick on their roster. Even the last two Golden Sate teams have featured a top 2 pick. Talent wins in the NBA and the only way for 90% of the league to get it is through the draft. The NBA just made that harder to provide disincentive for a couple teams. That’s just really short sighted.

Silver could have easily addressed this similar to the luxury tax, where there is a repeater version of lottery odds. Or even stipulations in place where a team can’t get a top 5 pick in back to back years......or if a team gets #1 overall, they can’t get another top 3 pick for 3 years.......this wasn’t that hard to fix so it didn’t destroy the teams that are truly bad.

You can get a good player with any pick. You can get a bad player at any pick. The number 1 does not guarantee a good player. The 30th pick does not guarantee a bad one.

The odds favor good players at high picks, but it’s not written in stone. We are not screwed because we pick at 5. We would not be save if we got number 1. Just have more options (to succeed or fail).

This reaction is recency bias, because this means we can be the 8th worst team and have better odds to get the number 1 pick moving forward. It hurt us this year, sure, but you can already feel how much less tanking is valuable. That means players will get to play even if playoffs are out of the picture. It means better basketball.
 
- Zion is not ripped, but he’s not far from it. he clearly has a physique that can add pounds of any sort, very easily. He’s probably on PED’s, like most pro athletes, but I don’t care about that.
- Does anyone really see Zion getting fat and lazy? I guess it’s always possible but he seems to have a real passion for the game when he’s on the court. Seeing his reaction to going to New Orleans may be a cause for concern when paired with Cajun food, but again, who knows? To maintain his moderate BF%, he probably eats quite a bit or at least isn’t fond of cardio when he isn’t playing. I’d be pretty concerned about him ballooning IF he suffered a catastrophic injury like an ACL.
- I’ve been saying it for months, but there’s something odd about his gait. I’d have him run on one of those gait analysis machines to see how he’s loading his kinetic chain. I’m guessing it wouldn’t manifest until he’s older, but it’s good to know.
- He’s like LeBron in that he doesn’t really valgus knees. It’s one of the reasons LeBron has never suffered a major knee injury. Most NBA players are explosive but simultaneously weak in some areas, which can lead to injury. Zion looks strong and explosive in the legs. I haven’t looked at his landing technique closely
 
- Zion is not ripped, but he’s not far from it. he clearly has a physique that can add pounds of any sort, very easily. He’s probably on PED’s, like most pro athletes, but I don’t care about that.
- Does anyone really see Zion getting fat and lazy? I guess it’s always possible but he seems to have a real passion for the game when he’s on the court. Seeing his reaction to going to New Orleans may be a cause for concern when paired with Cajun food, but again, who knows? To maintain his moderate BF%, he probably eats quite a bit or at least isn’t fond of cardio when he isn’t playing. I’d be pretty concerned about him ballooning IF he suffered a catastrophic injury like an ACL.
- I’ve been saying it for months, but there’s something odd about his gait. I’d have him run on one of those gait analysis machines to see how he’s loading his kinetic chain. I’m guessing it wouldn’t manifest until he’s older, but it’s good to know.

His gait reminds me of Isiah Thomas. He might have some hip pathology there.

Though it doesn't matter as his muscles and strength will protect his body and hip. I don't think it's an issue.
 

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-13: "Backup Bash Brothers"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:11: "Clipping Bucks."
Top