2013 NBA Draft

[Off-Season God]

Oladipo double WOW vs Bucks. Oop reverse, then steal, monster slam. Potential.

Gotta get that Laker's pick!

["Boobie" Gibson]

Gotta get that Laker's pick!

No.

Oladipo will be a top-10 pick minimum come season's end. The mocks have this one completely wrong. I'd say top-6 but I'm being a little conservative. The guy can literally do it all.

[Scholar]

No.

Oladipo will be a top-10 pick minimum come season's end. The mocks have this one completely wrong. I'd say top-6 but I'm being a little conservative. The guy can literally do it all.

The player is a junior. You have to temper your analysis somewhat due to this fact. I like him too. But, I am not so sure that he'll be top 6. Though, I don't see top 10 as an unreasonable possibility. That does mean that the Laker's pick could be important as part of a package. Something like Laker's pick plus young player for the pick that we use to take Oladipo. We also have 2 high 2nds that could be used as part of that package.

[Randolphkeys]

I like to throw an obscure small school player with West Coast ties into every draft conversation, so I need to start pumping Matthew Dellavedova. The kid isn't much of a defender, but I love how he runs an offense. Mark my words that he is going to be a high end backup point guard in the NBA by 2014. Watch a St. Mary game if you get the chance. Worse things could happen in the second round than securing his rights.

[Be Nimble]

Oladipo being a Junior is not really that big of a deal. The problem with drafting the upper classmen is that usually they have either mostly filled out their bodies or have already had years to work on their game and you are pretty much seeing what you are getting with some eventual refinement. (Tyler Zeller)

Oladipo voids both of those. He is already an elite NBA athlete with an NBA body. There are no concerns about him being near his max potential with how much he has improved. Teams drafting him will expect much more improvement....and even if he doesn't improve a ton, teams will still be very happy with what he brings to the table...think Kawhi Leonard. No one was banking on him developing a 3 ball but he's shooting 40% from outside now.

[jwalker1399]

Oladipo being a Junior is not really that big of a deal. The problem with drafting the upper classmen is that usually they have either mostly filled out their bodies or have already had years to work on their game and you are pretty much seeing what you are getting with some eventual refinement. (Tyler Zeller)

Oladipo voids both of those. He is already an elite NBA athlete with an NBA body. There are no concerns about him being near his max potential with how much he has improved. Teams drafting him will expect much more improvement....and even if he doesn't improve a ton, teams will still be very happy with what he brings to the table...think Kawhi Leonard. No one was banking on him developing a 3 ball but he's shooting 40% from outside now.

You could say that about every single NBA draft pick....

[NtG]

You could say that about every single NBA draft pick....

Not true, Oladipo has improved immensely over one offseason and there is no reason to believe that he won't improve even more next year, however, someone like T. Zeller who hadn't really improved that much year to year shouldn't be expected to make leaps and bounds in development throughout his pro career.

I'm not advocating taking Oladipo in the top 10, but I would love to get him with a later pick, or if we trade back into the lottery like we did for Zeller last year.

[STAT]

Not true, Oladipo has improved immensely over one offseason and there is no reason to believe that he won't improve even more next year, however, someone like T. Zeller who hadn't really improved that much year to year shouldn't be expected to make leaps and bounds in development throughout his pro career.

I'm not advocating taking Oladipo in the top 10, but I would love to get him with a later pick, or if we trade back into the lottery like we did for Zeller last year.

This really isn't accurate.

Tyler Zeller's year to year improvement in college: FR - 3.1 PPG (47.2 FG%) 2.0 RPG in 7.8 MPG
SO - 9.3 PPG (52.1 FG%) 4.6 RPG in 17.4 MPG
JR - 15.7 PPG (54.9 FG%) 7.2 RPG in 28.1 MPG
SR - 16.3 PPG (55.3 FG%) 9.6 RPG in 28.2 MPG

His PER, Defensive Rating, TS%, TRB%, AST%, and BLK% all increased dramatically over his career.

Zeller was basically unplayable as a Freshman; by the time he was a Senior, he was a consensus All-American.

By the logic you've employed to deduce Oladipo's ceiling, it would certainly seem that Zeller is not "maxed out" either.

[ajz20]

Looking at the box score for the Maryland game. How the hell does Len only get the ball 6 times? I would get him 15-18 touches a game to at the very least force a double team;. What the hell is wrong with the Maryland coaches, I wish he was playing somewhere else!

[wuck]

Looking at the box score for the Maryland game. How the hell does Len only get the ball 6 times? I would get him 15-18 touches a game to at the very least force a double team;. What the hell is wrong with the Maryland coaches, I wish he was playing somewhere else!

On the bright side, the less he is used, the further he potentially falls in the draft?

[jwalker1399]

Not true, Oladipo has improved immensely over one offseason and there is no reason to believe that he won't improve even more next year, however, someone like T. Zeller who hadn't really improved that much year to year shouldn't be expected to make leaps and bounds in development throughout his pro career.

I'm not advocating taking Oladipo in the top 10, but I would love to get him with a later pick, or if we trade back into the lottery like we did for Zeller last year.

Please explain, by your reasoning, why he struggled more during his Sophomore season at IU compared to his Freshman year..... His PPG improved only because he got more minutes and shots.

I just see an older, athletic player with no translatable NBA offensive skills. He was a nobody just two months ago; probably for a reason. People also thought Wes Johnson was a stud too......

[Cassity14]

Wesley Johnson was a power forward at Syracuse. Oladipo is shooting the lights out from deep, playing effectively off the ball, and at least at this level, appears to be a defensive nightmare. I don't really see a comparison between the two.

[The Human Q-Tip]

You could say that about every single NBA draft pick....

No, you can't. Limited athleticism is often viewed as imposing a ceiling on a lot of college players. That's not the case with Oladipo.

[The Human Q-Tip]

I just see an older....

the kid is a junior in college. While he's older than a freshman, be is still young in terms of basketball, and there have been plenty of players his age and older who have improved their games significantly.

....athletic player with no translatable NBA offensive skills.

First, you could have said the same of TT as recently as December. But second, don't you think you're overstating the case against? He's become a good outside shooter, moves extremely well off the ball, is a demon in transition, and an outstanding offensive rebounder. Does that really equate to "no translatable NBA skills?"

His weakness as an SG is that he is not as good at breaking down guys off the dribble as are other top prospects. That's a fair criticism. But you're really going overboard by claiming he's got no translatable skills at all.

[narbar32]

the kid is a junior in college. While he's older than a freshman, be is still young in terms of basketball, and there have been plenty of players his age and older who have improved their games significantly.

First, you could have said the same of TT as recently as December. But second, don't you think you're overstating the case against? He's become a good outside shooter, moves extremely well off the ball, is a demon in transition, and an outstanding offensive rebounder. Does that really equate to "no translatable NBA skills?"

His weakness as an SG is that he is not as good at breaking down guys off the dribble as are other top prospects. That's a fair criticism. But you're really going overboard by claiming he's got no translatable skills at all.

One of the more reasonable NBA comparisons for Oladipo that I can think of is already on our team: Gee.

Undersized SF. Built like a brick shit house. Elite explosiveness. Great in transition. Limited ability to break down his defender in the half court or put the ball on the deck in anything more advanced than straight-line drives. High level perimeter man-to-man defense. Lauded work ethic evidenced by tangible and continuous improvement in his game.

Gee is an adequate catch-and-shoot three point shooter in the NBA. Oladipo is being often referred to as now a lights out three point shooter in college, but it might be important to note that his totals, to date, are 21 makes out of 39 shots from behind the college arc. That's not exactly a huge sample size. Derrick Williams, for example, was a blistering 56.8% from 3 his last season at Arizona, but at 42 makes out of 74 attempts. Williams can still shoot the 3 in the NBA, but he hits them at a comparable rate to that of Gee. Again, that's only an example to illustrate why I try not to get carried away with Oladipo's long range percentages for this season.

Oladipo is about 5 years younger than Gee so he has plenty of room and time to improve. But I'd still feel a lot better about getting him as a cheaper and younger replacement for Gee later in the first over picking him with the hope that he develops into something far greater than what Gee could ever be for us. I just don't see his game changing enough to become a real game-changer in that way.