Thoughts from last night
1. My goal to start the draft was to trade up for Garland or White, I really wanted to add a knock down shooter at the one for the long term. After I got over that not happening I thought the draft was great.
2. Langford reminds me of the Avery and to a lesser extent the Jaylen pick. Langford was a top 6 prospect coming into his rookie season at Indiana. He's a high pedigree prospect, with strength, length and most importantly for this team, the ability to get to the rim and finish there. His shot doesn't look bad and he was a good shooter before college, so if his wrist injury really did prevent him from shooting a high percentage it's a steal.
3. I wanted Brandon Clarke at 22, but when he was picked at 21 I thought Williams was an excellent pick. High character guy, high basketball IQ, strong as an ox and his shot looked good in workout videos I saw. He's the type of big that you can run the offense through in the dribble hand off. He is going to play some point big like Horford did. Long term he can play the 4 next to Tatum and Brown to defend the guys who are too strong for those two. He played 3 years in college but he must have started early because he's only 20. People are going to absolutely love this guy because he's going to make the right play and always play hard.
4. Anyone who saw Edwards in the tournament knows what kind of microwave scorer he is. After we couldn't get Garland or White, Edwards was the best live dribble scorer available. He can't really pass but man he can really get buckets. He also fit the archetype of current Ainge picks in that he's really strong. He reminds me of Isaiah Thomas a lot, only with less passing and more defensive upside.
5. As usual, I thought that Danny killed it in trades. trading 20 for 24 and 33 was great value, especially because the Sixers picked a player who I have no interest in at 20. It seem like Memphis traded up specifically to prevent us from drafting Clarke at 21, but I'd rather have Edwards and Williams than Clarke. I also really like 24 and Baynes for a future first. Ainge clearly has something up his sleeve (he said "Wish I could tell you everything I know, but I can’t.”) so I assume that trading Baynes into cap space helped him achieve that plan. With 3 firsts and everyone saying that we wouldn't make all the picks, I'm very happy we got a future first instead of having to draft two stash guys like the last time we had 3 firsts.
6. The Vucevic rumors don't really make any sense to me. Ainge looks to be back in asset accumulation mode and signing Vucevic to the type of deal that Orlando wouldn't outbid us on doesn't seem like a deal that would be easy to turn into assets. I expect the Vucevic rumors were leaked by his agent to drive up the price on Orlando. Boston is one of the few teams with cap space and a need at center, so leaking that they are in the running is a good leverage play for Vuc.
7. I expect us to trade for a vet center like Adams or Capela, use our cap space to take on bad salary to get picks, or sign 2 or 3 guys using our cap space, because it's easier for them to outperform a $15- 18 MM deal than a $30 MM one.
8. I'm warming up to bring back Rozier. I hated watching him play last year, but if he can come in and string a couple months of good play together to start the year then we can trade him for value. His cap hold isn't very high, so I expect him to be worth more in a trade than a player signed at a similar amount to his cap hold. I also expect Hayward will be moved for picks and young players at the deadline if he shows his value to start the year. He's not interested in being on a rebuilding team.
9. Brad really build a great, high effort, ball movement heavy culture before the C's got Kyrie. We are going to go back to that. Our offense probably isn't going to be great next year, but if we can get a center like Adams or Capela I expect the C's to be a top 5 defensive team and make the playoffs.
Topic: Hated Tonight, and Now Woj + Shams Both Hint at Vuce Interest (Read 7254 times)