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Draft Report: Part 1 |
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Here is the first part of my three-part draft report. The first part will consist of a look at the big man in the draft who will probably be drafted around the nineteenth pick (the pick of the Utah Jazz). The second part will consist of the guards in the draft and the third part will be a mock draft just before the draft. I will leave the small forwards out of it since the chance that we will draft one of those is very small.
So we are going to talk about the big man now. Since Jarron Collins can play both the power forward and the center spot none of the two positions have a priority over each other. In other words, the Jazz will take the best big man in the draft available at that point, if the Jazz go for a big man of course. But the chances are big that the Jazz will go for a big man because Collins and Padgett are the only young players who can play that position and both of them are free agents. Padgett can also play the SF spot and it is not sure if he will be good enough to be a starting power forward for in the future so that leaves Collins as the only power forward/center for the future who is likely to be a starter after the Malone and Stockton era. So it is very likely the Jazz will draft either a power forward or a center so I looked at several PF/C�s who the Jazz could draft. |
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Okay, so no Yao Ming, Drew Gooden or Curtis Borchardt. I will look at the following players and at the end I will give my opinion about who the Jazz should draft if they were all available. In alphabetical order: Carlos Boozer, Sam Clancy, Melvin Ely, Dan Gadzuric, Marcus Hailsip, Jason Jennings, Chris Marcus, Jamal Sampson and Luis Scola.
The Introduction
First some general information. There are three centers on that list, Jason Jennings, Chris Marcus and Dan Gadzuric and the rest are power forwards. Luis Scola is born in Argentina and plays in the Spanish League. Gadzuric is born in Den Haag but played for UCLA. With the exception of Haislip (junior) and Sampson (freshman) all of the players who play in America are a senior.
Well lets begin with the two young guys, Haislip and Sampson. Samspon will probably go around the 25th and will most likely be available when the jazz pick. Sampson doesn�t average in double figures, not in points and not in rebounds, and only shoots 44% from the field and 53% from the free throw line. But the reason that he is likely to go in the first round is that he has tons of potential. According to the report on Draftnet even the potential to be, one day, an elite center. Although I don�t agree with that I do agree with their statement that he is a high risk/reward type. You risk a lot and you have to put a lot of time in it but if you get rewarded the reward will be great. Sampson is a 6-11 F/C who is pretty quick and a nice shot blocker, he blocked almost 2 shots per game. But I think he should stay in college and join the NBA in after his senior year and not now and when I say that it means the same as: I would not waste my draft pick on him. |
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Haislip on the other hand is someone who I would consider. He averages 16.8 ppg and 6.5 rpg while shooting 52% from the field and 73% from the line. He is a good athlete and someone who likes to lock himself up in the gym. But, like with most juniors, he still has to learn a lot and sometimes it looks like he doesn�t know what to do. If he stayed in college and joined the draft in his senior year then he would be a sure lottery pick. I personally would rather have a senior than a junior but his stats look good and maybe after a year with Karl Malone he could be a great player and then he also would learn a lot and he definitely has a lot to learn.
Lets continue with the power forwards. Melvin Ely will probably go around the 15th pick but he just needs to slip four places to fall in our hands and I think that it wouldn�t be a total disaster if he indeed fell to the 19th pick. He averages 23.4 ppg and 9.3 rpg while shooting 56% from the field and 75% from the free throw line. Despite the 9.3 rpg scouts say his rebounding skills are average and need to be improved. But that doesn�t stop him from scoring a lot of points by tip ins and putbacks. His jump shot isn�t something to be proud of but his half hook is. He is a good shot blocker and I |
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| wouldn't mind picking him up. |
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Another power forward in his senior year is Sam Clancy. Clancy isn�t that tall, 6-7, but normally that wouldn�t be a problem for Clancy and he, despite his length, still manages to average 9.9 rpg and 18.9 ppg. Als plusses are his 1.5 apg and he only makes 1.7 turnovers per game. He shoots 50% from the field and 62% from the free throw line, which has to improve. He is one of the best back-to-the-basket scorers in college basketball and he has a reasonable jump shot up to 16 feet. NBAdraft.net even says that he can �square up to the basket and nail 18 footers ala Karl Malone.� But he needs to develop his shooting and ball handling to be a good player in the NBA but even with that said I wouldn�t mind to pick Sam Clancy.
The last senior power forward on that list is Carlos Boozer. According to ESPN he is possibly the best pure power forward in the nation. He averaged 18 ppg and 8.6 rpg while shooting 64% from the field. He also shoots a solid 76% from the free throw line. He uses his body very well, and he does have a real NBA body, and he is a good offensive player down low although he should work on his shoot, which has almost no arc and he has problems to create and convert a shot by himself, although he does have a nice turnaround move. A reasonable player and I don�t think he will disappoint in the NBA. |
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The final power forward I will discuss is Luis Scola who plays in the Spanish league. Something the Jazz fans will probably like is that he, according to NBAdraft.net, is a good pick and roll player and he has nice ball handling skills. He only shoots 65% from the free throw line which is adequate but he should improve that. He was named rookie of the year in Spain. He is a good athlete and has a reasonable jump shot and excellent court vision. He is supposed to be a good rebounder but I don�t see that in his stats and it looks like he is a bit inconsistent. There are also doubts about his defence.
The first center I will discuss is Jason Jennings. Jennings averages a stunning 3.4 bpg, Gadzuric only 1.3, and he shoots 80% from the free throw line. He shoots 57% from the field and averages 14.8 ppg. He does need to work on his rebounding skills as he only averages 6.8 rpg, and that for a 7-0 center. He also needs to play more physical but despite that he still is a very good defender with offensive qualities.
Scola is not the only one who isn�t born in America as Dan Gadzuric was born in the Netherlands, Den Haag to be exact. He isn�t a good blocker, especially if you compare |
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his bpg to the bpg of one of the other centers on that list, Jason Jennings. He only blocks 1.3 bpg and he can�t shoot a free throw. As a matter of fact, he hits less than 50% of his free throws. Despite being 6-11 he is very quick and has a good first step. He is incredibly strong in the low post and uses his body very well. He averages 11.3 ppg and 7.4 rpg while shooting 56% from the field. He is very coachable. He does, on the other hand, tends to lose confidence and get out of control sometimes causing him to take some ill-advised shots, especially in traffic. Which isn�t the cause when he is in the low post cause even in traffic he takes the ball up very strong.
The last center I will discuss is the big Chris Marcus. And with big I mean huge. He has only played three years of organized basketball and he still has a lot to learn and he is willing to learn. He is 7-1 and approximately weighs around the 285 lbs. He isn�t very athletic and he isn�t explosive either. He is easily frustrated by double-teams and he averages around the 2.5 turnovers but he also averages around the 2.5 blocks per game. He shoots 55% from the field and 70% from the free throw line while averaging almost 16ppg and 9 rpg. He isn�t a very good passer but he definitely is an inside presence. And did I already mention that he is huge?
With that said it is time for me to come to a conclusion. If all eight players were available at the nineteenth pick, which won�t be the case, then I would draft them in this order. |
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1. Melvin Ely
2. Chris Marcus
3. Sam Clancy
4. Dan Gadzuric
5. Carlos Boozer
6. Jason Jennings
7. Luis Scola
8. Marcus Haislip
9. Jamal Sampson |
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| You probably already noticed that I don�t like the players who enter the draft before their senior year. I think it will take too much time for them to develop and the risk is too high. The Jazz don�t have the time to develop those kids. Scola is in sixth position not because he didn�t play college basketball but because I don�t have a good feeling about him. He will probably be a nice player in the NBA but when you draft at the nineteenth pick you want more than a nice player. I personally think he is not as good as the other power forwards in the draft and there are doubts about his defensive qualities, which I think is a huge minus. Jason Jennings, although a good defender, isn�t very good in rebounding and I think that a center must be able to rebound. The Jazz have statistically out-rebound a lot of opponents but if you draft a center who isn�t that good in rebounding that advantage could disappear. I don�t think Jennings will be a bad pick and I would like the Jazz to draft him but he doesn�t look like a player who can be of great importance to the franchise. Boozer is a good power forward and he averages nice numbers but he isn�t able to shoot the ball. He also isn�t very quick and has problems to create and convert his own shot and as long as he plays with Stockton that shouldn�t be a problem but Stockton doesn�t play 48 minutes per game and he must find a way to create and convert his own shot. I�m totally in love with power forwards capable of consistently hitting the (medium range) jump shot. I�m a big fan of Robert Horry for example and Karl Malone and Chris Webber also do a good job hitting that shot. Boozer isn�t capable of doing that which would be a big disadvantage in the Jazz offense. Gadzuric is a player whose abilities look like a rollercoaster in my opinion. An extremely bad free throw shooter and he loses his confidence and gets out of control to quick which leads to ill-advised shots especially in traffic. On the other hand he is very strong and very quick for a big man with a good first step. He just needs to make sure he gets adequate in the categories he isn�t good in and he needs to further improve in the other categories and then he will be a good player in the NBA. The Jazz never really had an big center who is athletic as well so that maybe could work. It�s an combination the Jazz haven�t had yet and he could be a perfect fit in the system or completely the opposite. And I already see an irritated Jerry Sloan after those missed free throws but I think an athletic center would be nice to have for a change. Sam Clancy may be short but has a nice shot and he is a good rebounder. He also scores a lot of points and he seems to have all the things I look for in a power forward and if he learns from Malone and listens to the coaches then I think he will be a good player. The only thing that isn�t as good as the other power forwards are his shooting percentages. He barely averages 50% from the field and he only shoots 62% from the free throw line. Those are two categories he definitely needs to work at if he wants to make it in the NBA. We have been spoiled by Malone�s fg% and 50% in college doesn�t mean 50% in the NBA. Chris Marcus is huge. We have had two centers of his size. One of them is Greg Ostertag and I don�t have really good memories about him. Another big man, a little bit bigger than Marcus, is Mark Eaton, one of the best defensive centers to play the game. The |
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The question is, who is Marcus going to be? He is easily frustrated and will turn the ball over if he is pressured sothat sounds more like Ostertag but on the other end every scout says he is an inside presence that can�t be ignored and that description sounds more like Mark Eaton. We shouldn�t expect the next Mark Eaton but even if he isn�t as good as Eaton on the defensive end than he still could be a good center. And he will probably be more of an offensive force than Eaton was although Marcus isn�t a great scorer, but good enough. He is still working on his post game and if he keeps learning than I think he will be a good addition to the Jazz. Melvin Ely is, in my eyes, the best big man the Jazz can get. His stats are good and so are his shooting percentages. He needs to learn to shoot from mid-range and beyond but his post skills are something to be proud of. I have heard some good things about his half-hook which is supposed to be very hard to stop. He is also a good defender and if he works on his shot and rebounding skills than he will be a very good player. And he is a distant cousin from sharp shooter Dale Ellis so that shot should be no problem. If the Jazz can get him, get him. He is worth it. |
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