Draft Primer: Big Men
by Jeff Clark on Jun 19, 2010 1:44 PM EDT
in Boston Celtics News & Links
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PrintThe offseason is under way and before you can even catch your breath after the Finals, we're looking towards the Draft.
Assuming they don't trade the pick, the Celtics will be selecting a player at the highest position since Gerald Green was picked at 18. We have the 19th pick in this year's draft and many believed that we'd be looking for a shooting guard to spell (or replace) Ray Allen. But that was before Perk's injury and rumors of Sheed's potential retirement.
So there's a good chance that the Celtics could be looking at big men in the draft. Guys like Cousins, Favors, and Monroe will all be long gone by our pick, but that doesn't mean there aren't guys to look at.
I went to my favorite site for draft info (Draft Express) and pulled a few names that they have projected in the late teens and early 20's. See the names and brief intros about each player after the break.
It is impossible to discuss Alabi as a prospect without mentioning his physical tools, since they’ve driven the majority of his success on the college level and account for much of his NBA intrigue. Enjoying ideal height and a big wingspan for a center at the next level, Alabi has continued to add weight to his frame, something he’ll need to continue to do in order to maximize his already impressive athletic profile. Couple his continued development both as a player and athlete with his already solid leaping ability and mobility, and Alabi has all the tools to be a high-level defensive player in the League.
The main intrigue around Orton’s potential as an NBA player revolves around his physical tools. Standing 6-10, with a wide, chiseled frame, an excellent wingspan and above average athleticism, Orton passes the look test and then some for what NBA teams seek from at a player at his position. He is fairly nimble, runs the court competently, can get off his feet, has a solid second bounce and very good hands on top of that. Simply put, there just aren’t many players around like him, which makes him somewhat of a commodity even in a draft as deep as this one is with big men.
The prevailing opinion amongst NBA scouts has always been that Aldrich is a likely role-player at the next level—a player who projects as a significant presence in the paint defensively and on the glass, but can’t be expected to score much more than what his guards are able to create for him around the basket.
Sanders’ main intrigue continues to revolve around his extremely rare physical tools, as he is an excellent athlete with a freakishly long wingspan. His frame continues to fill out, but there is still plenty more he can do to continue to add strength, which is a big key for his development. Running the floor is where Sanders might be able to contribute the most to an NBA team right off the bat. He has amazing speed in the open floor and is thus a terrific target for his guards to throw long outlet passes to in transition, regularly beating opponents down the court. Sanders is also an excellent finisher around the basket thanks to his length and quick leaping ability, ranking amongst the top players in the NCAA in this category according to Synergy Sports Technology.
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Larry Sanders
is a name thats intrigued me for a while. i know very little about this draft class. What are his main detriments, and do you think he’ll be around at 19?
how about whiteside?
aldrich is undersize which i guess is the last thing the current Cs would like… Orton is 6-10 too… but players like alabi keep reminding me of POB…
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 19, 2010 1:49 PM EDT reply actions
Aldrich
I have watched every game of Aldrich’s college career and the one thing that he does extremely well is alter a game defensively. He is an excellent shot blocker. At 6-11, not sure that is undersized. He has the potential to score in the low post, but needs to improve. Clifford Ray could help with that.
no way hes 6-11
dude is like 6-8 or sth bare feet. it was very funny he wore 3’’ heels to workouts. imho he has neither size nor athleticism to have a big impact on the game in the NBA. he might help a lesser team right upon arrival though.
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 19, 2010 4:01 PM EDT up reply actions
I have stood next to Cole on numerous occasions he is definitely taller than 6-8
He is more athletic than you would think; he might not have a huge impact on the game, but he is a better option than Williams, Scal right now. He would be nice to have off the bench, because he is a dependable rebounder.
i agree he willl be better than walliams and scal
im not saying hes not a solid player. just given that both perk and baby are not tall enough already and we have been suffering from not having enough length in the paint in the past couple years not to mention the damage the lakers bigs just did to us, i think aldrich is not a very good fit for the C’s to pick at #19 which is probably the best chance this year the Cs could use to upgrade their roster. Aldrich probably will be picked up before that by a team that could use a undersized PF/C, though.
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 19, 2010 5:09 PM EDT up reply actions
LOL!
I don’t know where you got that information but as someone who has also seen Aldrich in person many times I guarantee you he is NOT 6’8". He’s a legit center (6’11" ) with a huge wing span that allows him to get his hands on a ton of balls without fouling. But he does lack speed and athleticism. If you want a defensive minded center who knows how to work well within a complicated defensive system he would be a good pick-up. If you want more offense out of the center position you should look elsewhere.
hes officially reported as 6-9 w/o shoes
wingspan is 6-11… there are a lot of players with huge wingspan this year and a 6-11 wingspan for a 4/5 player just is not outstanding.
http://www.nbadraft.net/2010-nba-draft-combine-official-measurements
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 20, 2010 2:04 AM EDT up reply actions
remember this brief Celtic Big Man ???? The Hype? hahahahaha
Swift ….The Progression
He went from Deliverance “Banjo Boy” to “Ginger Head Russian Mobster” to “Marilyn Manson Wannabe”……and never played worth a French Lick in the NBA…….
Is it Soup Yet?
Workouts in Boston
Anyone know who Danny has brought in for workouts?
alabi and a couple wing players IIRC
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 19, 2010 2:52 PM EDT up reply actions
as a potential 2nd round choice, most likely
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 19, 2010 2:56 PM EDT up reply actions
please
dont draft alabi, he seems like a classic bust. he is clumsy with the ball inside. id call him soft. and if the celts draft greivis i will go crazy, but i think hell be gone by then. he got invited to the draft, and hes slipping up into the first round most likely to the grizz who have an absurd amount of picks this year. like 2 or 3 in the first round or something like that
Daniel Orton No!!!!!.. (Bad Knees)
I pick Larry Sanders…
PF/C, 6,10, fast, athletic, 7,6 wingspan, shot blocker, great intensity….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snJT38veuew
http://www.nbadraft.net/players/larry-sanders
GO DANNY!… xD
by Rogerio on Jun 19, 2010 2:50 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
UNLESS PERKINS RECUPERATES ON TIME & GARNETT FULLY RECOVERS..
The C’s has no BIGS to talk about especially so if RASHEED decides to retire.. Scal & Williams will be gone, BBD is an undersized PF.. However, there are a few bigs in the draft worth a second look namely: 7’1 C Solomon Alabi (Defensive Stopper), 7’0 PF/C Hassan Whiteside (Offense-Defense), 6’10 C Dexter Pittman (A Force inside the Paint, a bigger, heavier version of Dwight Howard), & 6’10 PF Charles Garcia (High Leaper).. From the free agency, 6’11 Ian Mahinmi (PF) intrigues me..
Pittman
Pittman is not 6-10, I have seen him in person several times. He does not measure that tall. His athleticism in questionable; he reminds of Big Baby more than Dwight Howard. His conditioning is also in question. The games I have seen him play, he has sat much of the game with foul trouble. Just saying….
MY CHOICE:
1st Round, Solomon Alabi or Hassan Whitehead for RASHEED. 2nd Round, Dexter Pittman for SHELDEN WILLIAMS. Then Ian Mahinmi for SCAL.
Lotta red flags
‘needs to fill out"…. "raw’ … “potential” … “limited offensive game”. Not reading a lot about post presence, banging, getting position. Still. refer one of these guys to the wing options (Hayward, Jamison, Anderson, Babbitt). Or, worth buying a pick, getting one from column A and one from column B?
Are there really any rookie big men at pick #19 that will help a championship contender next year (if we keep things together—which I support)? Shouldn’t we just take the best player available and let them develop until they are really needed?
While it does happen, it just seems that if a player is available that could help a contender at 19, he probably should have gone sooner. We will likely need to look for another “Sheed” type of player (hopefully the playoff version) via the free agent market to fill our needs for the immediate future.
by MurphyHOF on Jun 19, 2010 4:21 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Don't want Alabi or Aldrich
Alabi is soft and Aldrich is slow.
This aint the time to be drafting players with ? marks.. whiteside is a player who didnt go against anybody good in college he’s gonna be just like deandre jordan from the clippers a bum.. solomon isnt good for us either because we need a player who can rebound and score he only does 1 of the 2 plus he is soft.. we should look at paul george, anderson, white, ebanks, or djones from south florida we need a scoring guard 2 back up ray .. draft a big in the 2nd round cuz their isnt gonna be any1 left thats gonna be could anyway..
Disagree about Whiteside.
Whiteside has tremendous footwork and posture and natural basketball skill. And he has length.
I don’t think his problem is that he’s not played the level of competition you might like. Most big men have to be completely re-taught how to play in the NBA anyway. His only problem as I see it is that he needs more mass. He’s only 230, which is light at that height. If he could pack on about 20lbs without losing his body control, he could be really effective.
‘Not sure he’ll last ’till #19 anyway.
IF CELTICS NEED REBOUNDING THEN STOP DREAMING..
HEIGHT IS MIGHT.. DO I HAVE TO TELL YOU THAT THE SHORTER PERKINS, & GARNETT WERE OUTREBOUNDED BY 7 FOOTERS GASOL & BYNUM?!!
Wel how tall is...
Bynum HE defiently looks taller forget the stats.
off topic
how come we have no type of money 2 sign free agents and the lakers bout to get chris bosh in a sign and trade.. shouldnt they be over the cap
you just answered you're own question: sign and trade
the rumor i heard was a sign and trade centering on Bosh and Bynum
We have no Bynum to offer
Rondooooooo
Wao I dont see any god center available at #19.
We won’t have Perk until half season. I think we should sign Semih Erden, shaq, and Jermaine O’Neal. Houston WE Have A HOLE.
Jermaine O'Neal REALLY?
You obviously did not watch the Heat playoffs against the Celts. I could not believe what a stiff he is now. Bringing him in might make us forget about Mark Blount!
Yes it's true!!
But he did fine in the regular season. We need all the bodies we can get. KG can’t play center.
Though Jermaine was unmasked by Perk, I still would prefer him than Wallace at this point
O’Neil is younger and he is perhaps better than any of the big man we can get in the draft which Doc or whoever is coaching might not play much anyway, with Jermaine, we already know what we are getting…The only problem is his injury history.
"No I’m not KG. Not at all, but I’m Big Baby Glen Davis from LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m not the Big Ticket. I’m the Ticket Stub. Don’t count the Ticket Stub out. You might need the ticket to get in the game, but you leave with the ticket stub, because you’ll never forget this game."
Celtic Big Man
Look only to Duke and you have the perfect fit to join Perk & Baby; 7’ of rebound badness & a man who loves to play DEFENSE .
take the best player available.....
…always the best bet. Maybe we get a big in free agency. Paul George, Luke Babbitt, Eric Bledsoe, etc. Do not be afraid to take the best player available. That said, my pick for a big would be Udoh from Baylor in the unlikely event he was there at 19.
LETS STOP PRETENDING..
Unless you belong to the first 5 picks, the rest would be a wild guess hoping you get surprise good pick..
mock draft
NBADraft.net conducts mock drafts and has a lot of scouting info:
http://www.nbadraft.net/2010mock_draft
They had us taking an SG (James Anderson), but that was obviously prior to this last week’s events.
The 6-10+ bigs they had going prior to that are Favors, Monroe, Cousins, Aldrich, Davis, Udoh, Whiteside and Orton (not all of these guys would be a good fit for our “C” needs).
Of these guys, I think only Whiteside or Orton have a chance of dropping down to us at 19. I like both of those guys. Orton probably would be the better fit for the Celtics, given his sheer strength and his defensive skills.
After that, their draft would leave the following candidates to pick from at #19:
Craig Brackins – only listing here because he’s tall. No way do I think the Celts would pick him.
Larry Sanders – LOTs of potential here. Tremendous athleticism. Great natural rebounder. Very raw skills. Did not start to play organized ball until relatively late so still has a lot to learn. Not to be confused with the former HBO comedian …
Solomon Alabi – Tremendous length. Strong and already a pretty good post defender. Not extremely mobile. Doesn’t have much in the way of creative post moves. A raw version of Perkins, if you ask me.
Jerome Jordan – One of the more polished centers in the draft – older than most and has played a lot of organized ball. Great size. At the same time, critics think he’s too close to his potential. Not real fierce.
Of the guys ahead who I hope fall to us, I like Orton. Of the guys below who I would prefer to grab, I like Sanders a lot. Let KG mentor this guy for a couple of years and I think he could be fantastic.
Im hearing Sanders has cancelled workouts with Milwaukee
If so he has got a promise in the early teens meaning he is gone by the time we pick.
"No I’m not KG. Not at all, but I’m Big Baby Glen Davis from LSU, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I’m not the Big Ticket. I’m the Ticket Stub. Don’t count the Ticket Stub out. You might need the ticket to get in the game, but you leave with the ticket stub, because you’ll never forget this game."
Sigh .... well I can dream, right?
Hmm… I wonder what we can do to trade up a few picks?
not necessarily
maybe hes confident (or has already been promised to be drafted in R1, could be ainge?). you know a lot of players dont want to play for teams like the bucks and the wolves…
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 19, 2010 11:01 PM EDT up reply actions
You won't find a bigger Orton fan than I
Since he’s a Wildcat, I’ll always love him. But the guy is a Perkins clone. Great defense, stength, very limited offense. Do we need two of these guys?
by KY Celts fan on Jun 20, 2010 3:41 AM EDT via mobile reply actions
Perk got us to two finals in 3 years.
Not sayin’ we couldn’t do better. But that’s not a bad resume’ for a young C.
Oh, I love Perk
I love his glare, he hustles, he doesn’t put up big numbers but he’s never been asked to. And if that clodhopper Bynum didn’t injure him, I’m confident we would have won the title. Didn’t mean to imply differently.
I’m just saying, Orton plays a game extremely similar to Perk’s. Perk plays an important role, but I’d think we’d want our players to have differing abilities so we can have the right player for the right situation. Orton is one hell of a shot-blocker though.
by KY Celts fan on Jun 21, 2010 1:03 AM EDT up reply actions
Yeah, I agree, actually.
Which is why I hope we can somehow get Sanders – I see his athleticism being a nice complement to Perk.
Danny will pick the BPA
at 19 everyone has some warts. Danny will pick the best player available and with the number of free agents we have and holes, we have a lot of needs. Alabi seems to be the guy a lot of mock drafts have us taking but I’ve also seen us taking a wing player like James Anderson or even a point guard like bledsoe. I think gaffney and lafayette make the team since they’re young and will provide energy. Orton had bad knees and has been referred to as this year’s deJuan Blair. if we feel his knees are sound maybe you take him. that’s what we did with leon and it worked out for a while but not for long. if you look at game 7 2 things killed us: lack of rebounding and lack of shooting. so danny will look to shore those up either in the draft or by trades, free agents etc. why not JJ reddick? would you rather pay ray allen $8M or JJ reddick 6-7M? have to say that it’s hard to get excited about any of thing knowing that we’re years away from even having a sniff at the finals. this was our shot this year.
"if you look at game 7"
That would be poor way for Danny to assess the team.
You don’t assess the team based on one game.
Its a lot more complex than that.
I’m not saying he won’t pursue both rebounding and perimeter shooting. We looked all year for an extra perimeter shooter for the 2nd team until we found Michael Finley. So the team has been on that hunt for a long time. Prior to these finals, most mock drafts had the Cs taking an SG.
But then Perk got injured. This is two ligament injury.
If Perk were healthy, and Sheed were coming back, rebounding would be less of a concern, but their status makes not only rebounding a concern, but the C position in particular.
To mmmm
I agree with you but if you look at the team we have only 4 shooters – PP, Ray, Finley and Nate. Finley is not the answer and although Nate played well in the playoffs he’s not a wing. It’s really important that Rondo be able to knock down the Elbow jumper CONSISTENTLY/AUTHOMATICALLY next year. That would change things drastically. And although I agree that you can’t look at just one game, that was a microcosim of the season. He got pounded all year on the boards and our outside shooting was only adequate. So yes, I think those are 2 areas that need help.
As for the draft, we take the BPA in the first round, but in the second round you can gamble with a specific skill. It might be size, strength, shooting, rebounding. I think you can also take a real gamble, especially late, on someone that didn’t mature or grow as was expected – Derrick Character or Dexter Pittman come to mind.
I’d like to see us buy another 1st rd or early 2nd rd pick. I believe this is a deep, talented draft and we need some youngsters to develop NOW!
I guess what I'm saying is that we can probably 'make do' at shooter
either through (hopefully) improved Rondo jump shooting and getting someone via MLE to provide shooting off the bench to keep Ray’s legs fresh. Yes, we need better perimeter shooting, but we aren’t completely lacking. If we can find a decent shooter via the MLE and also maybe retain Nate, then we can at least delay the need to take a shooter in the draft until the following year.
But if Perk is out for several months and Sheed is retired (maybe to come back PJ style in the spring?) then we simply can’t just ‘make do’ at Center. We do NOT want to start the season with BBD, Scal and Shelden as our Centers. I’d rather start with a stud rookie who has length and who can learn from and be well protected by KG & the other vets.
This is a pretty good draft for big men. It is a great opportunity to get young, athletic big who could team with Perk and Rondo as pillars for the post-Big 3 era.
well you know thats the problem
at #19 you dont know whos gonna be the best player.
by friedgreentomatoes on Jun 20, 2010 6:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Ummm....
Cole Aldrich = Tyler Hansbrough (?)
I think during draft workouts, Aldrich was measured at 6’8" without shoes.
"The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing"
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