re: Draft Prospects Thread

Egor Demin is apparently flying up draft boards. Measured really well at the combine and apparently has been killing workout and interviews.

Had an up and down year at BYU but his skill set is intriguing at 6’9.5

Thomas Sorber is also very interesting to me. Measured 6’9 barefoot and a 7’6 wingspan. He was a monster on defense and flashed some nice passing. Has a little Bam to him.

I can understand why teams would fall in love with Demin. Floor seems high and ceiling seems a little low.

Prospect fatigue is part of it. He started out super hot with some insane efficiency and advanced stats then he injures his forearm and was never the same. His shooting and efficiency dipped and his other deficiencies started to pop. Ala turnovers, inefficient transition shooting, and low off ball sample size to go along with his inability to stay in front of quicker guards soured a lot of people on his potential.

Pros is that he can play 1-3 dude to positional size but the con in that is that he while he can play off ball, his best and what makes him special came when he was playing point guard and onball. I believe something insane like over 70% of his deep ball was onball and he took a lot of difficult ones as well.

So it comes down to do you believe he's the player pre-injury which is a top 5 prospect or do you believe he's more of the player he showed post-injury which would be closer to 10.

Either way, I have no clue how we'll draft since I can see most guys all the way out to the 12 being interchanged. All I know is that we need a PG, Shooter, and rim protector. Same needs as last season.

Some fair criticisms. As noted, he played much better before his injury. And he has a track record in Europe against pretty good competition.

He is not an explosive athlete. He would be much more in the Haliburton mode than the Morant. Halliburton fell to the late lottery because of concerns over his athleticism and wonky jump shot. But the jumper, as it does for many college prospects, improved in the pros. And his elite feel and IQ for the PG position made Halliburton into a top-5 guy at the position.

I think Jakucionis has shown similar traits, both at Illinois and in Europe. Is he a "can't miss" guy? No. But I think he's shown enough to project as a guy who could run your franchise for the next 10-12 years. Plus, he has the size and smarts to play off the ball as well, which would mesh with Zion and Dejounte.

My first choice in our range is Knueppel. I don't think any of the centers are worth taking at 7. If we were taking a center, I kind of like Sorber more than Maluach, but I get either one is going to be some help for our interior defense.

My wildcard is Queen. His athletic testing was crap, but he sure look like he can play ball. I wouldn't be upset if they took a swing with him. Best case he's a skilled, non-rim protecting big like Sengun or Sabonis, which is the kind of big I prefer. Or a Zach Randolph, one of my all-time favorite players. But his combine scores were really bad. Not sure how much weight to give those.

quote:

---

He is not an explosive athlete. He would be much more in the Haliburton mode than the Morant. Halliburton fell to the late lottery because of concerns over his athleticism and wonky jump shot. But the jumper, as it does for many college prospects, improved in the pros. And his elite feel and IQ for the PG position made Halliburton into a top-5 guy at the position.

I think Jakucionis has shown similar traits, both at Illinois and in Europe. Is he a "can't miss" guy? No. But I think he's shown enough to project as a guy who could run your franchise for the next 10-12 years. Plus, he has the size and smarts to play off the ball as well, which would mesh with Zion and Dejounte.

---

Those are fair points, but he's Haliburton extremely light. I think you could project him as a guy who could run your franchise, but you could also project as a guy who kind of runs your offense into the ground with his turnover issues, his shot selection, etc. Personally, I wouldn't trust him to be my lead guard. The assist numbers for example, Haliburton was a better passer and turned the ball over considerably less. Kind of like I talked about in my original post his lack of quickness, explosion, and ability to separate are a concern as well, and only magnify if you want him to run your offense.

To kind of go hand in hand with that, the shooting numbers definitely reflect the injury, but there's some discussion out there as well that scouts feel the added attention he drew once teams figured out he was the guy they needed to stop are a reflection of the shooting numbers as well. He really struggled to get his shot off when teams started throwing their best defender at him.

His lack of quickness and burst really show themselves on the defensive end too.

Yeah he’s way too small and not crazy athletic enough. He might make for a good bench player tho if the shot is still like it was in college

He plays bigger than his size though. He's pretty well built already and i see him adding strength. He's super smooth and has great balance and control. He moves like a small Ant Edwards kinda, he's explosive and covers a lot of ground with purposeful moves and great at getting shots off, and a good connector. Im fine with a 20s evaluation or wherever, but i think he's a player!