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Paschketball: Video from the Cousins Center. Billy McKinney assumed the Dave Babcock role of talking up all the prospects today, but unfortunately he doesn't offer much to wildly speculate about (sad!). Cherome Owens has the story at Bucks.com:
"They all had great workouts," McKinney said. "Each of them had their moments. That’s why we’re so excited about this group coming in. We weren’t so sure if we could get them all in with the draft being on Thursday. But they all were excited being here, and it showed."
C'mon Billy, you can do better than that...throw us a bone. For the record, Jennings scares me to death--bad and good, I just have no idea what to make of this guy. Lawson seems underrated at this point, and I have a hard time imagining whoever gets him at 15-20 will be disappointed. I'd really like Teague further down in the draft as a Jason Terry-type bench guy (or more), but he doesn't seem like a real point guard to me."People in the business like to say ‘He has a tremendous amount of upside,’ but all the players we brought in today have great upside and have a chance to have a great NBA career."
As for Flynn--the guy who seems to be the odds-on favorite to be a Buck come Thursday night--I'm always nervous about really little guys (which Lawson qualifies as too). Flynn probably plays a bit bigger because of his wingspan, strength, and athleticism, but he showed at Syracuse that he's still got plenty to work on--including shooting and taking care of the ball. And the fact that his stock seems to be getting a boost from his personality is understandable, but I'd rather hear that he's destroying guys on the court than melting hearts in interviews. It sounds like Flynn is doing a bit of both, but I'll nitpick anyway.
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Givony: Flynn not slipping past Milwaukee. Jonathan Givony has a ton of stuff from around the league at DX, including this blurb on the Bucks:
Jonny Flynn happened to work out in Sacramento this weekend, alongside other Kings favorite Tyreke Evans, as well as Stephen Curry, Nick Calathes. It’s well known at this point that Flynn is not getting past Milwaukee’s pick at #10 at worst, but his chances of going 4th seem to be improving by the day. It’s too early to rule out Evans at Sacramento’s pick either, even though Rubio is still very much in the picture as well.
He also reports that DeJuan Blair's knees may not be quite as bad as expected, as his latest MRIs don't look any worse than those taken when he showed up at Pittsburgh a couple years ago. Still, based on the latest draft blather it doesn't seem like Blair is in the running anymore at ten. Also, Givony reports that DeMarre Carroll's rumored liver problems do not appear a threat to his playing career. Carroll has gotten talk as a potential pick for the Bucks if he's still around at 41. -
WSSP: Woelfel talks draft (audio). Aside from workout talk, Woelfel sounds increasingly pessimistic about Ramon Sessions being back in a Bucks uni next year, and mentions Ersan Ilyasova as the obvious replacement for Charlie Villanueva at PF. I've been posting about Ersan's European exploits for a couple years now, so as you might guess I would like to see him back in a Bucks uniform at some point.
Still, people will have to be realistic about the kind of player he is, which is in many ways the antithesis of Charlie V. Even if all goes to plan, Ersan will probably be a role player: crashing the boards, throwing his body around on defense, and looking for garbage points on putback and open threes. He's not going to give you the spectacular highs and lows like Villanueva, but that's why the Bucks would be signing him--that and the fact that they could probably get him without going over the luxury tax threshold. Even if the Bucks get CV for his affordable qualifying offer ($4.6 million), they'd likely have to shed a couple million to get under the tax.
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Ford: Hill or a PG. Chad Ford's latest mock has the Bucks taking Jrue Holiday over Flynn, though he admits it's virtually a tossup and the Bucks would probably prefer Jordan Hill (who he has going seventh to Golden State). A day earlier, he was also talking Bucks and broke down their board thusly:
The Bucks look like they're sitting pretty good at No. 10. One of the point guards that they like -- whether it's Jonny Flynn, Jrue Holiday, Jeff Teague or Brandon Jennings -- should be there when they draft. In fact, it's possible all of them will be there. With that in mind, the Bucks are bringing back Flynn, Jennings, Lawson and Teague early next week for another big workout. I think Milwaukee's board looks like this right now going into that workout:
Ford has the Bucks taking St. Joe's PF Ahmad Nivins in the second round, which would seem a pretty decent pickup. Nivins was extremely productive in the A-10 last year, averaging 19.2 ppg, 11.8 rpg and 1.8 bpg on excellent .617/.787 shooting. Nivins worked out for the Bucks on the same day as Blair and Jeff Pendergraph, and you can watch some college highlights here. Surprisingly, no Jerel McNeal in Ford's second round mock--I'd be happy to see him in a Bucks uni regardless of who the Bucks take at 10.
1. Jordan Hill
2. Holiday
3. Flynn
4. Teague
5. Jennings
6. Lawson
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DX: Flynn and Douglas. DX has the Bucks taking Flynn and FSU point Toney Douglas, with McNeal going 53rd.
- NBA.com: Vegas schedule. We linked to the Bucks' summer league schedule last week, and now the official schedule is live. One important note--I think those should be pacific times. I'm hoping to be out there for the first weekend of games.
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