This week will be the final profiles of lottery picks. Starting next week, Mo and I will profile potential second round picks. I will also list the top 20 players that I think will be most successful. My top six are:
#1 Kyrie Irving – I see no reason to disagree with the majority. Point guard is an important offensive position and Irving is the best in this or next year’s draft.
#2 Derrick Williams – I think he can be an NBA SF.
#3 Enes Kanter – See below.
#4 Jonas Valanciunas – I would consider picking Valanciunas over Kanter, drafting him on the condition that he works with a Cavs provided strength coach and shooting coach. In a year, he can come from Europe with 15 lbs of added muscle and a reliable 18 footer.
#5 Brandon Knight –He’ll eventually be a quality PG in the NBA.
#6 Alec Burks – He’s a great scorer and rebounder with good size and athleticism for a shooting guard. PER, offensive rating, on-court / off-court numbers are all impressive and he doesn’t turn 20 until July. I like that he was the #33 ranked SG in the class of 2009, now he’s a lottery pick. I give extra credit for players with late growth spurts who are rapidly improving. With improved shooting, he should be excellent.
Now, for my #3. Kanter is meeting with the Cavs this week and is a likely pick at #4.
Enes Kanter
Height: 6’ 11.25”
Weight: 259 lbs
Position: PF / C
Age: Turned 19 in May
Summary: Enes Kanter is the mystery of the high lottery. He was a basketball prodigy, dominating Europe’s youth tournaments and playing in the Euroleague as a 16 year old. Due to NCAA eligibility problems, he has not played competitively in over a year. He is projected as a top 4 pick.
Basketball Bio: Kanter first made his name in European youth tourneys. At age 16, his 15 rebounds per game earned him first team all tournament at the 2008 European U18 championship. The next year he dominated; averaging 18.6 points and 16.4 rebounds while winning MVP and leading Turkey to 3rd place. At 16, he was signed by Turkish basketball power, Fenerbache Ulker, and played in 11 professional games, including 4 in the Euroleague. This brief professional stint proved more critical to Kanter’s future than the 2 ppg and 1.5 rpg would indicate. Kanter turned down large European contracts and decided to move to the United States to play college basketball. He enrolled at Stoneridge Prep in California, playing one year of high school. He committed to play at Kentucky, but was ruled ineligible by the NCAA due to his brief professional play. He has spent the last year practicing and training with the Kentucky basketball team.
Skill Overview: Kanter has the size to play power forward and center in the NBA. He measured as the second tallest player at the combine and was in great shape, weighing 259 lbs with only 5.9% body fat. Possessing the size & strength to match up with most NBA centers, he plays physically in the low post and is not afraid of contact. He is a strong competitor, staying active on the boards and defensively. His activity level, positioning, and great hands make him a dominant rebounder. Kanter has exhibited a range of offensive talents; displaying solid footwork and finishing moves in the post, while also demonstrating shooting range out to the college three. Kanter has a good attitude and works hard at improving his game.
Kanter is an average athlete. Of the seven players over 6’10” at the NBA combine, Kanter had the second lowest vertical jumping and wingspan. Of the “tall” players, he was 2nd in the speed drill and 3rd and 4th in agility drills. Kanter has been described as “non-explosive”, and the combine athletic tests support that. Kanter’s biggest negative may be his limited history of competitive basketball, with almost no experience against players older than 18. The game is about to get a lot faster; will Kanter’s rebounding and offensive games thrive against players as big and athletic as him? Will his defensive rotations look as impressive when the guards and ball are moving at blazing speed? No one can definitively answer these questions.
Additional Info: The other forum where Kanter impressed was the Nike Hoop Summit in April 2010. At this annual high school all-star game, Kanter nearly lead the internationals to victory over a United States team featuring Kyrie Irving, Brandon Knight, Jared Sullinger, and Harrison Barnes. Kanter scored 34points, a new event record, and grabbed 13 rebounds in 24 minutes. He was great on the offensive glass and scored with post moves, jump shots, fast breaks finishes, and even on drives. Very impressive, but it was a high school all-star game, so it’s hard to tell how impressive. The US front line was not outstanding; consisting of Sullinger, Patric Young (3.4 ppg & 3.8 rpg at Florida State this year), Leonard Myers (2.1 ppg and 1.3 rpg at Illinois), and Terrence Jones (more SF than PF). Defensive rebounding wasn’t a priority in the game, as each team collected 17 offensive boards. Almost half the missed shots were rebounded by the offense.
Kanter is considered a good shooter, however again there isn’t a lot of actual data supporting this. High school highlights show him hitting high school three’s, but how many were missed? That info isn’t readily available. He shoots well during a workout, but what about with an NBA defender rapidly closing on him? Combine shooting tests were a mixed bag. Of the 16 players that performed the big men drills, he was in the top third in two drills and the bottom third in two. He was 5 of 12 for the timed shooting drill of 35 seconds shooting 15 – 18’ jumpers.
As an offensively skilled big man; comparisons include Al Horford, Kevin Love, or Carlos Boozer, and I won’t debate this. I have him rated #3 primarily because people who are a lot smarter than me have him rated highly. When he has played, he has been dominant against his age group. Hopefully the potential shown in the opportunities available to him will transfer to the NBA, both offensively and defensively.
Tags: Draft Profiles
I like him as a 4th pick for the Cavs.
I think he would be an incredible improvement over our current center situation…
As we approach draft day I am starting to like the #4 pick more and more. The front office appears to really like Jonas Valanciunas and probably aren’t sure how far Kanter will fall.
Either way, at least one of the two will be available at #4. While JV seems like he would fit Scott’s system better, I think Kanter has the potential to be a better overall player. As long as I get to watch one of these guys play instead of Ryan “what’s a rebound?” Hollins, I will be thrilled.
Hollins???
Humm, I can’t recall seeing a player by that name last season…
I can… Unfortunately
Ideal scenario: Minny takes Kanter, Utah takes Knight, Cleveland takes Williams.
Nice one Ryan lol!
I don’t know why, but I think Hollins is going to have a breakthrough season this year. He finished relatively strong with Baron and I’m expecting (not just hope) that he will continue from where he left off. He knows this is the end of his contract and he’s going to be playing for another. He has the height and the physical gifts to be a lot more productive and I think the combo of Baron and his contract will give him the extra mental motivation.
Does that photo remind anyone else of Sidd Finch?
That photo reminds me of George Muresan.
HoopsDogg has me giggling like a school girl. so true.
Nupe, I truly hope you are a fortune teller.
If Hollins can gain 15-20lbs of muscle and “man the f up”, he should be a 10ppg/8rbd player.
That’s all I’m asking for.
I would like to hope in Hollins, but I am just thankful Andy is going to be back. Speaking of which… Any news on varejao flyin
The Kanter photo makes him look horribly uncoordinated haha!
Last thing @hoopsdogg, I have been thinking the same thing for a while. I think the jazz are sold on knight, and neither team needs Williams, but from what I have heard I think Minneapolis just wants to offload the pick. Anyone else think that Williams may be available at #4?
People haven’t realized how good we could actually be 2 seasons from now. If we get kyrie irving and enes kanter this draft, we erl improve but we erl still be in the lottery. Next years lottery has great wing players from top to bottom (harrison barnes, autin rivers, perry jones, micheal gilchrist, etc. Lts say that we gilchrist. And we get oj mayo using the trade exception Our lineup would look like this:
pg: irving. Davis
sg: mayo, gibson
sf: gilchrist, eyenga
pf: hickson, verajeo
c: Kanter, hollins
Pretty good team, and that dosnt even include jamisons expiring contract or
other picks that the cavs could buy
Sorry really bad grammar but I was writing very fast.
Hollins will NEVER average 8 boards per game. Well, he could maybe do that if he average 47 minutes, but barring that, no. Also, we would win about 8 games a year in that scenario.
Hollins = The Heat Killer
FYI – draftexpress.com put out a new piece on Enes Kanter today. It left me feeling less good about Kanter. They recently received 4 game videos of him from high school and a video of him playing Lithuania in the 2009 U18 Euro championship.
Their final paragraph includes:
“In a little over two weeks we’ll know exactly where Kanter will start his NBA career, but we have very little idea right now where he’ll go. What type of NBA player will he be? No one can really say with any certainty, due to the large gaps in his resume. Even the most respected talent evaluators shrug their shoulders and hedge their bets.”
Perhaps I should change my ratings to Valanciunas over Kanter.
Next season will be interesting to watch. In basketball, one player can make a huge difference. An out of shape Baron Davis comes to the team and it seemed that everyone else started playing better (Hollins, JJ, Gee exspecially). I guess that’s what a ‘pure point guard’ can do for/to a team.
Now next season (whenever it starts), we’ll have a much healthier and by all reports ‘in shape’ Baron Davis. With the addition of Irving as another pure pg as a back-up (who may be an upgrade to Sessions as far as making players around him better – and yes, even as a rookie). Add in Kanter or Williams (both suppose to be NBA ready) which should serve as an upgrade to Andy as a starting Center, and although I don’t think Williams is a SF, IF the Cavs were able to draft him, I think he would be out starting SF for at least a season – remember we had Jamison playing some SF and Williams can do more things than Jamison can from that position. Also, Williams would be an upgrade to Eyenga, Gee or anyone else we experiment with. Add in a Healthy Andy and Jamison (at least until trade deadline) playing with Baron and they’ll each be better than last season.
So I’m putting a lot on a healthy, in shape and motivated Baron, but I think all reports and his past shows he can be a huge difference maker on a team. Irving and Kanter/Williams as new additions and we’ll also see the most improved JJ we’ve ever seen who will be playing for a new contract (per him, he’s going to prove he’s worth a max deal). Also, we’ll likely have a veteran that we’ll pick up with the TPE and or another pick or two (#8 from Detroit or #17 from NY most talked about scenarios), both of which would be upgrades to anything we have at shooting guard or small forward – players such as Burks, Brooks, Leonard are mentioned with these two picks. Any of which have potential to be very productive players or even start, but any of which could be bust. But all should still be better than what we have.
In essence we should have at least 2 significant position upgrades with our #4 pick and our TPE and/or #17 pick. Notice I don’t consider Irving as our #1 pick a significant position upgrade this year, but he is an additional talent compared to our back-ups. I just don’t think he’s an upgrade to Baron in the short term. So, if one player can make a big (10+ game) differnce from year to year, then 2-3 players should make at least that much. Then add a healthy Andy for the season, it’s hard to predict how good we’ll be next season.
I don’t think we’ll be in the playoffs next season, however as a sub .500 team we could be. But I don’t think we’ll have one of the worst 2 records in the league next year either. My guess we’ll be around 8-10 worst record, which isn’t something to be proud of, but is a improvement, won’t put us in the top of next years lottery either.
I’m worried Enes Kanter is this year’s Yi Yianling: foreigner with an NBA body who can post up a chair and shoot jump shots with no one guarding him. Is he the Turkish Kevin Love, or the the Turkish Za Za Pachulia? I’m REALLY hoping Minnesota falls in love with him at 2.
@The Nupe: I think Eyenga could develop. He certainly has the athleticism and the form on his jump shot. He also has some nice, unorthodox finishing moves around the basket. That being said, Baron doesn’t play more than 65 games next year, and with Kyrie taking Sessions’ minutes there will be some bad bad stretches, which is actually just what we want: be competitive, but don’t ascend to mediocrity too quickly.