What we want with this pick is a guy who is young enough to have untapped potential, but who can play big minutes for us on day one. We want a wing player or pure PF who can play facing the basket.
When we look at the board, we see a lot of young projects and older players near their ceilings. We think we are too talented to take on projects. We are above average at the positions we have filled and we have the cap space to be that way for at least one more. However, at pick #8, we don't want a specialist or a guy who only does dirty work. We need a player that is going to give us real production.
We probably would be best off trading up or down from here, but while we see no perfect choice, we think we can get someone here that mostly fits our criteria - our wants.
So with the eighth pick in the 2010 draft we take a guy who is young enough to develop physically and on the court, has shown great skills and big-time production and fills a few huge weaknesses in our team. We select lefty Luke Babbitt - the guy who will give us most exactly what we want.
Luke was named a McDonald's All-American for
his outstanding performance working at McDonald's
his outstanding performance working at McDonald's
Posts
The Clippers are an interesting study, because they essentially have TWO lottery picks: the #8 pick, plus the 2009 #1 pick, Blake Griffin, who of course was injured and didn't play last year. Assuming that the Clippers believe that Griffin will fully recover, the big issue is whether these two will interfere with each others' development. Can Griffin and Babbitt play together? Or are both best suited to be a PF?
ReplyDeleteBabbitt is an NBA three who can occasionaly be a stretch four. Think Al Harrington. Same role. Good shooter with range, provides scoring punch, some rebounding, defenses have to repect him and he has great size to draw big defenders away from the paint or shoot over smaller ones.
ReplyDeleteGriffin is a prototype PF. Think Karl Malone. League-leading rebound potential. Brutal finisher in the post and on the break. Skilled and strong as an ox. Pick and Roll death for opponents.
These two plus Gordon and Kaman make the Clips an offensive juggernaut. If Jordan can be a defensive force, look out.