The 2014-2015 NBA Season Thread. Lock It Up Please: The Golden State Warriors Are The Champions

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Scouting Kentucky's pro day

You have to hand it to Kentucky coach John Calipari: He sure knows how to put on a show.
Approximately 90 NBA scouts and executives piled into Kentucky's practice facility this weekend for what Calipari deemed a "pro day," a Kentucky-only mini-draft combine.

Only Kentucky could pull off such a turnout. This edition of the Wildcats is the most talented team Calipari has ever coached, from an NBA prospect perspective. I currently have nine Wildcats ranked in my top 100, by far the most of any team in the country. One of those players, Karl-Anthony Towns, looks like a potential No. 1 pick. All nine players scouts came to see have enough potential to be first-round picks. That's almost one-third of the first round.

With so much talent on board, Calipari will be in for quite a juggling act this season when it comes to distributing minutes. He's saying that he'll employ two five-man units in a platoon system this year. Given they're 40-minute games, that's roughly 20 minutes per night per prospect, far fewer minutes than most elite players get on a given night.

Knowing that the players will be anxious, and knowing that, in some ways, such a platoon system will make it harder for scouts to evaluate his players, Calipari is trying to showcase all his players the best way he can.

The idea of the pro day was to give scouts and executives three days to watch and evaluate Kentucky's players in practice, drills, athletic testing, measurements and 5-on-5 scrimmages. Afterward, Calipari said he'll shut down practices to the NBA for a while so his team can focus on the upcoming season.

There has been plenty written about whether Calipari is doing the right thing for his team, whether such an event eliminates distractions, and whether he's setting a bad precedent in college basketball. I'm interested in a different question entirely: Does such an event have any real scouting value for NBA teams?

I spoke to a dozen NBA scouts and execs who attended the event this weekend. Their reaction was decidedly mixed.

In the days leading up to the event, a number of GMs privately grumbled about what Calipari is doing. GMs typically don't like scripted events; they like to be in control. While scouts and GMs have always popped in on practices -- with permission from the head coach, of course -- they liked to do it on their time and see players in the context of their everyday practices. By turning it into an event, the fear was that something would be lost and that scouts would be prohibited from seeing Kentucky's players in future practices.

"If this is another event like the NBA draft combine," one GM said before the pro day, "then we are all wasting our time."

It wasn't. While the drills and practice elements were there, Calipari did allow the players to go at it in several 5-on-5 scrimmages. Those scrimmages were the highlight for scouts.

"There's so much talent out there," one GM said. "You're looking at nine future NBA players go at it. I think this may be the best competition they face all year. By putting us in the stands, Calipari guaranteed the guys would go hard."

"Whenever you have 8 to 10 NBA prospects on the floor actually playing, it's valuable," said an assistant GM. "If Eastern Kentucky tried to pull this, no one would show up."

Of the scouts and GMs I spoke with, all of them agree that Towns is the best NBA prospect on the team. "He's huge and so skilled," one GM said. "I think he's got a chance to be a more mature version of DeMarcus Cousins."

Towns also measured the part, standing 6-foot-11 in shoes with a terrific 7-foot-3 wingspan and 9-foot-1 standing reach. He also showed off an impressive 36.5-inch max vertical and put up impressive scores for a big man in the agility drills.

Scouts also walked away impressed with big man Dakari Johnson. "He's in much better shape and moving so much better," one scout said. "I had questions about him because of his lack of athleticism, but he looked like a legit first-rounder, maybe even late lottery pick, this weekend."

Johnson's 34-inch vertical was not elite, but better than expected by scouts. His measurements were also terrific. He's a legit 7-footer in shoes, and had a 9-foot-2 standing reach. Given all the praise surrounding Johnson, you can expect him to make a significant leap on our next Big Board.

Others raved about the new sense of maturity from Andrew and Aaron Harrison. Both players are leaner, more explosive and playing less selfishly than last season.

Alex Poythress continued his impressive run that started in the Bahamas. He tested with a crazy 41.5-inch maximum vertical at the combine and did 26 reps when bench pressing the 185-pound bar. Poythress also excelled in virtually every other athletic testing category. He's the best athlete on the team.
Willie Cauley-Stein finally looks healthy again. While he didn't necessarily show off much offensively (scouts' biggest knock against him), his athletic testing was also off the charts. He had a 37-inch vertical, the second-fastest spring time on the team and fourth-fastest lane agility score. Those are incredible numbers for a 7-footer.

Freshman forward Trey Lyles also drew praise. He struggled at the Nike Hoop Summit, causing a number of GMs and scouts to question whether he'd be an elite NBA prospect. His performance this weekend, though, helped put him back in the conversation.

And perhaps the biggest winner of the weekend was freshman Tyler Ulis. A number of scouts who felt Ulis wasn't tall enough -- he measured 5-foot-9 in shoes with a 6-foot-1 wingspan -- to be a first-round prospect changed their mind.

"I had sort of written him off because he's so small," one scout said. "But when you watch him in the context of all that talent on the floor, he really stands out. From a pure basketball standpoint, he's the best basketball player on the team. The size concerns us. But he's got amazing speed, plays so hard, and can do everything. He has a chance to be the best point guard in the country this year, and I think he'll find a place in the NBA."

Not everyone was caught up in Calipari's spell.

"It's October," one veteran NBA scout warned. "It was a scripted practice. They'll play 35 games this year. The last 10 or 15 we will figure out who's ready for this and who isn't. We aren't figuring that out now. All of them have a chance, but we knew that. Let's see how they perform night in and night out before we start handing out spots in the first round."

"Kentucky is a talented basketball team," another NBA scout said. "But with the possible exception of Towns, I don't see any transcendent NBA talent here. The rest of this team are rotation players in the NBA. I'm not sure why we are going crazy over rotation players."

"There's a herd mentality in the NBA," another veteran GM said. "We came because everyone else was coming and you want as much information as you can. Things like this don't really tell you much and can, in fact, be dangerous. We saw these guys exactly how Calipari wanted us to see them. But this event isn't reality. The game is reality. Watching Cal in a real practice when he's really getting on guys is reality.

"This was a show. I keep reminding my scouts of that."

That was Act 1 of a show that is going to last all season. The NBA scouts will keep coming and coming as the show goes on.

But will they leave satisfied in April? That's the question every NBA scout and exec really wants to know.
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Welp, NBA Jersey Ads All But Official, The Question Is When Not If

:{ :x Owners too damn greedy for their own good, what's stopping them from down the line expanding to other areas of the jersey just to get every last cent possible. Book it 2022, NBA jerseys will look like Euro ball jerseys with ads top and bottom on the front and back, ads on the shoulder areas, ads on the shorts front and back, ads on the socks, headbands. compression shorts/tops, referees, mascots, etc. :x

View media item 437583
 
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I got John Wall for MVP this season.

50 win season

avg 22 8 and 2 steals
 
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I get the ads on soccer jerseys because there are no commercials. But it's not like the NBA is going to get rid of a TV timeout because of this.
 
vcshoxj6 said:
Welp, NBA Jersey Ads All But Official, The Question Is When Not If

:{ :x Owners too damn greedy for their own good, what's stopping them from down the line expanding to other areas of the jersey just to get every last cent possible. Book it 2022, NBA jerseys will look like Euro ball jerseys with ads top and bottom on the front and back, ads on the shoulder areas, ads on the shorts front and back, ads on the socks, headbands. compression shorts/tops, referees, mascots, etc. :x

View media item 437583
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And they still gonna hit the players wit the "but, but, but...we're still not making that much money" come CBA time :{
 
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dmbrhs said:
I get the ads on soccer jerseys because there are no commercials. But it's not like the NBA is going to get rid of a TV timeout because of this.
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so damn true. Ads on jerseys benefits no one except the owners. I don't think the NBAPA has the leverage to even ask for a percentage of the potential jersey ad revenue. The union is just so damn weak and in a mess. :{

And as fans we won't even get cheaper jerseys or tickets to buy because of this or like you said a sped up game. They'll charge the same or even raise it and use the "due to the economic/leage rise worldwide" reason to justify the cost.

damn.
 
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lawdog1 said:
Sure he has a chance, but the odds are more in favor of him not getting an MVP than they are in favor of him winning one.
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His jumper is still improving and after that he has no flaws in his game while being an all world athlete on a good young team that will get better.


It's him or Russ as the best PG's going forward.
 
awwsome said:
His jumper is still improving and after that he has no flaws in his game while being an all world athlete on a good young team that will get better.


It's him or Russ as the best PG's going forward.
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dont forget curry
 
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