2009 StR Community Draft Board: Pick #5

I just couldn’t find anyone at #5 that didn’t have holes or questions. Prior to the NCAA tourney I would have said Harden, but he really looked bad. Lawson is interesting but a tad small, and I couldn’t pick Curry yet, in spite of Exhibit G’s marvelous and sensible argument.

Thabeet is 7-3, and he looks to be a pretty decent athlete. We’ve talked about what a Tyson Chandler or a Samuel Dalambert might do for the KIngs – Thabeet could be that kind of guy.

And before we begin to dismiss this draft board process because we are now outside of the top four and not yet to #23, there is always at least a slight chance that we might trade up or down.

Thabeet just isn’t what he needs to be for me to consider him a realistic or viable option. I would rather have a PG at the top (or Blake Griffin) and roll the dice on a big with the 23rd/31st overall picks.

Lawson is put here because size to me isn’t the issue here. It’s more about need, and what the Kings need more. They need Lawson more than Thabeet. (I usually vote BPA and I think it’s still Lawson.)

Lawson’s size doesn’t concern me because he has longer arms that minimize his height (about 5’11), and his reach is equivalent to a guy 6’1. It’s not everything of course, but Lawson is very very very good too. Hard for me to ignore.

Need is just not the issue I have with this draft. Drafting the best available player should always be the goal. The Kings just happen to need guys who can block shots, play post defense, and run the team at the PG. Good draft to have a high pick in a “weak” draft.

I considered Lawson and Thabeet as well. I’m still not sold on Thabeet as a top-5 pick. 6-10 seems more appropriate. Just a gut call.

As a Tarheel fan, I really like Lawson. I could see him go at 5 and not be surprised or upset at all.

I went with Harden here. If we’re trying to draft a star, regardless of position, I think Harden is the best player still on the board. I met him in an airport and he’s a nice kid. After that I paid a lot more attention to him. He’s got a ton of skill and can really run a team.

leave the teams who didn’t earn the worst record in the league to fight over these scraps.

But seriously, I’d take Thabeet here.

Thabeet, Lawson, Curry, and Harden.

Curry and Harden are scorers, plain and simple. Harden would have to be a backup in our system for now though unless we wanted to move K-Mart to the 3 which I wouldn’t. I could see the Timberwolves taking Harden above Rubio though. That would be like keeping their OJ Mayo pick from last year. Curry on the other hand, shoots. And while not a bad thing, I would prefer to get a better distributor in the draft.

Thabeet has the potential to be the league leader in blocks and boards while averaging 10-12 points a game. But I’m just not sold on him. Especially after watching DeJuan Blair (who I’m actually starting to like a bit and might not mind taking him at 23 if we get Rubio) absolutely destroy him. The big men in this league are way more fierce than DeJuan Blair and the scouts will know that Thabeet’s weakness will be to relentlessly attack him, unless he gets tougher and doesn’t just rely on his height for defense.

So I went with Lawson, which sort of surprised me. But he really impressed me in the tournament and I think at this point he’s the best player available. He’s a very well-rounded player, but unfortunately is a little small so we’ll see how that turns out.

But I don’t see many reason why we should trade down a Rubio/Griffin/Jennings/Evans pick

You guys are sleeping on this guy. Thabeet is a ROLE player. You don’t take a role player with a top 5 pick.

It’s a three horse race.

1) Griffin
2) Rubio
3) Evans

Jennings will bust.

I put Harden 4th.

I would consider Thabeet from 6th and on, but think he’ll go 3rd or 4th as some team will want that BIG to anchor their defense(which is something the Kings definitely could use)…just not with THIS year’s LOTTO pick.

Harden couldn’t step up in the tourney, so hasn’t he displayed more of a bust potential?

The best defender at this spot..he has all the tools to be a great player.
Westbrook 2.0. Why wouldn’t you want him?? Sure, he’s raw, but that just means we’ll have ping pong balls next year too, then explosion of awesomness the year after

You have to draft for best available player. Thabeet and Harden are the two best I believe, with Harden becoming a better pro and being able to contribute out of the gate. So I went with Harden.

Im still sticking with the belief Thabeet will be one of the busts in this years draft.

Reading a comment from Geoff Petrie a long time ago, right before the draft where he drafted J-Will… They were asking about his job security if the pick sucked. And he said “I don’t think it really matters how the player turns out. If the player turns into an All Star and we are the worst team in the league, I’ll be fired. If he is a bust but we make the playoffs then I’ll be safe.” Something to that effect.
But it is the same now…. We need players to play together, not necessarily the one that will be an allstar.

You can see the board’s top five in the left sidebar.

All I see in the sidebar is

#1: VOTE NOW!

See Full Board

“Vote Now!” takes me to the 1st vote’s comments page and

“See Full Board” take me to a list of “post headers” for each pick so far and all the picks from last season.

You can’t tell who won without clicking thru to each page and looking at the vote results.

I don’t think this is the effect TZ was shooting for.

Mostly because DThorpe gushed about him on his latest ESPN Thread
                              and
                 I really like his name.

I just don’t see it for Thabeet. Sam Dalembert, DeSagna Diop, Saer Sene, Dikembe Motumbo – I have no idea – his aggressiveness and lack of BB IQ is worrisome to me. Not this year, not this draft, please. Harden has been consistently ranked high all year long and only hurt by his NC2A performance.

The timetable is May 19th and then workouts workouts workouts. Let Mr. Petrie do what Mr. Petrie do best. Predicting his choice after Griffin and Rubio is like picking the winner of the Kentucky Derby.