PLEASE SIGN G. SILER!

[Buzzard]

Not according to NBA scouts who picked Priest in the first round of the draft and passed on Siler with picks in the 60's. That is what really worries me here. Priest was a waste of roster space and still was taken at the end of the first round. Siler wasn't given that much respect by the talent scouts.

Valid points and this is just the 3rd day into mini camp. I am sure one or two players will come out of this camp as low cost bench players. But it is way to early to announce Siler as the man to get....

[Peoriabird]

Not according to NBA scouts who picked Priest in the first round of the draft and passed on Siler with picks in the 60's. That is what really worries me here. Priest was a waste of roster space and still was taken at the end of the first round. Siler wasn't given that much respect by the talent scouts.

Ben Wallace wasn't drafted either

[TheDude]

my opinion is that it doesnt matter to me when someone is drafted, lets just see if the potential or skill is there.....the one thing that makes me believe siler could be good is that he started basketball late and his learning curve and development has gone straight up........i wonder if someone like him had started earlier if he hadnt been a bluechipper himself.........

people talk abouit how you can teach size...thats' true....but you also can't teach size WITH hardwork......

i'd sign a joe smith or another veteran banger but this siler kid is worth a roster spot imo....

[AHF]

Ben Wallace wasn't drafted either

True. But name the productive 7 footers who weren't drafted and were meaningful role players. Ben is undersized which is the exact profile of guys like Chuck Hayes who dont' get drafted but land on a team.

Name the 7 footers who weren't drafted and made it in the league and then we can talk about comparables.

[Brotha2ThaNite]

The ONLY REASON why Siler did not get drafted was because people did not know much about him because he started so late and then went to an unknown school. So you call can stop fishing. :go ahead:

You better believe you all will see KONG produce for some NBA team.

[AHF]

The ONLY REASON why Siler did not get drafted was because people did not know much about him because he started so late and then went to an unknown school. So you call can stop fishing. :go ahead:

You better believe you all will see KONG produce for some NBA team.

I'm not holding my breath. Olowokandi went #1 overall with a similar profile except that scouts were excited about him.

[Peoriabird]

True. But name the productive 7 footers who weren't drafted and were meaningful role players. Ben is undersized which is the exact profile of guys like Chuck Hayes who dont' get drafted but land on a team.

Name the 7 footers who weren't drafted and made it in the league and then we can talk about comparables.

Brad Miller

Fabricio Oberto

Mikki Moore

[Peoriabird]

Name the 7 footers who weren't drafted and made it in the league and then we can talk about comparables.

By the way Mark Eaton was drafted in the 5th round in his draft which would have made him undrafted too based on today's draft rules

[DrReality]

He's just an unknown. But I think it ironic and funny that a lot of teams drafted guys overseas on potential alone. Thinking they would leave them over there and develop. Siler needs the same but the ups he's shown are very intriuging. Tell the truth though, don't know why someone didn't spend a second rounder on him. But it is probably to his advantage.

Remember that Morris went undrafted too.

[AHF]

Oberto was an obscure Argentinian pro in the early 90s when he was draft eligible so I don't buy him as a comparable.

Brad Miller and Mikki Moore are good ones, though. Moore, of course, did not contribute to a pro team until 4 years after graduating from college. Brad Miller remains the one seven footer who wasn't drafted and became a part of his team's rotation.

My point is that there are a lot of 7 footers who don't get drafted and who have the size but the exceptions to this are so few and far between that it is very unlikely Siler does anything, IMO. Definitely check him out and do your due diligence and sign him if he is worth it. As fans, though, I can't understand why we are so excited about this when there is almost no history of this working out.

[Traceman]

Oberto was an obscure Argentinian pro in the early 90s when he was draft eligible so I don't buy him as a comparable.

Brad Miller and Mikki Moore are good ones, though. Moore, of course, did not contribute to a pro team until 4 years after graduating from college. Brad Miller remains the one seven footer who wasn't drafted and became a part of his team's rotation.

My point is that there are a lot of 7 footers who don't get drafted and who have the size but the exceptions to this are so few and far between that it is very unlikely Siler does anything, IMO. Definitely check him out and do your due diligence and sign him if he is worth it. As fans, though, I can't understand why we are so excited about this when there is almost no history of this working out.

I too am very skeptical about Siler. He is huge no doubt but the fact that he is able to push Morris around doesn't impress me very much. Any suggestion that he might come in and have an impact against Shaq, Howard or even Brook Lopez THIS year is wishful thinking in my opinion. Besides, unless we can trade Morris' guaranteed contract, I just don't see where he fits with our cap/luxury tax situation. We need at least one big man who can DEFINITELY contribute right now and that doesn't include Siler or Morris in my opinion.

[TheTrueSiete]

Oberto was an obscure Argentinian pro in the early 90s when he was draft eligible so I don't buy him as a comparable.

Brad Miller and Mikki Moore are good ones, though. Moore, of course, did not contribute to a pro team until 4 years after graduating from college. Brad Miller remains the one seven footer who wasn't drafted and became a part of his team's rotation.

My point is that there are a lot of 7 footers who don't get drafted and who have the size but the exceptions to this are so few and far between that it is very unlikely Siler does anything, IMO. Definitely check him out and do your due diligence and sign him if he is worth it. As fans, though, I can't understand why we are so excited about this when there is almost no history of this working out.

Because we are trying to be optimistic... And, you never know, he might be great...

7

[Johnnybravo4]

It is also interesting that despite having good predraft camp and working out for us during predraft, we didn't take a second round flier on him.

[gsuteke]

I asked Sekou about Siler and shared the response with the MOD team here. It sounds like Siler is pretty raw.

[Peoriabird]

Besides, unless we can trade Morris' guaranteed contract, I just don't see where he fits with our cap/luxury tax situation. We need at least one big man who can DEFINITELY contribute right now and that doesn't include Siler or Morris in my opinion.

You totally lost me with your statement in bold! What does signing Siler have to do with our cap/luxury tax situation?

[Antmillennium]

I too am very skeptical about Siler. He is huge no doubt but the fact that he is able to push Morris around doesn't impress me very much. Any suggestion that he might come in and have an impact against Shaq, Howard or even Brook Lopez THIS year is wishful thinking in my opinion. Besides, unless we can trade Morris' guaranteed contract, I just don't see where he fits with our cap/luxury tax situation. We need at least one big man who can DEFINITELY contribute right now and that doesn't include Siler or Morris in my opinion.

If it's clear that he's obviously stronger than all of our Bigs, and he has a nice touch around the basket, I think it would be foolish for us not to sign him. We need size and strength in the worst way. You can't teach size. Furthermore, you might as well sign him to replace Solomon Jones. I'd just hate it if the Hawks passed up the opportunity to sign the guy and then see him progress into a solid NBA Center on another team.

[AHF]

You totally lost me with your statement in bold! What does signing Siler have to do with our cap/luxury tax situation?

I think he is arguing that Morris is a useless big man who won't play this year on our bench and saying we can't afford to have 2 big men who are useless for this season on our bench -- that our limited dollars under the luxury tax would be best spent somewhere else on a player who will contribute this season.

[Peoriabird]

I think he is arguing that Morris is a useless big man who won't play this year on our bench and saying we can't afford to have 2 big men who are useless for this season on our bench -- that our limited dollars under the luxury tax would be best spent somewhere else on a player who will contribute this season.

1st of all, Morris is counting less than $800,000.00 against our cap and if you add Siler at $1 Mill that is still $1.8 mil against our cap for 2 players. Secondly,

we had Morris and Hunter on the roster last year right? Why not replace Hunter with Siler this year and Solo with Joe Smith if you don't want Solo back?

[Traceman]

You totally lost me with your statement in bold! What does signing Siler have to do with our cap/luxury tax situation?

Simple. We have a roster to fill out and we only have so much money left under the luxury tax to get that done. Right now we have that following 9 players under contract:

Horford/Zaza/Morris

Smoove

Mo

JJ/Crawford

Bibby/Teague

If you assume that we are going to resign Marvin (either at the QO or to a longterm contract) and that we will sign AT LEAST one veteran big, that would give us 11 players under contract:

Horford/Zaza/Morris

Smoove/Joe Smith???

Marvin/Mo

JJ/Crawford

Bibby/Teague

If the roster looks like that, I think we MUST sign another guard to the active roster, preferably a player who can play some PG (LOVE to see Flip but he will likely get a better offer than we can afford elsewhere). That would take us to the active roster limit of 12. I can see Mario winning this spot as well but I'd prefer a PG.

With our cap situation, I could easily see us only adding one more player to get to the minimum level of 13 players. That spot COULD go to a guy like Siler but I think it could just as easily go to Solo, Mario or another player at the veteran's minimum (my preference). Assuming we get Joe Smith (BIG assumption), I'd prefer that spot go to someone like Ben Wallace, Nesterovic, Stackhouse or another veteran player.

Bottom line is that the only way I see Siler sticking is if we completely whiff in our quest to acquire a veteran big man or if we are able to trade Morris for a 2nd.

Edited July 23, 2009 by Traceman

[MaceCase]

I think there is too much optimism about Siler just because he's big. Some people think he'd be a match against other bigs for that fact alone yet seem to forget that those guys are big and skilled. I don't think Brad Miller is a good indicator of Siler either considering how skilled he is both shooting and passing the ball. I can't say with certainty that Miller came into the league with that skillset but I doubt he invented himself entirely while in the league. I wouldn't mind taking a flier on Siler but once again the RandMo situation complicates the matter. I just don't see the need to carry 4 centers on a roster especially in a league (us included) that man's the C position with mostly athletic PF types rather than slow lumbering classic C types.