Free Agency 2019

[sturt]

27 minutes ago, AHF said:

I don't expect a second round pick to generally get many minutes

Well taken, but this is different in two aspects.

1) Schlenk told us before the draft, and it also showed up in the mock drafts circulated as compared to the actual results, that there was appreciably wider disagreement on the players after the first 10 picks than one would normally see in a given year's draft...

Legitimately, there were players expected by some to go in the 10-20 range that ended up in the 30-40 range... and vice versa...

Bruno being one who many touted as high as the 15-20 range in the days leading up to the draft.

2) Kirschner gets some things right. (That's not just a smart aleck remark on my part.)

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, sturt said:

Well taken, but this is different in two aspects, both related to his draft slot.

1) Schlenk told us before the draft, and it also showed up in the mock drafts circulated as compared to the actual results, that there was appreciably wider disagreement on the players after the first 10 picks than one would normally see in a given year's draft...

Legitimately, there were players expected by some to go in the 10-20 range that ended up in th 30-40 range... and vice versa...

Bruno being one who many touted as high as the 15-20 range in the days leading up to the draft.

2) Kirschner gets some things right.

Yep and all of those guys become productive players

[sturt]

5 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

Sentence #1: For me, Bruno's struggles in summer league don't mean much.  

Sentence #2: It would be nice to see more from him during even these high publicity pickup games.  

It would be "nice," but does it "mean much?"

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, sturt said:

It would be "nice," but does it "mean much?"

AHF said those things not me. I thought the guy looked lost in summer league.  Unndrafted players whose destiny lies in Europe or the insurance business looked like they belonged more than Bruno. So yeah, I am not predicting useful minutes out of him this year. He'll get lottery team minutes just like our g-leaguers did lthe last couple of years .

[sturt]

1 minute ago, Peoriabird said:

AHF said those things not me.

Oops... yes, I copied the quote from your post inadvertently, but yes, I knew it was from AHF.

[AHF]

8 minutes ago, sturt said:

It would be "nice," but does it "mean much?"

Let me put it this way.  I’ve said before I think we got a bargain on Bruno because his rawness meant that he slipped in the draft in spite of his attractive tools.  So I expected him to be raw and not ready to contribute early.  Summer league did nothing to make me shift that assessment.

[Peoriabird]

3 minutes ago, AHF said:

Let me put it this way.  I’ve said before I think we got a bargain on Bruno because his rawness meant that he slipped in the draft in spite of his attractive tools.  So I expected him to be raw and not ready to contribute early.  Summer league did nothing to make me shift that assessment.

I'm taking it a few steps further...Bruno doesn't have his fundamental skills down yet...like boxing out, playing defense without fouling, spacing on offense or other required offensive skills like shooting etc. So he isnt ready to contribute to winning basketball yet.

[Gray Mule]

One of my dad's favorite quotes:  "Blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall not be disappointed."

Hawks do not have a championship caliber center.  So what.  Did you think we were going for the gold this season?  Me either.  All NBA teams have one thing in common.  Their projected wins for the season depends on how healthy they are.  Hawks are no different.  One of our four centers has endured several weeks off with injuries.  Hopefully, he's well now.

Healthy?  Just think of how bad off we would be if Trae had a season ending injury!  Or Collins.  It can happen.  The point is, if the Hawks centers stay healthy they will be fine.  Bruno didn't show great in summer league.  Neither did Trae last year.  De`Andre, Cam and Bruno all must learn.  And, They will.  Don't sell the Hawks short.

[Peoriabird]

1 minute ago, Gray Mule said:

Bruno didn't show great in summer league.  Neither did Trae last year. 

You need to go back and watch last years summer league...Trae was on the all summer league team.

[Peoriabird]

6 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

  Did you think we were going for the gold this season? 

Posters are predicting 50 wins this up coming season

[sturt]

24 minutes ago, AHF said:

So I expected him to be raw and not ready to contribute early.

I understand that.

But the justification given for that opinion seems to give too much emphasis to draft slot, as I've said.

And... I had to do it...

1 minute ago, Peoriabird said:

Posters are predicting 50 wins this up coming season

Did you mean to make that plural?

[Gray Mule]

4 minutes ago, Peoriabird said:

You need to go back and watch last years summer league...Trae was on the all summer league team.

That must have been the second set.  Do you remember the first summer league games?  Hawks played only one set this summer.

[Peoriabird]

8 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

Hawks do not have a championship caliber center.  So what. 

The Hawks had multiple opportunities to improve the position but chose not to which tells me that they want to return to the lottery this season

[Peoriabird]

3 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

That must have been the second set.  Do you remember the first summer league games?  Hawks played only one set this summer.

His shot was off in Utah but the rest of his game was solid

[Gray Mule]

Hawks have empty player slots but I can't find any rumors about what's going on.  Seems that someone would at least try to guess.  Apparently not.  Ah, well.  Guess we will just have to wait.

[JayBirdHawk]

3 minutes ago, Gray Mule said:

Hawks have empty player slots but I can't find any rumors about what's going on.  Seems that someone would at least try to guess.  Apparently not.  Ah, well.  Guess we will just have to wait.

We have 2 empty slots. Travis has indicated that he will keep one open going into the season. 

I think the one spot is Vince's if he wants it!

[sturt]

1 hour ago, JayBirdHawk said:

I think the one spot is Vince's if he wants it!

Unless Shaun wants it.

[AHF]

2 hours ago, sturt said:

I understand that.

But the justification given for that opinion seems to give too much emphasis to draft slot, as I've said.

 

I think you are assuming too much here as there were tons of scouting reports saying he was raw before he was drafted.  Again, it was the rawness that allowed us to take a guy with his tools that low but saying that draft slot is the basis for this opinion is putting the horse before the cart.  He was known to be raw.  He was drafted low.  His draft slot has nothing to do with how NBA ready he is other than that a guy with his tools was expected to go higher and the lack of polish is what I think caused the fall.  Here are a few of the many assessments saying he is really raw:

Quote

Fernando is still a work in progress in a number of important facets. He's a poor decision-maker (21 percent turnover rate), and his overall production and efficiency drop significantly when going up against better competition. Most concerning is how little impact he has on the defensive end of the floor, where his poor awareness, instincts and basketball IQ are demonstrated far too frequently. Fernando gives up deep post position too easily, bites on every shot fake, takes poor angles on pick-and-rolls, gets lost off the ball constantly and looks extremely limited switching onto ball handlers outside the paint. His fundamentals are poor and his intensity level fluctuates regularly, as he simply doesn't know how to operate at maximum intensity without fouling.

https://www.espn.com/nba/draft/rounds/_/round/2

Quote

Cons:

Needs to improve his face-up game

Needs to improve his low post game

Needs to improve his playmaking skills

May be fairly raw offensively

Can be undisciplined defensively

https://www.nbascoutinglive.com/bruno-fernando-scouting-report

Quote

Weaknesses

Despite the strides he made at Maryland, Fernando is still a raw prospect. His lack of polish mostly shows defensively, where he often got caught out of position. Even though he averaged 1.9 blocks per game, he would often bite on pump fakes. Reliant on his athletic prowess, Fernando is primed to battle foul trouble early on. Outside of his straight-line speed, he didn’t show great switchability on the perimeter. His shooting upside is also entirely theoretical. He only shot 13 triples in two years at Maryland, but Fernando says that was a result of the system he played in.

https://www.blazersedge.com/2019/6/13/18663084/nba-draft-bruno-fernando-profile-scouting-report-maryland-trail-blazers

Quote

still a work in progress ...  While he has come a long way in a short time, still must continue to improve upon his feel for the game

[LOWEST RATED CATEGORY: NBA READINESS]

https://www.nbadraft.net/players/bruno-fernando

Quote

Many would consider Fernando rising to the lottery a reach for several teams.  There are a plethora of other options [i.e., other prospects] with a better NBA-ready skill set...

https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/wizards/angola-nba-draft-bruno-fernando-about-make-nba-history

 

[Peoriabird]

32 minutes ago, AHF said:

I think you are assuming too much here as there were tons of scouting reports saying he was raw before he was drafted.  Again, it was the rawness that allowed us to take a guy with his tools that low but saying that draft slot is the basis for this opinion is putting the horse before the cart.  He was known to be raw.  He was drafted low.  His draft slot has nothing to do with how NBA ready he is other than that a guy with his tools was expected to go higher and the lack of polish is what I think caused the fall.  Here are a few of the many assessments saying he is really raw:

https://www.espn.com/nba/draft/rounds/_/round/2

https://www.nbascoutinglive.com/bruno-fernando-scouting-report

https://www.blazersedge.com/2019/6/13/18663084/nba-draft-bruno-fernando-profile-scouting-report-maryland-trail-blazers

https://www.nbadraft.net/players/bruno-fernando

https://www.nbcsports.com/washington/wizards/angola-nba-draft-bruno-fernando-about-make-nba-history

 

You are my favorite poster again! This team is in trouble up front and it is time postees take off their rose colored glasses and realize this. This front office is doing a disservice to Trae. Trae is ready to complete and so is John but the front office wants to continue drag its feet for some unknown reason.

[sturt]

40 minutes ago, AHF said:

I think you are assuming too much here

That's my line.

Rawness is something that can be said about almost every player drafted below #10, and arguably in this draft, below #3.

Very few players drafted in the first round even will begin the year as starters. Most will be given increasing minutes through the season. And some will eventually prove themselves deserving of a starting role... that, or will get one by default because the first string guy got hurt.

You're making Fernando out to be something more raw than he actually is, imo. Again, he's no more raw than probably 15-20 of the guys drafted higher than he was.

Here's the widest and fairest overview of his draft prospects, from The Baltimore Sun...

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/terps/bs-sp-maryland-basketball-bruno-fernando-mock-nba-drafts-0613-story.html

============================

 

... final two seasons of eligibility in College Park.

Most mock drafts have Fernando going in the second half of the opening round.

Drafttek.com has Fernando at No. 17, going to the Brooklyn Nets. Basketball Insiders projects him at No. 23 to the Utah Jazz. NBA Draft Room has him going No. 26 to the Cleveland Cavaliers, as does Sean Deveney of Sporting News.

SI.com picks Fernando one spot later going to Nets, Bleacher Report and CBS Sports have him at No. 28 to the Golden State Warriors while Chris Stone of Sporting News has him No. 29 to the San Antonio Spurs. USA Today has Fernando as the last pick in the first round, No. 30 to the Milwaukee Bucks.

At least two mock drafts have the All-Big Ten first-teamer and Big Ten All-Defensive Team performer being a potential lottery pick.

NBADraft.net projects Fernando going to the Washington Wizards at No. 9 and Forbes wrote the Atlanta Hawks, who have the Nos. 8 and 10 picks, recently did a “deep dive” on Fernando. The Hawks have two other former Terps on their roster, last year’s No. 19 pick Kevin Huerter and Alex Len.

A number of high-profile media organizations are not that high on Fernando.

ESPN’s Jonathan Givony recently dropped Fernando to the Dallas Mavericks at No. 37. The Athletic, which earlier had Fernando as a first-round pick, now have him at No. 40 — the same spot Diamond Stone got picked after his freshman year at Maryland — to the Sacramento Kings. The Ringer has him going at No. 34 to the Philadelphia 76ers.

One longtime NBA scout, who asked to remain anonymous, said he has long been a fan of Fernando, though he become more certain of Fernando’s NBA future last season when he turned into Maryland’s most consistent player.

“From the first time I laid eyes on him his freshman year, you can tell he has the makeup of a NBA player,” the scout said. “He’s big, strong, athletic, mobile. Terrific motor, love the motor — that I saw. You could see he was raw offensively.

“His footwork, which you can see is very good now, was lacking. He wasn’t natural passing out of double teams, sort of made up what he was going to do and did it, and consequently would travel, charge instead of taking what the defense would give him.”

The scout’s impression changed dramatically last season.

"I would say of all the kids that came back after their freshman year, he would have to be in the conversation as the most improved player in the country,” the scout said. “He started checking boxes that were question marks after his freshman year.

“Offensively, he became an excellent passer, a very willing teammate to do the right thing. He added so much to his game. His rebounding became better. He eliminated a lot of the stupid fouls. You could see he was much more comfortable in almost every situation.”

As with most players projected to go in the first round, Fernando didn’t participate in the scrimmages at the draft combine in Chicago last month, but tested well in the drills.

He had the third-best leaping ability among centers in both standing (29.5 inches) and running (33.5), had the best shuttle run (3.05 seconds) and three-quarter sprint (3.21) and was second in lane agility (11.29).

Though he didn’t shoot it as well as he did at last year’s combine, Fernando led all centers in shooting 15 footers on the move (71 percent), which could be attractive to teams that utilize pick-and-pop mid-range jumpers with their big men...........

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(Btw... all the other stuff is good and fine, but please don't bring a mere mortal fan blogger's opinion into a discussion and pretend it matters any more than yours or mine... re: Blazers Edge)