Is there a Kobe in this Draft ?

Might be posting in this in the wrong section here - so mods, please help out if need be..

I dont get to follow the NCAA too much - only read up whatever i can on the internet.. so i'm curious to know from you guys - who do you believe are the dark horses with bigger potential than stats through their college season ?

Why I make the Kobe reference is because coincidentally, we find ourselves at a crossroads where we could trade away a good/established/european HoF'er (vlade/pau) for a higher draft pick. This at a time, when we're also potentially looking to build around an emerging center (shaq/drew - humour me, this is not a comparison) and an aging star (again, granted eddie jones was no kobe at the time, just for the sake of a parallel)

Could we conceivably, find ourselves a diamond in the rough by swapping pau out and then shore up the bench with our mle/lo exception AND still be a contender next + the years after #24? And if we went this way, who would your target in this draft be ?

I honestly doubt any player in this draft will be one of the top five players in the NBA history like Kobe is.

A couple of years back a professional tennis player named Boris Becker said that there's very little difference physically between the #1 and #100 ranked player. He said that the difference was overwhelmingly mental.

So looking at this draft, is there a player with the same drive and focus as Kobe? Even at different positions, is there a player with the same mental makeup? That was the one thing that West kept on talking about - Kobe's maturity. And no one really understood how important it meant until years later.

brickshooter wrote:A couple of years back a professional tennis player named Boris Becker said that there's very little difference physically between the #1 and #100 ranked player. He said that the difference was overwhelmingly mental.

So looking at this draft, is there a player with the same drive and focus as Kobe? Even at different positions, is there a player with the same mental makeup? That was the one thing that West kept on talking about - Kobe's maturity. And no one really understood how important it meant until years later.

Exactly.

Finwë wrote:

brickshooter wrote:A couple of years back a professional tennis player named Boris Becker said that there's very little difference physically between the #1 and #100 ranked player. He said that the difference was overwhelmingly mental.

So looking at this draft, is there a player with the same drive and focus as Kobe? Even at different positions, is there a player with the same mental makeup? That was the one thing that West kept on talking about - Kobe's maturity. And no one really understood how important it meant until years later.

Exactly.

Agree completely. My question came in the context of me not having a clue about the guys in this draft though... Read somewhere that this is likely to be one of the deepest drafts we've had in a while?

Lakers? 1st round pick? HA

I don't see why it's completely off the table.. Wasn't there some reference to the draft in mitch's exit interview as well?

I'm in the process of convincing myself that it's Austin Rivers.

So is Doc Junior worth trading up for? looks like a mid-first pick with a sense of entitlement at the moment?

SublimeAnarky wrote:So is Doc Junior worth trading up for? looks like a mid-first pick with a sense of entitlement at the moment?

Sounds like someone we know when they were being drafted. I really feel like this kid is going to be special and I don't want us to miss out on this opportunity. All these so called experts are enamored with these great athletes in the draft, when the best basketball player in the draft is right in front of their faces.

Draft express says this kid can become a legit scoring threat in the nba.. From what I read about him he's definitely not shy of taking his shots, though he's not an otherworldly athelete. Should I be thinking best case as Kevin martin?

What about this Meyers Leonard kid? Apparently he's only had an average college season - but has a non-stop motor?

I think that player might be Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, IMO, in 3 years he will be the talk of this draft.

But mkg isn't a sleeper. I think he's pegged as top 5? Ppl thought we were really stretching when we went after kobe.. And for the first year at least, kobe wasn't the best player from his class..

Turns out the Logo nailed it when everyone else before #13 could also have had a shot..

Mkg isn't that underrated is he?

SublimeAnarky wrote:But mkg isn't a sleeper. I think he's pegged as top 5? Ppl thought we were really stretching when we went after kobe.. And for the first year at least, kobe wasn't the best player from his class..

Turns out the Logo nailed it when everyone else before #13 could also have had a shot..

Mkg isn't that underrated is he?

I remember on the old AOL boards, we had this discussion..."Kobe will be the key acquisition of this summer." I caught it quite a bit of flack as this was the summer that, as you all know, Shaq first rocked the Forum Blue and Gold. There were people who saw it but were frightened away because there had yet to be a back court player to jump successively from High School to the NBA and many experts thought it would be impossible. That, coupled with the fact that Kobe also made it known that he only wanted to play for the Lakers, so that put a number of GM's off, Charlotte knew they could pull off a trade, they coveted Divac so a trade was made.

SublimeAnarky wrote:But mkg isn't a sleeper. I think he's pegged as top 5? Ppl thought we were really stretching when we went after kobe.. And for the first year at least, kobe wasn't the best player from his class..

Turns out the Logo nailed it when everyone else before #13 could also have had a shot..

Mkg isn't that underrated is he?

He's not a sleeper, but there will be at least 3 other teams kicking themselves for passing him up.

.. So there is buzz about us moving up in the draft.. And can see that some of us are high on the Perry Jones III? Sleeper potential?

brickshooter wrote:A couple of years back a professional tennis player named Boris Becker said that there's very little difference physically between the #1 and #100 ranked player. He said that the difference was overwhelmingly mental.

So looking at this draft, is there a player with the same drive and focus as Kobe? Even at different positions, is there a player with the same mental makeup? That was the one thing that West kept on talking about - Kobe's maturity. And no one really understood how important it meant until years later.

Tennis is totally different than basketball. And that quote came from a tennis player, not a bballer.

Granted tennis is more mental than basketball. But Kobe and MJ are in a league of their own when it comes to competitiveness and mental toughness.

LeBron may be more talented athletically than Kobe, and near MJ in athletic ability, but he's a mental midget compared to them. He got better this year, but I'd be willing to bet that he fails in a tight 7-game series against a physical team. And Wade cries when he's injured. Durant faded against LeBron's defense, and against refs that didn't favor him.

So there's something to the idea that the very best are talented and mentally tough. It separates the stars from the super-stars.