First day of Spring, or, Chad Ford is a Dick Season

[Fishy]

It's that time again when ESPN pays a froot loop out in Hawaii to fill young men's heads with delusions of whatever.

Mock 1.0 came out today. Yay.

First thing that jumps out is that he has James McAdoo as his 7th pick. Sure, Jimmy Mac is a backup and has averaged five points and four rebounds, but he has "played very well ever since John Henson went down with a wrist injury.

Since said injury, McAdoo has had games of nine points and two rebounds, four and eight, 17 and six and nine and four. The 17 points came against 16th-seed Vermont.

Anywho, welcome to the lottery, Jim. You're the highest of the four Tarheels Chad has in the lottery.

Drummond is his 6th pick and Lamb is 14th. I'll leave the comments to those who will arrive to offer cliched explanations as to why both players will be painting houses in Turkey within 18 months of turning pro.

Lastly, if Ford is accurate, there are people here who stand a chance at playing for North Carolina next season. Everyone is heading for the lottery.

 

[ConnHuskBask]

Drummond is his 6th pick and Lamb is 14th. I'll leave the comments to those who will arrive to offer cliched explanations as to why both players will be painting houses in Turkey within 18 months of turning pro.

I'm not sure how much Lamb would stand to benefit by playing an extra year at UConn. He could improve his handle and fill into his body better, but those things can certainly be worked on in the NBA and are minor tweaks to an overall polished game.

I think Drummond would stand the most to gain by staying an extra year in college. Someone pointed out earlier Deandre Jordan just signed a $40M deal and all he does is dunk and block shots, something I think Andre could do at the next level.

That being said, Andre is raw and doesn't have many if any at all fundamentals on offense. While I agree you can practice with the pros year round in the NBA, there is something to be said about a way steeper learning curve in doing so at that level.

While I hope both will come back to UConn for selfish reasons, I'll be fine with whatever choices they make and ultimately think they will be good pros in the NBA.

 

[Walker11]

McAdoo at 7 is absolutely bonkers. This just shows how much high school reputation matters, or how little Chad Ford knows.

The kid came in and looked clueless this year, showing no post-moves, a poor outside shot/perimeter game and athleticism that is very good but not close to Andre Drummond style freakishness. But he did score a lot of points in the McDonald's game last year.

 

[UConnSwag11]

i usually go to other sites first then espn... like http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-mock-draft/2012/ and others

 

[ruskin]

I don't know about "cliched explanations" but there will need to be substantial growth on ADs and JLs part to get to a second, big-score contract. Can see AD taking the slow, steady Bynum approach, not so sure about Lamb.

 

[Gurleyman]

Lamb will be fine because he will end up someone's wing man again and there will be space when he makes some cuts. He'll be able to play off someone else's double teams instead of drawing them himself. He'll struggle on D for a while, until he gets a little stronger and learns how to use his length. He's sure not a top 3 (franchise) pick, but late lottery to mid first round, you'll find a pretty damn good supplemental piece.

 

[HeGotGame]

The projections for Lamb and Drummond seem a little low, I think Drummond will be top 5 and Lamb in the top 10.

Both have the potential, size and style of game made for the NBA.

Looking at this years PG class it would not suprise to see Bazz put his name in.

 

[nomar]

It's always amazing how in Chad Ford's mind the NBA First Round has 87 slots.

I love Fishy's annual Chad Ford rants.

 

[Fishy]

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/draft/results/players/_/id/19763/jeff-withey

For the record, Jeff Withey is the last of sixty players currently tabbed as a "late first round pick" by this ESPN monkey.

 

[partial]

Hmm I might have to start checking those rankings I think I have a shot at getting drafted.

 

[partial]

One more slight thing; why do they use what looks like a ten inch ruler as the symbol that indicates size. What is chad ford measuring?