Interview with: Zach from Talk Hoops Net
As I keep going with the interviews from the blogosphere this time I get a great NBA site blogger, Zach from the Talk Hoops Net. I hit him up with plenty of questions regarding the upcoming National Basketball Association draft, first with some generic questions and then going into specific regarding the four players from UNC. I also ask him about the “one and done” rule and the future of blogging. And it’s all right here, right now, on the next edition of “Interview with”…
A.E.M.: We are going to talk NBA Draft, so my first question to you is pretty forward. Is this a strong or weak draft. How do you rank it amongst the last 5 years?
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): The problem with trying to dissect this draft is that there really doesn’t seem to be much depth and star power from the first glance or two ever. But when I looked over it again, it seems like this will be the draft in which teams can build back their depth. Depending on how Blake Griffin develops (more importantly, which point guard he ends up playing next to) and if Ricky Rubio can add a deadly jumper to his already well-rounded skills, there might not be a single franchise saving pick. But there are a ton of good role players and 10-year starters in this draft class who won’t really knock your socks off but will make you look back five or six years from now and be happy they went to your particular team. In terms of how it matches up with the last five years’ draft classes, it’s easily the weakest one. But that’s just because recent drafts have given us a good number of current and future All-Stars. Aside from big leaps taken by guys like Brandon Jennings, Tyreke Evans and James Harden, we may not get that with this class.
A.E.M.: Moving on from the draft itself, let now talk about the players. Who is the player that you believe is going to be the absolute lock – can’t miss – this is the one – pick of this draft? And of course why is that.
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): To be honest, this is the hardest question for me to answer about the draft. I don’t think as highly of Blake Griffin as most people do and am not sold that he’s going to be the next Amare Stoudemire. My pick for first pick, assuming I’m not drafting by need, would be Ricky Rubio because I think that a top flight point guard is the easiest player to build around in the NBA. And I think that his defense and distribution abilities are through the roof and still capable of getting better. But if I had to pick one guy that will be a stable lock for the next 10 years, I’d have to go with Hasheem Thabeet. That doesn’t mean I think he’s the best player or should be the number one pick. It just means that I believe he’s going to be a good rebounder and a great shot-changer around the basket. Any offense from him will be a bonus and you’ll be able to protect the rim for a decade with him. I feel like you can pencil in what you’re getting from him, easier than anybody else.
A.E.M.: And if I ask you about the best pick of the draft, you know I am going to ask you to tell me who you believe is going to be the one that we all should have stayed away – can’t believe it’s so bad – pick of this year? And again, why is that.
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): I’m really weary of Jrue Holiday from UCLA. He had a TERRIBLE season at UCLA from what expectations were and I wasn’t impressed with anything he did towards the end of the season and with the NCAA Tournament. He seems like he has the perfect makeup to be a good point guard in this league but you have to wonder if the skills are ever going to catch up to his physical prowess. And I’m not so sure that he has the right instincts to be able to properly run a team for 35 minutes per night. I think that if your team ends up with him, you really need to have a veteran point guard in place to show him the ropes for three years or more. Otherwise, it could end up being a wasted lottery pick.
A.E.M.: Now that we have worked on the easy questions, time to get more specific. Who is the one player going in the second round that we don’t know much about and is going to be a household name come next year?
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): I’d have to say Leo Lyons just because I know he won’t go in the first round and will probably be in that 35-45 range of picks. He’s a pretty good athlete at the power forward position and could end up being another Carl Landry/Paul Millsap type of player. He has good enough skills and should develop into a pretty good rebounder. He can also step out and nail a mid-range jumper which will allow him to utilize his athleticism at the pro level. I think whichever team ends up with him as found one of the second round gems.
A.E.M.: Now, as you know my blog is about North Carolina. This year four players from Chapel Hill are going to be in the draft. I would like you to tell me where each of them (Tyler Hansbrough, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Danny Green) will end up (more or less) in the draft.
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): I’d be shocked if Tyler Hansbrough went in the Top 20 because people are going to be afraid of him not developing and not being good/strong enough to make it in the NBA. But they did the same thing with David Lee and that seemed to work out well for the Knicks. I don’t think that Tyler is going to be as good as David Lee but his ability to score after contact is going to be an extremely valuable asset in the pros. Throw in his solid defense and good rebounding instincts and I think that he’ll be a steal towards the end of the first round. He seems perfect to end up on a team like OKC or Dallas.
I think Ty Lawson will have a good enough draft camp to keep him well within the Top 20. He proved in the NCAA tournament that he’s a tough guy and a winner, which was huge for his stock. He’s still small for an NBA point guard with everybody wanting 6’4″ guys who can throw down at the blink of an eye. But Lawson brings a certain calm to the game while creating chaos for the defense so he should be a valuable commodity in the middle of the first round. I think he’d be a perfect backup plan for Steve Nash in Phoenix and would be shocked if he’s in the green room at pick 15.
Wayne Ellington is really intriguing because he’s pretty undersized for an NBA shooting guard but he can be so deadly from long range and moves pretty well going to the basket that he could be a very valuable scorer off the bench for a contender. He’s definitely in the first round because I don’t think the Cavs would let him pass at 30 and I don’t know that he’ll get past Memphis at 27 or Minnesota at 28, two teams desperate for outside shooting.
Danny Green is pretty confusing. He looked to have a ton of promise two years ago and hasn’t really developed the way teams hoped for. He might slip to the second round and have to work his way in with a veteran team. He’s too short to be an effective small forward and possibly too slow to be an effective shooting guard for 25+ minutes per game. But he would fit in perfectly in the Spurs or Pistons rotations and with both of them having Top 10 picks in the second round, he’s probably not going to be around at pick 40.
A.E.M.: As I ask any blogger of the NBA (or college), what do you think of the “one and done” rule? Would you keep it as is, tweak it a bit or get rid of it altogether.
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): In theory, it’s a great rule because not everybody is ready to leap straight to the NBA. But if it’s truly going to be effective it either has to go to two or three years or be abolished altogether. I think it’s just a way to do some marketing for incoming NBA players with March Madness while the NBA tries to keep veterans happy for at least a year or two. But it doesn’t really work the way that we want it to and if you have kids withdrawing from classes by April 1st because they were just going “one and done” then you’ve insulted the student body of that school, taken away an enrollment spot for someone at that school, and wasted a scholarship. Let’s actually turn them into students for a couple of years or let them live with bad choices for entering the NBA. With the NBDL around, there’s more of a net when these guys fall from their NBA hopes as busted prospects.
A.E.M.: And lastly, the question I ask of any blogger: where do you see blogging going? Both compared to main stream media and the single blogs (as I am) compared to the blog community (as you are).
Zach (TalkHoopsNet): I think as long as you can find what you do well as a blog (whether it be opinion, analysis, or statistical breakdowns) you’ll find an audience. The main stream media is realizing that they have to be more accepting of blogs and find a way to integrate because the internet has turned news and entertainment to fair game. There’s no longer a monopoly with big news outlets because internet news travels so quickly that everybody has a chance to opine before they do. I think single blogs don’t necessarily have to join a network unless they’re tired of doing a lot of the legwork (like I was). Networks will be able to provide their blogs with all of the tools that they might not know about but as long as you’re satisfying what your audience wants from you, it doesn’t matter where the material comes from. I think eventually blogging will be so widely accepted that they won’t even be called bloggers anymore. They’ll be classified as opinionists (I might have made that word up) or writers.
And now there is only one thing to do, to thank once again Zach from Talk Hoops Net about the time he gave me to answer these questions. Make sure to check out his site and to follow him on twitter. Hopefully I will be able to get him back on The Fifth Corner once the NBA Draft has passed
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