Via Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
“St. Bonaventure’s Andrew Nicholson works out for Boston and OKC this week. OKC’s long been on him, but C’s looking hard w/ 21st-22nd picks.”
Nicholson is a 6-9 forward that is a motor player but has a decent amount of skill around the basket and possesses a high basketball IQ. You know, a Presti kind of player.
Or
-We can afford to keep Perk somehow with Harden and Ibaka
-Cole backs up Perk
-Draft Jeffery Taylor to come off bench with Beard
No I'm not a Vandy fan, just worked out that way in my two scenarios
-Amnesty Perk to be able to afford Harden and Ibaka
-Draft Festus Ezeli
-Start Cole with Festus coming off the bench
-AND......resign Uncle Jeff to come off the bench with the Beard
Wait a second.. we'd still have room for Lazar right? RIGHT??
nicholson has a good body type and can score. decent option. will require good coaching.
Do we just have one first round pick?
I'd swing for the fences with someone like Fab Melo, or maybe Royce White.
@justin_mia i don't know much about him but my gut says stay away from melo. he'll probably be gone anyway.
From what I've seen of him he has some decent footwork in the post and a variety of moves.
Just my opinion, but I guess this means that priorities go
1. Harden
2. Perkins
3. Ibaka
poo
Sounds like a ZBo-ish player to me.
@diddoff
I assume you mean ZBo-ish because of skill set and not because of maturity issues. He's going to have to gain about 40 pounds before he's thick like Zbo. 40 pounds is a lot.
I just saw this guy play once, against Fl State, and he was an absolute force that game. Dunno how typical that performance was of his career, but it always makes me leery when a guy only becomes visible his senior year.
But you know, I'm not much of a college guy, so becoming visible to me might be a chore.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
Nicholson was an absolute force for his last 3 years at Bonas. he's not like ZBo because he's a stellar athlete but he's also extremely skilled. he's got an extremely feathery jumper with range out to 22 feet. An assortment of back to the basket and face up moves.
If he played at a high major instead of a mid major he'd probably be a top 15 pick. His struggles are more on the defensive end. Where he gets up very quickly for rebounds and blocks but doesn't have the bulk to always block out bigger players. He also doesn't pass well out of double teams.
Either way he's a very skilled guy who can play both the 3 and 4 and he has very good athletic ability as well.
@DirkDiggles I've seen him play a lot. He's a good athlete, but not an amazing athlete and will NEVER have a chance at playing the 3 in the NBA. He's a PF only
@Jax Raging Bile Duct I think he'll have to work to improve his handle to be a three. He's more of a straight 4 but with a very solid jump shot/midrange game and very good post moves.
Nicholson isn't as good as ZBo in the post up game but he's still very good. He's also a better face up player.
Athletically he's far better than ZBo. He's very quick, one of quickest leapers in this years draft and very athletic.
yeah he's not much like Zbo. The only reason they are similar is they both have very solid polished post moves and great mid range games. Also Nicholson, like ZBo, is very offensive minded and his biggest issues will probably be on D.
The one thing I'm having a hard time doing is projecting Nicholson. One one hand he seems very polished as you don't see Pf coming out of college with his assortment of moves but he didn't play at a big time program so he still probably has plenty of room to grow.
@DirkDiggles That doesn't sound like Zbo to me. What pro comparison would you make? Zbo's got a good jumpshot and has a great post up, back to the basket game. He's not a great athlete, but wins the rebounding battle due to his girth and freakishly long arms.
Draft Express see's him as a PF/C, but you see a SF/PF. Can he handle the ball like NBA SFs do these days?
@diddoff Hope you're right