Es ist natürlich noch arg früh, aber wir können den Thread ja dann zu angebrachter Zeit wieder hervorholen:
UNC's Barnes starts as top prospect
UNC's Barnes starts as top prospect
Chad Ford schrieb:the 2011 draft is so filled with unproven prospects that one veteran scout dubbed our 2011 Top 100, "The Mystery Men."
For the first time since I've been doing our Top 100, there are no returning college players in the top 10. This draft is loaded with several interesting international players and a host of intriguing college freshmen.
"There isn't one top prospect in this draft that's proven anything," one veteran GM said. "I've never seen anything quite like it."
We've ranked Harrison Barnes as the consensus No. 1 prospect in our Top 100 after talking with numerous NBA scouts and executives. Every source we spoke with had Barnes as the top pick. The North Carolina swingman has been compared to a number of superstars, including Kobe Bryant. He has a high basketball IQ, is an excellent, versatile athlete and is silky smooth. He doesn't quite have Bryant's killer instinct, but he has remarkable maturity for his age.
After Barnes, there is really no consensus in the rest of the Top 10, though two players -- Baylor's Perry Jones and Jan Vesely of the Czech Republic -- consistently showed up in the top five. [...]
1. A lack of high-quality college holdovers
This year, with many college prospects worried about a potential lockout in 2011, just about everyone jumped into the pool.
In fact, we didn't have one college player who was projected to go in the lottery skip the draft. Just six college players in our 2010 top 30 decided to return to school -- John Henson, Mason Plumlee, Jeff Taylor, Elias Harris, Kyle Singler and Kenneth Faried. Of those six, just two -- Henson and Plumlee -- are projected as 2011 lottery picks at the moment.
A few others, including Jordan Hamilton, Aaric Murray, Kemba Walker, Kawhi Leonard, Malcolm Lee, Kris Joseph, Trey Thompkins, Rodney Williams, JaJuan Johnson, Chris Singleton, Abdul Gaddy and Tyshawn Taylor, have the talent to crack the first round if they dramatically improve -- but there are few guarantees in next year's draft.
2. An intriguing freshman class
In 2011, we have a whopping nine freshmen projected as one-and-done lottery picks, including Harrison Barnes, Perry Jones, North Carolina State's C.J. Leslie, Kansas' Josh Selby, Duke's Kyrie Irving, Ohio State's Jared Sullinger and Kentucky's Brandon Knight, Terrence Jones and Enes Kanter.
Several other freshmen, including Florida's Patric Young and Texas' Tristan Thompson and Corey Joseph, are possible first-rounders, but most scouts think they really need at least two years on the college level.
3. A potentially terrific crop of international prospects
In 2010, just one international player, Kevin Seraphin, cracked the first round. It was the first time in a decade that an international player was not taken in the lottery.
The record-low foreign influence is thanks, in part, to the fact that two potential international lottery picks -- the Czech Republic's Jan Vesely and Lithuanian Donatas Motiejunas -- decided to return to Europe for another season.
This year, Vesely is projected as a top-five pick and Motiejunas is projected to go in the lottery. They'll likely be joined in the lottery by another Lithuanian big man, Jonas Valanciunas.
4. Another 'big' draft
In 2011, a whopping 12 power forwards and 10 small forwards are in our initial top-30 list. On the other end of the spectrum, we don't have a single shooting guard ranked in the top 30.
Luckily, next year's point guard prospects are a bit better than the 2010 crew. This year, just two point guards were drafted in the first round. We have three point guards ranked as lottery picks and two more as first-rounders for 2011.