Post by 👨🏼⚕️delapandemic🚑 on Mar 7, 2019 15:03:45 GMT
TMBSL 2015 Draft Combine and Camp
Madison Square Garden – On June 1st all of the profile players, plus a select group of other invitees showed off their skills at the 3rd TMBSL Draft Combine and Camp, which mixes scrimmages, contests, and other skills events to give GMs a better idea of what kind of players are coming into the league this year.
Skills Contests:
3pt Shooting: Standard 3pt shooting contest, 5 racks of 5 balls, all around the arc. Timed.
1. Damon Jones - 21
2. Ron Mercer - 19
3. Chauncey Billups - 17
4t. Tracy McGrady - 15
4t. Derek Anderson - 15
4t. Keith Van Horn - 15
Vertical Max: Standing jump, adjusted for height.
1. Adonal Foyle - 42"
2. Ron Mercer - 41"
3. Anthony Parker - 40.5"
4. Antonio Daniels - 40"
5. Tracy McGrady - 39"
The Scrimmages: The Big Kahuna. The Marquee Event. The Headliner. Multiple games played over the course of the day, with various alignments.
The Bigs: Let's go ahead and get this out of the way: Tim Duncan is the star of the class and he makes everyone on his team better, on both ends of the floor. Without ever touching the ball outside of 17', he absolutely put on a clinic from the high- and low-posts, knocking down jumpers, bank shots, and occasionally bullying his way through the defenders. His lack of leaping ability is covered up by amazing touch at the rim and a ton of strength for his frame. Defensively he blocks shots instinctively and is always in the right place. No matter the alignment of teams, Duncan's team won every game over the course of the day. But... there is always a 'but'... that might say more about the other bigs in this class. There don't appear to be any other legitimate two-way players in the class, but I suppose scouts have been wrong before? Adonal Foyle showed off his defensive prowess, especially helping from the weakside for some highlight reel blocks (and block attempts), but couldn't hold onto the ball at all on the other side. Tony Battie is a physically imposing player and is very athletic... but so very raw. I'm not sure there is the appetite in the TMBSL right now to let him develop, as he'll be a real project. Pollard is a rebound machine, Moore blocks shots, and Croshere can knock down 3s all day... but they all seem like 1-skill horses.
The Wings: The wings of the class are where the offense really is, unlike last class where there was a lot of hope and athleticism, but little polish... the 2015 class has some really nice scoring wings who project very well to the TMBSL. On the bigger side, you have Keith Van Horn and Tim Thomas, both owners of silky jumpers. They will both struggle with guarding opposing players, especially stronger and bigger ones, but they should be offensive contributors on day 1. Van Horn, in particular, was adept at the pick n' pop game, stretching all the way out past the 3pt line for some deep bombs. Ron Mercer of Kentucky tested incredibly well pre-scrimmage and acquitted himself quite nicely during the games, but was never the player that demanded the ball when a bucket was needed. The other two big stories were the 19 year old 2-guards coming from high school, Stephen Jackson and Tracy McGrady. Both of them flashed at times during the game, showing their major upside and going on some real scoring tears... with combinations of jumpshots and attacking the rim violently. However, they are 19 and sometimes appeared lost on defense and struggled when trapped and/or pressed to find an open teammate. Most of the scouts in attendance walked away with a better opinion of both them than they had at the start of camp, but I don't think anyone would dare draft them ahead of Duncan at this point.
The Points: A small, odd crop of point guards this year. Chauncey Billups out of Colorado is really the only scoring-point that we have... and he looks to do most of his damage from range, calling his own number on stepbacks quite often. The other guards are the more traditional style, all preferring to set up their teammates for glory. The real wildcard here is God Shammgod, a wizard with handles and speed, who befuddled opponents regularly with his irregular, herky jerky moves and his straight-line speed. He struggles to finish, but frequently puts himself in prime position to do so. A patient GM might see him as a future star, given the development of a reliable jumpshot or floater. The rest of the point guards seem to be high-floor/low-ceiling types who could hang around TMBSL for a while as backups, particularly guys like Vaughn and Knight from major programs where they learned how to excel in a system.