Davis, Gordon . . . and Who???

Davis, Gordon and. . . who???
By Jeff Martin

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After months of enduring the agonizing contradiction of cheering for the home team to lose in hopes of landing the top overall pick, my dreams, and the dreams of many other Hornets fans were realized when the Charlotte Bobcats card was revealed as having the No. 2 pick during the NBA's Draft Lottery show. The opening of the final envelope was then only a formality as it was known the New Orleans Hornets won the lottery and secured the right to draft Kentucky's Anthony Davis, a player most consider as a "franchise changer" and major building block toward contending for a championship. But equally as important as getting the No. 1 pick is to the Hornets future, is what they will do with the No. 10 pick received from the Clippers in the Chris Paul deal.

Damian Lillard, Perry Jones III and Kendall Marshall are among the names that frequently come up when mentioning who the Hornets should select with that 10th pick, and rightfully so. Lillard is a dynamic scorer at the point guard position, who was second in the nation in PER (Player efficiency rating) behind only Anthony Davis. Marshall is bigger at 6'4, a better passer, and was called by some close to UNC Basketball as the greatest leader to come through the storied program in 25 years, while Jones III was once considered a lock for the top 3 and at if he pans out, could be a steal at 10. But the one name that has been recently brought up and threw me for a loop was Iowa State's Royce White, who some feel could complete a future Hornets Big Three.

The "Big Three" model, is one that has permeated throughout the NBA, and has been proven to be successful throughout the years. From the Showtime Lakers' Magic, Worthy, and Kareem to the mid-90's Bulls group of Jordan, Pippen and Rodman. And even more recently with the Spurs' Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili's 4 championships and the Celtics' Pierce, Allen and Garnett's 2008 triumph, the model of having 3 star players has usually led to consistent winning. With Anthony Davis now in the fold, and restricted free agent SG Eric Gordon likely to be resigned, the Hornets have a realistic chance of putting together a similar design to compete for championships for years to come.


But Royce White couldn't be that guy could he??? The Times Picayunes Jeff Duncan thinks so and he took to twitter to aggressively sing the praises of White, even claiming that "If the Hornets pass on White, they'll regret it". http://www.nola.com/hornets/index.ss...oyce_whit.html

"Eric Gordon, Anthony Davis and Royce White could be #Nola's version of The Big Three. #FleurDeThree" is an example of one of Duncan's Pro-White tweets.

My question is, If the sole purpose was to turn the No. 10 Pick into the 3rd member of a Big Three, which would be the best route? After doing my research on White, he surprisingly does looks the part of a potential all-star that could very well turn out to be that third piece. His court vision and passing ability at the forward position is second to none in this draft class and a "point forward" could prove to be very valuable to a Monty Williams team that will most certainly look to play a half-court style of basketball, built on ball movement. There has been much made about his anxiety disorder and off-court problems, but in listening to interviews by White and his head coach at Iowa State, former NBA player Fred Hoiberg, it seems these issues are blown out of proportion and will be a non-factor throughout his NBA career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AdYRh5oEJ4U

With that being said, I'm still in favor of moving the pick in a package to get a proven veteran, such as Atlanta's Josh Smith or Boston's Rajon Rondo, but with these scenarios being unlikely, the selection of White with 10th pick could very well prove to be the elusive third star this team is looking for.

Anxiety issues aside, he's also a below-average shooter.

But I agree, his skill set is so interesting. He screams Anthony Mason to me.

The question is how many PFs do we need? We have Smith, Ayon, Davis, and I hear Dell is interested in bringing back Landry so what are we going to to with 5 potential PFs? Even if we remove Landry we still have 4 under contract if we draft this kid. We have plenty needs on this team. We dont know Kaman's situation and Mek isnt the long term answer. Aminu and Ariza are both hit or miss. And we definitely need to upgrade our PGs. Stacking up on tweeners at PF just doesnt make much sense when we have 3 other areas to address.

We need offense and Royce White while having skills isn't that great offensively. No reason to overrate him.

I don't understand why people always look at position. He's not a traditional 4 or 3. He's a point forward. He seems like a Diaw Mason mix to me. I'd still pass on him...

I have a good friend that's a huge Texas fan (and watches alot of Big 12 ball), and he told me that Royce White was the sleeper in the draft. Dude reminds me alot of Blake griffin... if he develop an outside game he'd be hard to guard.

I agree, it would seem like a glut at the 4 position, but like BeeBall Rasons said, White isn't a traditional 3 or 4. He's being looked at as a poor man's (probably a very poor man) LeBron James. Being 6'8, with above average ball handling, court vision, and strength. He could be a mismatch for a 3 with his strength down low, or could drive to the basket and look to kick out or score against 4's. With Davis probably playing some 5 at times and Landry's return questionable, I believe we could have room on our roster for a guy like this. Especially in the first stages of a rebuild like the HOrnets are.

Man, I can't believe this article is already here. I thought I was way ahead of the curve on Royce.

Some guys are just players and defy position. This guy passes better than most point guards and has handles. He could play the point forward ala Lebron or Hedo. You can post him up and he has some Duncan-eqsue qualities. You can play small ball with him at the 4 and AD at the five and he can still guard the bigs.

The thing is, the skills this guy has you can't teach. You are either born with it or not. I'm not worried about the shooting. That will come. But he helps his team in so many ways. That's why guys like Jerry West are drooling over him and Gottlieb has him in his top five above MkG even.

Watch ford's mock draft. He will probably be in the top ten within the next couple of weeks. Warriors are looking at him at 7.

chances are we find the third piece of this so-called big three via free agency(and not necessarily this yr)

I like Royce but he just seems very ball dominate to me, like a very poor mans Lebron. If he can develop a shot he could become a fringe all-star.


I hate Duncan, just had to throw that in there.

Reminds me of Lamar Odom, but I havn't watched much of him.

I love White. One of the most interesting prospect I've seen in years. I don't mind him or anyone else at all as long as they pan out. I don't really care who it is really. The only question I have is... is he still that same prospect if he doesn't have the ball in his hands 50% of the time? Because in the NBA, it's unrealistic to believe that he would do anywhere near that much handling... Especially on a team who will eventually run their offense through Anthony Davis and Gordon.

Will he be utilized as the same player he's being utilized in college? I can see it as a 6th man with the second unit. I don't see it so much with the 1st unit. How can you maximize his skillset? How does he fit? And what will his role be?

White will be a 4 because he can't guard 3's, can't shoot, and can't take SFs off the dribble. His game involves taking bigger guys off the dribble and going to the basket. He's no that athletic and won't finish well in the NBA and he turns the ball over. I didn't get to his defense yet. He won't improve the team's offense compared to guys like Sully, Lillard, Ross, Lamb, or even a Terrence Jones who can do the little things on offense to help like passing, driving to the basket, and ball-handling.

He will be 6th man who plays the 3 & 4!

Not sure I get all the love for White at 10. If we were to trade down, maybe we should consider him at some point, but 10 seems too high.

10 is way too high for this guy.

Jeff Duncan advocating a player in an NBA draft is akin to Fletcher Mackel. He probably just saw the name on the 'net somewhere.

Not sure about him. The one time I saw him play I was paying more attention or Kentucky...or am I thinking of Moe Harkless?

Either way. If we take him, I trust Monty and Dell. They'll take a player whose got what it takes. Just a lil' saddened I won't get to watch the Combine next week.

Duncan is an idiot. People know that. #10 is waaaaaay to high of a pick to use on White. Don't listen to this buffoon.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eman5805

Not sure about him. The one time I saw him play I was paying more attention or Kentucky...or am I thinking of Moe Harkless?

Either way. If we take him, I trust Monty and Dell. They'll take a player whose got what it takes. Just a lil' saddened I won't get to watch the Combine next week.

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Just rewatched the Kentucky vs iowa st march madness game where Royce and AD went head to head. Out of all the studs on the court, Royce was the second best player out there. Had something like 23 and 9. There's some amazing aspects to his game. Like for instance he brought the ball down like a point guard for 90% of the plays. Also, he spent a lot of time guarding AD man on man. The commentators made note to watch his defense on AD. He was like a tree truck and did not let AD push him toward the basket a single inch. The dude looks fat for some reason, but I think he is pure muscle actually, kind of like a Kenyon Martin body.

It was fun and interesting to watch the two compete. AD is amazing and was the best player on the court of course. He blocked Royce's shot several times, but I don't think he guarded him on that end very often. He was help defending against everybody. Royce had like half of Iowa's points and was the only reason they were in it at all. He was everywhere - inside rebounding sometimes and posting up or out on the perimeter creating plays too. He has a lot of turnovers though. It was a tie game with about 10 minutes to go but then Kentucky blew them out.

Fun to watch it again. I knew I had watched the game live but didn't remember it until I saw the peculiar interview with Ashley Judd. Then I knew instantly I had seen the game.

Rather we take Terrence Jones if we are going for a 3/4 hybrid

I like Terrence Jones as well. He does just about everything well except shoot, but he's gonna be a PF anyway in this league.