This is not a strong draft. If you have been following the NBA draft chatter since April, you have been hearing this. Expect to hear plenty more of it in the next 36 hours (leading up to and after the draft). As such, Steven Adams is sitting at the end of the lottery. Most projections have him going anywhere from 7 to 14. 10-12 being the most reasonable zone.
Depending on who you want to read, Adams is either undervalued or overvalued.
If he goes in the lottery … Steven Adams
Considering all of [Alex] Len’s flaws, how can a really poor man’s version of Len sneak into the top 14? Didn’t any scouts watch Pitt play this past season? Adams is raaaaaaaaaw. If he didn’t get stuff off the offensive glass, he barely got touches in the Panthers’ offense. He has poor hands. Even in a draft with this many question marks, the lottery is way, way too high for a long-term project like Adams.
Steven Adams, C, Pittsburgh — Adams is a just a perfect specimen. He can run, jump, catch and can even shoot a little, and though he struggled to break through in his only year at Pitt, some of that was due to the Panthers’ guards not sharing the ball, and the depth up front that Pitt had. Adams needs to develop, but the positive signs are there.
Yeah, that helps.
Here’s the thing. It’s not if Adams is overrated or underrated. Or if he should go that high. He almost certainly will. He’s loaded with potential, and in a draft that has no sure things, you are not wrong late in the lottery to roll the dice on a guy with such a high ceiling. If Adams takes longer to develop or is even a bust, he’s hardly the first or last. Especially in the second half of the lottery.
Just look at the picks in the 7-14 in past drafts. Here. Here. Here (good god, Joe Alexander went #8!!!). Here. Here. You get the idea.
As the anonymous scout report from Seth Davis notes:
Regular readers know all about Finch. He is an amalgam of five NBA scouts whom I talked to in recent weeks to get their insights into the main college prospects in this year’s draft. Since NBA teams don’t like to give away secrets (as if there are any), the scouts spoke with me on the condition that I would grant them anonymity. This also allowed them to tell me what they really think. I’ll warn you now: It isn’t always pretty.
(Incidentally, I must give credit as always to my colleague Alex Wolff for coming up with the pseudonym Finch. Several years ago, he assigned it to an anonymous scout whom he followed for several months for an SI magazine story. Alex, he of the literary bent, chose the name because it was the character Scout’s surname in To Kill A Mockingbird.)
I cherry picked the highlights of what the scouts had to say and gathered them as if they were said by a single person named Finch. Can you feel the draft? Good. Here’s what Finch had to say about this year’s crop. It’s everything you need to know from A (Adams) to Z (Zeller):
Steven Adams, 7-foot center, Pittsburgh: “You see him work out and he does some things athletically at that size that are impressive. He’s a funny kid. Different personality than we’re used to dealing with. He had no clue how to play. Remember, he’s from New Zealand. It’s not like he came from Lithuania, where the culture centers around basketball. He grew up on a surfboard.”
He’s handled everything well to this point. His interviews have been solid. He’s been personable. And for Pitt partisans, he has said nothing but glowing things about Pitt and Coach Jamie Dixon. And Jamie Dixon will join the trend of college coaches being on-hand (and on-camera) at the Draft to “support” their player getting drafted.
I’m looking forward to the Big Kiwi’s big night.
Adams is not 6’11”
Adams IS 6’10.75″
(Just pickin’ nits)
Teams needing immediate help will shy away with good reason … but a 7 footer with potential is hard to pass up.
I happened to come across a documentary on ESPNU about Sam Bowie, who was drafted 1 pick before M Jordan .. and nobody at the time thought it was a bad pick. As a sophomore at UK, Bowie averaged 17 and 10, but was injured at the end of the season and subsequently sat out 2 straight seasons. Came back and helped UK to Final 4, only being at 80%. Problem is that he remained injury prone throughout the career …. something that doesn’t seem to apply to Adams.
Nowadays, the big man isn’t valued as highly as they used to be, but an atletic big man may be hard to pass up.
he is 7 foot plus he has a long reach he has the
forth longest arms of any one in the deaft i read that some were. put that with 7 foot in shoes
you have a good thing
Meanwhile he says this on Twitter:
Steven Adams ?@RealStevenAdams 23 Jun
I just wanna say a big thank you to all of Pitt. Like or hate me. Still got love for the Zoo! Amazingly Majestic. @OaklandZoo #Hailtopitt
I met him once. Great sense of humor. Good luck in the draft and onward.
shoes when he is on the court he is 7 foot tall
he does not play in bare feet what abought that dont you get.
who gives a fuck how tall he is in his bare feet
that does not madder on the bb court unless you play in your bare feet.
When you played sports did the sports program measure your height with shoes on or off?…does your driver’s license state your height with shoes on or off? So are you all there?
if you want to list him at 6 foot .75 on the program
fine.
but when on the BB court he is 7 foot i dont care how he got there magic or shoes he will still measure 7 foot on the court.
and that is were it counts
for 55 years or more.
Hail to Pitt!
I hope McKenzie still comes… Can twitter create an “idiot button” or something so as soon as some maroon starts acting like an a$$ AND claims to represent you in the process…. that we could push it and delete the post…. actually delete the person from existence would be a plus… but I’ll settle for not having Pitt take hits from its “Fans”….
Yeah Jamie, who knew he had a good mid range shot…..I mean other than every team he was on before Adams came to Pitt….
I believe he tweeted about Shell’s situation (Basically taking the position it was Shell’s own doing) and then some people… supposed “Pitt fans”… actually they are total, F$%#ing idiots, started ragging on him…
… so every fan of other schools quickly jumped in and started stroking McKenzie and ridiculing Pitt…
It’s easy to see if you look at his Twitter account… seems to have died down now.
Adams had star potential but may have been the most inexperienced and raw player Pitt has ever had. Since Dixon has been scouting the kid and has known him for years, I’m sure he knew this.
The scouts all seem to agree: Physically & athletically he may be worth a top 5 pick.
But at the same time, the scouts agree he is also raw; has little to no offensive moves; bad hands; trouble catching the ball and just seems lost by the speed of the American game.
All of these are aspects of his game that had us fans going bi-polar during the season. Judging from his tweet, it even sounds like he realized how frustrating he was to us.
Shell, a Hopewell High School graduate, reached out to Pitt director of football operations Chris LaSala about a potential return, according to Zuccaro.
The talks only reached a preliminary stage, and Zuccaro said phone calls and text messages to Chryst went unreturned. After a couple of days in limbo, Shell and his mother found out Pitt would not allow him to return when they saw a report on the news.
“It was a little frustrating when coach Chryst wouldn’t answer his calls or his text messages,” Zuccaro said.
I am glad that Pitt has now released him to any school.
I do hope he does well… not sure he is going to fit in spread type schemes?? Seems he’s best running down hill? OS and WVU might take him but not sure if he would be featured. Don’t know how Kentucky plays offense?
I’m not in favor of Pitt becoming a prep school for the NBA unless the players stay four years. That’s just my opinion.
What a complete miscalculation on Dixon’s part.
If you know he’s that raw and you know he’s probably gone in the blink of an eye, don’t even bother.
Noel did enough in a short time at KY to keep his stock high. Adam’s stock fell while at Pitt and has started to climb since he left. Fair or not, Pitt and Dixon will be seen as NOT helping Kiwi Steve’s draft status. And that won’t be good for recruiting.
Let’s hope he gets picked in the 10-12 range.
Further, this past year was primarily based on getting Adams his minutes and learning his craft, when in fact, there were time when Sleepy seemed more productive (I do know that Sleepy’s stats-per minute were better.)
It would have all apid off only if Adams would have stayed at least 1 more year … but such is the life of a Pitt fan.
NEVER.
To the contrary, his photo and allthe phtos of Pitt basketball greats should line the interior walls of the Pete.
How friggen’ long does it take for Pederson to take action on what is obvious?????
Ever been in a real basketball powers’ arena? Pictures of the greats are verywhere!
I am not saying that Dixon shouldn’t have recruited Adams; I’m just saying everything worked out for the worst. Adams was a year away of making a big impact IMO .. but as we saw, Pitt was dug into a large hole when he decided to turn pro unexpecetedly … hopefuly Uchebo is healthy .. and good.
I didn’t say that Adams wasn’t aplus, but if anything, you have been rewriting history by implying Adams was the savior of this year, and was misused as you have been campaiging for these past 2 months.
Remember, we lost to both teams that competed in the national title game by 3 points each … and Mr Adams contributed next to nothing in those game (in fact, he looked silly vs Michigan)
Holy sour grapes guys, get over it and make some lemonade!
My point is that because the way things turned out, it was a disaster, mainly because we put our eggs all in his basket. Again, I remember when the backup center (still can’t remember his name) transferred out last December and nobody was worried because we had Adams for another years or two … yea right! Also, who’s to say that someone like BeeJay Anye, who was high on Pitt and a teammate of James Robinson, shied away because he thought he wouldn’t get much PT behind Adams for the next year or 2?
I liked Adams as a pickup, routed for him, was disappointed when he decided to leave, and hope he does very well tonight and in the near future …. but to be honest, looking back, I believe Pitt would now be in better shape had he not attended here.
Last year was far from a disaster. We rebounded from a horrid season, made the NCAA tourney and had some lovely wins.
Adams left because of money. Gilbert left I suppose in part because of Adams and JD didn’t have a plan B.
But calling the challenge of 2013-14 a disaster is premature at the least and sells Adams short.
If Adams had stayed one more year there were no guarantees.
I just don’t see what is gained by labeling our first 1st round draft pick a ” disaster”. Recruits in a year snot give a crap, but will be persuaded by the FACT that Pitt had a lottery pick.
To 17 year olds, 1 year is an eternity.
INRI
But more than that, I really believe the program is worse off because of his one and done … same as Birch, who I thought ended up hurting the program in the ling run.
But PLEASE … I have nothing personal against Adams, I really like the kid and hope he does well
I have it on good authority that Adams will publicly thank the Blather faithful!
I accused you in a posting above of a 2 month Steve Adams campaign, when in fact, I believe the one I was referring to should have been ‘pttisit’
sorry
Adams is not 6’11”
Adams IS 6’10.75″