Hickson to Cleveland at #19

Sid was right – JJ went in the 11-20 window. Here’s Chad Ford’s analysis:

I’m surprised they passed on local hero Kosta Koufos of Ohio State. But I do like Hickson, who’s a sleeper. He’s strong and athletic and he can score in multiple ways. He was 12-for-12 from the field in his first college game.

It’s more than a little bit surreal that the only ACC player selected in the first round was a freshman from the last place team. The next ACC player selected was Sean Singletary (from the 10th place team) way down at #42. Maybe it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that the ACC didn’t fare very well in the NCAAT last year.

About BJD95

1995 NC State graduate, sufferer of Les and MOC during my entire student tenure. An equal-opportunity objective critic and analyst of Wolfpack sports.

07-08 Basketball Alums

65 Responses to Hickson to Cleveland at #19

  1. SaccoV 06/27/2008 at 10:50 AM #

    BJD–I am hoping that Hickson would fall out of the top 20, not for spite, but because I don’t think he will see any real playing time until two years from now anyway. Also, this is indicative of a much larger problem with the NBA’s player development system. A guy like Hickson, who will be a good, solid professional basketball player, did very little in the late part of his only college season (albeit on a bad team with a rash of injuries to key players and noted team chemistry issues). The fact that Forde mentions his first college game against William & Mary is cherry-picked. His last regular season outing was an 11-point, 5-rebound game in 30 minutes against Wake Forest, a team with no solid low-post presence. A kid like Hickson, who has potential, is taken based on workout capabilities, not on a full season of games. We’ve seen how this has been tempered somewhat in the NFL Draft, although the media coverage of it (workouts, shuttle speeds, etc) has not. In last night’s draft, 12 freshmen were selected in 60 picks, 10 in the first round alone. Most of these guys are tall and skinny, and have very little chance of developing the type of game that their height, and not their actual size, warrants. I really hope that J.J. turns into a fabulous pro, but so far, I haven’t seen the greatness out of Hickson that I believe the Cavaliers will come to expect.

  2. SaccoV 06/27/2008 at 10:55 AM #

    Addendum to the post, did you catch how many times during the draft that Bilas or Van Gundy said that this guy (some of these in the top 10 picks) will be a good player down the road? I was chatting with a friend on the phone and he was surprised too. How the hell do you draft a kid in the first 10 picks of the draft so that he becomes a Mike Gminski (7th pick in 1980) or a Bill Laimbeer (65th pick in 1979)? Those guys were nice complementary players, not 1st round picks.

  3. gopack968 06/27/2008 at 10:57 AM #

    NC State was a winner last night, simply from the standpoint that Sidney brought in an NBA-bound player and developed and showcased him to a top-20 pick. He was able to show in the process both his understanding of the NBA and the strength of his contacts in the league. Few of the so-called experts had JJ in the top 20. Sidney nailed his draft spot within 5 places.

    I don’t like the one and done and I am sorry that JJ left. But if this is the future, at least our coach is good at it.

  4. BJD95 06/27/2008 at 11:30 AM #

    I think JJ’s signature game was against Miami during the ACCT, when he scored over half our points and got seemingly all of our rebounds, with the rest of the team pretty clearly having packed it in (pun not intended).

  5. WolftownVA81 06/27/2008 at 11:37 AM #

    Good for JJ. I’m happy for he and his family. This should be a wake up call for our bb team (if they need anymore) – Hickson wasn’t the problem. Now lets get on with making next season something that will erase the stink of last year.

  6. choppack1 06/27/2008 at 12:20 PM #

    I have no problem w/ JJ getting drafted where he did. At least he got exactly what he wanted out of the relationship. I don’t think it’s his fault NC State didn’t get more out of it.

    If Courtney can wake up, we’d have 4 1st round draft picks in 5 years. I’m sure we’d see that in the Annual Report no matter what happens in basketball.

  7. packplantpath 06/27/2008 at 12:27 PM #

    “Sidney brought in an NBA-bound player and developed and showcased him to a top-20 pick.”

    I agree with the first 1/3 and last 1/3 of that statement, not sure about the 2nd 1/3.

    How much development did he really get?

  8. tooyoungtoremember 06/27/2008 at 12:47 PM #

    “It’s more than a little bit surreal that the only ACC player selected in the first round was a freshman from the last place team. The next ACC player selected was Sean Singletary (from the 10th place team) way down at #42. Maybe it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise that the ACC didn’t fare very well in the NCAAT last year.”

    I’d say UNC’s big three withdrawing from the draft contributed to the poor showing of ACC teams in this year’s NBA draft more than a lack of talent in the league.

  9. SaccoV 06/27/2008 at 12:59 PM #

    Good point-tooyoung. On that note, what happened to Al Thornton? He was a NBA quality player last year at FSU; does he have some horrible injury or personality problems that we don’t know about? He was big and could score seemingly at will. I was surprised he wasn’t chosen in the 2nd round by someone.

  10. Otis 06/27/2008 at 1:02 PM #

    I think this is a very good place of JJ to end up. The Cavs have an aging front court with out much of an offensive presence outside of Ilguaskus. Ben Wallace is getting old and has never been effective offensively, is age is really starting to limit his minuets these last few years. The only other big man of note on the team is the Side Show Bob look alike Anderson Varejeo – who is a high energy defensive guy. JJ will see the court – probably 5-10 min a night. He wont be seeing many double teams if James is on the court, if he can handle the passes form LeBron – he should be able to get the ball in his comfort zone. he is good at getting his hands up to make his opponents alter their shot. I don’t think JJ could have ended up in a much better situation professionally. Ready or not, he is just one front court injury from getting some serious pt.

  11. WV Wolf 06/27/2008 at 1:03 PM #

    Al Thornton went #14 last year to the Clippers and averaged 12.7 a game.

  12. Otis 06/27/2008 at 1:10 PM #

    Opps – I forgot about Joe Smith – well that does not change any of the basic points of my last post.

  13. kyjelly 06/27/2008 at 1:20 PM #

    “Sid was right” Well a good sign,it’s been awhile since we all knew JJ was one and done Sid did have a backup plan right??

  14. smile102 06/27/2008 at 1:25 PM #

    “He was able to show in the process his understanding of the NBA”
    Now if he can show an understanding of college bball….

  15. Sw0rdf1sh 06/27/2008 at 2:58 PM #

    To say he didn’t gather any development from the coaching and ACC play is just wrong.

    The guy has had a year to mature, learn from some talented coaches, play with some talented teammates, and gone against some poor and decent competitors. He garnered a lot of big game experience and honed his skills.

    I agree with 3/3rds of the statement.

  16. SaccoV 06/27/2008 at 3:33 PM #

    Thanks WV Wolf. That goes to show you how little I pay attention.

  17. Trip 06/27/2008 at 4:00 PM #

    “If Courtney can wake up, we’d have 4 1st round draft picks in 5 years. I’m sure we’d see that in the Annual Report no matter what happens in basketball.”

    Agreed. I’ve seen Fell’s name flash on the 2nd round draft next year on some sites. He’s the type of player that like Hickson, will move up on the draft board simply because of his athletic ability. Add in the fact that he’s a helluva 3 point shooter, bumping his average up to almost 40% last year, and has great size/quickness and defensive capability and I think he’ll be able to sneak in the first round if he does wake up next year.

  18. redfred2 06/27/2008 at 4:33 PM #

    “did you catch how many times during the draft that Bilas or Van Gundy said that this guy (some of these in the top 10 picks) will be a good player down the road?”

    Yep, I sure did, and that pick ’em before they’re ripe, “down the road” crapola, is killing college basketball.

    Courtney Fells will need to start the season showing that he REALLY wants to be on the basketball first, then he’ll have to show some kind of consistency like never before, before the NBA scouts take him seriously.

    And kyjelly for brains, I think Lowe WAS actually pretty close to nailing Hickson’s draft position afterall, wasn’t he?

  19. redfred2 06/27/2008 at 4:52 PM #

    ^correction

    Courtney Fells will need to start the season showing that he REALLY wants to be on the basketball “COURT” first,…

  20. primacyone 06/27/2008 at 5:25 PM #

    You have to give Coach Lowe a ton of credit if your JJ Hickson.

    Look at it this way, if JJ Hickson had gone to Tennessee instead of NCSU, he would not have been drafted #19. No way, No how.

    Coach Lowe knew what he was doing and Coach Lowe help a ton. It’s no coincedence that Clevland was the first team JJ worked out for and the one that Coach Lowe attended.

  21. Afterglow 06/27/2008 at 5:33 PM #

    I wonder if this will have a positive effect on whether recruits like Wall, Favors or Brown will sign with us. Does anyone have any word on where these guys stand with us-if at all?

  22. BJD95 06/27/2008 at 6:19 PM #

    Fells is not tall enough to play anything but guard in the NBA. His ball-handling, and especially his passing, are at about DIII level, on his best days.

    He’s one hell of an athlete, but he has forward skills in a guard’s body.

  23. cowdog 06/27/2008 at 7:33 PM #

    Fells needs to simply take advantage of his schol and play his ass off for the possibility of being a player on a good team. Graduate, graduate. Hope someone else is in his head about that.

  24. BoKnowsNCS71 06/28/2008 at 5:53 AM #

    Any want to make a prediction of his average number of minutes per game by say mid-season? My guess for the over/under would be 6 MPG.

  25. FullMoonRising 06/28/2008 at 7:31 AM #

    I suppose this goes without saying, but Hickson wouldn’t have been in the top 20 if any of the four who were considering from UNC had decided to hit the draft.

Leave a Reply