A group of NBA types and basketball lifers were talking about the draft the other day, and our one of our sources got to listen in.
Everyone agreed that JWill and Dunleavy will be huge NBA studs. I was surprised at the level of confidence in
Dunleavy.
What was interesting was the discussion about Boozer.
One participant said that Boozer was his 8th ranked Power Forward. His
book on Carlos is that he is a hard worker and he is clearly very strong, but he does not have "hops." No one in the room expects him to finish with
slam-dunk authority the way Wilcox, Clancy, and Ely do.
However, after the first guy got done dissing Carlos a bit, two others both started gushing about him. Several people around the table pointed out that Boozer and Gooden are the most skilled power forwards in the draft. One of the scouts said that a team would be a fool to take Haislip (Tennessee players are supposedly legendary for being totally unprepared for the pros) before Carlos. A former coach said Boozer might be the only power forward aside from Gooden who would be able to start for an NBA team next year. That is how advanced and prepared they think Carlos is.
The table was in agreement that Carlos will probably never be an All-Star, which is why he will not go in the lottery, but they also were in agreement that he
will be a contributor right away, and that is rare these days in the draft.
Where does he go? Most were saying around #25, but one coach said he thought Carlos would go late teens. NBADraft.net pegs him at #19 to Utah, which would make sense, but would mean big shoes to fill.