Hoops Habit
Fansided

Winners Of The 2014 NBA Draft – Analytics Edition

By Mika Honkasalo

Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver addresses the crowd before the start of the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 26, 2014; Brooklyn, NY, USA; NBA commissioner Adam Silver addresses the crowd before the start of the 2014 NBA Draft at the Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 6
Next

San Antonio Spurs

Draft Picks:

Kyle Anderson 30th -> Projected eighth by consensus model

Nemanja Dangubic 54th -> Projected 146th by consensus model

Feb 22, 2014; Stanford, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Kyle Anderson (5) reacts after committing a turnover against the Stanford Cardinal in the first half at Maples Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports
Feb 22, 2014; Stanford, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins guard Kyle Anderson (5) reacts after committing a turnover against the Stanford Cardinal in the first half at Maples Pavilion. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports /

The Spurs got the steal of the draft in Kyle Anderson, who’s such a Spurs-y player in every way. He’s not a great athlete but a really smart basketball player, and you could argue that he’s the best passer in the draft (only Tyler Ennis is comparable in his advanced stats).

Anderson has a really slow release and a bit of an unproven long distance shot but the Spurs are known for their player development and their shooting coach, Chip Engelland, will start working with Anderson from day one to fix that.

The comparison to Boris Diaw is a bit weird, they do have some similarities as point forward but their body types are completely different. As for their second pick, first of all the projections on international players are a bit less accurate and secondly, at the end of the second round you’re just throwing darts at the wall and hopefully something sticks.

Dangubic is an NBA athlete but can’t shoot it at all, and most likely he won’t come over for a couple years, if at all. Whiffing on the 54th pick basically doesn’t matter.

On the other hand it’s the Spurs and they are provably smarter than everyone else.

I guess we should start the countdown at three years for one of these guys to be the Finals MVP in three years (not really but I found that joke on Twitter and it was amusing).