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Eric Apricot's avatar

New thread up.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

GSV GM Ohemaa Nyanin press conference pre-draft. I'll thread anything interesting she says.

Looking for... wait for it... competitive athlete. Team player regardless of experience. (Hmm.. a clue?)

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Eric Apricot's avatar

Challenges of #5 after players dropped out of draft?

Challenges are opportunities.

Scouting dept has done an amazing job. In expansion draft, tested out some of our theories about protection lists, then made decisions based on unexpected. Now theorized draft boards taking into account people who might drop out.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

How much do you count the NCAA Tournament count vs body of work?

We count all these things. After college, we can have conversations with them. Asking tougher questions so they understand we're watching them and regardless of their season outcome, we're focused on how that shapes them.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

When drafting international, how do you factor getting them to season late?

It's a factor, texting with sports immigration lawyer regularly. Training camp is the test. Also will be checking out waived athletes. But don't want a revolving door of talent.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

> Do you expect #5 to contribute right away?

Athlete should know the situation they're coming into. Hard to answer.

> New York experience helps you?

NYL drafted #1 before, other spots.

> Are you looking for the face of the franchise at #5?

Not just yet. Need to figure out the franchise organically.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

> Do you value a draft pick who's played with someone on the roster? Are you looking for a player with a fan base?

The business team takes care of the fan base aspect, I don't pay attention.

Haven't taken into consideration the ex-teammate aspect.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

> Scouting international draft?

Very active. Missing watching Iliana Rupert. Trying to figure out how effective young international players can be in our system.

> Building with a CBA that's about the change?

Trying to avoid mistakes too early on to leave us flexible for moves.

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Refugium's avatar

GSV may draft one more or even possibly two more international players. I am wondering what GSV is going to do from the 18th to 29 June when some of tthe 9+ European players will want to be with their national teams..

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Run_TMC's avatar

Ok, I've watched some of the highlight videos and I can say, with complete certainly that everyone of these players is awesome, never seem to miss a shot and passes and rebounds well and plays great D (I hope/assume, the Vs scouts will do a bit better job than I have ;)

Seriously though, I don't pay enough attention to NCAA/overseas to have an opinion worth respecting but I am kinda hoping for Malonga because her upside seems insane and the Vs won't be in win now mode (presumably) this season, anyway. Seems like they would shoot for the #1 pick next year and then go for it in year 2 onward.

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Refugium's avatar

Ditto.

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Eric Apricot's avatar

Being wrote: [[ Geez, the salary differentials between WNBA and NBA astound me. $90k is above the vet min? That's shameful. ]]

The 2024 per-team salary cap is under $1.5m and there are 12 teams. Thus the entire WNBA makes less than $18m. The season is 40 games long, so it’s the equivalent salary of about $36m for a full NBA season. So, for instance, Ben Simmons made more last year than the entire WNBA.

I believe the WNBA pays its players around 10% of Basketball Related Income. The NBA CBA sets aside around 51% of BRI for player salaries. So there is a lot of room to negotiate salary scales up in the next round of bargaining.

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jeckyllhouse's avatar

10%??! that's dreadful

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Arnold's avatar

I've been saying that 2 weeks of Lebron's salary would be enough to cover several teams' entire payrolls.

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Arnold's avatar

I hope the Valks pick Iowa's Lucy Olsen in the 2nd round. She's an underrated point guard. Excellent pick and roll passer. Has the Chris Paul mid-range jumper, plus a lot of fake and step-through moves. Underrated defender - gets a lot of deflections because of her length and motor. Plays with Warriors-like joy.

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Nellie's avatar

More Hawkeyes!

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Eric Apricot's avatar

Nice, I appreciate all tips on second round sleepers! I haven't see Olsen on the mock drafts yet...

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Arnold's avatar

I watched a few Iowa games in November / December just to see how they'd do without Caitlin Clark and Kate Martin. I fully expected them to be a bad team. But Olsen stepped in as their quarterback and willed the team to the NCAA tournament. There was a nationally televised game in February - Iowa vs Juju's USC on Caitlin Clark jersey retirement day. Olsen used all the moves in her bag to lead the upset.

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