Tag Archives: O.J. Mayo

Both Lenn Robbins of the NY Post and Alan Hahn of Newsday provide an update about OJ Mayo. According to Hahn, Mayo “put up shots and really get up and down” during his workout for Knicks brass. He also handled the media session well with his polite demeanor despite questions about the NCAA investigation of USC. Speculation is rampant about where Mayo will land. There are even rumors of the Miami Heat trading down in order to get get him. Dwayne Wade and Mayo would be an interesting back court.

Today the Knicks will work out DJ Augustin, Kevin Love, Anthony Randolph, and Danilo Gallinari.

Mayo is such a polarizing topic. I understand Tommy Dee’s point that Mayo is not a point guard. If you look at Wade’s career stats he has been turnover prone throughout his career as well. If the Knicks pick Mayo, in my opinion, they will need to look for a pure point guard to run this team (i.e. Steve Blake) and have Mayo play the two. The thing that is so enticing about him is that he has the potential for stardom. I still am in favor of using the pick to clear cap space, but only if they can get something decent in return. You don’t want to dump Zach Randolph and the # 6 pick for trash. Mayo will certainly make this decision difficult for Donnie Walsh and company. So far one thing is for sure: Walsh knows how to play this close to the vest.

Tommy Dee says...The question becomes can Mayo, at 6’3, play and guard twos? In all honesty, if Mayo can be paired with a pass-first point guard he doesn’t become the primary decision and that would maximize his effectiveness.

I really feel like Mayo could slip to 6 since there’s no way the T-Wolves take him and I think Seattle would take Bayless. But does one of those teams (T-Wolves) trade down to take Kevin Love allowing for a team like the Clippers to jump up and snag Mayo?

Tagged Dwayne Wade, O.J. Mayo |

Marc Berman of the NY Post writes today that there is a possibility of the Knicks trading their first round pick. During a state of the union in Orlando Walsh was quoted as saying: “We’re going to look at every option. Trade it outright for a very good NBA player, trade back for multiple picks, or trade up. There’s a lot of different things you do. You explore everything.” Berman also points out how you could argue that picks 3 through 12 are very similar.

All along I have had this feeling that the Knicks will trade this pick. There seems to be no real “impact player” outside of Beasley and Rose. If OJ Mayo is the “best of the rest” that might not be the kind of risk this team wants to take. I am on record as saying that trading the pick for established talent is the way to go as long as you don’t bust the salary cap in the process. Now if a player like Carmelo Anthony is available then all bets are off. I believe its starting to look like the only way to 1) Move contracts like Zach Randolph for cap relief and 2) Get any type of guarenteed peformance out of the six pick would be to package it in a deal. Just a week into writing for Knicksblog and I already have waffled on my thoughts. For the record, I spoke to my friend Anthony Donahue who works for ESPN and is a Knicks season ticket holder and he has a sense that this pick will be traded. “Rice Balls” has a tendency to be correct when assessing the pulse of this team so I will take that into consideration.

Tagged 2008 NBA Draft, Donnie Walsh, O.J. Mayo |

Danilo Gallinari got another vote of confidence. This time former St. John’s basketball coach, and current international draft expert at ESPN, Fran Fraschilla gave Marc Berman of the Post a thumbs up. Fraschilla also believes that no point guard will be worth a pick at number six, unless you are talking about combo guard OJ Mayo. Berman also discusses the buzz about D’Antoni “not liking” Gallinari.

First, great work by Marc Berman who has been one of the most active beat reporters at the pre-draft camp. Since I am an alumni of St. John’s I admired the job he did while I was there recruiting Ron Artest, Eric Barkley, and Lavar Postell for that team. Mike Jarvis was the one that coached that group to the elite eight in 1999, but it was with the talent that Fraschilla recruited. With that being said I am very leery of anyone deemed a “international expert”. If all you do is analyze European talent you might become a bit bias in your analysis. However, it is another piece of information to chew on until the draft next month.

Once again I hear the name OJ Mayo. There has been lots of debate on this site from the fans about Mayo. I have a feeling if the Knicks pass on him that it might bring on some of the same frustration that happened in ’99 when Ron Artest was overlooked. I have confidence that Donnie Walsh will do the right thing, but according to someone I talked to he really does like Eric Gordon. Wow, with all the buzz at pre-draft camp I can’t wait to see the rumors fly as we approach the draft in late June.

Tagged Danilo Gallinar, Mike D'Antoni, O.J. Mayo |

If your an ESPN insider you might want to check out Chad Ford’s Draft Watch from May 20th. Some names that have impressed during vegas workouts are Joe Alexander of West Virginia, Marreese Speights of Florida, and Nathan Jawai of Australia. The one intriguing part of his column is how impressed he was with OJ Mayo and comparing him to a certain Miami Heat guard.

As I said earlier today I waffle daily on what direction the Knicks should go with the #6 pick. If you could trade for an impact player like Carmelo Anthony I believe you should pull the trigger. Obviously with that type of deal being scarce the next best thing is to make an intelligent pick. If Mayo is available perhaps we should stop all the talk about Gallinari and go with the best man on the board. Let’s remember, as good as Dwayne Wade is, who really thought he would have the immediate impact on the Heat right away?

… Andrew Smith writes….

All of the arguments in favor of Mayo stem from the same concept. We all know he is an extremely talented player with off-the-charts athleticism. But, what has shown us that he possesses any qualities of someone who can play in a winning, team-oriented system? From the first time I saw Mayo play, my gut reaction was “STAY AWAY AT ALL COSTS.” He had the ball in his hands an awfully long time, got frustrated at his teammates, and was very turnover-prone. To me, Mayo is a product of the AAU system which encourages one-on-one moves, no defense, and the mindset that it is okay to lose because you have another game that starts forty minutes later.

Has Mayo ever even been coached? He went from high school to high school where he was able to shoot whenever he wanted, and then he moved on to USC where he told Tim Floyd how things were going to be. Obviously, I’ve never met O.J. Mayo, and he could turn out to be a very coachable kid who will adjust well to the NBA lifestyle, but I just don’t see it.

Let me pose this question: If the age limit were not in place, all signs pointed towards Mayo entering the draft last season. Who is his NBA comparison and what would he have done in his rookie season. Remember there are a long litany of players who did not attend college before the age limit was put into effect. Martell Webster and J.R. Smith are two names that come to mind of shoot-first players who have had little to no impact on their respective teams with exception to the occasional 25-point outburst.

Is it fair to say that Webster and Smith would have had similar freshman seasons to Mayo?

Tagged 2008 NBA Draft, Chad Ford, O.J. Mayo |