One of the draft trends of the past decade, though not employed by the Knicks, has been to use second round picks on guys who you could stow overseas and let develop.  If a team doesn’t approach the second round in that way, the other option is to take a risk on players with serious question marks.  The “is he really a point guard?” guy.  The guy who is “reaaaally long and has great wingspan” but hasn’t put it all together yet.  The player who “has a questionable attitude” or “once punched his coach.”  The “transferred 4 times,” guy, etc., etc.

For the Knicks who only have 5 returning players under contract (Gallo, Chandler, Douglas, Curry, and presumably Walker), it’s very likely that the Knicks will pursue the least followed of second round draft strategies: They’ll look to draft accomplished juniors or seniors, who fill a positional need (point guard or center), who’ve shown what they can do, and despite limited “upside” can have a role on the team next year.

At the risk of getting all Dick Vitale on you, more often than not a lot of these accomplished guys end up doing pretty well as NBA role players.  Some even exceed the low expectations.  Afterall, first 5 picks aside, what player doesn’t have question marks?  David Lee and Toney Douglas were late first rounders, but were essentially four year players who proved they were basketball players.  Throughout their careers they had shown consistency, competitiveness, intelligence, work ethic, intangibles, and maybe most importantly, improvement.

With this in mind, Here are 5 accomplished big school guys, and 1 big guy from a small school, who’ve all shown the dedication and will to improve that it takes to make it in the NBA — players the Knicks have the potential to snag in the second round.  I’ll cherry pick quotes from Chad Ford’s and DraftExpress’s profiles.

Artsiom Parakhouski

(Center, Radford) — He seems like a classic late bloomer to me who if he’d stayed in Belarus and played in Europe, instead of being a senior who only played 2-years of college ball, would be a much hotter commodity.

Basically, he played soccer growing up but got big and picked up hoops.  You know he must possess the fabled footwork that all soccer players converted to basketball unquestionably have (a la Hakeem or Dikembe), at least in the eyes of American scouts.  But, in all seriousness, he looks like a fluid dude.  He’s a legit 6′ 11″ and strong.  He has 6% body fat.  Has surprising range.  WTF does this dude have to do to get attention?!

[ from Chad Ford ]

  • Legit big man with true center game
  • Decent athlete for his size
  • Strong rebounder
  • Solid shot-blocker
  • Good hands
  • Nice shooting touch
  • Not especially explosive or quick
  • Dominating against inferior competition
  • Needs to add strength
  • Lacks experience

Parakhouski may play for a small school, but he continues to come up big against elite teams. He had 23 and 14 versus Duke and an impressive 21 and 13 against Cole Aldrich and the Kansas Jayhawks.

Sure seems like he has some correctable ‘negatives’ to me.  And, if you look at his game log for this past year he never took a night off consistently putting up big numbers which says something at any level.  And when he played legit big men, he rose to the challenge.  Check him out below, and listen to the DraftExpress interview which shows him to be an affable guy.

Trevor Booker

(Power Forward, Clemson) — This dude seems like a beast of a man.  Think Jason Maxiell.  His numbers dipped in his senior season after a stellar junior campaign, and thus his draft ranking has slid into the second round, but he consistently put up pretty studly numbers.

[ From ESPN's draft blog roundtable ]

Thorpe: I’d lean heavily to Trevor Booker. NBA execs mention Paul Millsap and Carl Landry when they are discussing Booker. Um, hello? Those are two of the top 18 power forwards in the game! Booker has the “beast” mentality with long arms — a perfect combination. If his neck was an inch longer, he’d be a lottery candidate. Who cares about neck length?

Ford: Trevor Booker is a senior with NBA toughness, athleticism and a big-time motor. He won’t be a star in the NBA, but he’ll try to fit into the same mold as DeJuan Blair and Carl Landry.

Fraschilla: Trevor Booker gets my vote too. I have always advocated for second-round selections who have what I call “winning skills.” These are players that bring high energy on the court, a specific high-level skill and are low maintenance off the court. Booker fits this perfectly.

After four years as an ACC starter, he has competed against — and in some cases dominated — guys who are already in the NBA. His power, explosive jumping ability, nose for the ball and experience would make for a great rotation player early in his career on a team like the Celtics. Think of him as a Glen Davis or Leon Powe type, both of whom had knocks on them coming out of college, but helped the Celtics win a title in 2008.

Greivis Vasquez

(Guard, Maryland) — He’s 23, Venezuelan, and a four year senior.  He’s big for a point at 6’6″, but is not quick enough or athletic enough to guard NBA point guards. Athleticism seems to be his biggest knock (in addition to his proclivity to shimmy shake).

[ from Chad Ford ]

  • A combo guard who thrives on penetration to the basket
  • Excellent feel for the game
  • Good passer who can play point guard at least part-time
  • Good motor, very competitive
  • The kind of competitor who makes all of the hustle plays

[ from DraftExpress ]

Though his average athleticism is a significant obstacle, his unique style of play allows him to succeed at the collegiate level. As we have mentioned before, Vasquez is a point guard with outstanding vision and scoring mentality who has improved considerably throughout his time at Maryland. He is a very high usage player, responsible for over 25% of Maryland’s possessions. This season, he is averaging an outstanding 7.2 assists per 40 minutes pace adjusted alongside a career high 1.9 assist/turnover ratio.

On film, Vasquez is largely the same point guard, adept at running the pick and roll, but perhaps lacking the first step needed to be a great drive-and-dish threat against NBA-level defenders. He is still turning the ball over at a high rate, as well, and his 3.8 turnovers per 40 minutes pace adjusted ranks twelfth among point guard prospects in our database. His vision and passing ability are both outstanding however, as he’s able to find his teammates all over the floor in half-court sets and in transition with the utmost creativity. He has terrific timing on his drives and plays the game at a very unique pace, which helps compensate for his average athleticism.

From what I can tell, it’s his feel for the game that should propel him to a back-up point guard spot.  Judging from the video below, he has a quick 3 point stroke, can run the pick and roll very well and has excellent vision in both full and half court sets.  He looks like a potential PG to me, especially considering his 2:1 assist/turnover ratio.  Crap, he looks a lot better than Marty Collins who’s was a somewhat capable backup in the NBA.  And not to be overlooked, Vazquez has spent four years playing in the ACC against Coach K who advised Mike D to pursue Toney D.  That seemed to have worked out pretty well, so…

Coming in Part 2 I’ll make arguments for the following: Craig Brackins, Jarvis Varnado, Luke Harangody (seriously), and Brian Zoubek (no, really, seriously!)