NBA Draft 2024

[Ghost of Kleine]

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Interesting prospect as a potential Okogi replacement perhaps? 6'6 with a 7'0 wingspan too. But unlike Okogie he's making around 43% of his threes.

Also..............................................

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[Ghost of Kleine]

Pre- Lottery early board top 3 for suns at each position (in our ranges)

Point Guards
1- Tyler Kolek.
2- Tristin Newton.
3- Ajay Mitchell.

Shooting Guards
1- Jalen Tyson.
2- Cam Spencer.
3- ***Nique Clifford.***

Small Forwards
1- Ryan Dunn.
2- Keshad Johnson.
3- Jamir Watkins.

Power Forwards
1- Tyler Smith.
2- Ulriche Comche.
3- Day'Ron Holmes.

Centers
1- Zach Edey.
2- Cliff Omoruyi.
3- Ariel Huktpori.

***Updates coming post lottery***
Of course there are/will be other very unique and potentially elite prospects flying under the radar for various reasons, BUT that do possess elite outlier traits/talents/skillsets that could offer high impact for our team. I'll have lists for these prospects as well and independent breakdowns of their strengths and weaknesses as well as ceiling outcomes IF anyones' interested. I currently have our two biggest weaknesses that'll prevent us from achieving our championship goal as:

1- A dominant, athletic, physical, long, rim protecting center or 4/5 option (ideally) that could create significant lateral gravity for our offensive players.
2- A poised, High IQ, tablesetting, floor general with advanced in game processing, ball security that could set the offense well for our bench. Bonus if they are actually two way with size that can defend on/off ball or point of attack too.

I also have us finishing somewhere in the 24-29 range of the draft (post lottery) and have my tiers reflecting that outcome. Overall, we absolutely do need to maximize this draft as much as possible to shore up our windows with young translatable cost controlled talent as we really have no legitimate alternative means of doing so!

[sunsbum]

Pre- Lottery early board top 3 for suns at each position (in our ranges)

Point Guards
1- Tyler Kolek.
2- Tristin Newton.
3- Ajay Mitchell.

Shooting Guards
1- Jalen Tyson.
2- Cam Spencer.
3- ***Nique Clifford.***

Small Forwards
1- Ryan Dunn.
2- Keshad Johnson.
3- Jamir Watkins.

Power Forwards
1- Tyler Smith.
2- Ulriche Comche.
3- Day'Ron Holmes.

Centers
1- Zach Edey.
2- Cliff Omoruyi.
3- Ariel Huktpori.

***Updates coming post lottery***
Of course there are/will be other very unique and potentially elite prospects flying under the radar for various reasons, BUT that do possess elite outlier traits/talents/skillsets that could offer high impact for our team. I'll have lists for these prospects as well and independent breakdowns of their strengths and weaknesses as well as ceiling outcomes IF anyones' interested. I currently have our two biggest weaknesses that'll prevent us from achieving our championship goal as:

1- A dominant, athletic, physical, long, rim protecting center or 4/5 option (ideally) that could create significant lateral gravity for our offensive players.
2- A poised, High IQ, tablesetting, floor general with advanced in game processing, ball security that could set the offense well for our bench. Bonus if they are actually two way with size that can defend on/off ball or point of attack too.

I also have us finishing somewhere in the 24-29 range of the draft (post lottery) and have my tiers reflecting that outcome. Overall, we absolutely do need to maximize this draft as much as possible to shore up our windows with young translatable cost controlled talent as we really have no legitimate alternative means of doing so!

I watched some videos of all the PG/PF/C prospects you listed here. Tyler Kolek is probably my favorite guard from a pure PG stance and also who I'm personally hoping the suns draft.
I came away impressed with Ariel Huktpori as he looks to be a massive mobile center that can make some big energy plays on both sides of the court. One of the blocks he made on the highlight real I was watching was pretty incredible, he was fully turned around with his feet all out of wack trying to guard against penetration, the guy makes a pass behind Ariel and he somehow spins his body around, recovers his feet and makes a block behind him in like .5 seconds. I think I clipped it here. https://youtu.be/23s-yPgLGss?t=78. I also like Ulriche Comche but he seems really raw and probably not ready to contribute for a few years. The other two guards you have listed there I wasn't overly impressed with. Newton reminds me of bones hyland to a T, and the other guy didn't stand out much to me. That being said, I'm looking for a more traditional PG for our team not another combo guard.

[Ghost of Kleine]

Spoiler:

Pre- Lottery early board top 3 for suns at each position (in our ranges)

Point Guards
1- Tyler Kolek.
2- Tristin Newton.
3- Ajay Mitchell.

Shooting Guards
1- Jalen Tyson.
2- Cam Spencer.
3- ***Nique Clifford.***

Small Forwards
1- Ryan Dunn.
2- Keshad Johnson.
3- Jamir Watkins.

Power Forwards
1- Tyler Smith.
2- Ulriche Comche.
3- Day'Ron Holmes.

Centers
1- Zach Edey.
2- Cliff Omoruyi.
3- Ariel Huktpori.

***Updates coming post lottery***
Of course there are/will be other very unique and potentially elite prospects flying under the radar for various reasons, BUT that do possess elite outlier traits/talents/skillsets that could offer high impact for our team. I'll have lists for these prospects as well and independent breakdowns of their strengths and weaknesses as well as ceiling outcomes IF anyones' interested. I currently have our two biggest weaknesses that'll prevent us from achieving our championship goal as:

1- A dominant, athletic, physical, long, rim protecting center or 4/5 option (ideally) that could create significant lateral gravity for our offensive players.
2- A poised, High IQ, tablesetting, floor general with advanced in game processing, ball security that could set the offense well for our bench. Bonus if they are actually two way with size that can defend on/off ball or point of attack too.

I also have us finishing somewhere in the 24-29 range of the draft (post lottery) and have my tiers reflecting that outcome. Overall, we absolutely do need to maximize this draft as much as possible to shore up our windows with young translatable cost controlled talent as we really have no legitimate alternative means of doing so!

I watched some videos of all the PG/PF/C prospects you listed here. Tyler Kolek is probably my favorite guard from a pure PG stance and also who I'm personally hoping the suns draft.
I came away impressed with Ariel Huktpori as he looks to be a massive mobile center that can make some big energy plays on both sides of the court. One of the blocks he made on the highlight real I was watching was pretty incredible, he was fully turned around with his feet all out of wack trying to guard against penetration, the guy makes a pass behind Ariel and he somehow spins his body around, recovers his feet and makes a block behind him in like .5 seconds. I think I clipped it here. https://youtu.be/23s-yPgLGss?t=78. I also like Ulriche Comche but he seems really raw and probably not ready to contribute for a few years. The other two guards you have listed there I wasn't overly impressed with. Newton reminds me of bones hyland to a T, and the other guy didn't stand out much to me. That being said, I'm looking for a more traditional PG for our team not another combo guard.

Yeah!
Huktpori is low key a slightly bigger version of Clint Capela, and would bring significant value at the backup center spot, even though he's just a one way defense only center aside from lobs, putbacks and dunker spot option. If nothing else, he really shore up our post presence/rim protection issues. Comche is a favorite of mine as a long term core investment beyond just next season or so as Nurk won't be around forever, and Comche although still young and somewhat raw has a very high ceiling outcome! Somewhere in the mix of an Al Horford (offensively) and a young serge Ibaka defensive skillset/ versatility. He's more of an investment pick by me as I know there'll still be significant legit contributory options at center even from the undrafted range. Newton isn't flashy or supremely athletic/polarizing, But what he is known for is hitting big shots, making good reads, and ball security. That and he has a championship pedigree as a major factor in Uconns' championship.
https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/sports/college/basketball/2024/04/04/who-is-tristen-newton-the-info-on-the-all-american-from-burges/73193042007/
Tristen Newton wins Most Outstanding Player in national championship win over Purdue

Spoiler:

Watch on YouTube

https://uconnhuskies.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/tristen-newton/13282

2024 Consensus First Team All-America.
- 2024 Bob Cousy Award winner.
- 2024 Wooden Award Finalist.
- 2024 Unanimous First Team All-BIG EAST.
- 2024 Associated Press BIG EAST Player of the Year.
- 2024 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

Tristin Newton plays a non flashy, under the radar, low key style in that he'll just low key beat you before you completely realize what's happening. He's kind of like a low tier budget version of Harden (in his style of play) wherein you don't seriously think he can/will beat you or affect games, but he just does anyways. I just chose him for his size, shotmaking and downhill prowess, and how he subtly beats everyone and opponents just never see it coming.

And Ajay Mitchell I chose because He's got good size at 6'5, is very high IQ, and doesn't need athleticism to b eat opponents as he's just very crafty using hesitation, change of direction, change of pace, etc in a very crafty scoring bag. He's smooth with his handle, a very underrated passer, and is good at ball security. Also, he compares rather favorably to Tyus Jones (skillset/arc trajectory) of Washington, which wouldn't at all be a bad consolation prize as a 2nd round pick, should we manage to fall outside the range of Kolek.
https://www.tankathon.com/players/compare?players=ajay-mitchell--tyus-jones
Both as reasonable alternative options IF we finish past Koleks' range possibly, or he gets drafted higher by one of the teams with multiple picks (New York)???

[lilfishi22]

I'd love to see us draft Kolek but I still think we're more likely to draft and trade that pick than keep it.

[Frank Lee]

Trade who???? The missing Nas?

Smart move is to get Kolek or(?) on a rookie deal for the next 3-4 yrs. The salary numbers wont yield any significant help

[Ghost of Kleine]

I'd love to see us draft Kolek but I still think we're more likely to draft and trade that pick than keep it.

Perhaps? But then for who exactly that (in that range of a very late first) could provide more value/impact than whatever young player we could actually draft? Especially IF this draft again doesn't carry that much percieved value as it's seen as relatively shallow? What team would give up legitimate value of any kind for a late 1st in a percieved shallow draft, also taking into consideration that we currently have ZERO remaining assets currently.

[Mulhollanddrive]

I rated Ty Jerome higher than Kolek now so don't have much faith in drafting in the 20 range

[Ghost of Kleine]

I rated Ty Jerome higher than Kolek now so don't have much faith in drafting in the 20 range

It really depends upon which prospects your looking at in/ after that range, as well as skillset/production/outlier attributes/potential overlooked or underlying elite talents waiting to be established and developed further in the right situation. The most successful franchises take the draft seriously enough as a viable avenue for cost controlled talent acquisition with 4 yrs of contractual control. But unlike Jones, they don't ignore it altogether or brush off it's value, they actually do significant work in order to identify under the radar prospects with underlying high impact potential.

I guess my point here is that you can find legit impact or even the occasional high level talent at unbelievable value IF (your front office is actually willing to do the work to identify them. For example, just in the last 5-6 years, you have players that went in the 20s' of the draft and were easily much better/impactful than expected with names like:

2019 draft
Matisse Thybulle, Brandon Clarke, Grant Williams, Jordan Poole, KELDON JOHNSON, NIK CLAXTON (#30), Daniel Gafford (#38), Taylor Horton Tucker (#46), TERRENCE MANN (#48), JALEN MCDANIELS (#52) all very good value/impact for their teams.

2020 draft
Precious Achiuwa (#20), TYRESE MAXEY (#21), IMMANUEL QUICKLEY (#25), Payton Pritchard (#26), DESMOND BANE (#30), Xavier Tillman (#35), Nik Richards (#42), ISAIAH JOE (#49), Kenyon Martin Jr (#52), Paul Reed (#58).

2021 draft
Jalen Johnson (#20), Quenton Grimes (#25), Bones Hyland (#26), CAM THOMAS (#27), HERB JONES (#35), Miles Mcbride (#36), Ayo Dosunma (#38), BJ Boston (#51), Aaron Wiggins (#55).

2022 draft
CHRISTIAN BRAUN (#21), WALKER KESSLER (#22), NIKOLA JOVIC (#27), Peyton Watson (#30), ANDREW NEMBHARD (#31), Jaylin Williams (the 6'10 one) (#34), VINCE WILLIAMS (#47), Jabari Walker (#57).

2023 draft
CAM WHITMORE (#20), Kris Murray- Blazers (#23), Julian Strawther (#29), Maxwell Lewis (#40), Rayan Rupert (#43), GREG JACKSON (#45), Emoni Bates (#49), TOUMANI CAMARA (#52), TRACE JACKSON DAVIS (#57). ** And Jaime Jacquez and Brandon Podziemski both went right before the 20s' and could've possibly fallen to that range too!

2024 draft (to be determined..................................... But best prospects for us in that range to the late 2nd THAT WILL BE IMPACTFUL/PRODUCTIVE are:
Zach Edey, Tyler Smith, Tyler Kolek, Dayron Holmes, Ulriche Comche, Ryan Dunn, Dillon Jones, Jalon Tyson, Baylor Schierman, Alex Karaban, Ajay Mitchell, Cam Spencer, Tristin Newton, Keshad Johnson. The highlighted ones are the ones that we should aggressively pursue either from our pick, or preferrably in a trade down scenario! Maybe ......just maybe we can walk out of this draft with two under the radar impact talents, AND THEN one from the undrafted pool? (I recommend more size, physicality, rim protection- 4/5) or a 6'8-6'9 jumbo floor spacing wing possibly??

[Djedefre]

Huge props to GoK, he dedicates so much of his free time and energy to mine into the draft. If only our FO invested just a fraction of that time and effort...

[sunsbum]

Huge props to GoK, he dedicates so much of his free time and energy to mine into the draft. If only our FO invested just a fraction of that time and effort...

What pick have you recently been upset over? Jalen Smith, Cam, Mikal? Perhaps that 2nd rounder starting in Portland?

[Djedefre]

Ghost summed it up nicely just above. We missed a lot of solid contrubutors even in the late 1st or 2nd round in the last 4-5 years. Jalen Smith was a lazy and odd pick given all the circumstances, although i was sorta ok with it at the time. But in a hindsight, there were a dozen of better choices at #10 that year and that's not even debatable (not just Haliburton as a usual suspect). The same year, there was also that Merrill geezer in the super late 2nd round that GoK was trying to bring to our attention. Turns out he can actually play some minutes for a playoff team. Who would've thought... Cam was a good pick, but in that same draft we could've had at least one more future rotational piece or even a starter (we had #24 and missed Keldon, Claxton, Gafford, Mann...).

We traded away our 1st rounders for the last two drafts while also trading that one guy we actually picked. So we either slept on it or immediately used guys to turn them into 'something bigger'. We opted for 'veterans' who turned out completely useless and borderline unplayable because we are in win-now mode, so that certainly means no player below 27!

[bwgood77]

Huge props to GoK, he dedicates so much of his free time and energy to mine into the draft. If only our FO invested just a fraction of that time and effort...

What pick have you recently been upset over? Jalen Smith, Cam, Mikal? Perhaps that 2nd rounder starting in Portland?

Okobo over Brunson? Ayton over Luka? But yeah, Smith over Haliburton? Trading for Shamet over taking someone like Ayo?

[sunsbum]

Huge props to GoK, he dedicates so much of his free time and energy to mine into the draft. If only our FO invested just a fraction of that time and effort...

What pick have you recently been upset over? Jalen Smith, Cam, Mikal? Perhaps that 2nd rounder starting in Portland?

Okobo over Brunson? Ayton over Luka? But yeah, Smith over Haliburton? Trading for Shamet over taking someone like Ayo?

What? You're cherry picking all-stars in a totally fictional what if environment. If you applied that logic, every GM in the history of the NBA would be terrible.

[bwgood77]

What pick have you recently been upset over? Jalen Smith, Cam, Mikal? Perhaps that 2nd rounder starting in Portland?

Okobo over Brunson? Ayton over Luka? But yeah, Smith over Haliburton? Trading for Shamet over taking someone like Ayo?

What? You're cherry picking all-stars in a totally fictional what if environment. If you applied that logic, every GM in the history of the NBA would be terrible.

Well, Brunson was national player of the year, on a Villanova championship team, played with Bridges, and went 2 picks after Okobo, who hadn't really proved anything.

I didn't mention some others, like not drafting Kawhi because he sweat too much in the interview, going for Markieff instead, and even less obvious ones like Len over Giannis, Jokic, etc.

[Saberestar]

Read on Twitter

[Qwigglez]

No 22 pick since 2010.
2010 - Elliot Williams
2011 - Kenneth Faried
2012 - Fab Melo
2013 - Mason Plumlee
2014 - Jordan Adams
2015 - Bobby Portis
2016 - Malachi Richardson
2017 - Jarrett Allen
2018 - Chandler Hutchingson
2019 - Grant Williams
2020 - Zeke Nnaji
2021 - Isaiah Jackson
2022 - Walker Kessler
2023 - Darig Whitehead


Anyone care to guess who was the 2007 22nd pick? Without looking...
Hint:

Spoiler:

Played for the Suns

2nd hint:

Spoiler:

Fan favorite

Final hint:

Spoiler:

Assistant coach...

(If you guess, please put your post in a spoiler)

[SunsRback4Good]

No 22 pick since 2010.
2010 - Elliot Williams
2011 - Kenneth Faried
2012 - Fab Melo
2013 - Mason Plumlee
2014 - Jordan Adams
2015 - Bobby Portis
2016 - Malachi Richardson
2017 - Jarrett Allen
2018 - Chandler Hutchingson
2019 - Grant Williams
2020 - Zeke Nnaji
2021 - Isaiah Jackson
2022 - Walker Kessler
2023 - Darig Whitehead


Anyone care to guess who was the 2007 22nd pick? Without looking...
Hint:

Spoiler:

Played for the Suns

2nd hint:

Spoiler:

Fan favorite

Final hint:

Spoiler:

Assistant coach...

(If you guess, please put your post in a spoiler)

Earl Boykins?

[bwgood77]

That's pretty awesome that we won the tiebreaker for playoff purposes with the Pelicans but we also win the tiebreaker for a higher draft pick...so the 6th seed has a higher pick than the 8th seed (or would, if them and Milwaukee were not swapping).

[Ghost of Kleine]

That's pretty awesome that we won the tiebreaker for playoff purposes with the Pelicans but we also win the tiebreaker for a higher draft pick...so the 6th seed has a higher pick than the 8th seed (or would, if them and Milwaukee were not swapping).

So then we're picking at #22 for sure then?