2023 NBA Draft

[JMAC3]

Are we sure Scoot is a guaranteed top 2 pick? I just don't see it the more I watch him.

his shooting and size is a concern. i'll just leave it at that. doesn't mean i wouldn't take him at #2, but i'd be nervous.

Going back 10 years there has been one player selected in the top 4 of a draft that is under 6'4'' and that was Ja. Hard to believe that he is #1 pick type of guy if Wemby wasn't in this draft. He looked pretty mediocre in both the rising star and gleague up next game clanking every jump shot.

I really think the draft tiers are probably more like this IMO
Tier 1- Wemby
Tier 2- empty
Tier 3- Scoot, Thompson twins, Brandon Miller
Tier 4 -George, Black, Smith, Walker

[TheSuzerain]

Tiers and semi-ordered lists within tiers

Tier 1 - Wemby
Tier 2 - Scoot
Tier 3 - Brandon Miller, Anthony Black, Zach Edey, Gradey Dick
Tier 4 - Taylor Hendricks, Jett Howard, Cam Whitmore, Jarace Walker
Tier ? - Thompson Twins (very tough to slot for obvious reasons)

[CptCrunch]

Top 20, tier 4 roughly ordered not absolute. First 3 tiers are ordered within tier.

Tier 1 - Victor Wembanyama
Tier 2 - Scoot Henderson, Anthony Black
Tier 3 - Brandon Miller, Jarace Walker, Cason Wallace, Grady Dick, Dariq Whitehead,
Tier 4 - Jett Howard, Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, Nick Smith, Gregory Jackson, Kyle Filipowski, Cam Whitmore, Brice Sensabaugh, Zach Edey, Ausar Thompson, Dereck Lively

[jezzerinho]

Are we sure Scoot is a guaranteed top 2 pick? I just don't see it the more I watch him.

his shooting and size is a concern. i'll just leave it at that. doesn't mean i wouldn't take him at #2, but i'd be nervous.

Going back 10 years there has been one player selected in the top 4 of a draft that is under 6'4'' and that was Ja. Hard to believe that he is #1 pick type of guy if Wemby wasn't in this draft. He looked pretty mediocre in both the rising star and gleague up next game clanking every jump shot.

I really think the draft tiers are probably more like this IMO
Tier 1- Wemby
Tier 2- empty
Tier 3- Scoot, Thompson twins, Brandon Miller
Tier 4 -George, Black, Smith, Walker

At this stage in proceedings, I'd be along these lines too, more or less.

[JMAC3]

Top 20, tier 4 roughly ordered not absolute. First 3 tiers are ordered within tier.

Tier 1 - Victor Wembanyama
Tier 2 - Scoot Henderson, Anthony Black
Tier 3 - Brandon Miller, Jarace Walker, Cason Wallace, Grady Dick, Dariq Whitehead,
Tier 4 - Jett Howard, Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, Nick Smith, Gregory Jackson, Kyle Filipowski, Cam Whitmore, Brice Sensabaugh, Zach Edey, Ausar Thompson, Dereck Lively

You have Amen Thompson outside the top 20?

[Braggins]

not sure about tiers, but heres my current top 10

1 ~ Victor Wembanyama
2 ~ Scoot Henderson
3 ~ Anthony Black
4 ~ Brandon Miller
5 ~ Jarace Walker
6 ~ Gradey Dick
7 ~ Taylor Hendricks
8 ~ Cam Whitmore
9 ~ Cason Wallace
10 ~ Keyonte George

[CptCrunch]

Top 20, tier 4 roughly ordered not absolute. First 3 tiers are ordered within tier.

Tier 1 - Victor Wembanyama
Tier 2 - Scoot Henderson, Anthony Black
Tier 3 - Brandon Miller, Jarace Walker, Cason Wallace, Grady Dick, Dariq Whitehead,
Tier 4 - Jett Howard, Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, Nick Smith, Gregory Jackson, Kyle Filipowski, Cam Whitmore, Brice Sensabaugh, Zach Edey, Ausar Thompson, Dereck Lively

You have Amen Thompson outside the top 20?

Yes, he right after in the group. I have discounted him into the mid 20's. Ausar is a better prospect from my POV. I can swing with Ausar being a late lotto pick or late 10's pick. Ausar has much better shooting potential and without shooting both players are utterly useless to the point of unplayable.

[JMAC3]

Top 20, tier 4 roughly ordered not absolute. First 3 tiers are ordered within tier.

Tier 1 - Victor Wembanyama
Tier 2 - Scoot Henderson, Anthony Black
Tier 3 - Brandon Miller, Jarace Walker, Cason Wallace, Grady Dick, Dariq Whitehead,
Tier 4 - Jett Howard, Taylor Hendricks, Keyonte George, Nick Smith, Gregory Jackson, Kyle Filipowski, Cam Whitmore, Brice Sensabaugh, Zach Edey, Ausar Thompson, Dereck Lively

You have Amen Thompson outside the top 20?

Yes, he right after in the group. I have discounted him into the mid 20's. Ausar is a better prospect from my POV. I can swing with Ausar being a late lotto pick or late 10's pick. Ausar has much better shooting potential and without shooting both players are utterly useless to the point of unplayable.

hmmm I mean I don't think either of Thompson Twins are great shooters, but I don't see it being such an issue to ignore 6-7 athletes with as much athleticism and feel for the game as they have. Russell Westbrook couldn't shoot at all early in his career and was still averaging 16 ppg. That was at 6-3, not 6-7.

Josh Giddey can't shoot either, and he is able to find ways to score with way less athleticism than Thompson Twins. You might be overthinking it a bit.

[CptCrunch]

You have Amen Thompson outside the top 20?

Yes, he right after in the group. I have discounted him into the mid 20's. Ausar is a better prospect from my POV. I can swing with Ausar being a late lotto pick or late 10's pick. Ausar has much better shooting potential and without shooting both players are utterly useless to the point of unplayable.

hmmm I mean I don't think either of Thompson Twins are great shooters, but I don't see it being such an issue to ignore 6-7 athletes with as much athleticism and feel for the game as they have. Russell Westbrook couldn't shoot at all early in his career and was still averaging 16 ppg. That was at 6-3, not 6-7.

Josh Giddey can't shoot either, and he is able to find ways to score with way less athleticism than Thompson Twins. You might be overthinking it a bit.

I've already posted in the Thompson thread as to why these two are utterly overrated by the mass media. The tl;dr is that they are +2 age for their class, has no semblance of a jumper, is playing against sub high school competition and by all objective measures not dominating, worst yet there are players in the OTE (4-5 star underlcass men) putting up better and more interesting stats than them in the OTE.

[JMAC3]

I've already posted in the Thompson thread as to why these two are utterly overrated by the mass media. The tl;dr is that they are +2 age for their class, has no semblance of a jumper, is playing against sub high school competition and by all objective measures not dominating, worst yet there are players in the OTE (4-5 star underlcass men) putting up better and more interesting stats than them in the OTE.

Yeah, I think these are mostly generalized.

1. They are 14-1 and both averaging 16/6/6/2/1. They are putting up good stats on the best team in the league. Idk how that isn't considered dominating. Those numbers are actually lower because there have been 10 games when Amen played fewer than 25 mins.
2. They turned 20 less than a month ago, there are tons of kids that are 18+ or 19+ in the league. I guess if you want to assume all the kids listed at 18 and 19 just had birthdays we can pretend it's 1-2 years instead of probably like 3-6 months in most cases.
3. The kids that are younger than that are very good high school players. #8 in in 2023, #3 in 2024, #6 in 2025.
4. Idk who is putting up better numbers than them across the board. I am sure there are a few players making noise on some of the worst teams in the league.

I agree these are things that are good to be aware of, but I think the league as a whole has a lot more talent than given credit for.

Amen is 6-7 with elite ball handling, jumping ability, really good passer and plays both ends of the floor. Shooting is basically the only knock against him. I really don't have doubts these guys could be scoring 12-15 ppg on most power 5 college teams in the country along with all their natural abilities.

[Hal14]

That "Jalen Wilson is as good as Keegan Murray" take is aging really bad haha.

[BostonCouchGM]

Seeing Scoot standing next to 5’11” Pippen Jr and I’m not sure Scoot is even 6’1” let alone 6’3”. He looks small out there. The hair has people fooled. I’m not sure it makes a huge amount of difference but it’s a factor. It could affect his ability to defend, get his jumper off and finish around the rim

Pippen Jr measured at 6-1.5 in shoes at the combine

imagine believing that's his true height ha ha ha. The hair adds an inch and then we're looking at exactly what I claimed he is...5'11"

[BostonCouchGM]

Seeing Scoot standing next to 5’11” Pippen Jr and I’m not sure Scoot is even 6’1” let alone 6’3”. He looks small out there. The hair has people fooled. I’m not sure it makes a huge amount of difference but it’s a factor. It could affect his ability to defend, get his jumper off and finish around the rim

Pippen is an even 6-0 without shoes and 6-1.5 with shoes.
https://www.nbadraft.net/2022-nba-draft-combine-measurements/

minus the inch of hair and you arrive at 5'11"

[EvanZ]

That "Jalen Wilson is as good as Keegan Murray" take is aging really bad haha.

Jalen Wilson is 6’8” and has zero dunks. How is that even possible? LMAO


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[babyjax13]

1. Victor
2. Scoot
3. Miller, George
4. Whitmore, Black
5. Amen, Ausar, Whitehead
6. Walker, Smith, Council, Howard, Jackson, Wallace

After that there is another big group of interesting guys, including some players who could rise for me when I see them more. The twins, Whitehead, Smith, and Jackson are all kind of weird cases for me between injuries and terrible teams/leagues. I wouldn't be surprised if any popped in the NBA, but I also think there are safer bets with similar upside.

[CoreyVillains]

The link below provides a snapshot of what the mainstream sites are projecting as far as prospects draft stock.

https://www.noceilingsnba.com/p/top-50-nba-drft-stock-market-update

Top 10
1. Victor Wembanyama
2. Scoot Henderson
3. Brandon Miller
4. Amen Thompson
5. Jarace Walker
6. Ausar Thompson
7. Cam Whitmore
8. Keyonte George
9. Nick Smith Jr
10. Anthony Black

[toussaud]

Last night I believe was the first time nsj was 100% healthy cause I see it now. I still like black better but he's for sure a top 10 pick.

[JMAC3]

From what I have seen of Whitmore he seems super limited on offense. Mainly a catch and shoot guy that sometimes attacks closeouts and cuts on the baseline. Plus he is probably a bit undersized to play the 4, which might be his best position.

Do you think the Thompson Twins wouldn't be able to average 12 points per game at the college level?

[babyjax13]

From what I have seen of Whitmore he seems super limited on offense. Mainly a catch and shoot guy that sometimes attacks closeouts and cuts on the baseline. Plus he is probably a bit undersized to play the 4, which might be his best position.

Do you think the Thompson Twins wouldn't be able to average 12 points per game at the college level?

I think if Villanova had better ball movement, comparable to what they've had in years past, Whitmore would be averaging more than he is. If the question is, would either of the Thompson twins do better than Whitmore is in the same context, I think the answer is no. They are scoring 16ppg against high schoolers, I don't see why they'd do better against much better competition. Whitmore also has pretty dramatic home/away splits, so there is also a question of why that is the case.

[JMAC3]

From what I have seen of Whitmore he seems super limited on offense. Mainly a catch and shoot guy that sometimes attacks closeouts and cuts on the baseline. Plus he is probably a bit undersized to play the 4, which might be his best position.

Do you think the Thompson Twins wouldn't be able to average 12 points per game at the college level?

I think if Villanova had better ball movement, comparable to what they've had in years past, Whitmore would be averaging more than he is. If the question is, would either of the Thompson twins do better than Whitmore is in the same context, I think the answer is no. They are scoring 16ppg against high schoolers, I don't see why they'd do better against much better competition. Whitmore also has pretty dramatic home/away splits, so there is also a question of why that is the case.

ehhh, have you watched any of the OTE? I think it gets thought about in same breath as JBL from Ball Brothers route. There is legit probably 10+ guys playing in the league now that will wear an NBA jersey someday and I think only 8 teams.

For example: they played last night Rob Dillingham #8 prospect in country who is heading to Kentucky (he had a hot shooting game and scored 29 points) They played against a 6-11 240 lbs Somto Cyril #23 in 2024. Nas Cunningham #3 in 2024 who is 6-7.

Pretty good chance all three of those guys are first round picks in the next few years.

The Thompson twins aren't just some bums they had D1 offers to Alabama, Arizona, Auburn, Arizona State, Kansas etc..