2025 NBA Draft Prospect Part 2

[Son Goku 25]

Absolute monster.
This dude has DPOY level potential. The positioning, his lateral quickness, mobility, footwork, ability to defend the perimeter, etc.

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Looks like he has Ibakas hands

[Reeko]

I am really intrigued by Noa Essengue the more I watch him. He is playing on a pretty good team in Europe (Ulm is 2nd in German Bundesliga) and is playing men at age 18.

At 6'9 he has room to grow and has good form on his jumper (albeit results aren't there) but he is pretty great at finishing at the rim.

59 TS%
2.0 STL%
2.8 BLK%
21 3P%
69 FT%

He is a very long defender and he has confidence shooting and he is a good playmaker at his size. Numbers don't jump off the page but his film does. In many ways I see him as a guy comparable to Zachery Risacher last year. He is even younger, but has better advanced metrics. I really feel Noa ends up a high lotto guy because he is so toolsy, young and could fit into any system because he reads the game pretty well.

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Curiously, if Risacher was in this draft where would he rank?

The length and athleticism really pop on film. I think the biggest concern is the 3pt shooting. Probably not fair but the guy that came to mind was Jan Vesely.

[grant101]

These guys play kids. Traore outplayed Jak twice, beat him twice.

Harder playing against men compared to kids

Exactly.
He outplayed Jak just a few months ago. Let's not forget that and he was dominating the international scene.
I'm gonna cut him some slack for playing in a grown man league, rather than against kids.
Although it's because of this dumb decision that he's fallen out of the top 5.
If he was playing in college right now, he'd be ahead of guys like Tre and Kasp for sure.

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Both Jakucionis and Traore dropped big numbers on each other, both of those times. Once Traore's team upset Jak's, the other time Traore had a vastly superior supporting cast (France was the favorite to win the whole tournament, but failed) and Jakucionis still made it a very close game.

Jakucionis
34.0 ppg, 7.0 apg (3.0 TO), 5.5 rpg
Traore
37.0 ppg, 10.0 ast (5.5 TO), 4 rpg

You made it sound like Traore wiped the floor with Jak... I know you're making a case for Traore, but please stay objective. There's an argument to be made for Traore (I'm a believer in him as well) even without embellishing the facts. I'll repeat my previous sentiment - staying in Europe was the worst decision that Traore could have made for his draft stock, and I bet he would have gotten like 4-5 times more money with a college NIL deal as well. I'll include Ben Saraf too - I think he would have been a beast in college.

Agreed that skipping the chance to play in college was a big mistake for Traore (who was in contention for a top 3 spot after his performance at Nike Hoop Summit). Same goes for Ben Saraf (who I'm still a fan of) and Hugo Gonzalez.

That said, college choice is important. Edgecomb's decision to go to Baylor has really hurt him IMO. He needs to show & improve upon guard skills and that back court is way too crowded with smaller guards. I'd be terrified of drafting another Zhaire Smith if I pick Edgecomb top 10.

[niQ]

Absolute monster.
This dude has DPOY level potential. The positioning, his lateral quickness, mobility, footwork, ability to defend the perimeter, etc.

Watch on YouTube

Looks like he has Ibakas hands

Definitely saw that drop

[LoveMyRaps]

He’s so back

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[RoteSchroder]

He’s so back

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Can he shoot? it seems that his shot diet throughout his career has mostly been in the lane/key. And he's been sub-0.300 from 3 for years.

I don't want a guard who can't shoot or will "maybe or maybe not" develop a 3 point shot. That drastically limits his ceiling

[LoveMyRaps]

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[RoteSchroder]

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the overall communication doesn't even seem that great

Knueppel looked like he was the best communicator there. I think Cooper messed up once, unnecessarily went into the paint to help out, then he and Maluach tried to close out on the same guy. Also there seemed to be a bit of miscommunication on whether Maluach was gonna switch or not, which led to a drive to the basket (you can see his teammate pointing and heading to the direction of the screener). Also Maluach's initial close out on the first switch had his entire momentum going in one direction that the on-ball player didn't take advantage of.

At the end, you had Maluach hanging around in the paint guarding no one and there were 2 players wide open from 3.

But it's good enough defense for the college level I guess

[Mr.Raptorsingh]

Nolan Traore y'all

[Reeko]

Just saw some Rasheer Fleming highlights for the first time. 6'9, 235lbs, with a 7'5 wingspan. Averaging 16/9/1 with 2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game on 57/44/68 splits as a junior. For a guy his size he's pretty fast but even more impressive is how quick he is at that size, it's kind of freaky.

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[Syd-TK3]

Just saw some Rasheer Fleming highlights for the first time. 6'9, 235lbs, with a 7'5 wingspan. Averaging 16/9/1 with 2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game on 57/44/68 splits as a junior. For a guy his size he's pretty fast but even more impressive is how quick he is at that size, it's kind of freaky.

Watch on YouTube

Yea I seen him a couple weeks ago. Another foward that I wish was big enough to be a full-time C
Regardless he's definitely talented and gonna be a guranteed first round lock

[RoteSchroder]

Just saw some Rasheer Fleming highlights for the first time. 6'9, 235lbs, with a 7'5 wingspan. Averaging 16/9/1 with 2 steals and 1.5 blocks per game on 57/44/68 splits as a junior. For a guy his size he's pretty fast but even more impressive is how quick he is at that size, it's kind of freaky.

Watch on YouTube

I have Rasheer, Karaban, Bogoljub as early 2nd round targets along with a couple others I currently can't remember..but all three might be gone before then

[Jerry Lucas]

I actually want to be high on Asa Newell (and was originally high on him earlier on in the college season), but his low FTr is a pretty big red flag that keeps turning me away.

But other than that there's like no other flags, which is why I want to be high on him. But again, to be a big and your FTr is below 30%, that's a pretty significant red flag for me.

Just did a quick look up of all the bigs drafted with a FTr lower than 30%, and YIKES, that's not a good list to be a part of. Definitely going to be watching out for that ROS, I just view him pretty much exclusively as a 4 (which helps mitigate that a bit), and love the rest of his game enough to put that on the back burner for now.

Also makes a ton of sense why Ace isn't in your Top 10 if you place a lot of weight on the metrics, his red flags are waaaay harder to look past than Asa's. Don't know where he'll end up on my board, but he's a lot closer to 10 than 1 for now.

Asa Newell's FTr has finally climbed above 30%. Was steadily and slowly rising since the start of the season when he was in the 20s. Just barely above for now, at 30.2%.

His FTr is now up to 32.2% earthtone. If this holds or continues improving, Newell is going to skyrocket up my big board the next time I update it. I've been saying since I first started tracking him as a prospect, his FTr being sub 30% was the only glaring red flag for me.

Also unrelated to this, I am starting to warm up big time to Ian Jackson. He's looked a lot better since he began starting for North Carolina, and his production as a starter has really stood out to me.

[Psubs]

Just did a quick look up of all the bigs drafted with a FTr lower than 30%, and YIKES, that's not a good list to be a part of. Definitely going to be watching out for that ROS, I just view him pretty much exclusively as a 4 (which helps mitigate that a bit), and love the rest of his game enough to put that on the back burner for now.

Also makes a ton of sense why Ace isn't in your Top 10 if you place a lot of weight on the metrics, his red flags are waaaay harder to look past than Asa's. Don't know where he'll end up on my board, but he's a lot closer to 10 than 1 for now.

Asa Newell's FTr has finally climbed above 30%. Was steadily and slowly rising since the start of the season when he was in the 20s. Just barely above for now, at 30.2%.

His FTr is now up to 32.2% earthtone. If this holds or continues improving, Newell is going to skyrocket up my big board the next time I update it. I've been saying since I first started tracking him as a prospect, his FTr being sub 30% was the only glaring red flag for me.

Also unrelated to this, I am starting to warm up big time to Ian Jackson. He's looked a lot better since he began starting for North Carolina, and his production as a starter has really stood out to me.

Is he like a Clowney?

[DG88]

Updated mock from Tankathon
https://www.tankathon.com/mock_draft

[CoinTossRoss31]

Updated mock from Tankathon
https://www.tankathon.com/mock_draft

Demin falling hard. Makes sense though

[CoinTossRoss31]

Looking at Tankathons mock I would love to be in the picture with a late first rounder to be looking at Sorber, Wolf...

[LoveMyRaps]

Updated mock from Tankathon
https://www.tankathon.com/mock_draft

Not a fan of Knueppel being so high.

[Reeko]

Updated mock from Tankathon
https://www.tankathon.com/mock_draft

Not a fan of Knueppel being so high.

Is he even better than McNeely at this stage?

[ATLTimekeeper]

Looking at Tankathons mock I would love to be in the picture with a late first rounder to be looking at Sorber, Wolf...

Sorber is just going to keep rising.