2025 NBA Draft Discussion Part 6

[TorontoRapsFan]

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Fears 60% 3 and 80% off the dribble looks like a good combination

[Morris_Shatford]

My wildly unpopular opinion is I don't want a 6' 10" + 250lbs + dump truck center @ 9
This draft is littered with guys who will largely be useful in games and useless at the end of games.

At 39 we will have our pick of the Wolfs, Williams, Kalkbrenners, and Raynauds of the world who can drop into that large ball five role.
Burn the lotto pick on the highest ceiling, burn the Portland gift on a lumbering big.

[niQ]

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7. New Orleans Pelicans

This is also a spot where the Pelicans could look to secure another big man to play alongside Yves Missi. Dumars made it clear when he joined the team that addressing the team's frontcourt would be a priority in the offseason.

8. Brooklyn Nets – C Khaman Maluach – Duke

s the Nets continue to build for the future, trade rumors surrounding Cam Johnson and Nic Claxton will grow larger. Claxton is much more likely to be moved this offseason, especially since he was high on the Los Angeles Lakers' list of trade targets before the 2025 trade deadline.

If this is the intel on those 2 teams, I don't think Maluach is dropping to us...

[ciueli]

I never said that....If Maluach ends up to you at 9 you take him as well....At 7 it would be a little rich for my liking personally but if he is the one to fall to you at 9 you take it....I just have my doubts he is going to be there....Again you might be thinking of this with a bias hat on because you want Maluach to be a Raptor really badly....Think of it from a logical perspective....The potential will be too high for teams to pass up on him even if he becomes a bust or does not reach his ceiling....Teams are still going to take the chance on him....Again teams this high in the lotto pick the highest potential picks....And Khaman outside of the top 5 has one of the highest upside if it hits....These teams are not good enough to make a pick based on what they need if there is a player at a position they don't need but they are blown away by.

Ah, no, I believe you are the one with the bias hat on because any time I talk about Maluach you are against him, but then suddenly when it comes to teams above us he is BPA and because all teams draft BPA (or something) and he won't be there for us, I think you just want us to draft anyone other than Maluach. I am only speculating about us taking Maluach because I have learned from past experience that Masai will take who he likes and not who I like and he absolutely loves his guys with long arms and there is the personal connection as well, it doesn't hurt that our team is really undersized and we don't have a single player who is above 6'8" and a credible NBA player outside Jak with no tax flexibility to add anyone of note in free agency. Writing is on the wall, Masai is taking him if he's there and I don't see a compelling argument that he won't be there. Draft is random and all that, could be a team who grabs him before us but I don't see an obvious one at the moment.

I am not as high on Maluach as you or the others that are really high on him due to his offensive rawness, And if we were to stay at 7 or move up in the top 4 i would have not taken Maluach like some of us wanted to do......But if you go back and look at my posts i always said if we fall to 8th and all the players i like are off the board you take Maluach due to him having the highest potential left...I always had Maluach in my top 8....

Now that we fell to 9th i highly doubt he is on the board that low due to his potential....I have no Bias because i like Maluach more than Kon...And i personally believe it will be either Kon or Queen that fall to 9th for us....If its Maluach though awesome....But i think the potential is too good for 8 teams to pass on him...

You say you are not as high on him as me, but then you talk about his potential and upside and I'm not banking on that, I like him because I see him as a high floor low ceiling type, he's very likely a solid starting centre for his career and not a star, he seems like Jakob Poeltl to me. And at 9 in this draft, getting a Jakob Poeltl type is actually good value. His college numbers are very similar to Jak's freshman college numbers, I have him better at shooting long term as he is a good FT shooter, but maybe worse at some other things Jak did better in college, at 9 that's the type of player you can expect and be happy with.

There are other guys likely to be on board that might have star potential but also have much higher bust potential, a case can be made for many of them but I just feel the fit for most of them is worse than Maluach and they are much higher risk with a pick I think we really need to hit on and get a solid NBA player at worst. CMB is a good example of this type, maybe higher star potential than Maluach but bad fit with Scottie and he's potentially out of the league in short order if the shooting and passing doesn't develop significantly. Or Carter Bryant who could be an OG replacement for us, but the sample sizes are so small and we're really buying heavily into the development aspect if we take him at 9.

[LoveMyRaps]

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Stay as far away as possibles

[WuTang_CMB]

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[Duffman100]

My wildly unpopular opinion is I don't want a 6' 10" + 250lbs + dump truck center @ 9
This draft is littered with guys who will largely be useful in games and useless at the end of games.

At 39 we will have our pick of the Wolfs, Williams, Kalkbrenners, and Raynauds of the world who can drop into that large ball five role.
Burn the lotto pick on the highest ceiling, burn the Portland gift on a lumbering big.

Always BPA. If that's Fears, Kon, etc. draft them and figure it out later.

[Yallbecrazy]

I see Sorber as a Al Horford type of big, not a star but a very reliable player that understands the game defends well and stretches the floor

Georgetown alum here. He's TD 21 lite - not going to wow you w/ transcendent athleticism, but possesses a phenomenal innate understanding of the game. Look @ the offensive, defensive splits when he was on and off the court his freshman season.

Do you want a high flyer who's an athlete that plays basketball, but lacks a high basketball IQ (see Jalen Green)? Or a basketball player first and foremost?

The choice is yours (h/t Black Sheep, Dres).

What makes Sorber a better prospect than Maxime Raynaud. I guess age and more defense. I don't think Sorber will ever be as good as Raynuad on offense. What if Raynaud is a taller more athletic Kelly Olynyk?

What makes Wolf better than Raynaud? Passing and handles. I guess Wolf and Olynyk are more similar.

Sorber is better than Raynaud. He passes better, rebounds better, defends infinitely better.
Raynaud is a bad basketball player who can shoot and is tall.

[ATLTimekeeper]

Queen's max vert is 28??? I'll take CMB shoving the ball toward the net over that.

[PushDaRock]

Teams will always lean on better fit if they view the players as in the same tier. Masai just admitted this below

and I don't think this is just smoke or anything and it kind of goes with what we've been saying so far in this draft. that next tier after the top guys is all bunched up and it will be on preference.

Interesting that Masai views this the same as a lot of us do, very similar talent level across the board through these picks.

Masai started the year watching pre-season Rutger's games. Then he dumped vets, and held out Ingram vowing to finish poorly. Now he has to sell that the pick he gets at 9 will be just as good as the one he could have had at 3, and that the league agrees with him.

I don't think he really needs to sell anything. If we got rid of him, he would find another job and likely a better one in no time at all.

[Pooper]

For the position that we're in, I prefer Noa Essengue. Lengthy big, great perimeter and help defence, with shooting potential and great passing. The only knock on him is strength and rebounding because of his lack of muscle. If we're going to pick 9th though we might as well swing for potential and plus he fills a need.

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[niQ]

My wildly unpopular opinion is I don't want a 6' 10" + 250lbs + dump truck center @ 9
This draft is littered with guys who will largely be useful in games and useless at the end of games.

At 39 we will have our pick of the Wolfs, Williams, Kalkbrenners, and Raynauds of the world who can drop into that large ball five role.
Burn the lotto pick on the highest ceiling, burn the Portland gift on a lumbering big.

There's also Hansen Yang. He had some fans on this board last year and apparently he's shed a lot of weight.

[Clutch0z24]

Ah, no, I believe you are the one with the bias hat on because any time I talk about Maluach you are against him, but then suddenly when it comes to teams above us he is BPA and because all teams draft BPA (or something) and he won't be there for us, I think you just want us to draft anyone other than Maluach. I am only speculating about us taking Maluach because I have learned from past experience that Masai will take who he likes and not who I like and he absolutely loves his guys with long arms and there is the personal connection as well, it doesn't hurt that our team is really undersized and we don't have a single player who is above 6'8" and a credible NBA player outside Jak with no tax flexibility to add anyone of note in free agency. Writing is on the wall, Masai is taking him if he's there and I don't see a compelling argument that he won't be there. Draft is random and all that, could be a team who grabs him before us but I don't see an obvious one at the moment.

I am not as high on Maluach as you or the others that are really high on him due to his offensive rawness, And if we were to stay at 7 or move up in the top 4 i would have not taken Maluach like some of us wanted to do......But if you go back and look at my posts i always said if we fall to 8th and all the players i like are off the board you take Maluach due to him having the highest potential left...I always had Maluach in my top 8....

Now that we fell to 9th i highly doubt he is on the board that low due to his potential....I have no Bias because i like Maluach more than Kon...And i personally believe it will be either Kon or Queen that fall to 9th for us....If its Maluach though awesome....But i think the potential is too good for 8 teams to pass on him...

You say you are not as high on him as me, but then you talk about his potential and upside and I'm not banking on that, I like him because I see him as a high floor low ceiling type, he's very likely a solid starting centre for his career and not a star, he seems like Jakob Poeltl to me. And at 9 in this draft, getting a Jakob Poeltl type is actually good value. His college numbers are very similar to Jak's freshman college numbers, I have him better at shooting long term as he is a good FT shooter, but maybe worse at some other things Jak did better in college, at 9 that's the type of player you can expect and be happy with.

There are other guys likely to be on board that might have star potential but also have much higher bust potential, a case can be made for many of them but I just feel the fit for most of them is worse than Maluach and they are much higher risk with a pick I think we really need to hit on and get a solid NBA player at worst. CMB is a good example of this type, maybe higher star potential than Maluach but bad fit with Scottie and he's potentially out of the league in short order if the shooting and passing doesn't develop significantly. Or Carter Bryant who could be an OG replacement for us, but the sample sizes are so small and we're really buying heavily into the development aspect if we take him at 9.

CMB does not have more star potential than Maluach lol ....But we will see what happens but i would bet right now a team ahead of us falls in love with him....Most likely either the Wizards or the Pelicans at 6/7....

[PushDaRock]

Queen's max vert is 28??? I'll take CMB shoving the ball toward the net over that.

Edey had a 31.5 max vert and people calling him unathletic in comparison lol

[Psubs]

Cedric Coward cement his 40% 3pt shooting, though only playing 6 games this year? Chaz Lanier is more athletic than thought.

[earthtone]

Georgetown alum here. He's TD 21 lite - not going to wow you w/ transcendent athleticism, but possesses a phenomenal innate understanding of the game. Look @ the offensive, defensive splits when he was on and off the court his freshman season.

Do you want a high flyer who's an athlete that plays basketball, but lacks a high basketball IQ (see Jalen Green)? Or a basketball player first and foremost?

The choice is yours (h/t Black Sheep, Dres).

What makes Sorber a better prospect than Maxime Raynaud. I guess age and more defense. I don't think Sorber will ever be as good as Raynuad on offense. What if Raynaud is a taller more athletic Kelly Olynyk?

What makes Wolf better than Raynaud? Passing and handles. I guess Wolf and Olynyk are more similar.

Sorber is better than Raynaud. He passes better, rebounds better, defends infinitely better.
Raynaud is a bad basketball player who can shoot and is tall.

Gotta disagree with you with there on Raynaud, he's incredibly skilled and probably the best mover at his size in the class. You don't average 20/10 while being a "bad basketball player"

[Yallbecrazy]

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The one thing he might be better at than CMB and turns out he might not even be better than that.

I'm sorry, but if you have Queen ahead of CMB you either listen to the wrong people or need to get better at evaluating players. CMB is better than Queen right now by a lot and in my opinion has a better career over 90% of the time since he's just better than him at everything.

[grant101]

Maluach looks HEAVY hope he can keep the weight off a bit more

Yup. Looks really sluggish out there. Not loving the idea of being the team that takes a risk on him. I know we need big man depth, but we shouldn't force it

[Psubs]

CMB does not have more star potential than Maluach lol ....But we will see what happens but i would bet right now a team ahead of us falls in love with him....Most likely either the Wizards or the Pelicans at 6/7....

Is CMB just more of a bulkier Mogbo? Really don't need to use a lotto pick on him.

[Clutch0z24]

Queen's max vert is 28??? I'll take CMB shoving the ball toward the net over that.

Queens not going to do well in the athletics department...We all know this and the teams know this....If he gets drafted high its because what he can do on the court as a basketball player not as an athlete ....Wait for the 5 vs 5 runs tomorrow and see if he outshines the majority of these "High jumpers and fast runners"....Athletic ability can only take you so far but i will bet you Queens Basketball skills and basketball IQ will outshine the majority of these guys.