2025 NBA Draft Prospect Part 3

[LoveMyRaps]

Jeremiah Fears just scored his 29th point of the game and pointed to the camera and said "I'M COMING TORONTO! I GOT US!"

HAVE NO FEAR, JEREMIAH IS HERE.

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[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

Wingspan doesn’t matter if you can play. Stirtz can ball, bottom line.

it definitely does matter for a player's ultimate outcome. shead with a 6'9 WS is probably rajon rondo. VJ with a 6'9 wingspan probably has tony allen level event creation. dwade with a 6'5 WS doesn't end up in HOF. WS means a lot.

stirtz only had a very small portion of his possessions vs t80-100ish defenses, he dominated legitimate garbage. i need WS to believe in the scale up and overcoming really bad defensive opponents. the good news is he might have it.

Jimmy Butler, Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, FVV, GROAT, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, Ja Morant, Maxey, Jamal Murray, Jrue Holiday, etc etc etc beg to differ.

Whether Stirtz has it or not doesn’t change the fact that he’s a stud. He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do versus his competition. An elite tournament might bring him into the 20’s.

you have listed almost entirely players who had elite athletic markers or were elite shooters or played strong SOS.

i know what i'm looking for and i'm trying to figure out whether he's worth the #2 overall pick, not t30. with a ++ wingspan he might be the best pg in the draft.

[BoyzNTheHood]

it definitely does matter for a player's ultimate outcome. shead with a 6'9 WS is probably rajon rondo. VJ with a 6'9 wingspan probably has tony allen level event creation. dwade with a 6'5 WS doesn't end up in HOF. WS means a lot.

stirtz only had a very small portion of his possessions vs t80-100ish defenses, he dominated legitimate garbage. i need WS to believe in the scale up and overcoming really bad defensive opponents. the good news is he might have it.

Jimmy Butler, Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, FVV, GROAT, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, Ja Morant, Maxey, Jamal Murray, Jrue Holiday, etc etc etc beg to differ.

Whether Stirtz has it or not doesn’t change the fact that he’s a stud. He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do versus his competition. An elite tournament might bring him into the 20’s.

you have listed almost entirely players who had elite athletic markers or were elite shooters or played strong SOS.

i know what i'm looking for and i'm trying to figure out whether he's worth the #2 overall pick, not t30. with a ++ wingspan he might be the best pg in the draft.

I listed guys who succeeded despite a mediocre wingspan, which is what you’ve been harping on. Now you’re adding more parameters and moving the goalposts. Don’t overthink it, Stirtz is an NBA level baller.

[Got Nuffin]

What if he can't shoot the 3 at all? Bigger Tony Parker?

If he turns out to be a bigger Tony Parker, that's a GRAND SLAM HOME RUN.

Tony wouldn’t be Tony without Pop, Tim Duncan, and the Spurs culture. Traore has a nice skill set but he needs to have a better jump shot at that size. His game is very 90’s at the moment.

In a league still dominated by big men, Tony Parker led the entire league in points in the paint sometime in the mid-2000s. With today's no-contact perimeter play he would probably live at the rim and make a down payment on home ownership there.

Traore is 18 years old. Unless his shot form is completely broken, if he really wants a decent jumper I'm sure we can get him one.

[RoteSchroder]

M.Thiam is not to be compared to Maluach, he's getting bodied by hunter Dickerson

His body isn't NBA ready, but that should be one of the lower criteria on the list for drafting prospects. Overall, I'd say he's about 3-4 years away. Like Maluach, he started when he was 13, but Thiam's also missing a year of HS b-ball.

His improvement rate and learning ability is likely stronger than Maluach's, at least on offense. If you look at pre-college games, Thiam has quite a few moves from the post stretching out to the 3 point land that he can pull off consistently, whereas Maluach started off quite rough. He has made incremental improvements on O, but is still quite bad. If we're talking about shots 6+ feet out, for example, Thiam probably has made more of those in a single game than Maluach has in an entire season.

So I guess it's about which traits are more important to you. Even if Maluach only ends up as a lob/dunk threat, that still has value in the league (e.g. DeAndre Jordan). If he can develop the shot, he could eventually be an Ibaka level offensive player where he's just asked to finish in the paint and hit jumpers, rather than create.

[REJECTEDBYCLARK]

Jimmy Butler, Desmond Bane, Dillon Brooks, FVV, GROAT, Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, Ja Morant, Maxey, Jamal Murray, Jrue Holiday, etc etc etc beg to differ.

Whether Stirtz has it or not doesn’t change the fact that he’s a stud. He’s doing exactly what he’s supposed to do versus his competition. An elite tournament might bring him into the 20’s.

you have listed almost entirely players who had elite athletic markers or were elite shooters or played strong SOS.

i know what i'm looking for and i'm trying to figure out whether he's worth the #2 overall pick, not t30. with a ++ wingspan he might be the best pg in the draft.

I listed guys who succeeded despite a mediocre wingspan, which is what you’ve been harping on. Now you’re adding more parameters and moving the goalposts. Don’t overthink it, Stirtz is an NBA level baller.

Huh, I'm trying to get you to acknowledge the importance of wingspan in player projection so I don't read takes about how vj edgecombe is the next dwyane wade going forward.

I'm not overthinking whether or not stirtz is an nba player. I'll repeat that I'm trying to figure out whether he's actually pg1 in this draft and not making some vanilla proclamation that he's an nba player and should go t30. Lots of nba players drafted each year and most suck.

And again I'll reiterate that the players you listed all had specific reasons for overcoming their WS. Butler was an all time FT merchant which carried over to NBA. Curry was a prolific shooter. Kyrie's small sample was elite and it was known how incredible his bag was. Hell Jared Mccain overcomes his wingspan because of his functional strength and ability to keep defenders in jail and absolutely elite 3pt shooting markers.

I literally just watched a clip of stirtz shooting over a 5'8 guard with a -0.4 dbpm who he has gone up against multiple times this year. His wingspan will help determine where he should be ranked period because of scalability concerns given SOS and just how much of a falloff could be expected with a smaller wingspan if that were the case.

It's the same reason I wouldn't touch braden smith with a ten ft pole if he comes in less than 6'5 ws, it has to do with historical outcomes and if he's not at tyus jones or trey burke length it's over for him.

[Syd-TK3]

Jeremiah Fears just scored his 29th point of the game and pointed to the camera and said "I'M COMING TORONTO! I GOT US!"

HAVE NO FEAR, JEREMIAH IS HERE.

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He's got real talent almost hiding in plain sight
If we stay at 7 or lower I have no problems taking him regardless of our guard situation

[UnbelievablyRAW]

Getting to the point where I’d look to trade Gradey and even IQ to move up and get Harper. He’s going to be an All NBA guy

[Yallbecrazy]

Full disclosure: I have not seen a minute of Stirtz playing so am going purely off stats.

Stirtz has a similar BPM to what Podz had, but Podz was playing in a slightly better conference, was 16 months younger, and had only been playing basketball for 5 years. Podz also had in my opinion a cross section of stats and style that really appealed to me and Stirtz does not.

[Thaddy]

Getting to the point where I’d look to trade Gradey and even IQ to move up and get Harper. He’s going to be an All NBA guy

IQ is viewed as a bad contract in the league. Dick is overvalued by us and not worth selling at a current low value. It'll probably end up being Agbaji unless we find a good deal for RJ.

Jeremiah Fears just scored his 29th point of the game and pointed to the camera and said "I'M COMING TORONTO! I GOT US!"

HAVE NO FEAR, JEREMIAH IS HERE.

Read on Twitter

He's got real talent almost hiding in plain sight
If we stay at 7 or lower I have no problems taking him regardless of our guard situation

I like him but he'll get targeted on defense and his 3pt shot isn't there. I would take Maluach.

I've been hating on Maluach for a low ceiling but his length is comparable to Wemby. There's a chance he could shoot very well from 3 too. If we can pair him with Barnes, and they click. That's a defensive monster of a front court.

Maluach
Barnes
Ingram
Walter
Quickley

That group could be very balanced and give Barnes a 4 out 1 in line up.

Maluach is almost a no-brainer for the Raptors at this point. If he rises we'll have Johnson, Kasp, or Edgecombe fall to us. Worse case we end up with Fears if everyone is gone at that point.

[Son Goku 25]

Fears at 7? Next Steph?

[WuTang_CMB]

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[WuTang_CMB]

Joakim Noah vibes

I like newell

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[dballislife]

not loving fears 43% fg and 28% from 3...how he compare to fox as freshman?

[BoyzNTheHood]

Joakim Noah vibes

I like newell

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Noah was an elite passer.

[dballislife]

mccain was this years best rookie and richardsons game is very similar...the scouts let mccain slip im not sure they will let it happen to jase he could go higher than ppl think

[WuTang_CMB]

Joakim Noah vibes

I like newell

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Noah was an elite passer.

moreso the size, length and mobility. Good rebounder. Active.
We likely going to go big if dont make top 4

[BoyzNTheHood]

Joakim Noah vibes

I like newell

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Noah was an elite passer.

moreso the size, length and mobility. Good rebounder. Active.
We likely going to go big if dont make top 4

Newell just keeps producing, but my thing for him in the NBA is if he’s big enough. If he measures 6’9” I don’t know if he’ll be better than a guy like WCJ. If he’s 6’11”+ he gets far more intriguing, but I seriously doubt he’s that tall. He looks pretty average sized out there for a big man.

[dballislife]

newell like mogbo cant guard centers, so how is his agility on the perimeter? he also shows super raw ball handling and passing ability...i like that hes shooting 3s but 29-30% is too low...asa almost needs to guard the perimeter well and have a good solid 3 pointer

[Psubs]

Joakim Noah vibes

I like newell

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Noah was an elite passer.

Condon is Noah that can shoot 3's.