2025 NBA Draft Discussion Part 5

[ciueli]

A few here disagree, but Malauch is just not ready for NBA minutes. We may or may not draft him, but i cant believe we would draft him with the belief that he'd be giving us minutes, as we'll be trying to make the playoffs next year. More likely we spend the midlevel/part of the midlevel on a backup (Kornet, Adams?) and make Malauch the third stringer.

Masai traded down from 20 to the second round to take Christian Koloko and Nurse gave him 19 starts in the first half of 2022-23. Taking Maluach at 7-9 and playing him 10-15 minutes off the bench in year 1 is nowhere remotely close to how insane that was. For reference, when Koloko was Maluach's age he was posting 46.7% True Shooting, Maluach put up 73.6% True Shooting this season.

Yes. And that was a failure. Why would you repeat it? You paid max money for Ingram, max money for Barnes, big money to Quick, have been out of the playoffs for about half a decade now (play in not included). There exist real C's to get in free agency and we have really nothing else to use our midlevel on as our wings/guards are positions of depth. Malauch has no reason to give us minutes when we can get someone like Luke Kornet for cheap

We can't spend our midlevel, it would push us into the tax. We have no way to address backup C without a trade or using a pick. There's no guarantee another team will trade a competent backup C to us for what we have to offer since we don't have a ton of proven rotation pieces that we want to part with.

At some point we have to use picks to address the distinct lack of size on this roster, and this is the perfect opportunity because there is a young high upside C there waiting for us at exactly the right range for us to take that player, Masai has done this before when he took Jakob Poeltl at 9 in 2016, Jak's year college freshman numbers are quite similar to Maluach's by the way, better in some ways, worse in others, Maluach is a much better free throw shooter which is often a good prediction for a player to improve their shooting overall when they are young.

[mademan]

Masai traded down from 20 to the second round to take Christian Koloko and Nurse gave him 19 starts in the first half of 2022-23. Taking Maluach at 7-9 and playing him 10-15 minutes off the bench in year 1 is nowhere remotely close to how insane that was. For reference, when Koloko was Maluach's age he was posting 46.7% True Shooting, Maluach put up 73.6% True Shooting this season.

Yes. And that was a failure. Why would you repeat it? You paid max money for Ingram, max money for Barnes, big money to Quick, have been out of the playoffs for about half a decade now (play in not included). There exist real C's to get in free agency and we have really nothing else to use our midlevel on as our wings/guards are positions of depth. Malauch has no reason to give us minutes when we can get someone like Luke Kornet for cheap

We can't spend our midlevel, it would push us into the tax. We have no way to address backup C without a trade or using a pick. There's no guarantee another team will trade a competent backup C to us for what we have to offer since we don't have a ton of proven rotation pieces that we want to part with.

At some point we have to use picks to address the distinct lack of size on this roster, and this is the perfect opportunity because there is a young high upside C there waiting for us at exactly the right range for us to take that player, Masai has done this before when he took Jakob Poeltl at 9 in 2016, Jak's year college freshman numbers are quite similar to Maluach's by the way, better in some ways, worse in others, Maluach is a much better free throw shooter which is often a good prediction for a player to improve their shooting overall when they are young.

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

Im not saying Malauch cant be a good player in the future. But nobody is drafting him that wants to win and giving him minutes next year. He truly is raw and he will get bullied and foul a ton

[Rodrickle]

If you read my latest reply, you know he is not a NBA player yet, and yes, Chomche would have started.

Again, 2024 Hoop Summit where Chomche out played Maluach. His first touch was inbounding the ball and was a turnover. A few times Newell over position him for rebounds. In 2024 Olympics, JT Thor got more minutes than him. These are g-league players, and Maluach isnt way better after a year in Duke than a bench g-league player in Chomche to be playing any meaningful NBA minutes right away

That's ridiculous if you think Chomche would have started in arguable the best team in college basketball. Maliq would have. He wouldn't be able to finish hardly any of those lobs that Maluach can. His offensive game is terrible at the moment although not saying he can't improve. Maluach is not an offensive savant by any means but he has his size/catch radius and can finish at an absurd rate at the rim with a 9'8 standing reach. Khaman's foul rate is not even that bad. And bringing JT thor into this when he was alraedy an NBA player and over 4 years older is a terrible argument. Maluach was still just 17 at the Olympics.

Or you are being rediculous where most drafting site suggested that Maluach is a project, he is raw. Just because he starts, it doesnt mean most freshman bigs in collage arent raw.

That's not a response to most of the points I made above. They're both raw. One much more than the other. Chomche closer to Bruno Caboclo. Khaman has much better size and standing reach. There's a reason why Khaman is mocked as a lottery pick and Chomche was mocked in the second round of a terrible draft and likely would not have been selected if it wasn't for Masai. I still like Chomche and think he will turn out to be decent, but he wasn't in the same league as maluach as a prospect and every GM will agree

[Spates]

https://youtu.be/dVkKe1CBBKg?t=880

I have not been impressed with Queen's motor. It's a huge red flag if you ask me

Didn't Ware have the same red flag last draft?

If you draft Queen it's because you believe you can get him more focused on fitness, defense, and not taking plays off.

Regarding Ware...I don't know.

Queen has all the tools to be in the conversation as the number one pick. He is remarkably gifted. With his ability to impose himself physically I'm reminded of guys like Embiid or Shaq—strictly regarding physicality. He can flow through defender with ease. The fact that he hasn't risen higher is concerning to me.

[Psubs]

Yes. And that was a failure. Why would you repeat it? You paid max money for Ingram, max money for Barnes, big money to Quick, have been out of the playoffs for about half a decade now (play in not included). There exist real C's to get in free agency and we have really nothing else to use our midlevel on as our wings/guards are positions of depth. Malauch has no reason to give us minutes when we can get someone like Luke Kornet for cheap

We can't spend our midlevel, it would push us into the tax. We have no way to address backup C without a trade or using a pick. There's no guarantee another team will trade a competent backup C to us for what we have to offer since we don't have a ton of proven rotation pieces that we want to part with.

At some point we have to use picks to address the distinct lack of size on this roster, and this is the perfect opportunity because there is a young high upside C there waiting for us at exactly the right range for us to take that player, Masai has done this before when he took Jakob Poeltl at 9 in 2016, Jak's year college freshman numbers are quite similar to Maluach's by the way, better in some ways, worse in others, Maluach is a much better free throw shooter which is often a good prediction for a player to improve their shooting overall when they are young.

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

Im not saying Malauch cant be a good player in the future. But nobody is drafting him that wants to win and giving him minutes next year. He truly is raw and he will get bullied and foul a ton

Luke Kornet

Give him an opt out after 2 or 3 years so we ca give him a bigger short term deal later too?

[Psubs]

I have not been impressed with Queen's motor. It's a huge red flag if you ask me

Didn't Ware have the same red flag last draft?

If you draft Queen it's because you believe you can get him more focused on fitness, defense, and not taking plays off.

Regarding Ware...I don't know.

Queen has all the tools to be in the conversation as the number one pick. He is remarkably gifted. With his ability to impose himself physically I'm reminded of guys like Embiid or Shaq—strictly regarding physicality. He can flow through defender with ease. The fact that he hasn't risen higher is concerning to me.

I think Queen is comparable to Matas Buzelis. Maybe Scottie without the passing or defense?

[ciueli]

Yes. And that was a failure. Why would you repeat it? You paid max money for Ingram, max money for Barnes, big money to Quick, have been out of the playoffs for about half a decade now (play in not included). There exist real C's to get in free agency and we have really nothing else to use our midlevel on as our wings/guards are positions of depth. Malauch has no reason to give us minutes when we can get someone like Luke Kornet for cheap

We can't spend our midlevel, it would push us into the tax. We have no way to address backup C without a trade or using a pick. There's no guarantee another team will trade a competent backup C to us for what we have to offer since we don't have a ton of proven rotation pieces that we want to part with.

At some point we have to use picks to address the distinct lack of size on this roster, and this is the perfect opportunity because there is a young high upside C there waiting for us at exactly the right range for us to take that player, Masai has done this before when he took Jakob Poeltl at 9 in 2016, Jak's year college freshman numbers are quite similar to Maluach's by the way, better in some ways, worse in others, Maluach is a much better free throw shooter which is often a good prediction for a player to improve their shooting overall when they are young.

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

Im not saying Malauch cant be a good player in the future. But nobody is drafting him that wants to win and giving him minutes next year. He truly is raw and he will get bullied and foul a ton

That's true of a lot of the players available in our range, really it's true of the draft in general, young players are almost always bad and foul a ton, they aren't usually productive right away and can take year to develop. But at some point you have to address the lack of size on this roster, maybe that can be done with a trade, but then who are we trading who has the value to get us a solid backup big without it opening another hole in the roster or costing us a promising young player or future draft pick?

[mademan]

We can't spend our midlevel, it would push us into the tax. We have no way to address backup C without a trade or using a pick. There's no guarantee another team will trade a competent backup C to us for what we have to offer since we don't have a ton of proven rotation pieces that we want to part with.

At some point we have to use picks to address the distinct lack of size on this roster, and this is the perfect opportunity because there is a young high upside C there waiting for us at exactly the right range for us to take that player, Masai has done this before when he took Jakob Poeltl at 9 in 2016, Jak's year college freshman numbers are quite similar to Maluach's by the way, better in some ways, worse in others, Maluach is a much better free throw shooter which is often a good prediction for a player to improve their shooting overall when they are young.

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

We are a 177 mill in commited salary next season without accounting for our draft pick (+7ish mill) and an Ochai raise (+4-7 mill).

Ducking the tax is unrealistic for the next several seasons as long as we carry 5 large-ish salaries. If youre not investing in a decent backup C for this roster, then youre going into next season lost. Besides the 20is min youll need to rest Poeltl, you will lose every game he's injured. Malauch isnt a solution. Draft him if you believe if he's long term the best, but we'll still need a backup C next year

[Spates]

Didn't Ware have the same red flag last draft?

If you draft Queen it's because you believe you can get him more focused on fitness, defense, and not taking plays off.

Regarding Ware...I don't know.

Queen has all the tools to be in the conversation as the number one pick. He is remarkably gifted. With his ability to impose himself physically I'm reminded of guys like Embiid or Shaq—strictly regarding physicality. He can flow through defender with ease. The fact that he hasn't risen higher is concerning to me.

I think Queen is comparable to Matas Buzelis. Maybe Scottie without the passing or defense?

Queen moves nothing like Buzelis. Queen isn't as nimble. Although he's quite nimble for someone capable of bulldozing through opponents

[ciueli]

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

We are a 177 mill in commited salary next season without accounting for our draft pick (+7ish mill) and an Ochai raise (+4-7 mill).

Ducking the tax is unrealistic for the next several seasons as long as we carry 5 large-ish salaries. If youre not investing in a decent backup C for this roster, then youre going into next season lost. Besides the 20is min youll need to rest Poeltl, you will lose every game he's injured. Malauch isnt a solution. Draft him if you believe if he's long term the best, but we'll still need a backup C next year

They won't pay the tax for this team, don't expect it, so yes ducking the tax is very realistic. No one wants to end up where Phoenix is, a tax team that doesn't even make the play-in and we are an Ingram injury away from maybe not even making the play-in next season.

[DreamTeam09]

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

We are a 177 mill in commited salary next season without accounting for our draft pick (+7ish mill) and an Ochai raise (+4-7 mill).

Ducking the tax is unrealistic for the next several seasons as long as we carry 5 large-ish salaries. If youre not investing in a decent backup C for this roster, then youre going into next season lost. Besides the 20is min youll need to rest Poeltl, you will lose every game he's injured. Malauch isnt a solution. Draft him if you believe if he's long term the best, but we'll still need a backup C next year

Ochai has a team option for 6mill next szn no?

[Spates]

Being able to select one of Proctor, Byrd, or Karaban in the 2nd round is awesome

[mademan]

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

We are a 177 mill in commited salary next season without accounting for our draft pick (+7ish mill) and an Ochai raise (+4-7 mill).

Ducking the tax is unrealistic for the next several seasons as long as we carry 5 large-ish salaries. If youre not investing in a decent backup C for this roster, then youre going into next season lost. Besides the 20is min youll need to rest Poeltl, you will lose every game he's injured. Malauch isnt a solution. Draft him if you believe if he's long term the best, but we'll still need a backup C next year

They won't pay the tax for this team, don't expect it, so yes ducking the tax is very realistic. No one wants to end up where Phoenix is, a tax team that doesn't even make the play-in and we are an Ingram injury away from maybe not even making the play-in next season.

Luxury tax threshold is gonna be around 185-190 mill next year and we have committed 177 mill with nowhere really to cut salary. They might want to duck the tax, but thats gonna involve a big salary going out (most likely RJ). We're possibly in the tax with just the draft pick but certainly with Ochai

edit: if im wrong about Ochai, it is possible to slightly duck the tax this season.

[mademan]

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

We are a 177 mill in commited salary next season without accounting for our draft pick (+7ish mill) and an Ochai raise (+4-7 mill).

Ducking the tax is unrealistic for the next several seasons as long as we carry 5 large-ish salaries. If youre not investing in a decent backup C for this roster, then youre going into next season lost. Besides the 20is min youll need to rest Poeltl, you will lose every game he's injured. Malauch isnt a solution. Draft him if you believe if he's long term the best, but we'll still need a backup C next year

Ochai has a team option for 6mill next szn no?

I believe he's a RFA this summer but he can take the QO. Could be wrong though

[Indeed]

That's ridiculous if you think Chomche would have started in arguable the best team in college basketball. Maliq would have. He wouldn't be able to finish hardly any of those lobs that Maluach can. His offensive game is terrible at the moment although not saying he can't improve. Maluach is not an offensive savant by any means but he has his size/catch radius and can finish at an absurd rate at the rim with a 9'8 standing reach. Khaman's foul rate is not even that bad. And bringing JT thor into this when he was alraedy an NBA player and over 4 years older is a terrible argument. Maluach was still just 17 at the Olympics.

Or you are being rediculous where most drafting site suggested that Maluach is a project, he is raw. Just because he starts, it doesnt mean most freshman bigs in collage arent raw.

That's not a response to most of the points I made above. They're both raw. One much more than the other. Chomche closer to Bruno Caboclo. Khaman has much better size and standing reach. There's a reason why Khaman is mocked as a lottery pick and Chomche was mocked in the second round of a terrible draft and likely would not have been selected if it wasn't for Masai. I still like Chomche and think he will turn out to be decent, but he wasn't in the same league as maluach as a prospect and every GM will agree

The mock is just potential and hype, Maluach is as raw as Chomche.
Do I have to remind you James Wiseman who is the #2 pick on 2020?

[Psubs]

We can't spend our midlevel, it would push us into the tax. We have no way to address backup C without a trade or using a pick. There's no guarantee another team will trade a competent backup C to us for what we have to offer since we don't have a ton of proven rotation pieces that we want to part with.

At some point we have to use picks to address the distinct lack of size on this roster, and this is the perfect opportunity because there is a young high upside C there waiting for us at exactly the right range for us to take that player, Masai has done this before when he took Jakob Poeltl at 9 in 2016, Jak's year college freshman numbers are quite similar to Maluach's by the way, better in some ways, worse in others, Maluach is a much better free throw shooter which is often a good prediction for a player to improve their shooting overall when they are young.

We have the tax payer midlevel. The amount of money mid tier back up C's get (like Kornet, or Adams).

We don't have the taxpayer midlevel because using it would push us into the luxury tax, in fact it would push us over the first apron because we are right at the tax just with our draft pick and filling out the roster with minimum contract players. They won't go over the first apron to sign Luke Kornet to the MLE, this is a franchise that is not interested to pay the tax for a team that hasn't proved it's even playoff calibre yet, make no mistake. Again, the only way to fill that backup C spot is a trade or draft pick. Maybe there is a trade Masai can swing, but you have to give up something to get something in this league and it doesn't make sense to do a trade before you know what you have with this team he has assembled with zero games played together for the starting 5.

Im not saying Malauch cant be a good player in the future. But nobody is drafting him that wants to win and giving him minutes next year. He truly is raw and he will get bullied and foul a ton

That's true of a lot of the players available in our range, really it's true of the draft in general, young players are almost always bad and foul a ton, they aren't usually productive right away and can take year to develop. But at some point you have to address the lack of size on this roster, maybe that can be done with a trade, but then who are we trading who has the value to get us a solid backup big without it opening another hole in the roster or costing us a promising young player or future draft pick?

I'm okay with Vlad Goldin as an UDFA. He'd be a nice complement to Chomche.

[Tripod]

Fwiw, last October the Raps picked up Ochai's 4th year(next year) at a bit over 6.83 million.

So signed for next year.

[mademan]

Fwiw, last October the Raps picked up Ochai's 4th year(next year) at a bit over 6.83 million.

So signed for next year.

+1. Good to know

I still dont see how we would hope to compete for HCA next year and be a good team without a backup C. We'd lose every game Poeltl was injured and get killed in the minutes he sat without someone who could soak up some minutes

[Tripod]

Fwiw, last October the Raps picked up Ochai's 4th year(next year) at a bit over 6.83 million.

So signed for next year.

+1. Good to know

I still dont see how we would hope to compete for HCA next year and be a good team without a backup C. We'd lose every game Poeltl was injured and get killed in the minutes he sat without someone who could soak up some minutes

It's a glaring hole that Masai has acknowledged needs filling.

Let's see if it's by draft, trade, or FA. At least we have the assets to fill the hole.

[Clutch0z24]

I don't think anyone can say with a straight face Maluach is ready for the NBA next year....He will have some highlight plays here and there with blocked shots....But he is a 3-5 year project....You will see the best from him in a long while....If he ever develops an offensive game he will be a good starter....But he has a long way to go....

People should not expect much from him if we draft him.