2025 Draft Thread - Part 2

[mhd]

I don't expect Gill to be with us, so that's 11 guys. Add Colby Jones to make 12. I expect Kispert to be traded, which takes us back to 11. Add Holmes to get back to 12.

It’s real hard to trade away guys into raw cap space. If Kispert gets traded, the likelihood is that we will be taking back a contract.

Yup. Even if we traded away Kispert, we are getting an equivalent salary in return that is an assured roster spot. We aren't buying out Middleton and Smart (they'll hopefully have value by the deadline in BOYD type deals). With a young team like ours, you need a vet like Gill as the 15th man who is OK not playing, but professional enough to be ready.

Like I posted above, we already have 11 spots for sure on the 15 man roster next year:

Guards (4): Poole, Smart, AJ, Bub
Wings (6): Kispter, Bilal, George, Justin C, Middleton, Bey
Bigs (1): Sarr

Now, add the 6th pick and 18th pick, and that makes it 13 spots filled.

Gill (2.2 million), Colby Jones (2.2 million), and Holmes (only 250k guaranteed) are also factors here. Say we cut Holmes, we still need a vet big who can spell Sarr against the bigger guys in the league, so that is the 14th spot. I'd rather have Gill and the 15th spot vet vs some young guy who isn't a leader.

[mhd]

I don't expect Gill to be with us, so that's 11 guys. Add Colby Jones to make 12. I expect Kispert to be traded, which takes us back to 11. Add Holmes to get back to 12.

It’s real hard to trade away guys into raw cap space. If Kispert gets traded, the likelihood is that we will be taking back a contract.

Het Nate, could you explain how we might be able to get the best of the 2029 Bucks and Boston 1st again (we're rooting for Portland not to make the playoffs in 2026 and 2027, but to make it in 2028, correct?

[doclinkin]

If you believe the current trends on the mock, Fears is going to Utah, ESPN's Jeremy Woo & Givony both have him going there.

Isaiah Collier. Keynote George. Collin Sexton… I don’t know that they need another ball dominant guard.

I expect someone has intel that Ainge has a trade with Brooklyn lined up. Or it’s a reasonable guess.

[nate33]

I don't expect Gill to be with us, so that's 11 guys. Add Colby Jones to make 12. I expect Kispert to be traded, which takes us back to 11. Add Holmes to get back to 12.

It’s real hard to trade away guys into raw cap space. If Kispert gets traded, the likelihood is that we will be taking back a contract.

Het Nate, could you explain how we might be able to get the best of the 2029 Bucks and Boston 1st again (we're rooting for Portland not to make the playoffs in 2026 and 2027, but to make it in 2028, correct?

That’s correct. Because in that scenario, they will end up trading their FRP to Chicago in 2028. That means their 2029 pick will be encumbered so they get removed from a complicated pick trade scenario in 2029. With Portland out of the picture the only parties left in the 2029 trade are us and Milwaukee, which leaves us with a straight up pick swap scenario with Milwaukee that year.

[closg00]

If you believe the current trends on the mock, Fears is going to Utah, ESPN's Jeremy Woo & Givony both have him going there.

Isaiah Collier. Keynote George. Collin Sexton… I don’t know that they need another ball dominant guard.

I expect someone has intel that Ainge has a trade with Brooklyn lined up. Or it’s a reasonable guess.

Yeah, I don't understand why Fears is mocked to Utah, but Woo & Givony have good intel, could be a smokescreen of-course, but why would they need one?

[closg00]

I don't expect Gill to be with us, so that's 11 guys. Add Colby Jones to make 12. I expect Kispert to be traded, which takes us back to 11. Add Holmes to get back to 12.

It’s real hard to trade away guys into raw cap space. If Kispert gets traded, the likelihood is that we will be taking back a contract.

Yup. Even if we traded away Kispert, we are getting an equivalent salary in return that is an assured roster spot. We aren't buying out Middleton and Smart (they'll hopefully have value by the deadline in BOYD type deals). With a young team like ours, you need a vet like Gill as the 15th man who is OK not playing, but professional enough to be ready.

Like I posted above, we already have 11 spots for sure on the 15 man roster next year:

Guards (4): Poole, Smart, AJ, Bub
Wings (6): Kispter, Bilal, George, Justin C, Middleton, Bey
Bigs (1): Sarr

Now, add the 6th pick and 18th pick, and that makes it 13 spots filled.

Gill (2.2 million), Colby Jones (2.2 million), and Holmes (only 250k guaranteed) are also factors here. Say we cut Holmes, we still need a vet big who can spell Sarr against the bigger guys in the league, so that is the 14th spot. I'd rather have Gill and the 15th spot vet vs some young guy who isn't a leader.

An unforced error, re-signing Corey was a big mistake IMO.

[nate33]

It’s real hard to trade away guys into raw cap space. If Kispert gets traded, the likelihood is that we will be taking back a contract.

Yup. Even if we traded away Kispert, we are getting an equivalent salary in return that is an assured roster spot. We aren't buying out Middleton and Smart (they'll hopefully have value by the deadline in BOYD type deals). With a young team like ours, you need a vet like Gill as the 15th man who is OK not playing, but professional enough to be ready.

Like I posted above, we already have 11 spots for sure on the 15 man roster next year:

Guards (4): Poole, Smart, AJ, Bub
Wings (6): Kispter, Bilal, George, Justin C, Middleton, Bey
Bigs (1): Sarr

Now, add the 6th pick and 18th pick, and that makes it 13 spots filled.

Gill (2.2 million), Colby Jones (2.2 million), and Holmes (only 250k guaranteed) are also factors here. Say we cut Holmes, we still need a vet big who can spell Sarr against the bigger guys in the league, so that is the 14th spot. I'd rather have Gill and the 15th spot vet vs some young guy who isn't a leader.

An unforced error, re-signing Corey was a big mistake IMO.

Why? We would still be operating as an over-the-cap team with or without Kispert’s extension on the books.

[tontoz]

Apparently AI did a mock draft and had us picking Queen at 6 and Sorber at 18.

Looks like AI has a ways to go.


https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2025/05/20/nba-mock-draft-2025-ai-predictions-picks/83744650007/

[BearlyBallin]

Watch on YouTube

Who is Leif Thulin?

He loves TreJ. Has him #4 on his board. Compares him to Ace just a little smaller.
Considering trading Poole to Philly for the 3rd pick and taking Tre.

At 11:28 mark he compares TreJ to SGA the MVP.

[AFM]

Watch on YouTube

Who is Leif Thulin?

He loves TreJ. Has him #4 on his board. Compares him to Ace just a little smaller.
Considering trading Poole to Philly for the 3rd pick and taking Tre.

At 11:28 mark he compares TreJ to SGA the MVP.

He took over for Brandon who quit the show (over politics apparently). LOW never had any good insight tbh but Brandon at least had a personality suitable for podcasting. As far as I know every wizards podcast now just has guys reading monotone.

If Dat would put the fireball bottle down there’s an opportunity here. Imagine the DAT and CCJ show. With doc calling in. Podcast magic.

[Northwest Roddy]

Great idea!

[doclinkin]

Various scenarios in play right now:

1. Trade up for #3 with Philly. Take Ace.

2. Utah trades #5 to Brooklyn. They take Fears.
We pick between Tre and Maluach. Or Edge. Depending on the Hornets @ #4.

3. Utah does something else. Brooklyn trades up for our #6 takes Fears. Pelicans needing a PG, take Jakucionas. We take Maluach at #8 + other considerations. I want 2026 picks, but 19 also helps.

4. No trades materialize. Stick at 6. Looking at one of Tre. Fears. Maluach. & Everybody else.


I like scenarios 1&3 depending on the deal.

[tontoz]

The only real similarities Tre has with SGA are height and midrange shooting. Other than that they are very different.

[The Consiglieri]

Wiz traded up 2 spots in the first round to get Coulibaly, just a couple of years ago. Only cost 2 second round picks. Not expecting too much more than that from the Nets, if it happens. Maybe one of their late first rounders? Or a first next year? Tankathon has Jakuciounus, Kon, Maluach, and Murray Boyles in the range of the #8 pick. Could see us trading down and maybe getting Maluach or Queen. I don't see the Kon fit but maybe if we trade down and he's there, we can engineer another trade down with a playoff team that might want him.

I liked that for us, I really didn't like that for the other team.

I have zero interest in moving down to 8 for a couple of future 2nds.

While there's a consenus on the board that 6-30 or nearly so is pretty damn flat, nearly the whole board really, really, really likes 2 or 3 guys better than the rest of the 6-30 zone, and based on the agg boards and rumors circulated by the press, it definitely seems likely that virtually all our preferred targets would be gone by 8 (any of the big 4 that slip, Tre, Fears etc).

So, zero interest.

[The Consiglieri]

No WAY am I trading that 2029 lotto ticket. If Portland makes the playoffs in 2028, then WE get the best of the Bucks and Celtics pick in 2029. If they don't, then we get the 2nd best of Portland, Bucks, and Boston's 2029 1st. I'm not trading that pick in ANY deal.

Yep, all 3 of those teams have issues. Portland looks destined to be that awful middling 26-38 win zone, Milwaukee unless they hit a grand slam long term with the Giannis trade could be going down too, and the current version of the Celtics is set to age out long before then, knowing them they'll find some angle as usual, but those are lottery tickets that have about a 1-1.5 to 1-3 chance of gifting us a lottery pick, there is literally zero chance I trade any of those futures out of pique that we got screwed in the lottery AGAIN. No thank you. Those picks are ammo our future will need, keep it in reserve, period.

The Celtics will probably recover by then? Unless you think Tatum is done?

Portland is a weird one. They have the opportunity to have lots of cap space in '26-27 and a pretty decent core (with no franchise player). If their FO does it right, they could be a low-level playoff team for a few years running (it is the west though - they would have been a playoff team in the East this year, IMO).

Milwaukee - how do they not tank?

The question is do we get our franchise player by then? If so, then it will be a nice pile on.

Achilles injuries are brutal, and supposedly they have many contracts coming up. I think the shape and lay out of the team will look a lot different what, 4 or 5 seasons from now. It's not so much that I think they'll suck, as I think the current dominant eastern team is absolutely not going to have anything like the same personel.

Otoh, the Celtics, like the Lakers, nearly always find a way to contention, I tend to think the other two picks are likely to be lottery or high mid round, Celtics could be anywhere from late lottery to late in round 1, I have no idea, its unlikely they will be as low as they were the last few years though.

[pcbothwel]

The only real similarities Tre has with SGA are height and midrange shooting. Other than that they are very different.

I get more Booker vibes than SGA, but I am high on Tre and is my target at 6.

[dckingsfan]

Yep, all 3 of those teams have issues. Portland looks destined to be that awful middling 26-38 win zone, Milwaukee unless they hit a grand slam long term with the Giannis trade could be going down too, and the current version of the Celtics is set to age out long before then, knowing them they'll find some angle as usual, but those are lottery tickets that have about a 1-1.5 to 1-3 chance of gifting us a lottery pick, there is literally zero chance I trade any of those futures out of pique that we got screwed in the lottery AGAIN. No thank you. Those picks are ammo our future will need, keep it in reserve, period.

The Celtics will probably recover by then? Unless you think Tatum is done?

Portland is a weird one. They have the opportunity to have lots of cap space in '26-27 and a pretty decent core (with no franchise player). If their FO does it right, they could be a low-level playoff team for a few years running (it is the west though - they would have been a playoff team in the East this year, IMO).

Milwaukee - how do they not tank?

The question is do we get our franchise player by then? If so, then it will be a nice pile on.

Achilles injuries are brutal, and supposedly they have many contracts coming up. I think the shape and lay out of the team will look a lot different what, 4 or 5 seasons from now. It's not so much that I think they'll suck, as I think the current dominant eastern team is absolutely not going to have anything like the same personnel.

Otoh, the Celtics, like the Lakers, nearly always find a way to contention, I tend to think the other two picks are likely to be lottery or high mid round, Celtics could be anywhere from late lottery to late in round 1, I have no idea, its unlikely they will be as low as they were the last few years though.

Yep - why you never trade for Laker, Knick or Boston picks hoping they will be in the lottery. Milwaukee for sure. Portland shmaybe.

[Hidden Eye]

Various scenarios in play right now:

1. Trade up for #3 with Philly. Take Ace.

2. Utah trades #5 to Brooklyn. They take Fears.
We pick between Tre and Maluach. Or Edge. Depending on the Hornets @ #4.

3. Utah does something else. Brooklyn trades up for our #6 takes Fears. Pelicans needing a PG, take Jakucionas. We take Maluach at #8 + other considerations. I want 2026 picks, but 19 also helps.

4. No trades materialize. Stick at 6. Looking at one of Tre. Fears. Maluach. & Everybody else.


I like scenarios 1&3 depending on the deal.

I don't see any scenario Washington would even consider Fears over Queen. A scoring playmaking passing C don't grow on trees.

[dckingsfan]

Who is Leif Thulin?

He loves TreJ. Has him #4 on his board. Compares him to Ace just a little smaller.
Considering trading Poole to Philly for the 3rd pick and taking Tre.

At 11:28 mark he compares TreJ to SGA the MVP.

He took over for Brandon who quit the show (over politics apparently). LOW never had any good insight tbh but Brandon at least had a personality suitable for podcasting. As far as I know every wizards podcast now just has guys reading monotone.

If Dat would put the fireball bottle down there’s an opportunity here. Imagine the DAT and CCJ show. With doc calling in. Podcast magic.

Think of the guests! It could be really hilarious.

[payitforward]

You can't have 10+ players age 19-23,...

We did last year. QED.