2025 Draft Thread

[gambitx777]

If it's not the obvious number one guy I will continue to be on the tree Johnson band wagon!

Sent from my SM-S926U1 using RealGM mobile app

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Kind of a fun and interesting observation about the Tankathon mock...

It takes our 1st pick and adjusts the 2nd pick selection accordingly.

For instance, when it shows us taking Harper at 2, or Bailey at 3, it's giving Sorber as our pick at 23.

But when we fall to 6 and take Maluach, our pick at 23 is Will Riley.

[TheBlackCzar]

OKC formula requires an elite 3 level scorer. Who is ours?

Every team requires an elite scorer. That's the hardest thing to find - particularly one who is not a defensive liability.

We don't have one yet.

If you're feeling uneasy about Ace Bailey, check these out...

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

I know this won't be the popular take, but I want either Dylan Harper or Ace Bailey..... I'm not as enamored with Cooper Flagg as most seemingly are and its mainly because I don't know if he has that alpha dogg offensive game..... He is young as are all three of these guys, but he seems to me to have the lowest offensive ceiling of the 3... If he proves me wrong then he'll be the best player in this draft, and that's the bet we'll have to figure out with whoever we draft.....

[TheBlackCzar]

The issue I have with this approach is where do the Wizards separate themselves? You have 5 starting positions. Sarr is locked in at the 4.

Nobody on this roster is " locked in". Right now we have a bunch of bad players. The only young guy who looks like he can become good in the near future is Kyshawn.

The guy who's shooting 36.8% from the field this year? lol. When you draft a guy at 2 he's locked in. And if he goes bust then the people that drafted him usually go with him. Sarr and the people who drafted him are intertwined.

you continue to harp on this point, like he hasn't had marked improvement for the last month or 2..... I mean he's trending towards a positive direction and regardless if you want to see it or sit with blinders on, he's currently not playing the way his total numbers on the season would indicate.... He still has much room for improvement, but he's much better now than he was at the beginning of the year... And again he was extremely raw offensively and proved to be much more skillful than projected.....

And Kyshawn doesn't look to be a better player than Sarr.... He's been good, but you might wanna put that j down..... Cuz this is a high take.....

[nate33]

OKC formula requires an elite 3 level scorer. Who is ours?

Every team requires an elite scorer. That's the hardest thing to find - particularly one who is not a defensive liability.

We don't have one yet.

If you're feeling uneasy about Ace Bailey, check these out...

I need to do a deep dive on Ace Bailey before endorsing drafting him, but I agree that he could conceivably pan out as a legit #1 option scorer who doesn't hurt you on defense. That's a potential franchise player.

Obviously, the big issue with him is his tunnel vision and his preference for taking difficult shots rather than making the easy play. That 1.4 assists per 36 minutes really jumps off the page. Is that just a function of his teammates? Is it merely youth and inexperience? Or does he just lack the bball IQ for the game to slow down for him?

[tontoz]

Nobody on this roster is " locked in". Right now we have a bunch of bad players. The only young guy who looks like he can become good in the near future is Kyshawn.

The guy who's shooting 36.8% from the field this year? lol. When you draft a guy at 2 he's locked in. And if he goes bust then the people that drafted him usually go with him. Sarr and the people who drafted him are intertwined.

you continue to harp on this point, like he hasn't had marked improvement for the last month or 2..... I mean he's trending towards a positive direction and regardless if you want to see it or sit with blinders on, he's currently not playing the way his total numbers on the season would indicate.... He still has much room for improvement, but he's much better now than he was at the beginning of the year... And again he was extremely raw offensively and proved to be much more skillful than projected.....

And Kyshawn doesn't look to be a better player than Sarr.... He's been good, but you might wanna put that j down..... Cuz this is a high take.....

On the season the team is 4 pts better per 100 possessions with Kyshawn on the floor. They are 4 pts worse with Sarr. Some of Sarr's "improvement" in recent weeks has been playing against other tanking teams.

Sarr had a TS of 51.4% in March which is technically improvement but still sucks for a 7 footer.

Kyshawn has better scoring efficiency than Sarr on the season and in March. He is also a far better man defender.

. When you draft a guy at 2 he's locked in.

Were Bagley and Wiseman "locked in" because they were drafted at 2?

[payitforward]

...a lesser version of Mobley but better version of Jarrett Allen....

You sure Mobley is a better player than Allen? If so... what makes you think so?

Eye test and Mobley was a higher draft pick.

I'm pretty sure most people would respond more or less the way you did. &, for sure, these are two extremely good players.

But, if you judge between them objectively (i.e. based on numbers not one's opinion of their "floor routine") Jarrett Allen is pretty clearly just that much better.

Put it another way: if you look at everything but scoring, there's no debate -- Jarrett Allen is decidedly the better. If you look at scoring alone, Mobley scores 5 more points per 40 minutes than Allen, but he uses 6 more possessions to produce those 5 more points. The delta in scoring isn't establishing superiority.

Again, these are both extremely good players! I'm not critiqueing Evan Mobley!

[prime1time]

Nobody on this roster is " locked in". Right now we have a bunch of bad players. The only young guy who looks like he can become good in the near future is Kyshawn.

The guy who's shooting 36.8% from the field this year? lol. When you draft a guy at 2 he's locked in. And if he goes bust then the people that drafted him usually go with him. Sarr and the people who drafted him are intertwined.

you continue to harp on this point, like he hasn't had marked improvement for the last month or 2..... I mean he's trending towards a positive direction and regardless if you want to see it or sit with blinders on, he's currently not playing the way his total numbers on the season would indicate.... He still has much room for improvement, but he's much better now than he was at the beginning of the year... And again he was extremely raw offensively and proved to be much more skillful than projected.....

And Kyshawn doesn't look to be a better player than Sarr.... He's been good, but you might wanna put that j down..... Cuz this is a high take.....

Where have I posted about that before?

[nate33]

You sure Mobley is a better player than Allen? If so... what makes you think so?

Eye test and Mobley was a higher draft pick.

I'm pretty sure most people would respond more or less the way you did. &, for sure, these are two extremely good players.

But, if you judge between them objectively (i.e. based on numbers not one's opinion of their "floor routine") Jarrett Allen is pretty clearly just that much better.

Put it another way: if you look at everything but scoring, there's no debate -- Jarrett Allen is decidedly the better. If you look at scoring alone, Mobley scores 5 more points per 40 minutes than Allen, but he uses 6 more possessions to produce those 5 more points. The delta in scoring isn't establishing superiority.

Again, these are both extremely good players! I'm not critiqueing Evan Mobley!

Context matters. Allen is efficient because he has the luxury of doing all of his scoring in the paint, thanks to the spacing that Mobley and others provide. It's much harder to find a 7-footer to do what Mobley does, than it is to find a 7-footer to do what Allen does.

[prime1time]

The guy who's shooting 36.8% from the field this year? lol. When you draft a guy at 2 he's locked in. And if he goes bust then the people that drafted him usually go with him. Sarr and the people who drafted him are intertwined.

you continue to harp on this point, like he hasn't had marked improvement for the last month or 2..... I mean he's trending towards a positive direction and regardless if you want to see it or sit with blinders on, he's currently not playing the way his total numbers on the season would indicate.... He still has much room for improvement, but he's much better now than he was at the beginning of the year... And again he was extremely raw offensively and proved to be much more skillful than projected.....

And Kyshawn doesn't look to be a better player than Sarr.... He's been good, but you might wanna put that j down..... Cuz this is a high take.....

Where have I posted about that before?

But since Kyshawn is the topic let's have a conversation. Kyshawn's last 16 games starting February 10th against the Spurs to the New York Knicks vs. March 22nd, Kyshawn is shooting 38% from the field and 35% from 3. In that same period Kyshawn has attempted 171 field goals of which 96 have been 3's. So about 56% of Kyshawn's shot attempts are 3's. The good thing for Kyshawn is that his 3-point shooting has improved 35.4% for the same period. Kyshawn has been a normal solid rookie. Struggled initially showed some improvement and now needs significantly more improvement.

A rookie drafted at the end of the first round has to prove he belongs. A rookie drafted #2 overall is a part of the future until he fails. What's our current rotation right now?

Johnson, Carrington, Poole, Coulibaly, George, Middleton, Sarr, Vukcevic, Champagnie. To this we will have our lottery pick and the Memphis pick. Lets run through various scenarios.

We draft Coop

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Coop, Sarr
George off the bench

We draft Harper

Harper, Poole, Coulibaly/George, Sarr/Vuk, Sarr
George and Coulibaly competing

We draft Maluach

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Sarr, Maluach

We draft Bailey

Poole, Coulibaly, Bailey, Sarr, Maluach

We draft Queen

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Queen, Sarr

[doclinkin]

Every team requires an elite scorer. That's the hardest thing to find - particularly one who is not a defensive liability.

We don't have one yet.

If you're feeling uneasy about Ace Bailey, check these out...

I need to do a deep dive on Ace Bailey before endorsing drafting him, but I agree that he could conceivably pan out as a legit #1 option scorer who doesn't hurt you on defense. That's a potential franchise player.

Obviously, the big issue with him is his tunnel vision and his preference for taking difficult shots rather than making the easy play. That 1.4 assists per 36 minutes really jumps off the page. Is that just a function of his teammates? Is it merely youth and inexperience? Or does he just lack the bball IQ for the game to slow down for him?

I think it could be all of the above. And coaching scheme. The offense seemed to be: "Ace, Dylan: get out there and make something happen." They had no real bigs setting screens, no pick and roll game. It speaks even more highly of Harper's ability to get into the lane. Ace struggled more. He did what was asked of him: attack. Aside from Harper the team had no other threats. Yes his passing was not making any of his teammates better. But that was not a balanced team with any 3rd or 4th option scorer or low post threat at all.

He is young, if not inexperienced. He also has tunnel vision. Is that necessarily a bad thing? My thing is, are his potential skills good enough that he can make those difficult shots anyway. Coach Keefe likes to ask his players to get good at the thing that got them to the league before they work on the hard parts of their game. Be who you are. So Sarr will shoot from outside and cover the perimeter and block shots. They'll ask him to rebound better, but are still letting him bombs away from outside, not forcing him to bang underneath.

Can Ace get better at hitting contested shots? Naturally he'll struggle for a minute against NBA talent. Can he adjust? Me I think he can. He's slim but will get stronger. 6'10" with a high release. Has a few habits on his shot that are fixable. (Fades when he doesn't need to). Athletic with long strides that outpace many defenders. Balanced shot midair. Able to attack the hoop with long arms and nimbleness. Coachable and willing to mix it up on defense. And yeah by instinct he's more of a one-on-one player than a team guy. Offense and Defense. He tries to do it himself. He didn't come up through IMG or Montverde where he had to learn the fundamentals of team play and share the ball with Flagg, Queen, Asa, etc. He was the man in highschool. Had to transfer after freshman year to get tougher competition. So what got him to the NBA was his ability to be The Man. To score no matter who was defending him. It's what he knows best. I think with a coaching scheme, trainers, and a solid team around him, he has the raw ability to do the same even at the NBA.

Recall how frustrated we were with both Deni and Rui that they didn't want to be aggressive and take over games by themselves. Here we have a kid who has a jumpstart on that aspect. He knows his job is to score. We have Jordan Poole in that role right now. First option scorer with the greenest of green lights. I'm okay putting Ace in that role with players around him that are skilled at getting him the ball. Sarr, Bub, Key all want to pass. AJJ even has put up nice assist numbers in his limited minutes. I'd want screeners and pick setting around Ace to spring him free, but I want him to never hesitate on shooting the ball, just take the opportunity when he has it. Then set him running around the court hunting for open shots and forcing defenses to chase after him. Reggie Miller with defense and rebounding. I don't want him to think too much and look for the best shot. I want him to think the best shot is Ace. Then make it true.

[payitforward]

Eye test and Mobley was a higher draft pick.

I'm pretty sure most people would respond more or less the way you did. &, for sure, these are two extremely good players.

But, if you judge between them objectively (i.e. based on numbers not one's opinion of their "floor routine") Jarrett Allen is pretty clearly just that much better.

Put it another way: if you look at everything but scoring, there's no debate -- Jarrett Allen is decidedly the better. If you look at scoring alone, Mobley scores 5 more points per 40 minutes than Allen, but he uses 6 more possessions to produce those 5 more points. The delta in scoring isn't establishing superiority.

Again, these are both extremely good players! I'm not critiqueing Evan Mobley!

Context matters. Allen is efficient because he has the luxury of doing all of his scoring in the paint, thanks to the spacing that Mobley and others provide. It's much harder to find a 7-footer to do what Mobley does, than it is to find a 7-footer to do what Allen does.

Again, we are comparing two very good players -- I'm not praising Allen at Mobley's expense. & as you've pointed out many times yourself, basketball is a game of interdependencies: hence one could also ask whether Mobley would be able to space the floor as freely if Allen weren't as effective down low.

In any case, Allen has been enormously efficient his whole career, hence "because of..." is a substantial overstatement.

Above all, the idea that it is easier to find a guy like Allen than one like Mobley has against it the very fact of how good Allen is at what he does! There are very very few guys performing at his level overall at the C position. Leave out Jokic (altogether different obviously) & I'm not sure I can find a single one.

[nate33]

We draft Coop

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Coop, Sarr
George off the bench

Probably. Though we might start George over Middleton, or at the very least, we would likely limit Middleton's minutes to just 24 or so since he is made of glass. George would still get all the minutes he can handle.

We draft Harper

Harper, Poole, Coulibaly/George, Sarr/Vuk, Sarr
George and Coulibaly competing

Ridiculous. We would not star Vukcevic at PF and bench George. George would start at the 4.

We draft Maluach

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Sarr, Maluach

Perhaps. But I wouldn't be surprised if Sarr and Maluach basically split the center minutes (with Maluach coming off the bench) so that we could put more offensive skill on the floor around them.

We draft Bailey

Poole, Coulibaly, Bailey, Sarr, Maluach

Bailey would start at 4. George or Middleton at the 3. Sarr at the 5. Maluach isn't on the team in this scenario.

We draft Queen

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Queen, Sarr

We're not drafting Queen.

[prime1time]

We draft Coop

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Coop, Sarr
George off the bench

Probably. Though we might start George over Middleton, or at the very least, we would likely limit Middleton's minutes to just 24 or so since he is made of glass. George would still get all the minutes he can handle.

We draft Harper

Harper, Poole, Coulibaly/George, Sarr/Vuk, Sarr
George and Coulibaly competing

Ridiculous. We would not star Vukcevic at PF and bench George. George would start at the 4.

We draft Maluach

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Sarr, Maluach

Perhaps. But I wouldn't be surprised if Sarr and Maluach basically split the center minutes (with Maluach coming off the bench) so that we could put more offensive skill on the floor around them.

We draft Bailey

Poole, Coulibaly, Bailey, Sarr, Maluach

Bailey would start at 4. George or Middleton at the 3. Sarr at the 5. Maluach isn't on the team in this scenario.

We draft Queen

Poole, Coulibaly, Middleton, Queen, Sarr

We're not drafting Queen.

I consider it a possibility. If you don't like it, that's not my problem.

[Rafael122]

I obviously want the Wizards to have the worse record in the league. If they fall to 2, they have a shot at landing outside the top 6.

That being said, I think the top 6-7 of this draft is strong. Flagg is the top prize, then there's Bailey/Harper. VJ/Tre Johnson, and Malauch. I'm out on Knueppel. I think he will be BBQ chicken defensively at the next level.

[TheBlackCzar]

The guy who's shooting 36.8% from the field this year? lol. When you draft a guy at 2 he's locked in. And if he goes bust then the people that drafted him usually go with him. Sarr and the people who drafted him are intertwined.

you continue to harp on this point, like he hasn't had marked improvement for the last month or 2..... I mean he's trending towards a positive direction and regardless if you want to see it or sit with blinders on, he's currently not playing the way his total numbers on the season would indicate.... He still has much room for improvement, but he's much better now than he was at the beginning of the year... And again he was extremely raw offensively and proved to be much more skillful than projected.....

And Kyshawn doesn't look to be a better player than Sarr.... He's been good, but you might wanna put that j down..... Cuz this is a high take.....

Where have I posted about that before?

When reading late night sometimes post run together..... If I was mistaken my bad...

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Thomas Sorber has declared for the draft. Basically if we draft anyone other than Maluach with the top pick, he absolutely becomes a target for this team with our 2nd pick.

This team NEEDS interior muscle. We NEED rebounding. We need someone who can set screens and pass out of the high post. Sorber checks all of these boxes.

For the people who don’t want to use a top 5 pick on a Center, this is an alternative solution picking in the 20-23 range. As far as what this team looks for… young (19), long, good defensively, coachable, high IQ, passing & vision. And every Georgetown game I watched this year at some point the announcer would chime in something to the effect of: As good of a player as Sorber is, he’s an even better person…. Something I’ve heard Dawkins offer up several times as a key component of their player evaluations.

Sorber would be a perfect tone setter with his strength inside, boxing out, craftiness down low, controlling the boards, allowing Sarr to freelance and weak side rim protect.

Say for example we end up with Bailey… We can roll out a starting 5 of Sorber, Sarr, Bailey, Bilal, Bub. A long defensive squad with Sorber setting screens and passing to Sarr, Ace, Bub for open jumpers, or Bilal cutting to the basket.

Kyshawn as 6th man off bench anywhere from the 2-4. Slide Sarr to C with Ace and Kyshawn at forwards when we want a more uptempo style.

[doclinkin]

Thomas Sorber has declared for the draft. Basically if we draft anyone other than Maluach with the top pick, he absolutely becomes a target for this team with our 2nd pick.

This team NEEDS interior muscle. We NEED rebounding. We need someone who can set screens and pass out of the high post. Sorber checks all of these boxes.

For the people who don’t want to use a top 5 pick on a Center, this is an alternative solution picking in the 20-23 range. As far as what this team looks for… young (19), long, good defensively, coachable, high IQ, passing & vision. And every Georgetown game I watched this year at some point the announcer would chime in something to the effect of: As good of a player as Sorber is, he’s an even better person…. Something I’ve heard Dawkins offer up several times as a key component of their player evaluations.

Sorber would be a perfect tone setter with his strength inside, boxing out, craftiness down low, controlling the boards, allowing Sarr to freelance and weak side rim protect.

Agreed on the concept. I want a big switchable 4/5 who defends the interior and rebounds well. I've got a handful of guys I'd like in that spot. But Sorber is near the top.

https://www.tankathon.com/players/compare?players=rasheer-fleming--yaxel-lendeborg--collin-murray-boyles--thomas-sorber

Sorber.
Agreed he is likely the player the FO would target at this spot. Youth and upside being the key reason. Solid as they come. Smart. His jumper looks functional though he has no range or confidence in it right now. He's the best of this bunch already in blocks steals etc. His freshman stats are better than CMB which says a lot. Question marks? At times his lateral footspeed looks a tad slow, at least when it comes to defending in space. Functional for a 4/5 but I can see teams hoping to switch a quicker forward onto him if they can draw him outside the paint. That said his assist rate forecasts solid defense and he already plays like a veteran, he'll only get smarter with reps. I like him in that 23 range, though I think he goes higher. He has hidden athleticism he didn't really have to display this year. Room to get much stronger.

Fleming.
Tankathon has Fleming one pick ahead of Sorber. But if Sorber is healthy enough to work out with teams or at the combine athletic testing I think he shows out and climbs the draft chart. Either way, I'm happy with whichever falls to our pick if that's how it plays out. Rasheer is an older player than the others in this bunch (though only 5 months older than the freshman Derik Queen). However he's still developing swiftly. He has the exact profile I like to see in NCAA prospects: his key stats get solidly better every year. When a player's FT % takes a jump you know you have a gym rat. He's up to the mid 70% now. Better still Fleming's 3pt shooting climbed to 40% this year on solid volume. The key with him is the purported 7'5" wingspan. With that reach and stretch he should be able to defend 5's at times. The number is credible when you see him dunk. Doesn't really have to jump much to dunk it. His fingertips are up by the iron already. Often the long armed types have a slow wind up and extra motion on their jumper. He's got some of that, but the shot is repeatable and reliable this year. Adding that sort of range gives him extra utility on a team that prizes versatility, and needs shooters.

CMB.
The activity on defense is what jumps out to me. Smart as hell, tough but undersized. I think he is a candidate for a surprising fall. What he does well won't show up in workouts and he will underwhelm in combine measurements. However, what he does well shows up in games. The in game smarts are top level with this kid. The team that gets him is going to have a coaches favorite and a defensive captain. He reads to me as a 12 year journeyman, the sort of glue guy who has a role on any team but sometimes gets overlooked due to his unconventional frame and play style. On this team though he instantly adds a competitive fire on defense and reliable rebounding. Low center of gravity rebounders do translate in the NBA, even if he will have to adjust to make his game work. If he falls to our pick in the 20's you have to think about it.

Yaxel.
The old man of this bunch at 23, but a late late bloomer transferring out of JuCo. The guy plays with such joy that he is hard to ignore. Tracking his progress in the NIT he destroyed Fleming's team, then followed that with a 7 assist game. He's projected to go 2nd round but absolutely has 1st round talent. This is another player who is growing as you watch, improving his efficiency while his usage increases. Some team falls in love with him in workouts. I see him as this year's Tari Eason type, where you smack your head later for passing him up.

Honestly I wish I could pick any two of this bunch, it's hard to choose.

[dobrojim]

^ all intriguing prospects. I do have some question
about the level of competition they faced but
I'd be happy with any of them.

[gesa2]

If CMB makes it to our pick we should sprint to the podium