2021 Draft thread. Woo! 15th pick here we come! Hoo. Ray.

[pcbothwel]

Springer is a lock to be a good pro. He’s drawing tons of free throws, playing elite defense, and shooting the 3 at a high% as an 18 year old in college basketball. Super impressive. Has all the intangibles. He’s one of those grit and grind Grizzlies players from the last 10 years.

Would still rank him below Wagner and Giddey

Agreed.
In fact, this draft is loaded with 2-way combo guards in the 25-40 range that can defend, distribute, and shoot (~80% FT / ~40% 3P).
Even after Springer & Butler, you got Dosunmu, Mann, Ayayi, McBride... All 4 guys are intriguing and you'd have a tough time pointing out any glaring weakness in any of them. All are 20/21 with considerable experience. All average to plus defenders at 2 positions.

[80sballboy]

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[NatP4]

Springer is a lock to be a good pro. He’s drawing tons of free throws, playing elite defense, and shooting the 3 at a high% as an 18 year old in college basketball. Super impressive. Has all the intangibles. He’s one of those grit and grind Grizzlies players from the last 10 years.

Would still rank him below Wagner and Giddey

Agreed.
In fact, this draft is loaded with 2-way combo guards in the 25-40 range that can defend, distribute, and shoot (~80% FT / ~40% 3P).
Even after Springer & Butler, you got Dosunmu, Mann, Ayayi, McBride... All 4 guys are intriguing and you'd have a tough time pointing out any glaring weakness in any of them. All are 20/21 with considerable experience. All average to plus defenders at 2 positions.

Yep this is a draft LOADED with combo guards. I like all of the names you just listed. McKinley Wright is somewhere in there as well.

Still no idea why Ayayi isn’t generating more buzz. He has no flaws in his game. Tailor-made for the NBA. He’s gonna fall to the late 20s atleast.

[Frichuela]

Springer is a lock to be a good pro. He’s drawing tons of free throws, playing elite defense, and shooting the 3 at a high% as an 18 year old in college basketball. Super impressive. Has all the intangibles. He’s one of those grit and grind Grizzlies players from the last 10 years.

Would still rank him below Wagner and Giddey

Agreed.
In fact, this draft is loaded with 2-way combo guards in the 25-40 range that can defend, distribute, and shoot (~80% FT / ~40% 3P).
Even after Springer & Butler, you got Dosunmu, Mann, Ayayi, McBride... All 4 guys are intriguing and you'd have a tough time pointing out any glaring weakness in any of them. All are 20/21 with considerable experience. All average to plus defenders at 2 positions.

Yep this is a draft LOADED with combo guards. I like all of the names you just listed. McKinley Wright is somewhere in there as well.

Still no idea why Ayayi isn’t generating more buzz. He has no flaws in his game. Tailor-made for the NBA. He’s gonna fall to the late 20s atleast.

Agreed. If we can not get a home run at #15, this draft calls for a trade down...so we can get one of those combo guards + another prospect. For example, imagine we managed to trade down with New York and get Duarte at #19 and McBride at #32...

[NatP4]

I think I’d rather package assets (depending on the cost of course) to trade up for someone like Giddey/Wagner, than trade down for the veteran combo guards or a guy like Queta.

Wagner is just too good of a fit. Much better prospect than both Avdija and Hachimura. He is exactly what Mikal Bridges has been for the Suns.

[pcbothwel]

Springer is a lock to be a good pro. He’s drawing tons of free throws, playing elite defense, and shooting the 3 at a high% as an 18 year old in college basketball. Super impressive. Has all the intangibles. He’s one of those grit and grind Grizzlies players from the last 10 years.

Would still rank him below Wagner and Giddey

Agreed.
In fact, this draft is loaded with 2-way combo guards in the 25-40 range that can defend, distribute, and shoot (~80% FT / ~40% 3P).
Even after Springer & Butler, you got Dosunmu, Mann, Ayayi, McBride... All 4 guys are intriguing and you'd have a tough time pointing out any glaring weakness in any of them. All are 20/21 with considerable experience. All average to plus defenders at 2 positions.

Yep this is a draft LOADED with combo guards. I like all of the names you just listed. McKinley Wright is somewhere in there as well.

Still no idea why Ayayi isn’t generating more buzz. He has no flaws in his game. Tailor-made for the NBA. He’s gonna fall to the late 20s atleast.

I like Ayayi, but there is some concern. His efficiency is great, but he's got EVERYTHING in his favor. He's a 3 year player for the best team in the country in terms of talent, coaching, and IQ. They play an easy schedule and he is able to pick his spots.

2 numbers concern me. 1) FTr of 25% is quite low given his skill, age, and competition. 2) USG of 16% is alarming.
Very few draftable prospects have ever been in the 16% range on usage, especially upper-class guards/wings.
For context, I went back over the last 7 drafts and took a look at usage. Now, you can find a few freshman (Ball, Tyus Jones) and plenty of Bigs that have succeeded... but when you look at JR/SR guard/wings, the list crashes to a small few.

It looks like Terrance Mann, Pat Connaughton, and Reggie Bullock are really the only players in the last decade that compare favorably (Efficient and low usage, Good spot up shooters, great rebounders, strong defenders).

Again, I really like him. But when your teammates consist of the best Lead Guard and Best Wing shooter/scorer in the country (Suggs & Kispert) along with high IQ Bigs, I have to hesitate.

[Ruzious]

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But, he'll be 24, so he's old and will likely slide. And, he probably won't suck as a rookie. I take that as a net positive.

[Dat2U]

Just a rough draft and always subject to change lol.

Tier One
F Cade Cunningham
C Evan Mobley
G Jalen Green

Tier Two
G Jalen Suggs
F Jonathan Kuminga

Tier Three
G Josh Giddey
F Franz Wagner
G Sharife Cooper
G Davion Mitchell
G Jaden Springer
G James Bouknight

Tier Four
G Jared Butler
F Jalen Johnson
C Isaiah Jackson
F Corey Kispert
G Ayo Dosunmu
G Keon Johnson
G Chris Duarte
F Moses Moody
C Alperen Sengun
F Kai Jones
F Scottie Barnes
F Usman Garuba
G Ayo Dosunmu

Tier Five
G Brandon Boston Jr
F Isaiah Livers
F Trey Murphy III
G Tre Mann
F Filip Petrusev
F Matthew Hurt
G Austin Reaves
G Cameron Thomas
G Quentin Grimes
F Joe Wiescamp
F Hebert Jones
G Joshua Primo
F Ziaire Williams
C Neemias Queta
C Ariel Hukporti
F Isaiah Todd
F Roko Prkacin
G Joel Ayayi
F Johnny Juzang

Tier Six
G Max Abmas
G Nah'Shon Hyland
F Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
G Miles McBride
G Josh Christopher
C Charles Bassey
F Luka Garza
G McKinley Wright IV
C Ibou Badji
F Greg Brown
F Terrence Shannon Jr
G David Duke
F Kessler Edwards
G Jason Preston
F JT Thor
F Marcus Bagley
F Trendon Watford

[NatP4]

Dat, if you had the 5th pick in the draft, I know you’re taking Giddey over Kuminga. Come on

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Wonder if any of you watched the NBA TV broadcast of the combine?

Showed a lot of the 5 on 5, and had some good discussions and interviews with Bilas & company.

At one point they had the coach for Baylor. On Mitchell he said you basically can't keep him out of the gym, he'd be in there 5am working on his shot. On Butler said he's as hard a worker and as good a person you'll find, teaches Sunday school, a guy you'd want your daughter to marry.

Pretty high praise for those two! He also was asked about other players he liked not on his team, and he mentioned McBride, and also Sims I think.

Anyway, it was a pretty good broadcast, if anyone missed it I recommend trying to catch a replay of it.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Not a ranking, but just a list of players I like...

5 players I like that could potentially there at 15:
Mitchell
Moody
Wagner
Kispert
Garuba


Players I like in the 20-40 range (preferred trade down scenario candidates aka cast a wider net with 2-3 picks)

McBride
Duarte
Murphy
Springer
Cooper
Thor
Butler
Jackson
Wieskamp
Bleijenbergh
Ayayi

And I like to take a flyer on a big man mid to late 2nd round (40-50)....

Maker
Queta
Bassey
Badji
Garza
Sims

[Dat2U]

Dat, if you had the 5th pick in the draft, I know you’re taking Giddey over Kuminga. Come on

Kuminga is one of the more naturally gifted players in the draft at 18. I'm not trying to predict who is going to be better off the bat. Both have shooting woes and alot to work on. Both are 18 and both are projections.

[Ruzious]

And both are probably gonna be useless as rookies.

[NatP4]

And both are probably gonna be useless as rookies.

No chance. Giddey was dropping triple doubles in the NBL. He’s going to be good from the start.

Kuminga, I agree. He just isn’t good at anything. It’ll take him atleast 2-3 years to figure out how to even help his team.

[80sballboy]

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[mhd]

Givony has Springer going 29th in the draft. Irregardless of what we think, he's plugged in and more than often than not, know the range of where players will go.

[NatP4]

I think I’d much rather have Butler than Duarte or Springer or even Moody at 15. You can plug that guy in next to Westbrook and Beal and he would be a perfect fit.

He’s got Fred Van Fleet written all over him. Plus on defense, plus on offense, big time leader and competitor.


At 15, I think you want Wagner, Giddey, Butler, or Garuba, in that order.

[nate33]

I think I’d much rather have Butler than Duarte or Springer or even Moody at 15. You can plug that guy in next to Westbrook and Beal and he would be a perfect fit.

He’s got Fred Van Fleet written all over him. Plus on defense, plus on offense, big time leader and competitor.


At 15, I think you want Wagner, Giddey, Butler, or Garuba, in that order.

The good news is that it really looks like Butler will be available for us. If he isn't, it's likely because some other good prospect has dropped in our laps - a guy like Giddy, Wagner, Moody, or Bouknight.

I'm feeling pretty good about the likelihood of there being a good player available at #15. The only question is, do we actually draft him?

[nate33]

After glancing around at a bunch of mocks, it seems a sure thing that the following 8 players will be off the board when we pick:

Cunningham, Mobley, Green, Suggs, Kaminga, Barnes, Mitchell and Giddey. I'm pretty confident Wagner will be gone too, so that's 9.

I'd be pretty happy with any of: Moody, Bouknight and Butler as good two-way wings that can shoot, defend and help us almost immediately. That's 3 guys. So as long as 3 guys among Keon Johnson, Jalen Johnson, Sengun, Kispert, Garuba, or Kai Jones get taken ahead of #15, one of the guys I like will be available.

I'd also be fine if we took Springer or Cooper, but it's looking like those guys might go a bit later, so it would be nice to trade down a few slots and add a 2nd rounder if those are the guys we like.

[80sballboy]

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