2026 NBA Draft Thread.....

[The Consiglieri]

Jonathan Givony has some nice bits on Ament, the mystery box #4 ranked prospect currently in the class that is sneaky exciting as hell....

Read on Twitter

Scroll through his stuff on Ament, and he's a pretty interesting prospect.

[Rafael122]

18 wins just seems alarmingly low. Like I said, we're 2 deep at every position with actual NBA players. I'd say between 20-25 wins.

[tontoz]

Some of Ament's HS games are available on youtube. I watched one not long after the draft. I dont bring up Durant's name lightly but i think his skills are comparable. He isn't as aggressive as Durant though.

Watch on YouTube

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Jonathan Givony has some nice bits on Ament, the mystery box #4 ranked prospect currently in the class that is sneaky exciting as hell....

Read on Twitter

Scroll through his stuff on Ament, and he's a pretty interesting prospect.

Oh, my. if Will Dawkins could snatch this Will Ament kid away today from setting foot on the Tennessee campus in Knoxville he would. Ament is long and very active on the perimeter. He has a very nice handle and a pure stroke.

I wonder what Dat2U will say about Ament?

The two things I see as areas for improvement would be his base strength. He's upright a lot of the time and appears to get knocked backward by shorter, stronger guys. The second thing is I think he could benefit from doing slide drills. Sometimes on the perimeter guys appear to take him going left. He ends up recovering and blocking their shot from behind. At least that's what I saw in the video.

The one thing that is abundantly clear is that Will Ament is a shooter. He is a pure shooter off the dribble, who looks like KD as a scorer. He looks like a SG at that.

Imagine: Will Dawkins with Will Riley and Will Ament.

[closg00]

Didn't know where to drop this, some serious geeking-out here about out role players.

Watch on YouTube

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Didn't know where to drop this, some serious geeking-out here about out role players.

Watch on YouTube

I kept dozing off listening to this. By the end, I felt overwhelmed and information overloaded, like I did my freshman year. Stats .... Every team at every level is paying for his stats. They're trying to gain an advantage, like in an arms race.

My observation is that Bub didn't rate highly at all.

[trast66]

Looking ahead to 2027 draft per a veteran NBA scout via ESPN “There might not be a single All-Star in this group, and after the first few prospects, I’m not sure how many NBA starters I see either from the other five-star recruits. New players always emerge, but by now we usually have a pretty good idea of who the most elite prospects are, and it’s looking like slim pickings, even more so than the weak 2024 NBA draft, which at least had several high-end international prospects we could point to.”

[tontoz]

Guys on the draft board are talking about this guy as a possible big PG like Demin was supposed to be.

Watch on YouTube

[tontoz]

I have Mikel at 5 in my way too early top 5. I think there is a legit chance he moves up.

Watch on YouTube

[PaulinVA]

Read on Twitter

[closg00]

Read on Twitter

Sad to see this, he was well on his way to being at Top-10 pick, now who knows

[AFM]

Sucks. But keep in mind he reclassified his junior year in HS. So even if he skips a year, he'll still be the "normal" age for his class.

[trast66]

Kid has had a terrible year. He should sit out season and go to weak 2027 draft. Hopefully does not go to dad for advice on rehabbing meniscus tears.

[TheBlackCzar]

Kid has had a terrible year. He should sit out season and go to weak 2027 draft. Hopefully does not go to dad for advice on rehabbing meniscus tears.

I think in some ways his dad screwing up his rehab should work in his favor.... I agree he shouldn't try to force it to get into the 26 draft unless he really is projected top 10 or so, but if he wants to go his highest he might have to hold off for a year..... I think Gil is going to make sure he does everything correctly as he has when teaching him how to play ball....

Bad break for my younging, but hopefully he recovers fully and gets back to the court soon... Get well Alijah...

[The Consiglieri]

Looking ahead to 2027 draft per a veteran NBA scout via ESPN “There might not be a single All-Star in this group, and after the first few prospects, I’m not sure how many NBA starters I see either from the other five-star recruits. New players always emerge, but by now we usually have a pretty good idea of who the most elite prospects are, and it’s looking like slim pickings, even more so than the weak 2024 NBA draft, which at least had several high-end international prospects we could point to.”

God that sucks, really sucks, because I don't think we'll be ready to contend in '26-'27, would suck to have a wasted class in 2 of 5 rebuild years, makes having lottery luck with us and the suns sucking and us landing a top pick all the more essential in '26.

Worth noting, isn't it interesting this front office stacked swapped and future picks '24-'30, and yet '27 is the one year they don't have extra anything in terms of picks or swaps in round 1. Did they know? Seems like they did.

[Dat2U]

That Phoenix pick swap gives us some incredibly favorable odds for the next lottery.

Right now they are projected to win 30. If Booker misses any amount of time, they may be looking at 20-25 wins. Basically its like our odds double. We get two lottery tickets even though we can only use of of them.

[PaulinVA]

That Phoenix pick swap gives us some incredibly favorable odds for the next lottery.

Right now they are projected to win 30. If Booker misses any amount of time, they may be looking at 20-25 wins. Basically its like our odds double. We get two lottery tickets even though we can only use of of them.

The Phoenix Suns have become the laughing stock of the league because a ton of teams around the NBA are itching to get their hands on their first-round picks, effectively looking to bet on the team’s downfall. Teams are desperately trying to trade for Suns picks because they believe Phoenix is going to be bad for years to come.

“A couple of first-round picks that belong to other teams that are like the gold of the league,” said Fred Katz of The Athletic. “And now, the number one gold of the league is easily, if you have a Phoenix Suns pick, it’s like, ‘Congratulations.’ Congratulations to you, you have Phoenix Suns picks. Congratulations to the Washington Wizards, they have, potentially, three Phoenix Suns swaps. Three. Three.”


https://valleyofthesuns.com/phoenix-suns-become-laughingstock-nba-years-away-digging-out-trade-wizards-rockets-jazz-first-round-picks-bradley-beal-kevin-durant-devin-booker

[AFM]

#CultOfDawkins

[The Consiglieri]

That Phoenix pick swap gives us some incredibly favorable odds for the next lottery.

Right now they are projected to win 30. If Booker misses any amount of time, they may be looking at 20-25 wins. Basically its like our odds double. We get two lottery tickets even though we can only use of of them.

If you look at the tankathon odds, it's insane how much it helps us if we finish bottom 4 or whatever. Basically instead of working a 50% chance at a top 4 pick it's generally 80%+, and only descends as low as about 76% generally in any stronger Suns scenario 5th-9th in terms of top 4. In general, it's adding about 4-11% more chance of landing any of the top 4 pick across the board depending upon where the Suns and us slot. Granted, life is Soboulez/Sowizards, so there is that, but the math is improved basically about 25-35% across the board if the Suns suck and we suck as expected of us getting picks at 1, or 2 or 3 or 4.

[The Consiglieri]

Also again worth noting, the extra pick, and pick swap drafts manage to avoid the pitfall that is apparently '27. We've got multiple firsts in '26, and a Suns swap, extra 2nds, same in '28, and goodies in '30, hell even '29. Somehow they knew '27 was the one to not worry about?!?! I can't get over that, probably some measure of luck, considering that trade was done two years ago, but still, wow.