2024 NBA Draft Thread, part 2 – (June 26 & 27)

[165bows]

Brad has yet to draft a big. Must be confident in Queta? Tillman and Luke's return?

I think it's a combination of:

a) he's confident in the guys we have - KP, Al, Tillman, Kornet, Queta..yes, 2 are FA and 1 has a team option but perhaps Brad is confident in bringing those guys back - or being able to backfill their spots via trades/free agency

b) it does seem like in general, Brad is not a fan of drafting bigs. We haven't drafted a center since rob in 2018. And out of all the guys who have played rotational mins at center in the Brad Stevens POBO era, all of them have had at least 2 yrs experience and been at least 24 yrs old..seems like he prefers to have more developed, experienced players at that position

With that being said, Watson is 6'8.5" in shoes, 7'0" wingspan, 233 lbs and a pretty good rebounder. I think he's more of a 4 but could play small ball 5 as well. So some might say that Brad did draft a big yesterday..depending on how you define "big" of course..

I like all the draft picks this year (preferred Furphy still like Scheierman tho) but definitely wish we had grabbed a legit big. I was really starting to like Quniten Post and the fact that GS grabbed is only confirming to me that the importance of legit bigs is back in big way.

Honestly, I think Brad was a little ahead of the curve on this which is funny because he really doesn't seem to like drafting legit bigs. I think he saw how difficult it was to match up against Jokic in last years playoff run and went into the offseason determined to not have that stand in between us and a Title this season. DEN is still our potential kryptonite IMO and getting Porzingis was clearly Brad's counter move to that fact.

From a competitive standpoint, I really do hope to see a DEN-BOS Final next year. I think it would be a classic Finals matchup. I'm kinda glad we dodged them this year just to get a Title for the Js, but now I want to see the best matchups possible to see who comes out on top.

That all being said, there clearly is an arms race for legit bigs all over the league. Especially for legit bigs who can man the paint and also knock down the threes. All you need to see is Zach Edey going #9. Having a massive body to play in the middle on defense and to pass from the high post on offense is definitely an important need in the current NBA gameplans.

Because of this, I think Kornet coming back will be a priority but will also raise his price. Other teams are definitely going to come sniffing around on him.

Did Kalkbrenner sign anywhere yet? ....nevermind he went back to school.. I was wondering why nobody was talking about him

Could definitely see Kalkbrenner on the SL team. I imagine he’s trying to land a two way somewhere.

[Dogen]

Loading up on wing D for the Knicks, Luka, etc.?

Makes sense. It's going to be a long shot for Enaruna to even make the roster as a 2-Way, never mind get any minutes at all, but then again he's basically the same proportions as Mikal Bridges, so maybe there is a role. There will be short stints when they are resting starters. Joe may not have such a tight rotation this year in the reg season.

Joe: "Tristan, go out there and give us 3 minutes of hounding #5. And if you're open on offense, shoot the ball."

I think he’s more an offense guy than a defense guy, does that square with what people are seeing? I like him though as a udfa, we talked about this guy about early in the thread.

I dunno, haven't seen enough, and the highlights don't tend to focus as much on D. He's got the length and a decent stroke but if he's a turnstyle on defense there's no room on the roster.

But that's part of what summer league is for. So far we know Sheierman, Watson and Enaruna will be there. Three switchable 5 year college guys that should be able to fit into coach's system quickly. Should be fun.

[Dogen]

I think for next year as part of the Process, the Boston version of it,
they will target the BAPG - Best Available Point Guard in the Draft, and then down the line, move
either PP or Holiday...

Agree. Move Holiday... 's jersey to the rafters after #19 and #20.

[Smart2Nesmith43]

Sooo when do we start a 2025 draft thread?

France vs USA in the U17 world cup tips off in an hour and half and it's on the FIBA youtube channel so anyone can watch. Two potential #1 picks in Cameron Boozer (2026 draft) and Nathan Soliman (2028 draft). Get your scouting in early.

For people too lazy to look for the link:

Watch on YouTube

This was a blow out as the USA's athleticism and full court press completely overhelmed the French guards but boy did they look absolutely terrible at every basketball skill besides being bigger and stronger than their opponents. If you told me that it was Cam Boozer and a bunch of dudes that picked up a basketball for the first time today I would almost believe you. Zero fundamentals (two fouls on three point shooters and a foul in the backcourt with the opponent in the bonus with 3 seconds left and that was just the first quarter). Zero awareness (17 turnovers in a 40 minutes game). Zero shooting (2/18 on threes and most of them were so far off that it looked more like their true skill level than an off shooting night and 14 missed free throws). Gross.

[Hal14]

Loading up on wing D for the Knicks, Luka, etc.?

Makes sense. It's going to be a long shot for Enaruna to even make the roster as a 2-Way, never mind get any minutes at all, but then again he's basically the same proportions as Mikal Bridges, so maybe there is a role. There will be short stints when they are resting starters. Joe may not have such a tight rotation this year in the reg season.

Joe: "Tristan, go out there and give us 3 minutes of hounding #5. And if you're open on offense, shoot the ball."

I think he’s more an offense guy than a defense guy, does that square with what people are seeing? I like him though as a udfa, we talked about this guy about early in the thread.

Yup..I haven't researched Enaruna a ton, just a little bit.

But the sell with him seems to be 6'8", 7'1" wingspan. Decent mobility, decent athleticism..23 yrs old so polished, knows how to play, further along in development but certainly more of an offensive guy.

His niche is that he can go and get a bucket. Give him the ball..clear out some space and let him go to work. He was getting what like 19 PPG in college, albeit in a id major conference but he can score, despite not being very good of a 3 pt shooter.

Looking forward to seeing him in summer league. Got a feeling he's either gonna suck, or we're all gonna be like, "holy crap, no one can stop this guy from scoring, get him on the roster" with no in between lol.

[Dogen]

Makes sense. It's going to be a long shot for Enaruna to even make the roster as a 2-Way, never mind get any minutes at all, but then again he's basically the same proportions as Mikal Bridges, so maybe there is a role. There will be short stints when they are resting starters. Joe may not have such a tight rotation this year in the reg season.

Joe: "Tristan, go out there and give us 3 minutes of hounding #5. And if you're open on offense, shoot the ball."

I think he’s more an offense guy than a defense guy, does that square with what people are seeing? I like him though as a udfa, we talked about this guy about early in the thread.

Yup..I haven't researched Enaruna a ton, just a little bit.

But the sell with him seems to be 6'8", 7'1" wingspan. Decent mobility, decent athleticism..23 yrs old so polished, knows how to play, further along in development but certainly more of an offensive guy.

His niche is that he can go and get a bucket. Give him the ball..clear out some space and let him go to work. He was getting what like 19 PPG in college, albeit in a id major conference but he can score, despite not being very good of a 3 pt shooter.

Looking forward to seeing him in summer league. Got a feeling he's either gonna suck, or we're all gonna be like, "holy crap, no one can stop this guy from scoring, get him on the roster" with no in between lol.

Here's all you need to know about Enaruna :

Watch on YouTube

[ThePigeon]

I think it's a combination of:

a) he's confident in the guys we have - KP, Al, Tillman, Kornet, Queta..yes, 2 are FA and 1 has a team option but perhaps Brad is confident in bringing those guys back - or being able to backfill their spots via trades/free agency

b) it does seem like in general, Brad is not a fan of drafting bigs. We haven't drafted a center since rob in 2018. And out of all the guys who have played rotational mins at center in the Brad Stevens POBO era, all of them have had at least 2 yrs experience and been at least 24 yrs old..seems like he prefers to have more developed, experienced players at that position

With that being said, Watson is 6'8.5" in shoes, 7'0" wingspan, 233 lbs and a pretty good rebounder. I think he's more of a 4 but could play small ball 5 as well. So some might say that Brad did draft a big yesterday..depending on how you define "big" of course..

I like all the draft picks this year (preferred Furphy still like Scheierman tho) but definitely wish we had grabbed a legit big. I was really starting to like Quniten Post and the fact that GS grabbed is only confirming to me that the importance of legit bigs is back in big way.

Honestly, I think Brad was a little ahead of the curve on this which is funny because he really doesn't seem to like drafting legit bigs. I think he saw how difficult it was to match up against Jokic in last years playoff run and went into the offseason determined to not have that stand in between us and a Title this season. DEN is still our potential kryptonite IMO and getting Porzingis was clearly Brad's counter move to that fact.

From a competitive standpoint, I really do hope to see a DEN-BOS Final next year. I think it would be a classic Finals matchup. I'm kinda glad we dodged them this year just to get a Title for the Js, but now I want to see the best matchups possible to see who comes out on top.

That all being said, there clearly is an arms race for legit bigs all over the league. Especially for legit bigs who can man the paint and also knock down the threes. All you need to see is Zach Edey going #9. Having a massive body to play in the middle on defense and to pass from the high post on offense is definitely an important need in the current NBA gameplans.

Because of this, I think Kornet coming back will be a priority but will also raise his price. Other teams are definitely going to come sniffing around on him.

Did Kalkbrenner sign anywhere yet? ....nevermind he went back to school.. I was wondering why nobody was talking about him

Could definitely see Kalkbrenner on the SL team. I imagine he’s trying to land a two way somewhere.

Kalkbrenner will be probably returning to Creighton next season

[Cuban Pete]

Watson vs Kansas in NCAAs...

Watch on YouTube

;t=12s

[165bows]

Read on Twitter

Was suspicious that was the case.

[lon3lytoaster]

I think he’s more an offense guy than a defense guy, does that square with what people are seeing? I like him though as a udfa, we talked about this guy about early in the thread.

Yup..I haven't researched Enaruna a ton, just a little bit.

But the sell with him seems to be 6'8", 7'1" wingspan. Decent mobility, decent athleticism..23 yrs old so polished, knows how to play, further along in development but certainly more of an offensive guy.

His niche is that he can go and get a bucket. Give him the ball..clear out some space and let him go to work. He was getting what like 19 PPG in college, albeit in a id major conference but he can score, despite not being very good of a 3 pt shooter.

Looking forward to seeing him in summer league. Got a feeling he's either gonna suck, or we're all gonna be like, "holy crap, no one can stop this guy from scoring, get him on the roster" with no in between lol.

Here's all you need to know about Enaruna :

Watch on YouTube

Rofl that’s almost uncanny to Duke Tatum. Don’t know anything about the guy but that was fun to watch.

If it were a prop on DK, I’d have money on him making a 2-way lol

[165bows]

Yup..I haven't researched Enaruna a ton, just a little bit.

But the sell with him seems to be 6'8", 7'1" wingspan. Decent mobility, decent athleticism..23 yrs old so polished, knows how to play, further along in development but certainly more of an offensive guy.

His niche is that he can go and get a bucket. Give him the ball..clear out some space and let him go to work. He was getting what like 19 PPG in college, albeit in a id major conference but he can score, despite not being very good of a 3 pt shooter.

Looking forward to seeing him in summer league. Got a feeling he's either gonna suck, or we're all gonna be like, "holy crap, no one can stop this guy from scoring, get him on the roster" with no in between lol.

Here's all you need to know about Enaruna :

Watch on YouTube

Rofl that’s almost uncanny to Duke Tatum. Don’t know anything about the guy but that was fun to watch.

If it were a prop on DK, I’d have money on him making a 2-way lol

Right, total mini-Tat imo.

My guess (since he was fairly highly rated on the udfa lists that I read before the draft, and that they signed him so quickly) is that they gave him some indication of next in line for a two-way if Davison doesn’t get the third (assuming Watson and Peterson get the first two).

[hugepatsfan]

Here's all you need to know about Enaruna :

Watch on YouTube

Rofl that’s almost uncanny to Duke Tatum. Don’t know anything about the guy but that was fun to watch.

If it were a prop on DK, I’d have money on him making a 2-way lol

Right, total mini-Tat imo.

My guess (since he was fairly highly rated on the udfa lists that I read before the draft, and that they signed him so quickly) is that they gave him some indication of next in line for a two-way if Davison doesn’t get the third (assuming Watson and Peterson get the first two).

If that’s the two-way trio, they might need another guard

We have 4 NBA spots right now. Most assume that Scheierman took Svi’s spot and that Queta/Tillman/Kornet will be retained or replaced with other centers. Brissett, they could leave his spot open but if they filled it they could probably use another forward to play behind Tatum. But if they go with 3 forwards on the 2-way deals than a replacement there would be redundant.

At PG, we have Jrue and Pritchard. White could obviously play there and tap into our wing depth if injuries. And then Springer can guard there and be made up for by playing with Tatum. But having JD on the two-way was a nice backup layer.

Idk, feels like if we’re going with 3 forwards on the two way we might swap Brissett’s spot for a guard on the NBA roster, IMO.

[Shak_Celts]

Yup..I haven't researched Enaruna a ton, just a little bit.

But the sell with him seems to be 6'8", 7'1" wingspan. Decent mobility, decent athleticism..23 yrs old so polished, knows how to play, further along in development but certainly more of an offensive guy.

His niche is that he can go and get a bucket. Give him the ball..clear out some space and let him go to work. He was getting what like 19 PPG in college, albeit in a id major conference but he can score, despite not being very good of a 3 pt shooter.

Looking forward to seeing him in summer league. Got a feeling he's either gonna suck, or we're all gonna be like, "holy crap, no one can stop this guy from scoring, get him on the roster" with no in between lol.

Here's all you need to know about Enaruna :

Watch on YouTube

Rofl that’s almost uncanny to Duke Tatum. Don’t know anything about the guy but that was fun to watch.

If it were a prop on DK, I’d have money on him making a 2-way lol

I have seen the video, he has the same shots but to me it looks like Ben Simmons cos-playing Tatum.

[165bows]

Rofl that’s almost uncanny to Duke Tatum. Don’t know anything about the guy but that was fun to watch.

If it were a prop on DK, I’d have money on him making a 2-way lol

Right, total mini-Tat imo.

My guess (since he was fairly highly rated on the udfa lists that I read before the draft, and that they signed him so quickly) is that they gave him some indication of next in line for a two-way if Davison doesn’t get the third (assuming Watson and Peterson get the first two).

If that’s the two-way trio, they might need another guard

We have 4 NBA spots right now. Most assume that Scheierman took Svi’s spot and that Queta/Tillman/Kornet will be retained or replaced with other centers. Brissett, they could leave his spot open but if they filled it they could probably use another forward to play behind Tatum. But if they go with 3 forwards on the 2-way deals than a replacement there would be redundant.

At PG, we have Jrue and Pritchard. White could obviously play there and tap into our wing depth if injuries. And then Springer can guard there and be made up for by playing with Tatum. But having JD on the two-way was a nice backup layer.

Idk, feels like if we’re going with 3 forwards on the two way we might swap Brissett’s spot for a guard on the NBA roster, IMO.

Yeah that makes sense - I guess my point is I think they want JD back on a two-way but have to let him hit the market first.

But it also seems like Enaruna may have been one of the better UDFAs (that’s my perception but it could be way off) so perhaps they laid out an appealing path of progression for him as a sales point.

Or maybe the use the 15th spot for a backup ball handlers.

[Hal14]

Rofl that’s almost uncanny to Duke Tatum. Don’t know anything about the guy but that was fun to watch.

If it were a prop on DK, I’d have money on him making a 2-way lol

Right, total mini-Tat imo.

My guess (since he was fairly highly rated on the udfa lists that I read before the draft, and that they signed him so quickly) is that they gave him some indication of next in line for a two-way if Davison doesn’t get the third (assuming Watson and Peterson get the first two).

If that’s the two-way trio, they might need another guard

We have 4 NBA spots right now. Most assume that Scheierman took Svi’s spot and that Queta/Tillman/Kornet will be retained or replaced with other centers. Brissett, they could leave his spot open but if they filled it they could probably use another forward to play behind Tatum. But if they go with 3 forwards on the 2-way deals than a replacement there would be redundant.

At PG, we have Jrue and Pritchard. White could obviously play there and tap into our wing depth if injuries. And then Springer can guard there and be made up for by playing with Tatum. But having JD on the two-way was a nice backup layer.

Idk, feels like if we’re going with 3 forwards on the two way we might swap Brissett’s spot for a guard on the NBA roster, IMO.

Eh. JD played exactly 0 meaningful mins with the big club over 2 seasons. He's not some big thing that we need to be worried about replacing.

Also, Peterson brought the ball up and ran the point sometimes in Maine last season..

[hugepatsfan]

Right, total mini-Tat imo.

My guess (since he was fairly highly rated on the udfa lists that I read before the draft, and that they signed him so quickly) is that they gave him some indication of next in line for a two-way if Davison doesn’t get the third (assuming Watson and Peterson get the first two).

If that’s the two-way trio, they might need another guard

We have 4 NBA spots right now. Most assume that Scheierman took Svi’s spot and that Queta/Tillman/Kornet will be retained or replaced with other centers. Brissett, they could leave his spot open but if they filled it they could probably use another forward to play behind Tatum. But if they go with 3 forwards on the 2-way deals than a replacement there would be redundant.

At PG, we have Jrue and Pritchard. White could obviously play there and tap into our wing depth if injuries. And then Springer can guard there and be made up for by playing with Tatum. But having JD on the two-way was a nice backup layer.

Idk, feels like if we’re going with 3 forwards on the two way we might swap Brissett’s spot for a guard on the NBA roster, IMO.

Eh. JD played exactly 0 meaningful mins with the big club over 2 seasons. He's not some big thing that we need to be worried about replacing.

Also, Peterson brought the ball up and ran the point sometimes in Maine last season..

Definitely don’t need any meaningful minutes. More just a case of emergency. Like, it’s not unfathomable that Holiday and White could each miss the same 5 game stretch with an injury. You’d have to extend Pritchard’s minutes at PG and, as of right now, play Springer or Peterson at PG. There’s 18 roster spots to use so if they sign another center to retain/replace Tillman and it ends up with all 3 2-way spots being forwards then it just feels another ball handler would be the spot that makes the most sense.

[redslastlaugh]

Request to the mods:

Any chance we can get started a 2025 NBA draft thread, never too early to start discussing prospects, thanx.

[165bows]

Read on Twitter

Was suspicious that was the case.

Thought it might be Memphis but some chatter around Toronto so idk.

[shackles10]

Request to the mods:

Any chance we can get started a 2025 NBA draft thread, never too early to start discussing prospects, thanx.

Feel free to start one. No special privileges needed for that.

[ConstableGeneva]

Read on Twitter

Read on Twitter