2023 NBA Draft Thread

[UNCNYC]

I'm bummed about the TAR HEEL VS dook game but these two games are coming on tonight

Hawai'i @ UC Santa Barbara - 9:00 PM - ESPNU - ( Ajay Mitchel )

San Francisco @ Santa Clara - 12:30 AM - ESPN2 - ( Brandin Podziemski ) Yep 12:30 am start time

[wilson115]

Closer look at Scoot like Dean promised. Not looking encouraging.

https://deanondraft.substack.com/p/is-scoot-henderson-the-2nd-best-player

[JMAC3]

Amen Thompson hit a game winning layup at the buzzer last night.

[Hornet Mania]

Melo/Scoot just seems like the rich man's version of Melo/Rozier. I don't see why we'd want to commit to more of that, but hey, our FO loves Rozier so that may not stop them.

It's also worrying how much Scoot needs the ball to be his best. I want the ball in Melo's hands as much as possible, he's much better than Scoot ever projects to be at creating for his teammates even when you price in the head-scratching long 3s early in the shot clock.

If we can't get Wemby I'd be looking at wings. If we land at 2 I'd try to move down and get a little something for whoever talks themselves into Scoot as their version of Morant.

[UNCNYC]

Craig Porter JR is playing now on ESPNU. He has 9 pts so far with half of the 1st half to go

[UNCNYC]

Craig Porter JR great first half stat wise . 14 pts / 6 reb / 5 ass / 3 blk

My dream is to see him and Ajay go at it. Maybe NIT.

[JMAC3]

If we landed the #2 pick, I would be open to trading down. If someone would give us another top 6 pick, plus a future pick for Scoot that would be a good outcome based on the LaMelo fit.

LaMelo (35) - Amen (13)---------
Rozier (30)- Amen (12) - Martin (6)---------- Bouk
Miles (20)- Gordon (24) - Martin (4)-------- McGowens
PJ (30) - Miles (12)- Martin (6)-------- Thor
Mark (30)- Nick (18)----- Kai

Pretty smooth 9 man rotation with Amen eventually taking over Rozier.

[luciano-davidwesley]

Brandon Miller is the non-Wemby guy I'm leaning towards in the top 5.

[amcoolio]

If we landed the #2 pick, I would be open to trading down. If someone would give us another top 6 pick, plus a future pick for Scoot that would be a good outcome based on the LaMelo fit.

LaMelo (35) - Amen (13)---------
Rozier (30)- Amen (12) - Martin (6)---------- Bouk
Miles (20)- Gordon (24) - Martin (4)-------- McGowens
PJ (30) - Miles (12)- Martin (6)-------- Thor
Mark (30)- Nick (18)----- Kai

Pretty smooth 9 man rotation with Amen eventually taking over Rozier.

If we come out of this season with that lineup next year I quit. You win

We’d immediately start the 2024 NBA draft thread becuase we’d be surefire lottery bound yet again

[UNCNYC]

Right now my top 3 sg's are

Keyonte George, Kobe Bufkin, Gradey Dick.

I have removed Brandin Podziemski from the top 3.

[yosemiteben]

If we landed the #2 pick, I would be open to trading down. If someone would give us another top 6 pick, plus a future pick for Scoot that would be a good outcome based on the LaMelo fit.

By "another top 6 pick" do you mean we'd be receiving 2 top 6 picks? Does any team have 2?

[Braggins]

Heres the top 10 of my rankings heading into tournament season. Things are getting super close after Wemby imo.

1 ~ Victor Wembanyama
2 ~ Scoot Henderson
3 ~ Brandon Miller
4 ~ Anthony Black
5 ~ Gradey Dick
6 ~ Taylor Hendricks
7 ~ Jarace Walker
8 ~ Cam Whitmore
9 ~ Keyonte George
10 ~ Cason Wallace

[UNCNYC]

Heres the top 10 of my rankings heading into tournament season. Things are getting super close after Wemby imo.

1 ~ Victor Wembanyama
2 ~ Scoot Henderson
3 ~ Brandon Miller
4 ~ Anthony Black
5 ~ Gradey Dick
6 ~ Taylor Hendricks
7 ~ Jarace Walker
8 ~ Cam Whitmore
9 ~ Keyonte George
10 ~ Cason Wallace

Mine is (as of right now)

1 - Nikola Durisic
2 - Jalen WIlson
3 - Brandon Miller
4 - Craig Porter JR
6 - Jalen Hood Schifino
7 - Gradey Dick
8 - Keyonte George
9 - Ajay Mitchel
10 - Jaime Jaquez - Thanks to Jmac3 for bringing him up. I used to be so high on him and forgot

[JMAC3]

If we landed the #2 pick, I would be open to trading down. If someone would give us another top 6 pick, plus a future pick for Scoot that would be a good outcome based on the LaMelo fit.

LaMelo (35) - Amen (13)---------
Rozier (30)- Amen (12) - Martin (6)---------- Bouk
Miles (20)- Gordon (24) - Martin (4)-------- McGowens
PJ (30) - Miles (12)- Martin (6)-------- Thor
Mark (30)- Nick (18)----- Kai

Pretty smooth 9 man rotation with Amen eventually taking over Rozier.

If we come out of this season with that lineup next year I quit. You win

We’d immediately start the 2024 NBA draft thread becuase we’d be surefire lottery bound yet again

Could you be more negative lol? Idk what type of team you expect us to field next year?
Adding a 20 ppg scorer and a top 5 draft pick is a bad plan? What plan is better than?

Let me guess, let PJ walk, trade Rozier, trade Hayward and then magically end up with awesome players?

[JMAC3]

If we landed the #2 pick, I would be open to trading down. If someone would give us another top 6 pick, plus a future pick for Scoot that would be a good outcome based on the LaMelo fit.

By "another top 6 pick" do you mean we'd be receiving 2 top 6 picks? Does any team have 2?

No I am more so saying we trade #2 for #5 this year and a future first

[UNCNYC]

We are lucky on this board. We litteraly cover the whole damn draft including summer leaguers, high schoolers, g league, fiba you name it lol. Unreal.... And be arguing about it too lmaoooo. Grateful to be a part of you guys expertise. I LOVE knowing about each pick come draft day. I used to hate saying wtf is that when a selection was made

[JGib23]

Amen Thompson hit a game winning layup at the buzzer last night.

I was in Atlanta for a basketball tournament for my sons travel team… we went to the game and it was awful basketball.

Both Thompson twins were not impressive at all from an attitude perspective. Arguing with each other and other teammates from early in the game.

The competition was awful, glorified rec league basketball… just lots on one on one with 5 players hanging out around the 3 point line.

Yuck

[Braggins]

Spoiler:

Heres the top 10 of my rankings heading into tournament season. Things are getting super close after Wemby imo.

1 ~ Victor Wembanyama
2 ~ Scoot Henderson
3 ~ Brandon Miller
4 ~ Anthony Black
5 ~ Gradey Dick
6 ~ Taylor Hendricks
7 ~ Jarace Walker
8 ~ Cam Whitmore
9 ~ Keyonte George
10 ~ Cason Wallace

quick comments on each player

Wemby ~ Not a lot to say. Straight killing it. Would like to see the 3pt% be higher, but that kind of stuff is more icing on the cake. For some reason whenever I say his name (Wembanyama) in my head I hear it in a Trump voice/delivery.

Scoot Henderson ~ Production over the last 1/3 of the season has been a bit uninspiring, but its still the best season yet from a Ignite prospect (main relevant comparison is Jalen Green). I have a suspicion he may have been playing safe recently more than anything, but I haven't watched any of his recent games, so I can't say. Hes had some injuries this season, including a pretty nasty random broken nose. Wouldn't be surprised if hes trying to avoid mixing it up at this point since there isn't anything to play for in the GLeague. I still have to knock him some, though, and don't see him as completely unassailable at #2 atm.

Spoiler:

Scoot Henderson - 19.1
per36 min: 21.5 pts ~ 6.0 reb ~ 7.5 ast ~ 1.4 stl ~ 0.5 blk ~ 3.9 tov
44.9% fg(17.7) ~ 32.8% 3pt(3.2) ~ 76.1% ft(3.5)

Jalen Green - 19.1
per36 min: 20.6 pts ~ 4.6 reb ~ 3.4 ast ~ 1.8 stl ~ 0.3 blk ~ 2.8 tov
46.9% fg(15.5) ~ 35.8% 3pt(6.6) ~ 78.6% ft(2.9

Brandon Miller ~ Still not sold as completely on big star upside, but his baseline is such a solid player and shooting + length + tools is a really good combo. Hes been showing signs of rapid improvement and Ive heard rumors of great work ethic. The talent is there for some pretty lofty heights if he continues on a high end development curve and its difficult to imagine him not being useful. I'm still not sure how much to factor in his age.

Anthony Black ~ Volume scoring has been on the downswing a bit since Nick Smith has been back and chucking it up, but assists have been on the up. Still mostly been doing what hes done all season; awesome defense, sick passes, pressuring the rim, high IQ winning plays on both ends + leadership, and still holding onto 30%+ 3pt and 70%+ ft benchmarks (32.1%/69.6%). He was randomly terrible and fouled out in less than 20 minutes against Bama and Miller + some other guys in his range have been trending up, so his relative ranking is down slightly for me.

Gradey Dick ~ Starting to like bigger and slightly more talented Kevin Huerter as a comp. The shooting potential is super enticing and the all around package is very solid.

Spoiler:

Gradey Dick
6'7" ~ 200 ~ freshman ~ draft age: 19.6
per75 poss: 18.8 pts ~ 6.5 reb ~ 2.2 ast ~ 1.9 stl ~ 0.4 blk ~ 1.7 tov
44.2% fg(14.4) ~ 40.6% 3pt(7.7) ~ 85.2% ft(3.5)
32.5 mpg ~ 20.8% usage ~ 1.28 ast/tov
116.7 ORtg ~ 98.6 DRtg ~ +7.7 BPM

Kevin Huerter
6'7" ~ 190 lbs ~ sophomore ~ draft age: 19.8
per75 poss: 19.4 pts ~ 6.6 reb ~ 4.4 ast ~ 0.8 stl ~ 0.8 blk ~ 3.1 tov
50.3% fg(13.2) ~ 41.7% 3pt(7.2) ~ 75.8% ft(4.1)
34.4 mpg ~ 21.5% usage ~ 1.35 ast/tov
119.0 ORtg ~ 102.9 DRtg ~ +7.8 BPM

Taylor Hendricks ~ Length + 3pt shooting + rim protection + perimeter D. Right now hes averaging 15.6/6.8 with 1.7 blks and shooting 48.8%/41.3%/79.6% splits. Hes attempting nearly five 3pters per game too and his shooting mechanics are good, so it doesn't look the shooting is a low volume sample anomaly or anything. Hes very skinny, but is 6'9"/6'10" with a plus wingspan and good athleticism. He just keeps creeping up my rankings and looks good every time I see him.

Jarace Walker ~ He and Hendricks are an interesting discussion. Somewhat similar wing/big hybrid games with good versatility. Both might lean more towards high end role players. Hendricks is the better shooter. They have similar length/athleticism, but Walker is jacked (got that Monstar type build). Walker has shown more playmaking potential. Hes been trending down because he just has a lot of boring role player stat lines playing on the Houston team and some other guys have been moving up.

Cam Whitmore ~ Still very raw, but slowly and steadily improving. One of the youngest players in the class. Very good wing build and oozing with athletic potential. Projectable 3pt shot. Offers nothing right now in the passing game, though. Still reminds me a bit of a SG/SF version of Miles Bridges.

Keyonte George ~ Not the most valuable archetype mold. I have concerns with size and athleticism, but his skill level does pop fairly well on tape. There is a lot to like with the offensive package. I believe in his shooting. I think he'll be a good off-ball 3pt shooter and feel pretty confident the consistency will get there with his pullup game. He does a good job at generating quality shots despite his physical limitations. He's definitely a combo guard, but he shows a lot of passing flashes for someone in that mold.

Cason Wallace ~ Kind of boring, but looks like hes probably a quality player. I kind of get taller Patrick Beverly vibes, but thats actually a pretty nice player and isn't bad for a baseline. Its getting to the point where you can almost count on Kentucky guards to look better after they leave Kentucky, so he might have a little more juice than you'd think. Hes moved around a lot in my rankings and has been a decent amount lower recently. Hes kind of a boring placeholder at the end of the top 10 right now.

[LofJ]

If we pick outside of the top 3 I hope we strongly consider taking Anthony Black. He's the type of player every good team needs. He's smart, defends like his life depends on it, he can attack the basket (his FTA rate is absurd), he's a strong playmaker, and he has a knack for making winning plays. If he was a better shooter he'd be an ideal replacement for Hayward. He's also a year younger than the Thompson twins playing in a much more competitive environment. He's this draft's version of Dyson Daniels or Josh Giddey.

[Braggins]

If they get a wing/forward sized player with their first pick, I think Jordan Hawkins could be a really good target to try to move up for with their other 1st.

His projected offensive role as a movement/off-ball 3pt shooter with good athleticism is pretty valuable and he seems like a great fit here.

Defensively, I think his size/length is adequate at SG, but pretty meh and might limit him to being more fine than actually good, but I'm curious how he would fair on this team where he could be used as a point of attack defender against opposing PGs (LaMelo at SG on defense). His length looks more like an advantage against PGs and he looks like he has the athleticism and defensive motor to stay with smaller/quicker players. Hes around 6'4"-6'5" and his wingspan looks like its at least +4" to me.