The Official 2023 Draft Thread

[badinage]

I know the NBA loves its stars, but truly, I don’t.

I admire them. I enjoy watching them play.

But I wish the game would be different. I wish the rules could be adjusted so that one player can’t be so dominant. So that one player can’t have that much affect on a game or a season.

I like parity. I like the idea of a season where 25 teams could maybe win the whole thing. I like the idea of so-called role players (ha — talk about misnomer — 95% of the league is so-called role players) getting ink and attention.

I’m just disgusted with the league right now.

And I say that as someone who has enjoyed these playoffs.

But … the shamelessness with which teams tank. The reality that only 6 teams EVERY SEASON are viable contenders — 6 out of 30!

I love the game in so many ways, but I have to say — it hurts my heart to see a handful of people in this world get all the glory, all the money. And so much money, out of all proportion to their contribution.

[Rafael122]

So far today I've read Portland and Houston being interested in trading the pick to get Lillard and Harden respectively, some help.

[NatP4]

Legitimately the only way I think one of the Thompson twins falls to 8 is if Walker, Whitmore and Hendricks all get taken before us which is entirely possible. This is how I have it:

1. Spurs - Wemby
2. Hornets - Miller
3. Blazers - Henderson
4. Rockets - Whitmore
5. Pistons - Walker
6. Pacers - Hendricks
7. Magic - Thompson Twin #1
8. Wiz - Thompson Twin #2

If Black takes the place of 1 of Whitmore/Walker/Hendricks or even gets taken in the top 7 as well, even better.

Agreed. Think Walker forsure goes top 7. Pistons/Pacers/Magic are all not great fits for Amen. Rockets, maybe. They seem to wanna build around Sengun/Eason frontcourt and Porter Jr/Green backcourt, but don’t have a true PG. can definitely see Amen here.

Think Pistons go Walker or Hendricks, Indiana will take the other. Orlando has become a really smart organization, and Ausar is a perfect fit in between Wagner&Suggs. I think he goes 7.

Wiz pick from Black/Wallace/Dick/George/Hawkins/Smith Jr.

[badinage]

So far today I've read Portland and Houston being interested in trading the pick to get Lillard and Harden respectively, some help.

If I’m Trajan Langdon or Bob Myers, I give them Beal + #8 and say thank you very much for #3.

But …

I don’t believe this horseshxt for one second. Every year — every year — we are made to read shxt like this. Teams don’t trade the 3. They just don’t. Maybe, if they get back the 4. Or the 5. But … god, this is so effing tiring. So. Effing. Tiring. And we’ve still got a month to go.

[Frichuela]

Starting interviews with no GM or will they have one in place by Friday?

Read on Twitter

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Read on Twitter

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Interestingly, among the top 8 he ain't interviewing with Detroit and Orlando...Does this mean both of these teams are only focused on wings/forwards?

[Rafael122]

Starting interviews with no GM or will they have one in place by Friday?

Read on Twitter

?s=20

Read on Twitter

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Interestingly, among the top 8 he ain't interviewing with Detroit and Orlando...Does this mean both of these teams are only focused on wings/forwards?

I wouldn't read too much into it unless he doesn't have a pre-draft workout scheduled with either team.

[DCZards]

Can we just talk about the players whom the Wizards shouldn't select?

It's going to be one of those guys.

The two guys high IQ guys with shaky jumpers and lacking the top notch athleticism to compensate or finish at a high level. I like Jarace Walker a little more than Anthony Black but I'd pass on both.

I think it's a mistake to fixate on athleticism, especially when it comes to PG play. Smarts, skill and savvy are far more important, imo. Black is an unselfish playmaker who will make the players around him better. He's also a good defender with excellent size and length. I'd take my chances that his shooting will improve.

If none of the top 5 or 6 slide, I'd be fine with either Black or Wallace at 8.

[Frichuela]

Read on Twitter

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[80sballboy]

Read on Twitter

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[9 and 20]

I've seen a bunch of articles on how we just missed winning the lottery and I have to say part of me is glad they didn't win. Terd would have gloated to no end, even though they didn't tank (like Portland did, and early, and who won a high pick). And yes, I'm petty enough to embrace Wizards sadness over seeing Terd happy and rewarded for his idiocy.

I'm also fairly sure we would have turned Wembanyama into Jan Vesely somehow. Somewhere in the world, Kevin Seraphin is smiling.

[doclinkin]

The draft lottery is just absolutely crushing. Crushing. To have come that close. And for the second time in 5 years — they came that close in the Zion draft, too. *

Meanwhile, the Spurs are going to get to draft their third HOF big man in the modern era. Third. After intentionally tanking their season. That’s their reward.

I like the Spurs, I like what they have been, I love Pop — but they surely aren’t deserving of this.

Actually of all the teams in the league the Spurs are probably the only team deserving of that level of good karma.

A classy organization from top to bottom. They are a factory of quality coaches. They develop their players, and have one of the best shooting gurus in the league, ask Kawhi. They were one of the first to truly use their G-League squad as a farm team, and promote their coaches from the lower league. They draft smart, scout well, pay attention to roster construction. They stay in advance of rules changes and adjust ahead of the curve so other teams copy them after the fact. They treat everybody in the organization well top to bottom, and they are a small market team that would never be able to recruit top free agents so they are not big players in the FA market.

Yes, they saw the writing on the wall and traded away their best players. But they did so only in a year when the guy at the top was worth losing 82 games to land if you could shave every % in your favor.

They played the game the right way, even the game of tanking.

The Wizards didn't. What did our front office do to deserve to win? They sneered at the lottery, ignored their fans actually calling for the team to tank. Usually teams have to sell their loyal audience on the idea of a re-build. Reports suggest they did so because they wanted the revenue from a play-in game. And tried to couch it in moral superiority that they would never tank because they had too much respect for their fans.

F--- that. The team was hoping to be rewarded by the basketball gods for a moral smugness that they refuse to do everything possible to win because there is a 2nd bottom line that says you don't have to win if you are good good guys.
Thing is, the Spurs actually are good good guys. And they reward their fans by actually doing everything they can in order to win.

The only moral superiority this team can lay claim to is a ridiculously loyal fanbase who stick with them despite the ownership ignoring their pleas. The rest is just autofellatio and cranial-rectal inversion. As usual.

[Dat2U]

Can we just talk about the players whom the Wizards shouldn't select?

It's going to be one of those guys.

The two guys high IQ guys with shaky jumpers and lacking the top notch athleticism to compensate or finish at a high level. I like Jarace Walker a little more than Anthony Black but I'd pass on both.

I think it's a mistake to fixate on athleticism, especially when it comes to PG play. Smarts, skill and savvy are far more important, imo. Black is an unselfish playmaker who will make the players around him better. He's also a good defender with excellent size and length. I'd take my chances that his shooting will improve.

If none of the top 5 or 6 slide, I'd be fine with either wanBlack or Wallace at 8.

I'm not fixated on athleticism, I'm especially fixated on Black being a non-threat from 3 and how he compensates for that. 7 games where he made more than 1 college 3? He didn't even take em in high volume. Teams are going to go under screens, crowd spacing and dare him to shoot. I don't think thats ideal in a lead guard.

[daSwami]

* Would someone explain to me how we came that close to 1 — how we had the best odds at that point out of all the teams — and we not only don’t get 1, but we don’t get 2, or 3, or 4.

It's called The Curse.

[doclinkin]

Legitimately the only way I think one of the Thompson twins falls to 8 is if Walker, Whitmore and Hendricks all get taken before us which is entirely possible. This is how I have it:

1. Spurs - Wemby
2. Hornets - Miller
3. Blazers - Henderson
4. Rockets - Whitmore
5. Pistons - Walker
6. Pacers - Hendricks
7. Magic - Thompson Twin #1
8. Wiz - Thompson Twin #2

If Black takes the place of 1 of Whitmore/Walker/Hendricks or even gets taken in the top 7 as well, even better.

I see it possible in this scenario

1. Spurs - Wemby
2. Hornets - Miller, they need outside shooting more than a 2nd PG. Scoot and Melo both need the ball in their hands to be best useful.
3. Blazers trade to somebody overpaying to jump here - Scoot Henderson.
4. Rockets - Thompson Twin 1. They love athletic talent, need a PG
5. Pistons - Walker or Hendricks
6. Pacers - Hendricks or Walker
7. Magic - Whitmore if they see him as a big 2-guard. The Magic like size, athleticism, outside shooting, interior finishing, and Cam fits better in that role than they need the duplication of another high level glue guy like Franz.
8. Wiz - Thompson Twin #2. High level glue guy.

[TGW]

I'm sorry, but if Whitemore is the pick...phuck man. Dude averaged .7 assists per game...that is worst than Nick Young. I'm looking at his game log, and he had so many zero assist games, i was shocked. 19 assists all year...pathetic and pretty much a disqualifier for me. It shows he has little to no feel for the game.

[Silvie Lysandra]

I know the NBA loves its stars, but truly, I don’t.

I admire them. I enjoy watching them play.

But I wish the game would be different. I wish the rules could be adjusted so that one player can’t be so dominant. So that one player can’t have that much affect on a game or a season.

I like parity. I like the idea of a season where 25 teams could maybe win the whole thing. I like the idea of so-called role players (ha — talk about misnomer — 95% of the league is so-called role players) getting ink and attention.

I’m just disgusted with the league right now.

And I say that as someone who has enjoyed these playoffs.

But … the shamelessness with which teams tank. The reality that only 6 teams EVERY SEASON are viable contenders — 6 out of 30!

I love the game in so many ways, but I have to say — it hurts my heart to see a handful of people in this world get all the glory, all the money. And so much money, out of all proportion to their contribution.

It's really easy to fix this.

Abolish the max contract. Superstars are *drastically* underpaid for the impact they have. To put in perspective, Patrick Mahomes takes up 17% of the team's cap as 1 member of a 22 man starting lineup. If Wemby is a generational talent, his first extension, as a member of a 5 man starting lineup, will be 25%, then 35% 5 years later with the supermax. (So imagine having Patrick Mahomes, then having 2 Patrick Mahomes level players at WR, then 2 Patrick Mahomes level guys on defense, all for the price of your single Patrick Mahomes, or maybe your guy is Jokic and you just get 5 Patrick Mahomes level guys on offense) Keep in mind that due to cap inflation, supermax deals become even bigger bargains than they already are. And yes, NFL contracts are not fully guaranteed, but at least for QBs, they are getting closer and closer to being such. Would you rather have 2 Kyle Kuzmas, or 1 Tatum, Jokic, Embiid, Giannis? But the NBA's cap structure says, in fact, that 2 Kyle Kuzmas are equal to one Giannis Antetokounmpo. Madness. Sadly, the players union prefers this, because superstars taking up more of the cap = role players and solid starters getting paid like all-stars and superstars. But imagine if the Bucks *had* to pay Giannis 50% of the cap? Or even 60%? or 70%? Suddenly, you can build a contender in different ways, because the star just isn't going to have the talent around him. No LeBron + AD. No Giannis + Middleton + Holiday. No Durant + Curry. No LeBron/Wade/Bosh.

The minute that NBA teams have to pay superstars what they're worth, it now becomes viable to assemble more balanced teams of non-superstars. Because not only will the teams with superstars not have elite level depth, but it pushes salaries for mid-level players down. Nobody's paying Kuzma 20m anymore. Why? Because the teams with superstars are off the market, the tanking teams won't invest that much, so teams with cap space will look to build balanced teams instead of pretend that a 2nd tier player is a 1st tier player just because they get paid the same.

[jangles86]

I'm sorry, but if Whitemore is the pick...phuck man. Dude averaged .7 assists per game...that is worst than Nick Young. I'm looking at his game log, and he had so many zero assist games, i was shocked. 19 assists all year...pathetic and pretty much a disqualifier for me. It shows he has little to no feel for the game.

I think you’ll be even more upset when you see wiz trade up to get him at pick 5…

[Dat2U]

I feel like Anthony Black is the pick no matter what with this staff. Fits the positional size thing Wes spoke on, fills a 'need' and could be considered the 'consensus' choice.

After a long hard look at him I see a smart, aggressive slasher with some limitations. Best attribute is his attacking off the bounce to get into the lane for others if not necesaarily himself. I wouldn't confuse aggressive slashing with aggressive scoring. He attacks looking to set up others. Not a super advanced handle but solid and could use a little tightening. A bit one dimensional and will run into traffic. A passive shooter. Will pass up wide open looks and is percentage 3pt shooter on low volume.

He's not a game manager in the sense Lonzo Ball is who he gets compared to alot. Much more of a facilitator who can create open looks but his own ability to score outside of attacking the rim is very limited.

Is he enough of a scoring threat to be a lead guard is his biggest question. Shot is not just a swing skill, it a must because teams will go under the screen and dare him to shoot cutting off spacing for others.

Defensively the tools are there but the fundamentals needs work. He's too upright and prone to get blown by.

I view him as a late lottery/mid first round pick. 8 is too high for my liking (not enough scoring chops) and I'd rate Cason Wallace (a significantly better shooter) as slightly better despite on-ball limitations.

Either way, beyond Scoot & Amen, none of these other PGs really excite me or represent a clear cut answer as a starting PG in the NBA.

I would focus more on the 3s/4s and look for roster solutions there.

[AFM]

Really no reason Dat doesn’t have a podcast or a website by now. He already does most of the content on here anyway, we just need a nerd like Induveca to host the site for him

[TGW]

I wonder if we could trade down with OKC for example, and maybe get an additional asset in the future? I'd be ok with Wallace at like #11 or #12, or maybe Pod at #15-20.