The Official 2023 Draft Thread

[NatP4]

I would be extremely disappointed with Bufkin, Whitmore, Walker, or Hendricks.

Black, Wallace, or Dick would be neutral to moderately disappointed.

Thrilled with Ausar or Coulibaly.

[Tyrone Messby]

Yeah I’m personally hoping for Coulibaly

[gambitx777]

Honestly I'm happy keeping those seconds and using them on guys like Gregory Jackson, Amari baily, Terquavion Smith. Nadir Hifi.

I've been looking at Gregory jackson. I'd take a flyer on this kid in a heart beat! He's 18 and 6'9 with 15 PPG 6 rebounds 32% on 3s he's not efficient at a TS% of 47 not good at FT yet but he's young, big athletic and I like him better thank vukusevic even thought the advanced numbers tell a different story.

My ideal draft now that we have 35

#8 Bilal
#35 Gregory Jackson
#42 Amari baily/Terquavion Smith
#57 (59) Nadir Hifi

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[80sballboy]

Article from Matt Moderno on possible second-round targets
https://www.bulletsforever.com/2023/6/22/23770029/draft-prospects-wizards-second-round-picks-dariq-white-head-gg-jackson-emoni-bates-julian-phillips

[joshuacf]

All I ask from the 2nd round is that the guys are not Eurostashes. Just give me guys who we can give PT to next season.

[The Consiglieri]

All I ask from the 2nd round is that the guys are not Eurostashes. Just give me guys who we can give PT to next season.

I'm the opposite. All 2nd rounders should be used on ceiling plays or players with high enough floors that we could flip them for picks. I don't want JAG's that are minutes eaters and that's it. Swing for the fences on Euro's and draft fallers that have high floors that could be packaged later because we aren't turning this around with complimentary guys and bench depth. We now have less talent on the roster than at any time since 1989-1992. It's literally the worst the roster has been in 30+ years. The picks need to be used on fence swings and flippable talent, period. I don't care about PT, we can always just plumb the depths of the G league, and what not for minutes eaters as needed.

Not sure how much we disagree here because I'm not sure what you mean by PT alone, but I am definitely interested in Euro Stashes if they're good high upside plays. This team is going to be rock bottom bad, so all decisions should be made w/a focus on '26 and beyond rather than any consideration of winning games between the fall of '23 and the spring of '26.

[NatP4]

All I ask from the 2nd round is that the guys are not Eurostashes. Just give me guys who we can give PT to next season.

Mostly agree, although Nadir Hifi at 57 is a nice upside play, and honestly, his team in Paris might be better than the Wizards.

Other than that, I like to target good college players. Not Yannick Nzoza types LOL

[joshuacf]

All I ask from the 2nd round is that the guys are not Eurostashes. Just give me guys who we can give PT to next season.

I'm the opposite. All 2nd rounders should be used on ceiling plays or players with high enough floors that we could flip them for picks. I don't want JAG's that are minutes eaters and that's it. Swing for the fences on Euro's and draft fallers that have high floors that could be packaged later because we aren't turning this around with complimentary guys and bench depth. We now have less talent on the roster than at any time since 1989-1992. It's literally the worst the roster has been in 30+ years. The picks need to be used on fence swings and flippable talent, period. I don't care about PT, we can always just plumb the depths of the G league, and what not for minutes eaters as needed.

Not sure how much we disagree here because I'm not sure what you mean by PT alone, but I am definitely interested in Euro Stashes if they're good high upside plays. This team is going to be rock bottom bad, so all decisions should be made w/a focus on '26 and beyond rather than any consideration of winning games between the fall of '23 and the spring of '26.

By 'give PT' I mean guys who are ready to play in the NBA next season. Not Issuf Sanon's or Yannick Nzoza's who are two years away from being two years away.

Guys like Jevon Carter don't have crazy upside, but they can turn out to be solid NBA pros. I'm not saying don't look for upside in the 2nd, but that isn't all I would be looking at.

[The Consiglieri]

Yeah I’m expecting Bilal, unless Ausar drops.

And a package of 35/42/57 to move up into the 20-25 range, and another trade of Morris/CP3 somewhere.

Will end up taking a couple swings in the 20-40 range.

As the pick?

I would LOVE that, but honestly, the smoke has been mostly right in recent years, and while this is a new FO, the smoke is 100% on Bufkin and Black. I'm not saying that as someone who'd support it, but rather as: be prepared for them to go after one of those guys or Ausar if he falls maybe?

Nobody should be married to a particular player other than maybe, grandstanding when that guy turns out to be a stud down the line if you know what I mean. We've been watching this long enough to know that our teams rarely take who we want them to take unless it's beyond patently obvious (like a 1.01 scenario).

[80sballboy]

I'm actually excited that we might actually grab a legitimate second-round pick that might eventually be a rotation guy.

I don't want to whiff on overseas players. Take 1 of the three. Haven't had a decent 2nd-round pick since 2012 and a non-stash guy since Shelvin Mack in 2011.

Last year: Yannick Nzosa (6-10, 195). Ugh
2021: none
2020: Vit Krejci (trade to OKC)
2019: None
2018: Issuf Sanon (ugh)
2015: Aaron White (nada)
2014: Jordan Clarkson to the Lakers
2013: Nate Wolters (Milw), Arsalan Kazemi (Phi)
2012: Sato
2011: Shelvin Mack

[NatP4]

Yeah I’m expecting Bilal, unless Ausar drops.

And a package of 35/42/57 to move up into the 20-25 range, and another trade of Morris/CP3 somewhere.

Will end up taking a couple swings in the 20-40 range.

As the pick?

I would LOVE that, but honestly, the smoke has been mostly right in recent years, and while this is a new FO, the smoke is 100% on Bufkin and Black. I'm not saying that as someone who'd support it, but rather as: be prepared for them to go after one of those guys or Ausar if he falls maybe?

Nobody should be married to a particular player other than maybe, grandstanding when that guy turns out to be a stud down the line if you know what I mean. We've been watching this long enough to know that our teams rarely take who we want them to take unless it's beyond patently obvious (like a 1.01 scenario).

Eh, different FO.

We heard absolutely nothing about Troy Brown Jr, Rui, Deni, and Kispert. Heard a little bit about Johnny Davis.

But again, those guys are gone. I’m confident that all the smoke about Anthony Black is just that. He’s gone top 6 IMO.

Over the last 15 years, OKC simply hasn’t taken guys that were flat out bad college players. They wouldn’t take a guy like GG Jackson or Jalen Hood-Schifino. They have taken good productive college players or good productive international guys. They love to aim at BPA/high upside, but they don’t compromise on the productivity aspect.

They love upside/international guys/good/productive in numbers.

Jalen Williams: good college player
Jaylin Williams: good college player
Ousmane Dieng: good player in pro league
Josh Giddey: good player in pro league
Chet Holmgren: good college player
Sabonis: good college player
Cam Payne: good college player
SGA: good college player

Coulibaly checks all the boxes: international/high upside/extremely good numbers in both the U21 and Pro league. I fully expect him to be the pick.

Now is it just Presti? Will it carry over with Dawkins? Who the hell knows?

[doclinkin]

They love upside/international guys/good/productive in numbers.

Jalen Williams: good college player
Jaylin Williams: good college player
Ousmane Dieng: good player in pro league
Josh Giddey: good player in pro league
Chet Holmgren: good college player
Sabonis: good college player
Cam Payne: good college player
SGA: good college player

Coulibaly checks all the boxes: international/high upside/extremely good numbers in both the U21 and Pro league. I fully expect him to be the pick.

I agree with this reasoning. Productive, talented, young, in an overseas professional league. It fits. The only caveat is if they can get him plus other assets in a trade down with a team who wants to jump to 8 to catch a player who has unexpectedly slipped. The Wiz take that player while the offers come in, then trade with the team that takes Bilal.

[The Consiglieri]

All I ask from the 2nd round is that the guys are not Eurostashes. Just give me guys who we can give PT to next season.

I'm the opposite. All 2nd rounders should be used on ceiling plays or players with high enough floors that we could flip them for picks. I don't want JAG's that are minutes eaters and that's it. Swing for the fences on Euro's and draft fallers that have high floors that could be packaged later because we aren't turning this around with complimentary guys and bench depth. We now have less talent on the roster than at any time since 1989-1992. It's literally the worst the roster has been in 30+ years. The picks need to be used on fence swings and flippable talent, period. I don't care about PT, we can always just plumb the depths of the G league, and what not for minutes eaters as needed.

Not sure how much we disagree here because I'm not sure what you mean by PT alone, but I am definitely interested in Euro Stashes if they're good high upside plays. This team is going to be rock bottom bad, so all decisions should be made w/a focus on '26 and beyond rather than any consideration of winning games between the fall of '23 and the spring of '26.

By 'give PT' I mean guys who are ready to play in the NBA next season. Not Issuf Sanon's or Yannick Nzoza's who are two years away from being two years away.

Guys like Jevon Carter don't have crazy upside, but they can turn out to be solid NBA pros. I'm not saying don't look for upside in the 2nd, but that isn't all I would be looking at.

I'm the opposite, I'd much prefer big swings and hoping for the best down the line. Utility next season isn't helpful to me.

Honestly the one value I see with kind of high floor picks like that is that if those guys are good enough players w/high enough floors, maybe they turn into guys you can flip in the '24, '25, '26 drafts.

My reasoning is pretty simple. We not only lack a big 3, we lack even a big 1. So honestly, I don't care about having guys that can actually play at some minute level of acceptable competence. That won't move the needle when it comes to a roster this horrific. So basically, we need to maximize draft capital over the next several years. Utility with players doesn't do that unless they set a floor high enough that other teams want to peel them off like they might want to peel a Kispert or a Deni over the next 18 months and 6 months respectively.

Maybe philosophically we're in a different place, but I'd say the one area that I've changed my mind over these tanking decades is that in the past I wanted all picks to be fence swinging picks period because if we didn't hit on a once a half decade guy like Leonard or Giannis, well, we were just going to keep sucking, so we should keep swinging, but over time I've come to terms with the idea that landing legit good high floor talents, returns value in trades and that can be worthwhile too, sometimes better than wild swing and misses like crazy Jan Vesely type picks.

So from that perspective, if there's a guy like that, that you like, that we can turn around and swing for value, in trades, I'm all for it.

I'll add that the write up at Bulletsforever, covering some highly rated high school recruits that busted or struggled in bad college situations last year is EXACTLY what kind of domestic talent I'd be sniffing around in round 2. I'm cool with going to Europe but if there's some 5 star recruit that just had an injury riddled year, or a bad fit year w/his college season, I'd absolutely look at that as a potential option too, not just Euro stashes. Those guys can be sneaky value some years.

I'm all over the place here, but hopefully you can follow my meandering sentiment and M.O. w/this draft.

[The Consiglieri]

I'm actually excited that we might actually grab a legitimate second-round pick that might eventually be a rotation guy.

I don't want to whiff on overseas players. Take 1 of the three. Haven't had a decent 2nd-round pick since 2012 and a non-stash guy since Shelvin Mack in 2011.

Last year: Yannick Nzosa (6-10, 195). Ugh
2021: none
2020: Vit Krejci (trade to OKC)
2019: None
2018: Issuf Sanon (ugh)
2015: Aaron White (nada)
2014: Jordan Clarkson to the Lakers
2013: Nate Wolters (Milw), Arsalan Kazemi (Phi)
2012: Sato
2011: Shelvin Mack

My understanding is that Nzosa got hurt immediately in game 1 of the season with I think Real Betis (as a soccer fan, Betis is a mid table to relegation fodder side famous for not starting Diego Chucky Lozano the last few years before he came back to liga mx, so it's still kind of headshakingly weird to see these famed soccer franchises in European Club football also running Basketball squads).

With Nzosa, before the season ('21-'22) he was projected to go in that 10-25 zone by a couple of different mock draft sites in the summer and fall of '21, so to my mind anyway, as long as the injury wasn't career threatening, I still like that pick a lot. The rest of them quite obviously sucked, other than Clarkson.

[gambitx777]

I'll defend the noza pick because he was a projected lottery pick the year prior and then just couldn't hit the side of a barn or dribble so he's raw but young and huge and could legit play defense in today's NBA tomorrow if offence wasn't a thing.

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[Rafael122]

I think with all the moves being made here, high probability Bilal or Whitmore if he's there will be the pick.

[pcbothwel]

I think with all the moves being made here, high probability Bilal or Whitmore if he's there will be the pick.

Agreed. No way they take Bufkin now. He's Jordan Poole with defense.
Black or Bilal...Lets go

[gambitx777]

I think with all the moves being made here, high probability Bilal or Whitmore if he's there will be the pick.

I hope and preynwe have the balls to take Bilal. I just don't see it with whittmore.

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[The Consiglieri]

I continue to fear that Bufkin will be the pick, or one of those guys I'd really, really hate (Walker or Wallace). The smoke all along has been Bufkin, and Black this week, until we hear different, I'll consider to live in fear of Bufkin (but celebrate it if I'm wrong).

[tleikheen]

My reach draft choice is Derek Lively 7'1 230 #'s .After Wembanyama, Lively is the top rim protector in this draft. His defense could bring the Wiz back alot sooner.