Draft Grades: Winners/Losers

[CptCrunch]

Pretty good draft from all teams. The first 20 picks were basically a good from my perspective except for...

F for Houston and Detroit for drafting Thompsons that high.

F for Wizards reaching for Bilal.

All 3 are basically potential guys with no proven production.

edit: Thanks to OP for the template, just gonna spitball immediate 0.5 second reacitons

Bucks: ???
2.36: Andre Jackson Jr
2.58: Chris Livingston

Bulls: A
2.35: Julian Phillips

Cavaliers: C
2.49: Emoni Bates

Celtics: A
2.38: Jordan Walsh

Clippers: B+
1.30: Kobe Brown
2.48: Jordan Miller

Grizzlies: D
2.45: GG Jackson
2.56: Tarik Biberovic

Hawks: A+
1.15: Kobe Bufkin
2.39: Mo Gueye
2.46: Seth Lundy

Heat: A
1.18: Jaime Jaquez Jr

Hornets: A+, picking Miller at A+ at 2 regardless of NSJ pick
1.2: Brandon Miller
1.27: Nick Smith Jr
2.31: James Nnaji
2.41: Amari Bailey

Jazz: A
1.9: Taylor Hendricks
1.16: Keyonte George
1.28: Brice Sensabaugh

Kings: B
2.34: Colby Jones
2.54: Jalen Slawson

Lakers: C
1.17: Jalen Hood-Schifino
2.40: Maxwell Lewis

Magic: A+, picked the #2 player on my board at 6, that's a big win
1.6: Anthony Black
1.11: Jett Howard

Mavericks: A
1.12: Dereck Lively II
1.24: Olivier-Maxence Prosper

Nets: A
1.21: Noah Clowney
1.22: Dariq Whitehead
2.51: Jalen Wilson

Nuggets: A
1.29: Julian Strawther
2.32: Jalen Pickett
2.37: Hunter Tyson

Pacers: A
1.8: Jarace Walker
1.26: Ben Sheppard
2.47: Mojave King
2.55: Isaiah Wong

Pelicans: B
1.14: Jordan Hawkins

Pistons: F
1.5: Ausar Thompson
1.25: Marcus Sasser

Raptors: A
1.13: Gradey Dick

Rockets: D-, mainly because Whitmore skid way too for his talent level. Unless the kid's knees are degeneratively rotted away, no reason for any player of his pedigree to drop this much. Could have sat a year and been drafted top 5 based on high school player. Remember that Whitmore dominated on team USA and looked like the best player on that U18 team. Amen is a solid F. I have Ausar slightly above Amen so the Rockets didn't even get the better of the two high variance players.
1.4: Amen Thompson
1.20: Cam Whitmore

Spurs: A
1.1: Victor Wenbanyama
2.44: Sidy Cissoko

Suns: ???
2.52: Toumani Camara

Timberwolves: B
2.33: Leonard Miller
2.53: Jaylen Clark

Thunder: A
1.10: Cason Wallace
2.50: Keyontae Johnson

Trail Blazers: A
1.3: Scoot Henderson
1.23: Kris Murray
2.43: Rayan Rupert

Warriors: A
1.19: Brandin Podziemski
2.57: Trayce Jackson-Davis

Wizards: C, Bilal was a reach but it wasn't that outrageous, probably not a F
1.7: Bilal Coulibaly
2.42: Tristan Vukcevic

[Big J]

A to Charlotte for sticking with their guns & drafting Miller over Scoot. Remember when everyone killed Masai for going with Barnes over Suggs, because it went against all the draft boards?

[HiDef]

snip

good stuff. I agree with a lot of it. I will say that the Nuggets already have their core stars and just need ready to contribute depth that can help withstand FA losses and they got that. That's why I think they took high floor/low ceiling guys.

Can't disagree with their strategy, but Strawther, Pickett and Tyson is definitely a little jarring with all the talent that went in the 2nd. They really could've used a big like Leonard Miller, Gueye, Nnaji, Vukcevic, TJD even Bediako. Andre Jackson, Amari Bailey would both have fit really well.

I mean they really, really went all-in on guys who can contribute, like, tomorrow. Two 5th year seniors and a gonzaga guy like Strawther.

[BostonCouchGM]

snip

good stuff. I agree with a lot of it. I will say that the Nuggets already have their core stars and just need ready to contribute depth that can help withstand FA losses and they got that. That's why I think they took high floor/low ceiling guys.

Can't disagree with their strategy, but Strawther, Pickett and Tyson is definitely a little jarring with all the talent that went in the 2nd. They really could've used a big like Leonard Miller, Gueye, Nnaji, Vukcevic, TJD even Bediako. Andre Jackson, Amari Bailey would both have fit really well.

I mean they really, really went all-in on guys who can contribute, like, tomorrow. Two 5th year seniors and a gonzaga guy like Strawther.

yeah, that's the one beauty (besides the clear top 5 guys at the top) of this draft that it's super deep with role players. The Nuggets could have chosen so many different combinations and it would have similarly filled needs. As to why I feel they specifically chose Strawther, Pickett and Tyson, I feel it's because they're each so similar to the players they will likely be losing. Pickett=Brown, Strawther=KCP, Tyson=protection for potential MPJ injury. They really do have defined archetypes at the back end of their rotation and with so much being spent on their core they needed to make sure they had cheap guys in house ready to take over for the impending losses.

[Colbinii]

Sorry boys, I love your forum but you don't get to grade these until 3-4 years out at least.

[Colbinii]

A to Charlotte for sticking with their guns & drafting Miller over Scoot. Remember when everyone killed Masai for going with Barnes over Suggs, because it went against all the draft boards?

No because Scoot is a significantly better prospect than Suggs.

[Colbinii]

This is why this is dumb. This is from 2022. This thread is basically useless.

Rockets: Jabari at 3 was the obvious pick; they leaked too much smoke perhaps on Paolo. Maybe Orlando wanted Paolo since day 1, maybe their smoke got Orlando to reevaluate their big board. They lost the best player in the draft, perhaps not due to fault of their own. However, got great value in Eason at 17, TyTy at 29. Note, I am not saying Jabari at 3 is bad value. Jabari is the #2/3 player this draft.
OKC: Huge loss this draft in reaching hard for Dieng (not first round talent), Jalen (reached hard for late first round talent). Chet at 2 was reasonable; cannot really lose if you take potentially the best player in the draft. If you look at Presti's moves after drafting Westbrook, Durant and Harden, his moves have not been that impressive. Could just be a cat catching a dead mouse situation.

Kings: Huge loss on taking a soon 22 year old Keegan Murray as 4. If they followed consensus, should have taken Ivey and traded down. Doubly so if we believe the rumors that teams were calling the Pistons at 5 to trade up for Ivey.

Rockets, OKC and Kings all had great drafts.

I'll be a homer and say Toronto. Koloko will be the 2nd best big from this draft class.

LOL brah. **** Genius down here.

I'll be a homer and say Toronto. Koloko will be the 2nd best big from this draft class.

I agree, he will never surpass Walker Kessler.

Losers:
Hated the Spurs draft. They always try to get too cute. They're going to stay mid for years. Sochan is a more grounded Kuzma. #9 is way too high to take him. It's Primo 2.0 where they seemingly take a guy they are in love with half a round too high because they're the smartest guys in the room. Branham can shoot but they are loaded at SG and that's ALL Branham can do is shoot. Then they took yet another combo guard with Blake Wesley? And he CAN'T shoot? It's remarkable how inept the Spurs are since Duncan left. It's almost like he masked how overrated Pop is.

While I love Mark Williams I question the pick since they literally just took Kai Jones last season. But maybe they view him as a 4/5 instead of straight center like Williams so I can't hate on the pick too much. I really don't understand why CHA felt the need to trade the #13 pick for a probable much later 2023 pick and a slew of 2nds though, so overall I am not a fan of their draft.

Sochan looks legit-good.
Mark Williams is great--no reason to ever not pick who you believe BPA just because you took a bust at the same position the previous season.

Loser:

OKC: too many wild swings. They need to start just hitting doubles and get back to respectability at this point.

[thelead]

Sorry boys, I love your forum but you don't get to grade these until 3-4 years out at least.

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

[azcatz11]

Sorry boys, I love your forum but you don't get to grade these until 3-4 years out at least.

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

Wow....I never thought of it like that...you 2 are geniuses

[HiDef]

Sorry boys, I love your forum but you don't get to grade these until 3-4 years out at least.

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

Can we sticky this to make sure people know the truth?

[K_chile22]

Sorry boys, I love your forum but you don't get to grade these until 3-4 years out at least.

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

Well no kidding, this is obviously just based on everyone's personal pre draft boards. This feels just as silly. No one's saying these grades are etched in stone forever. Let people have fun and say how teams did relative to their personal board, it's fine

[Colbinii]

Sorry boys, I love your forum but you don't get to grade these until 3-4 years out at least.

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

Well no kidding, this is obviously just based on everyone's personal pre draft boards. This feels just as silly. No one's saying these grades are etched in stone forever. Let people have fun and say how teams did relative to their personal board, it's fine

Houston got the guy 17 other teams didn't want at #20, what a steal!

[EMG518]

I think the Grizzlies grabbing GG at 45 is a win.

Heat getting Jaime Jaquez Jr at 18.

I am not a Keyonte guy but getting Hendricks at 9 and Sensabaugh at 28 is a win.

Lakers getting Schifino at 17 and I am okay with taking a shot in the 2nd round at 40 with Lewis, win.

Pacers with a solid draft all around, Walker at 8, Sheppard 26, King 47, Wong 55

Pistons with Ausar at 5 and Sasser at 25, solid.

Rockets with Amen at 4 and Cam at 20 is a win, swinging for the fences.

Spurs obviously a win with #1

Warriors with Pod at 19, win

Wizards with Coulibaly at 7, win

I think the overall winner is Portland with Scoot at 3, Murray at 23, Rupert at 43

Overall loser is Charlotte or Orlando. Charlotte with Miller instead of Scoot, Nick Smith, Bailey, and Nnaji and Magic with Black and Howard.

[BostonCouchGM]

This is why this is dumb. This is from 2022. This thread is basically useless.

Rockets: Jabari at 3 was the obvious pick; they leaked too much smoke perhaps on Paolo. Maybe Orlando wanted Paolo since day 1, maybe their smoke got Orlando to reevaluate their big board. They lost the best player in the draft, perhaps not due to fault of their own. However, got great value in Eason at 17, TyTy at 29. Note, I am not saying Jabari at 3 is bad value. Jabari is the #2/3 player this draft.
OKC: Huge loss this draft in reaching hard for Dieng (not first round talent), Jalen (reached hard for late first round talent). Chet at 2 was reasonable; cannot really lose if you take potentially the best player in the draft. If you look at Presti's moves after drafting Westbrook, Durant and Harden, his moves have not been that impressive. Could just be a cat catching a dead mouse situation.

Kings: Huge loss on taking a soon 22 year old Keegan Murray as 4. If they followed consensus, should have taken Ivey and traded down. Doubly so if we believe the rumors that teams were calling the Pistons at 5 to trade up for Ivey.

Rockets, OKC and Kings all had great drafts.

I'll be a homer and say Toronto. Koloko will be the 2nd best big from this draft class.

LOL brah. **** Genius down here.

I'll be a homer and say Toronto. Koloko will be the 2nd best big from this draft class.

I agree, he will never surpass Walker Kessler.

Losers:
Hated the Spurs draft. They always try to get too cute. They're going to stay mid for years. Sochan is a more grounded Kuzma. #9 is way too high to take him. It's Primo 2.0 where they seemingly take a guy they are in love with half a round too high because they're the smartest guys in the room. Branham can shoot but they are loaded at SG and that's ALL Branham can do is shoot. Then they took yet another combo guard with Blake Wesley? And he CAN'T shoot? It's remarkable how inept the Spurs are since Duncan left. It's almost like he masked how overrated Pop is.

While I love Mark Williams I question the pick since they literally just took Kai Jones last season. But maybe they view him as a 4/5 instead of straight center like Williams so I can't hate on the pick too much. I really don't understand why CHA felt the need to trade the #13 pick for a probable much later 2023 pick and a slew of 2nds though, so overall I am not a fan of their draft.

Sochan looks legit-good.
Mark Williams is great--no reason to ever not pick who you believe BPA just because you took a bust at the same position the previous season.

Loser:

OKC: too many wild swings. They need to start just hitting doubles and get back to respectability at this point.

weak. My takes have all passed the test of time lmao. Nice try

Sochan

11-5-3 and shot 24% from three. And I didn't say he was bad just that they reached which they did

Branham

10-3-2 and shot 30% from three. Didn't even shoot which was supposed to be his calling card

Wesley

5-2-3 with a 32% FG and 59% FT

CHA of course IS inept because they again didn't play and develop Kai Jones (and other recent draft picks who they literally spent a lottery pick on the prior draft). How was Jones a bust after a season not given any run? So dumb. And I literally said I loved Williams anyway ha ha ha. And trading out of the draft with all their needs and it being a stronger draft class than 2023 WAS dumb.

[BostonCouchGM]

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

Well no kidding, this is obviously just based on everyone's personal pre draft boards. This feels just as silly. No one's saying these grades are etched in stone forever. Let people have fun and say how teams did relative to their personal board, it's fine

Houston got the guy 17 other teams didn't want at #20, what a steal!

Bucks got the guy 14 other teams didn't want, what a steal!
Nuggets got the guy 40 other teams didn't want, what a steal!

the difference is Whitmore, unlike Giannis and Jokic was considered a consensus top 5 high schooler coming out which makes him dropping very shocking leading to speculation it must have been due to injury or major red flags we weren't aware of.

[Yallbecrazy]

I don't have an opinion on everyone, but I see a few likely losers as in guys who won't be good.

Losers:
Lakers: JHS and Lewis are bad basketball players and in all likelihood won't be in the league in 5 years. At least Lewis has some shooting and athleticism, but he's terrible at everything else.

Houston and Detroit: There's a reason these guys are picking at the top of the draft every year and it seems like they are outsourcing their scouting to Draftexpress or ESPN or whatever. The twins are mystery boxes who could succeed, but are far more likely to be terrible and thus should have been avoided this early. I don't mind Whitmore, I was lower on him than most and think he busts a lot of the time, but has legit upside. However, the fit in Houston is terrible. Too many low IQ players on one roster.

New Orleans: I'm really low on Hawkins. He was the most one dimensional of all the shooters in the draft. He doesn't defend, rebound, score inside the arc and his passing is meh at best. He also got the best looks of any of the shooters in the draft because teams were so worried about UCONN's interior scoring, and they had other shooters too.

[K_chile22]

Agreed. No one knows how this all plays out. No one. Not you, nor I, nor the pros that get paid to do it.

Well no kidding, this is obviously just based on everyone's personal pre draft boards. This feels just as silly. No one's saying these grades are etched in stone forever. Let people have fun and say how teams did relative to their personal board, it's fine

Houston got the guy 17 other teams didn't want at #20, what a steal!

Again, it's just based on peoples personal board and how they evaluated these dudes. Rockets are getting raked over the coals in this thread but it's cool with me because people here did not like those guys pre-draft and that's all this is about. It's just educated guessing. If you're not allowed to say what you think about a draft what's even the point of doing any pre draft eval, just don't even watch the draft and look back in 4 years

[Yuri Vaultin]

One season does not summarize a career.

What a ridiculous call outnamd regurgitation. Lets talk year 5.

[Nuntius]

The only team that had a bad draft, imo, was Charlotte. Passing on Scoot for Brandon Miller is a major mistake, imo, and mistakes at the very top matter a ton. I am also not a fan of Nick Smith. Their two second rounders (Nnaji and Amari Bailey) are fine. Good value in their range, high upside picks. Those are all good. And even Nick Smith, who I don't like, is fine value-wise at #27. It's just that passing on Scoot for Brandon Miller was very bad. So, what could have been a B+ to A- draft became a D+ draft due to that pick.

Other than that, Jett Howard was bit a tad higher than I expected but he really fit a need for Orlando. He simply wasn't my #1 shooting specialist. He was my #3. The Magic did hit a home run with Black at #6, imo, so it's hard to knock them too much. The Black pick matters way more than the choice between shooters. I'd give them a B+.

I would also give my Pacers a B+. Love the Jarace pick at #7 (BPA, imo, after it was revealed that Whitmore had injury concerns), love the Sheppard pick at #26. I would give our 1st round an A. But I absolutely loathe what we did in the mid-second. We traded down from #40 to #47 (for no real return, I may add) and missed the chance to draft an actual player. At #40, there were still players with first round talent there (Maxwell Lewis, Rayan Rupert, Sidy Cissoko, GG Jackson) and not getting a shot at them hurt. Plus, the player we drafted at #47 (Mojave King) had absolutely horrible numbers in the G-League despite being 21 and having 3 years of professional experience. Maybe I'm wrong and he proves to be something in the league but, right now, I **** hate it. It was a real F- move. Overall, we had a B+ draft since even though I hated the moves we made in the mid second, I cannot knock us that hard for it since it was the mid second. We just missed the chance to have an A draft, which is similar to Orlando.

A couple of other thoughts:

A number of posters here seem to not like Jaquez to Miami. I disagree. Jaquez to Miami is an absolutely immaculate fit. I believe that he will be really good for them. He is a Heat culture player, through and through.

Brandin Podziemski is also an amazing fit in Golden State. Is he potentially a reach at #19? Maybe. But teams that still have a title window like Golden State cannot ignore a player that fits as well as Podz does. When you have a title window, reaching for the perfect fit is fine.

Similarly, Denver reached on all their choices. And they reached hard. Hunter Tyson wasn't even supposed to get drafted, based on most mocks. But the Denver wanted players on cheap contracts that can contribute and give them depth and that's what those guys can do. Team situation matters. Had any other team picked those guys at those ranges, it would have been massive reaches. But for Denver? Nope, they're in a position where they need to do exactly that.

Dallas killed it this draft. They managed to shed contract and pick exactly the kind of players they needed. I love OKC trading up to #10 for Wallace as well (and picking up the Bertans deal which is actually a good thing for them). That trade between the two was amazing for both.

[CptCrunch]

This is why this is dumb. This is from 2022. This thread is basically useless.

Rockets: Jabari at 3 was the obvious pick; they leaked too much smoke perhaps on Paolo. Maybe Orlando wanted Paolo since day 1, maybe their smoke got Orlando to reevaluate their big board. They lost the best player in the draft, perhaps not due to fault of their own. However, got great value in Eason at 17, TyTy at 29. Note, I am not saying Jabari at 3 is bad value. Jabari is the #2/3 player this draft.
OKC: Huge loss this draft in reaching hard for Dieng (not first round talent), Jalen (reached hard for late first round talent). Chet at 2 was reasonable; cannot really lose if you take potentially the best player in the draft. If you look at Presti's moves after drafting Westbrook, Durant and Harden, his moves have not been that impressive. Could just be a cat catching a dead mouse situation.

Kings: Huge loss on taking a soon 22 year old Keegan Murray as 4. If they followed consensus, should have taken Ivey and traded down. Doubly so if we believe the rumors that teams were calling the Pistons at 5 to trade up for Ivey.

Rockets, OKC and Kings all had great drafts.

I'll be a homer and say Toronto. Koloko will be the 2nd best big from this draft class.

LOL brah. **** Genius down here.

I'll be a homer and say Toronto. Koloko will be the 2nd best big from this draft class.

I agree, he will never surpass Walker Kessler.

Losers:
Hated the Spurs draft. They always try to get too cute. They're going to stay mid for years. Sochan is a more grounded Kuzma. #9 is way too high to take him. It's Primo 2.0 where they seemingly take a guy they are in love with half a round too high because they're the smartest guys in the room. Branham can shoot but they are loaded at SG and that's ALL Branham can do is shoot. Then they took yet another combo guard with Blake Wesley? And he CAN'T shoot? It's remarkable how inept the Spurs are since Duncan left. It's almost like he masked how overrated Pop is.

While I love Mark Williams I question the pick since they literally just took Kai Jones last season. But maybe they view him as a 4/5 instead of straight center like Williams so I can't hate on the pick too much. I really don't understand why CHA felt the need to trade the #13 pick for a probable much later 2023 pick and a slew of 2nds though, so overall I am not a fan of their draft.

Sochan looks legit-good.
Mark Williams is great--no reason to ever not pick who you believe BPA just because you took a bust at the same position the previous season.

Loser:

OKC: too many wild swings. They need to start just hitting doubles and get back to respectability at this point.

I don't know why you are so miserable in posting snippets when I called Paolo by far the best prospect before the draft, months before and had Jabari as the distant third star. You posting that snippet actually provides support to my post draft first reactions. I've posted my big boards for the past 3 years, and I assure you they have aged better than just about every other board in the mock draft sub-forum. No one gets everything 100%, but by track record is as good as they come over the past few.