2024 Draft Thread - Part II

[CntOutSmrtCrazy]

With that being said, even with improved 3-point shooting, Avdija piloted us to the worst record in the NBA. Overcoming his 3-point shooting struggles, just made Avdija a solid role player. My opinion is that he's more valuable to this team in a trade than playing on the floor. Avdija could help a championship contender tomorrow. As for the Wizards, we are years away from being a contender. If you feel like Avdija has star potential, then keep him. But I see him as a role player. Which is why when we gave a drastically larger role, the team fell apart.

So now you blaming Deni for the Zards being a bad team last season. Do you not recognize that the team was bereft of talent? Or was Deni supposed to single-handedly overcome that talent deficit and take the team to the playoffs?

BTW, the team did not fall apart when Deni was given a larger role. It was already a bad team.

In fact, I'd argue that the Zards played some of it's best ball in the last few weeks of the season when Deni played more minutes and took on a larger role.

I posted this in the Deni thread a while back:

We really need to take a moment and appreciate what Deni has done in the final third of the season. He isn't just a rock solid player, he has produced like an All-Star.

Since February 8th, Deni has averaged 19.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.9 assists on a .604 TS%. The team was just -1.2 per 100 possessions in those minutes, so Deni had this talentless roster playing like a 37-win team while he was on the floor.

Expanding on this, he was a career best +6.9 on-off this season. Compare that to any player who played significant minutes and who were with us the entire season including Kuzma (-4.9), Jones (-6.1), Poole (-5.4), Kispert (-3.4), and Coulibaly (-4.4), he was anywhere from +11.3 to +13.0 better than any of those guys.

If you look at On-Court for the entire season Deni was Deni -6.3 (good for about 22-27 wins if you look at team's point diff this season), while everyone of those other players named above including Kuzma (-11.2), Jones (-12.4), Poole (-11.5), Kispert (-10.9), and Coulibaly (-11.7) were all considerably worse.

Deni's minutes basically saved this team from a record crushing abyss. The 23 old kid wasn't the problem on this garbage team. It most certainly shouldn't be used as a cudgel against him.

[DCZards]

Zaccharie Risacher vs Monaco Basketball Game 3

30 minutes
17 points (Team high)
5/11 FG
3/6 3PT
4/5 FT
6 rebounds
0 assist
1 Turnovers
1 Block
1 PF
-4

Well, and so now the problem becomes — why would Atlanta pass on this?

Sarr is a bad consolation prize, I think. Unless he can reliably hit jumpers. Which I don’t see happening. So what is he? Ayton but with less offensive skill? Oof. Gobert but not nearly as dominant defensively? No thanks. A rim runner who can man the middle and switch? Nice to have, but not worth too 3 lottery investment.

I wouldn't be surprised if the teams have Sarr ranked a lot lower than the mocks. It was really one game that put Sarr at the top of the mocks, when he played GLI. Other than that he wasn't that impressive.

Almost all of the mocks have Sarr at #1… #2 in a handful of cases. I seriously doubt that that’s based on a single game.

I could see Atlanta taking Risacher and some teams looking to trade up to get Sarr. Might put the Zards in a nice position.

[Frichuela]

Read on Twitter

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Some praise of Castle’s defensive impact.

[payitforward]

That said, truth is we have no idea how long it will take to build a team that can compete for a title -- which is the expressly-stated purpose of the new leadership triumvirate.

All you can do is make a good move, the right move, then make another one, then try to keep it going.

The single thing we know about this new FO is that they are not afraid to make moves. Of course, Tommy wasn't either -- & he made some good ones too. He was terrible in the draft, however.

That is what I most hope to see change. It'll take a while to get some perspective on the issue. Meanwhile, for me at least, it's more fun to be a Wizards fan than it used to be.

Of course, it’s all just speculation for fun, in this dead period before the draft filled with smokescreens/non-reports. We’ve had the “next right move” discussion plenty of times. Trade Kuzma, acquire more picks, get younger. The confidence level in this FO is through the roof for me personally.

Allow me to visualize turning the corner. Topic, Traore, Dadiet, Coulibaly, Avdija, Butler, Vukcevic. Coached by JJ Reddick. Tatum and SGA hit free agency in the same year that we are paying multiple time all star Deni Avdija an absurd 11 million/year.

LOL!!! You go Nat!!

[NatP4]

Twitter thread includes shot charts from Sarr and Topic as well. Topic shot 62% at the rim this year. Sarr: 63.8% Risacher: 58.9% Dadiet: 70.1% (!!)

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[payitforward]

Fun to watch him!
Wait... what happened to the Topic highlights I was commenting on?

edit -- on previous page....

[Frichuela]

Twitter thread includes shot charts from Sarr and Topic. Topic shot 62% at the rim this year. Sarr: 63.8% Risacher: 58.9% Dadiet: 70.1% (!!)

Read on Twitter

Wow. Risacher is a sharp 3pt shooter from everywhere but from above the break…

[tontoz]

Almost all of the mocks have Sarr at #1… #2 in a handful of cases. I seriously doubt that that’s based on a single game.

I could see Atlanta taking Risacher and some teams looking to trade up to get Sarr. Might put the Zards in a nice position.

The fact is that Sarr wasn't at the top of any mocks prior to this game, which was just an exhibition game. They also played each other two days prior.

Here is the full game. Obviously Holland and Buzelis are playing for GLI.

Watch on YouTube

[NatP4]

Similar situation last year when Scoot Henderson had a big game against Metro 92 (Wemby and Bilal). Highest scoring game of the year for Scoot, was mediocre for the rest of the year.

Leads to highlight reels with “DUEL” written on the thumbnail that get 5 million views. After the game, Wemby and Scoot were 1A and 1B

Watch on YouTube

[DCZards]

Almost all of the mocks have Sarr at #1… #2 in a handful of cases. I seriously doubt that that’s based on a single game.

I could see Atlanta taking Risacher and some teams looking to trade up to get Sarr. Might put the Zards in a nice position.

The fact is that Sarr wasn't at the top of any mocks prior to this game, which was just an exhibition game. They also played each other two days prior.

Here is the full game. Obviously Holland and Buzelis are playing for GLI.

The GLI-Perth game was last September. Scouts and analysts have had numerous games to evaluate Sarr—and other potential 2024 draft picks—since then…and Sarr is still the consensus #1 pick.

That’s an endorsement of Sarr.

[NatP4]

German-1 league (per36)
Franz Wagner: 13.4 points 3.7 rebounds 1.5 assists 2.0 steals 0.2 blocks 1.6 turnovers 65% TS
Pacome Dadiet: 16.2 points 6.1 rebounds 1.7 assists 1.1 steals 0.2 blocks 1.9 turnovers 65% TS

Eurocup (per36)
Franz Wagner: 9.6 points 4.6 rebounds 1.2 assists 1.5 steals 0.2 blocks 0.9 turnovers 58% TS
Pacome Dadiet: 15.2 points 3.7 rebounds 0.9 assists 1.5 steals 0.4 blocks 1.9 turnovers 55% TS

Wagner was a year younger. Dadiet is probably not as good defensively, or as polished as a playmaker, but more scoring upside.

[doclinkin]

"Tank" is just a word. When the ball goes up no one tries to lose.

Tell that to Coach Pop, playing the first half of the season with Sochan at point. And letting Wemby gun from outside.

Or look at our front office, playing for as long as they possibly could with Jordan Poole next to Tyus Jones. Despite all stats saying it was a historically bad pairing. And when Wes was sacrificed as the goat for this action, he was moved up to the front office since he had been a good soldier in the tank.

Teams absolutely do tank with line-ups and roster inefficiencies. We started the year with Muscala and Gallo as our centers.

No _player_ tries to lose, but players on losing teams don't give the same effort as those on squads with a different outlook.

[doclinkin]

There are people in this thread 4x as old as Deni.

Thanks for that, but not quite there...

In roster math I think my guy PIF is about 4 Coulibaliys old. I'm PIF minus a Tyus Jones or thereabouts.

[doclinkin]

Twitter thread includes shot charts from Sarr and Topic. Topic shot 62% at the rim this year. Sarr: 63.8% Risacher: 58.9% Dadiet: 70.1% (!!)

Read on Twitter

Wow. Risacher is a sharp 3pt shooter from everywhere but from above the break…

The volume is impressive to me though, when you compare the shot totals of the four.

Risacher ht a nice 45% on 64 shots from the elbow extended (euro distance) and 53% on 36 shots from the left corner. Those shots are available in the NBA. His outside shot to paint ratio is almost exactly 50/50. Kid took nothing but good shots at a high volume output in a league that subs players in and out more freely than the NBA.

[Frichuela]

Interesting analysis about the struggles of Sarr at the rim…Given the latest string of performances by Risacher plus the rumors that Hunter could be on the trading block by ATL, I have a feeling Sarr may drop to #2..

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[NatP4]

Read on Twitter

[tontoz]

Almost all of the mocks have Sarr at #1… #2 in a handful of cases. I seriously doubt that that’s based on a single game.

I could see Atlanta taking Risacher and some teams looking to trade up to get Sarr. Might put the Zards in a nice position.

The fact is that Sarr wasn't at the top of any mocks prior to this game, which was just an exhibition game. They also played each other two days prior.

Here is the full game. Obviously Holland and Buzelis are playing for GLI.

The GLI-Perth game was last September. Scouts and analysts have had numerous games to evaluate Sarr—and other potential 2024 draft picks—since then…and Sarr is still the consensus #1 pick.

That’s an endorsement of Sarr.

That doesn't change what actually happened. He wasn't at the top of the mocks until an exhibition game, which was the highlight of his season.

The top prospects at that time, Buzelis and Holland, didn't have great seasons. Basically all the top prospects prior to the season haven't played well.

[TGW]

According to the wiretap, it's Sarr or Risaccher.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/275882/Wizards-Looking-To-Re-Sign-Tyus-Jones;-Deciding-Between-Drafting-Alex-Sarr-Zaccharie-Risacher-With-No-2-Pick

And no, I don't think it's a smoke screen. I think those are the consensus top 2 picks right now.

[Frichuela]

Read on Twitter

Yep. Trading Kuzma for a pick in the 9-15 range should be under strong consideration.

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[Frichuela]

According to the wiretap, it's Sarr or Risaccher.

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/275882/Wizards-Looking-To-Re-Sign-Tyus-Jones;-Deciding-Between-Drafting-Alex-Sarr-Zaccharie-Risacher-With-No-2-Pick

And no, I don't think it's a smoke screen. I think those are the consensus top 2 picks right now.

Yep. Looks like our front office will take whoever of those 2 ATL does not pick.

On the Tyus Jones front, I would not resign him. Watching Tyus and Poole play together is torture. Please don’t