2025 Draft Thread

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I hear that. I think Riley is a good younger comp. I wouldn’t be upset at all with him at 26. I do wonder if he’ll ever be able to play any defense.

I don't worry about his defense at all.

Remember Rip Hamilton as a rookie Wizard? He had a bad reputation defensively. Stupid Wizards didn't see his potential. Detroit Rip Hamilton became a good defender and a beast offensively once he started scoring threes to add with his off ball movement. Riley is a beast who will succeed like Hamilton did.

Will Riley https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_Riley is worthy of a lottery pick.

Dat2U, he's from Canada. He's a 6'8" SG. I think he's easily a top-10 pick.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I get Queen got the GW shot, but all I see is an undersized forward who's too slow footed to bring it defensively in the NBA. He's going to be BBQ chicken at the next level.

You just don't like fat guys.

There's no way in hell he's undersized at forward. Take a look at the screen capture of his game winner. Queen has arms a mile long. His coach called him 6'10". That's not far off.

Girth is also a measure of size. Queen is of massive girth, like Wes Useld was.

[Dat2U]

Is it that you don't see Bailey's potential or that you see it but you don't think he'll reach it?

I see potential ... to be a potential 3rd option. Maybe a taller, less athletic J.R. Smith or a post-injury version of Michael Porter Jr.

The basis of this is that I tie potential to IQ and high-speed processing. The ability to read and see the floor at a higher level that others. If To be blunt, Derik Queen has more star potential to me than Ace Bailey. Now Derik has some red flags defensively and with his motor that give me extreme pause but has an elite processor that Ace will never have.

I'm not calling Ace stupid or saying he's an idiot, but to be honest, he strikes me as a basketball novice out there in a wonderful tool kit who doesn't have a clue of how to best use his resources as of yet.

He can absolutely learn and improve and become more cerebral in his on-court approach but I would be fool to expect him to eventually turn water into wine.

I think his intersection of upside & skill meets a certain threshold around late lottery where his ability outweighs his shortcomings, but I have hard time betting a top 5 pick on him living up to that draft standing.

What are you basing his lack of processing and b-ball iq on?

Overall decision making on the ball, tunnel vision, shot selection, remedial court vision when he does pass. Seems to lack awareness * attention to detail on defense if he's not completely locked in. All things that can be worked on and improved to an extent but he's never going to be a cerebral player IMO. Will likely always have some questionable decision making moments.

[Dat2U]

I get Queen got the GW shot, but all I see is an undersized forward who's too slow footed to bring it defensively in the NBA. He's going to be BBQ chicken at the next level.

You just don't like fat guys.

There's no way in hell he's undersized at forward. Take a look at the screen capture of his game winner. Queen has arms a mile long. His coach called him 6'10". That's not far off.

Girth is also a measure of size. Queen is of massive girth, like Wes Useld was.

Queen is a C unless he remakes his body. I think to best take advantage of his skill set, you want him up against other Cs.

I have no issues with Queen offensively. I think he's as polished a 20 yr old I've seen at 6-10 in recent memory. I think the shooting stroke looks good and he'll be fine from 3 in time. All my questions are on the defensive end and with his low revving motor. I've seen him go through the motions on D with low effort. Because of this I would not take him high in the lottery, however as we get later into the 1st round, he starts to become a real value.

I think he's the perfect guy to acquire an extra pick to get.... as long as it doesn't cost a ton to do it. I do think him and Sarr would make an interest pairing as they appear to have strengths that offset each others weaknesses.

[Rafael122]

I get Queen got the GW shot, but all I see is an undersized forward who's too slow footed to bring it defensively in the NBA. He's going to be BBQ chicken at the next level.

You just don't like fat guys.

There's no way in hell he's undersized at forward. Take a look at the screen capture of his game winner. Queen has arms a mile long. His coach called him 6'10". That's not far off.

Girth is also a measure of size. Queen is of massive girth, like Wes Useld was.

Queen is a C unless he remakes his body. I think to best take advantage of his skill set, you want him up against other Cs.

I have no issues with Queen offensively. I think he's as polished a 20 yr old I've seen at 6-10 in recent memory. I think the shooting stroke looks good and he'll be fine from 3 in time. All my questions are on the defensive end and with his low revving motor. I've seen him go through the motions on D with low effort. Because of this I would not take him high in the lottery, however as we get later into the 1st round, he starts to become a real value.

I think he's the perfect guy to acquire an extra pick to get.... as long as it doesn't cost a ton to do it. I do think him and Sarr would make an interest pairing as they appear to have strengths that offset each others weaknesses.

This is where I'm at as well. On offense, he'll be fine, but unless he improves his conditioning and puts in the work on the defensive side, he will be an 18-20 mpg/back up 5 type of player. I believe ESPN had him going 10th in their last mock.

[closg00]

On Queen and Sarr, there’s a difference between a twig like Alex growing into his body, and a wide body like Derik doing the same, so there is some risk there. I agree with Raf, Derik is lumbering and slow currently, as he is, he wouldn’t do well against NBA Centers. But! A lean, mean, muscled Derik Queen could be formidable in the future, love that he wanted the ball with the game on the line, that’s the kind of player you want on your team if his body works out.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I get Queen got the GW shot, but all I see is an undersized forward who's too slow footed to bring it defensively in the NBA. He's going to be BBQ chicken at the next level.

You just don't like fat guys.

There's no way in hell he's undersized at forward. Take a look at the screen capture of his game winner. Queen has arms a mile long. His coach called him 6'10". That's not far off.

Girth is also a measure of size. Queen is of massive girth, like Wes Useld was.

Queen is a C unless he remakes his body. I think to best take advantage of his skill set, you want him up against other Cs.

I have no issues with Queen offensively. I think he's as polished a 20 yr old I've seen at 6-10 in recent memory. I think the shooting stroke looks good and he'll be fine from 3 in time. All my questions are on the defensive end and with his low revving motor. I've seen him go through the motions on D with low effort. Because of this I would not take him high in the lottery, however as we get later into the 1st round, he starts to become a real value.

I think he's the perfect guy to acquire an extra pick to get.... as long as it doesn't cost a ton to do it. I do think him and Sarr would make an interest pairing as they appear to have strengths that offset each others weaknesses.

I get Queen got the GW shot, but all I see is an undersized forward who's too slow footed to bring it defensively in the NBA. He's going to be BBQ chicken at the next level.

You just don't like fat guys.

There's no way in hell he's undersized at forward. Take a look at the screen capture of his game winner. Queen has arms a mile long. His coach called him 6'10". That's not far off.

Girth is also a measure of size. Queen is of massive girth, like Wes Useld was.

Queen is a C unless he remakes his body. I think to best take advantage of his skill set, you want him up against other Cs.

I have no issues with Queen offensively. I think he's as polished a 20 yr old I've seen at 6-10 in recent memory. I think the shooting stroke looks good and he'll be fine from 3 in time. All my questions are on the defensive end and with his low revving motor. I've seen him go through the motions on D with low effort. Because of this I would not take him high in the lottery, however as we get later into the 1st round, he starts to become a real value.

I think he's the perfect guy to acquire an extra pick to get.... as long as it doesn't cost a ton to do it. I do think him and Sarr would make an interest pairing as they appear to have strengths that offset each others weaknesses.

Queen is "a special one," as Rodney Rice called him.

Agreed that C is his best position. As for the low revving motor, okay. You don't go high lottery on the perception that he doesn't bring it.

I think he is a lot better than what he's shown so far. Queen is like Jim Brown was. He loafs when he wants to. The guy is a perimeter ball hawk. He gets steals at half court. He completely shut down Clifford when he matched up one-on-one. He makes timely blocks.

Queen has guard skills. He epitomizes positionless basketball offensively. His passing and newly-developing perimeter skills outweigh his defensive deficiencies at either PF or C.

Queen works smart. Whatever it takes, he kills it at working in order to improve. He brings a lot of joy and passion plus a lunch pale and a hard hat.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

On Queen and Sarr, there’s a difference between a twig like Alex growing into his body, and a wide body like Derik doing the same, so there is some risk there. I agree with Raf, Derik is lumbering and slow currently, as he is, he wouldn’t do well against NBA Centers. But! A lean, mean, muscled Derik Queen could be formidable in the future, love that he wanted the ball with the game on the line, that’s the kind of player you want on your team if his body works out.

Derik would take modern centers to the top of the key and do a dance. Rudy Gobert would trip as he crossed him, or he'd back up and watch DQ splash a jumper. Chet would get bullied. Jokic can't check Queen.

I guess I'm going full Morris Almond on this. Mike Sweetney. Josh Childress.

I think Queen is the best C in this class, but Maluach is much more of a high floor player.

I HOPE QUEEN FALLS TO #9, so the Spurs can win 5 championships in a row with Wemby, Castle, and QUEEN at PF.

To say Queen can't play PF is to totally ignore what he's doing at Maryland with Julian Reese. (DQ is the 4 on defense)

[DCZards]

I said in a previous post that Queen often comes across as “disinterested” on D. That, combined with his lack of foot speed, knocks him down a few notches, imo.

But his extremely advanced offensive skills will likely result in him being drafted in the 8-12 range, which makes sense to me.

If there’s a player who comes to mind when I watch Queen it’s KAT. Great offense, mediocre D.

[prime1time]

I see potential ... to be a potential 3rd option. Maybe a taller, less athletic J.R. Smith or a post-injury version of Michael Porter Jr.

The basis of this is that I tie potential to IQ and high-speed processing. The ability to read and see the floor at a higher level that others. If To be blunt, Derik Queen has more star potential to me than Ace Bailey. Now Derik has some red flags defensively and with his motor that give me extreme pause but has an elite processor that Ace will never have.

I'm not calling Ace stupid or saying he's an idiot, but to be honest, he strikes me as a basketball novice out there in a wonderful tool kit who doesn't have a clue of how to best use his resources as of yet.

He can absolutely learn and improve and become more cerebral in his on-court approach but I would be fool to expect him to eventually turn water into wine.

I think his intersection of upside & skill meets a certain threshold around late lottery where his ability outweighs his shortcomings, but I have hard time betting a top 5 pick on him living up to that draft standing.

What are you basing his lack of processing and b-ball iq on?

Overall decision making on the ball, tunnel vision, shot selection, remedial court vision when he does pass. Seems to lack awareness * attention to detail on defense if he's not completely locked in. All things that can be worked on and improved to an extent but he's never going to be a cerebral player IMO. Will likely always have some questionable decision making moments.

Compare Anthony Edwards and Ace Bailey on decision making, tunnel vision, shot selection and remedial court vision going into the draft. Were they really that different? Like Edwards coming out of college was a 40/29/77 guy. He had played on a bad team, teams overloaded him and he had to make the most out of a bad situation. Now Edwards is an elite player. Ace has too many things that can't be coached or improved to overly knock things that can be improved. Skipping Ace for role players is a franchise altering decision that I don't think most GMs would be willing to do.

[dckingsfan]

On Queen and Sarr, there’s a difference between a twig like Alex growing into his body, and a wide body like Derik doing the same, so there is some risk there. I agree with Raf, Derik is lumbering and slow currently, as he is, he wouldn’t do well against NBA Centers. But! A lean, mean, muscled Derik Queen could be formidable in the future, love that he wanted the ball with the game on the line, that’s the kind of player you want on your team if his body works out.

So, he should go to Miami

[doclinkin]

8. F Ace Bailey

[...]

I tie potential to IQ and high-speed processing. The ability to read and see the floor at a higher level that others. If To be blunt, Derik Queen has more star potential to me than Ace Bailey. Now Derik has some red flags defensively and with his motor that give me extreme pause but has an elite processor that Ace will never have.

I'm not calling Ace stupid or saying he's an idiot, but to be honest, he strikes me as a basketball novice out there [with] a wonderful tool kit who doesn't have a clue of how to best use his resources as of yet.

I see him as still a kid. Derik Queen is 2 years older. Ace won't turn 19 until training camp this year. 2 years is a world of difference when it comes to maturity, awareness, and in basketball life: a few thousand reps, dozens of high level games. Queen had 3 years at basketball academy Montverde, playing with Flagg and all. Doubtless he is ahead of other younger freshmen.

It's tough to get a read on how Ace will develop over time, though it is fair to critique his roller coaster season this year. He started slow, got better and showed the talent that made him the #2 prospect, then slid a bit as the season progressed. He was game to play a frontcourt role, despite his slender build and youth. In that he performed surprisingly well. While still looking like a kid out there.

Granted, some part of what boosts Flagg to #1 overall is his evident all-court smarts and processing speed despite his youth.

Still, I expect the only way this front office passes up Ace 3-5 is if they rate Maluach higher. Long, talented, young, raw, two-way player. I think they'd live with his offensive tunnel vision since he would be surrounded by ball movement types around him. Put it this way, if you see him as a 6'10" shooting guard, you'd take him as an upgrade for Poole at that position. Both may take ridiculous shots at times, but Ace will also play lock in defense, rebound, and block shots. Ace has upside where out of pure athleticism and size he is often actually hitting those ridiculous shots. If he takes a little longer to develop, that's fine, serves the purposes of earning a high pick the following year.

But belying this take ^^^ (age is nuttin but a number). BBIQ wise take a look at my guy Alvaro Folgueiras. Horizon conference POTY. Only 19, he turns 20 this weekend, sophomore Spaniard plays like a long time Euro vet. 6'10" long armed quick-processing swiss army knife forward. Criminally overlooked due to small school, strength of schedule. But you can see his mental hardware is running way faster than anyone else on the court in that conference. Stands out in his advanced metrics.

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/alvaro-folgueiras-1.html

Some of his floor reads remind me of Ginobili. In the way that sometimes he's seeing the floor too quick for his teammates to keep up. No hesitation between offense and defense, he'll block a shot or force a miss and instantly turn it to an upcourt break. Soccer player understanding of playing the angles and spaces on the court, offense and defense. Here in the Horizon league finals:

Watch on YouTube

[closg00]

Checked-in with the Tankathon sim and it was a brutal visit:

10 sims:

1. 1
2. 1
3. 1
4. 1
5. 6

[closg00]

Aggregate 2025 NBA Mock Draft 4.0: The best centers available

Interesting takes, Queen #1
https://hoopshype.com/lists/aggregate-2025-nba-mock-draft-4-0-the-best-centers-available/

[Kanyewest]

Dumb sports talk saying that Flagg should stay back to not be selected by the Wizards/Hornets by the LeBatard show. I wonder if he could name 3 Wizards on the Roster. Even the Hornets have Ball and Miller.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I said in a previous post that Queen often comes across as “disinterested” on D. That, combined with his lack of foot speed, knocks him down a few notches, imo.

But his extremely advanced offensive skills will likely result in him being drafted in the 8-12 range, which makes sense to me.

If there’s a player who comes to mind when I watch Queen it’s KAT. Great offense, mediocre D.

In Ratatouille style, if you mixed the following ingredients:

KAT, Al Jefferson, Naz Reid, Nikola Jokic, Jared Sullinger, Caleb Swanigan, and Mike Sweetney plus a touch of MAGIC JOHNSON

You get DQ.

[spaceman_E]

38. F Bogoljub Markovic

It's rude to type with your mouth full

[SUPERBALLMAN]

I jumped on to see what you all think of Nique. He looks like an NBA sure thing to me. Will he be there with our 2nd pick? Would you all draft him?

He's 23.

Queen is 20.

True that. But Queen won’t be there at 26. Clifford might. Would you take him there?

I would take him with our 2nd pick.

I love his size & athleticism at the 2, his feel for the game and passing, 2 way ability & versatile game. Don't love that he's 23, but depending on who we take 1st and how the rest of the draft goes, who enters the draft & who's on the board when we pick, I wouldn't rule him out.

Watch on YouTube

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Considering we don't have the excitement of the Wizards in the playoffs this year, watching basketball right now from a Wizards fan perspective is so great!

1st off we have the Wizards games, where they've reached the "evaluation" point in the season playing young upside guys we don't usually get the opportunity to see in any kind of extended competitive context, like AJ Johnson, Tristan Vukcevic, Colby Jones, JT Thor.

Then we have March Madness and all these great college games, giving us the opportunity to view Wizards draft prospects in the highest competitive situations against top level competition. Watching Fears vs UConn, Edgecombe vs Duke, and Queen taking the game winning shot. As far as watching and evaluating young prospects that could possibly be a part of the Wizards future, this time is fun, and gives us Wizards fans a reason to be optimistic about what's to come.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

A couple of recent Mock Drafts...

Collin Murray-Boyles to the Wizards at 5?

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube