2021 Draft Thread - Part II

[pcbothwel]

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Those who wanted Sengun... ya'll were right

I STILL cannot understand how people overlooked him. The skill, instincts, hands, and production at his age clearly showed a top 10 pick.

[FAH1223]

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Those who wanted Sengun... ya'll were right

I STILL cannot understand how people overlooked him. The skill, instincts, hands, and production at his age clearly showed a top 10 pick.

And Ime Udoka has him playing much better on D.

[NatP4]

Is it too soon to revisit Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green, and Jonathan Kuminga??

Jalen Suggs has turned into one of the best guards in the NBA. Major steal at 5.

[gambitx777]

I am always and forever gonna be weary of those 6-8 magically unicorn 1-5 PGs who can't shoot.

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[nate33]

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Those who wanted Sengun... ya'll were right

I STILL cannot understand how people overlooked him. The skill, instincts, hands, and production at his age clearly showed a top 10 pick.

I can.

It's been a longstanding belief that you can't win with a center who can't protect the rim, no matter how good he is on offense. Jokic was the exception, but even he hadn't won as of the 2021 draft despite being arguably the best offensive talent in league history.

Also, Sengun was just 6-9 at the time of the draft so he didn't even have Jokic's ability to just be tall and stand in front of the rim. People thought of Sengun as perhaps the next Dario Saric, not the next Jokic/Sabonis.

[AFM]

He's also a white guy from Turkey. He looks like a waiter. Sorry to point out the obvious.

[Dat2U]

If Austin Reaves doesn't get drafted, I'd offer him a two-way deal without hesitation.

What NBA skills does he have - considering he's not a good 3 point shooter?

Excellent ballhandler, decision maker, slasher. Can operate effectively the P&R. Not an athlete but the advanced handle helps him get to the rim. He's not a guy I'm necessarily talking about drafting unless we had a pick in the 50s and others were off the board but as a free agent I think he's absolutely worth a look.

He's been better than I could have imagined.

[TheBlackCzar]

I feel really good about how I evaluated this draft. I was low on Cunningham, Green, Kuminga, Williams, Mitchell, Moody, and Bouknight. Loved Mobley, Suggs(not looking good yet), Giddey, Wagner, and Barnes.

I was very on the record about Wagner and Giddey being better than Green&Kuminga, and that Barnes was going to be a stud and was the best on the board after Mobley/Suggs/Giddey/Wagner.

Also was ridiculously high on Daishen Nix even though he went undrafted. Now looking like a future superstar.

This take didn't age well......

[closg00]

Dat's first draft of draft tiers....

Just a rough draft and always subject to change lol.

Tier One
F Cade Cunningham
C Evan Mobley
G Jalen Green

Tier Two
G Jalen Suggs
F Jonathan Kuminga

Tier Three
G Josh Giddey
F Franz Wagner
G Sharife Cooper
G Davion Mitchell
G Jaden Springer
G James Bouknight

Tier Four
G Jared Butler
F Jalen Johnson
C Isaiah Jackson
F Corey Kispert
G Ayo Dosunmu
G Keon Johnson
G Chris Duarte
F Moses Moody
C Alperen Sengun
F Kai Jones
F Scottie Barnes
F Usman Garuba
G Ayo Dosunmu

Tier Five
G Brandon Boston Jr
F Isaiah Livers
F Trey Murphy III
G Tre Mann
F Filip Petrusev
F Matthew Hurt
G Austin Reaves
G Cameron Thomas
G Quentin Grimes
F Joe Wiescamp
F Hebert Jones
G Joshua Primo
F Ziaire Williams
C Neemias Queta
C Ariel Hukporti
F Isaiah Todd
F Roko Prkacin
G Joel Ayayi
F Johnny Juzang

Tier Six
G Max Abmas
G Nah'Shon Hyland
F Jeremiah Robinson-Earl
G Miles McBride
G Josh Christopher
C Charles Bassey
F Luka Garza
G McKinley Wright IV
C Ibou Badji
F Greg Brown
F Terrence Shannon Jr
G David Duke
F Kessler Edwards
G Jason Preston
F JT Thor
F Marcus Bagley
F Trendon Watford

Very interesting to see who panned out, and who exceeded expectations.

[NatP4]

I feel really good about how I evaluated this draft. I was low on Cunningham, Green, Kuminga, Williams, Mitchell, Moody, and Bouknight. Loved Mobley, Suggs(not looking good yet), Giddey, Wagner, and Barnes.

I was very on the record about Wagner and Giddey being better than Green&Kuminga, and that Barnes was going to be a stud and was the best on the board after Mobley/Suggs/Giddey/Wagner.

Also was ridiculously high on Daishen Nix even though he went undrafted. Now looking like a future superstar.

This take didn't age well......

Really? Definitely missed on Nix, but was high on Scottie Barnes before most anyone. Had Wagner over Kuminga, unlike 99% of people. Had both Wagner&Giddey as a top 10 picks before they were even projected in round 1. Jalen Suggs and Evan Mobley have turned into really good players, obviously.

Mitchell, Williams, Bouknight all turned out to be busts. Moody and Kuminga are alright I guess? Disappointing for being lottery picks. Green and Cunningham have also disappointed relative to draft position/expectations.

[DCZards]

I feel really good about how I evaluated this draft. I was low on Cunningham, Green, Kuminga, Williams, Mitchell, Moody, and Bouknight. Loved Mobley, Suggs(not looking good yet), Giddey, Wagner, and Barnes.

I was very on the record about Wagner and Giddey being better than Green&Kuminga, and that Barnes was going to be a stud and was the best on the board after Mobley/Suggs/Giddey/Wagner.

Also was ridiculously high on Daishen Nix even though he went undrafted. Now looking like a future superstar.

This take didn't age well......

Really? Definitely missed on Nix, but was high on Scottie Barnes before most anyone. Had Wagner over Kuminga, unlike 99% of people. Had both Wagner&Giddey as a top 10 picks before they were even projected in round 1. Jalen Suggs and Evan Mobley have turned into really good players, obviously.

Mitchell, Williams, Bouknight all turned out to be busts. Moody and Kuminga are alright I guess? Disappointing for being lottery picks. Green and Cunningham have also disappointed relative to draft position/expectations.

Yes, you were all over Suggs and props to you. I was high on Cunningham and he’s about to make all-NBA so he’s definitely lived up to expectations.

Not to mention that Cade’s play has been the most significant factor in Detroit’s turn around.

[nate33]

I feel really good about how I evaluated this draft. I was low on Cunningham, Green, Kuminga, Williams, Mitchell, Moody, and Bouknight. Loved Mobley, Suggs(not looking good yet), Giddey, Wagner, and Barnes.

I was very on the record about Wagner and Giddey being better than Green&Kuminga, and that Barnes was going to be a stud and was the best on the board after Mobley/Suggs/Giddey/Wagner.

Also was ridiculously high on Daishen Nix even though he went undrafted. Now looking like a future superstar.

This take didn't age well......

Really? Definitely missed on Nix, but was high on Scottie Barnes before most anyone. Had Wagner over Kuminga, unlike 99% of people. Had both Wagner&Giddey as a top 10 picks before they were even projected in round 1. Jalen Suggs and Evan Mobley have turned into really good players, obviously.

Mitchell, Williams, Bouknight all turned out to be busts. Moody and Kuminga are alright I guess? Disappointing for being lottery picks. Green and Cunningham have also disappointed relative to draft position/expectations.

Yeah, I'd say your takes held up for the most part. I grade more harshly at the top of the draft where being wrong can set back your franchise a couple of years, whereas everyone is going to miss a few late in the draft. Your only real miss at the top of the draft was your negative stance on Cunningham. You surely would have drafted Mobley at #1 which isn't so bad, but I doubt you would have taken Cunningham at #2, which would have been a mistake.

But after that, your affection for Barnes, Suggs, Wagner and Giddey held up well. You were right to like those guys ahead of Green and Kuminga.

[Zonkerbl]

Read on Twitter

Those who wanted Sengun... ya'll were right

I STILL cannot understand how people overlooked him. The skill, instincts, hands, and production at his age clearly showed a top 10 pick.

I can.

It's been a longstanding belief that you can't win with a center who can't protect the rim, no matter how good he is on offense. Jokic was the exception, but even he hadn't won as of the 2021 draft despite being arguably the best offensive talent in league history.

Also, Sengun was just 6-9 at the time of the draft so he didn't even have Jokic's ability to just be tall and stand in front of the rim. People thought of Sengun as perhaps the next Dario Saric, not the next Jokic/Sabonis.

Jokic has boring Tim Duncan positional defense, he's long, he's strong, he's always in the right spot. He protects the rim pillsbury doughboy style.

[NatP4]

IIRC, my take was that Cunningham wasn’t the generational level prospect that he was being made out to be, and that he COULD eventually turn into a Jayson Tatum. No “next Luka Doncic”.

Generally, wasn’t very high on him though. Definitely looks like he’s turning a corner.

[Kanyewest]

Re:Sengun

I bet there were guys that didn't like him but I remember a lot of people in the draft liking him quite a bit like Bill Simmons, Kevin O'Conner, Hollinger, and Mike Schmit in the top 10. Russillo liked him where he was taken.

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=BillSimmons

Now the Rockets have the #4 defense in the league so maybe it is possible to build a team around a non-defensive center on paper (although perhaps playing him with Adams has helped not to mention they have uber athletes like Thompson to hide his weakness).

[The Consiglieri]

Yeah, my thoughts too. When reading up on the prospects from back then, the sense always seemed like Sengun had a higher ceiling than is typical for guys in that double digit teens zone, but with bigs, it's always hard to know. Lots and lots of swings and misses over the years. He was also pretty young for a prospect (still 18 when drafted).

My memory is that he was consistently projected in that like 12-18 area, and he went right smack dab almost perfectly in the middle of it.