2025 Draft Thread

[NatP4]

Flagg is definitely good enough to instantly turn this dumpster fire around- into a respectable/competitive 30ish win team.

He’s the definition of generational.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

5,3,5,6,4 yikes!

4,4,2,3,2.

Not bad for me! Usually I'm the kiss of death.

5,5,4,2,6 -- not much better!

Down with Tankathon! Tankathon is rigged!

2,5,5,1,5

[gesa2]

4,5,5,6,2

[nate33]

I don't think we tank next year. We have a solid 30 win team now, like it or not. Next question is how do you get to 60 wins and championship contention? Flagg is not getting us 30 wins.

I am never, ever going to get excited about a 49 win team ever, ever again. Fool me once, shame on me and all that.

Look at me all "us" and "we", I need to get my head examined

We do NOT have a 30 win team right now. Not even close. 30 wins means we are roughly the 8th-worst team in the league. Can you name the 7 teams worse than us next year? Can you even name 3?

Assuming we don't land Flagg, I'm not sure we're not the worst team in the league again next year. Maybe we beat Charlotte, Brooklyn and/or Utah, but that's it.

[penbeast0]

I went fully bipolar on Tankathon
6,1,6,1,5

[dckingsfan]

I don't think we tank next year. We have a solid 30 win team now, like it or not. Next question is how do you get to 60 wins and championship contention? Flagg is not getting us 30 wins.

I am never, ever going to get excited about a 49 win team ever, ever again. Fool me once, shame on me and all that.
Look at me all "us" and "we", I need to get my head examined

We do NOT have a 30 win team right now. Not even close. 30 wins means we are roughly the 8th-worst team in the league. Can you name the 7 teams worse than us next year? Can you even name 3?

Assuming we don't land Flagg, I'm not sure we're not the worst team in the league again next year. Maybe we beat Charlotte, Brooklyn and/or Utah, but that's it.

Adding on to this... Keefe is really good at tanking. He will be able to get us to tank level even with Flagg.

[pancakes3]

Flagg is definitely good enough to instantly turn this dumpster fire around- into a respectable/competitive 30ish win team.

He’s the definition of generational.

I was thinking about the Flagg hype, and while I think he's a very good prospect, and better than anyone in the last draft class, he's not better than Wemby from just 2 drafts ago - an actual generationally great player. I wouldn't say that Flagg would likely be better than Paolo from 2 drafts ago. He has a chance to be better than Cade, Mobley, Senguin, Wagner, Scottie Barnes in 2021. Would he be better than Ant from 2020? Or Zion/Morant from 2019? SGA/Luka/Brunson in 2018? Tatum from 2017?

Wemby's the only guy out of all those guys that I'd say is generationally great. Flagg can be the cornerstone of a contender but I see him as Tatum with a motor; a guy that does things very well. I don't think he's a guy like Wemby, Giannis, or Jokic who is going to do things that we've never seen before. I'd throw Luka into that list too - he's unique. And maybe Zion when he's healthy.

The other guys are just various levels of all-nba talent who's very good at what they do. Don't get me wrong, I think we'd be lucky to have any number of them, they ain't Wemby.

[AFM]

Flagg I think can easily be better than all of those guys besides Wemby Luka and SGA. ZION? Morant? Zion is approaching bust category and Morant seems more interested in playing laser tag than basketball.

[9 and 20]

Every time I do the tankathon lottery, while the thing is spinning through team logos, I find myself mostly rooting against Utah - even before looking for where we land.

[Zonkerbl]

30 win team next year, AT LEAST. Well, depends on injuries. Right now this is a team that wins a third of their games (27 win pace) and they should improve next year.

Keyshaun George practices his 3 all summer and comes back with a shot he can trust, Sarr bulks up 5-10 lbs and improves his shooting percentage near the basket by 5% and his rebounding, everybody's defense stays at the level they reached by the end of this season. Wildcard will be three point shooting, which this squad is supposed to be pretty good at and yet, outside of Bubbington and Poole, they are pretty meh, Sarr, Keyshaun and Bilal all shooting high twenties/low thirties, not quite good enough. The games they've won are when the three is falling, mostly for Poole but it's infectious.

I think Bilal's three should fall more than it does, I'm not sure what's going on there. He shot 28%. I'm curious to see if that's just who he is or if he can fix it over the summer with reps. The end game for this team is for Keyshaun and Sarr and Bilal to all push their 3pt% closer to 34, 35%. If they can do that, you've got five starters on the court who can hurt you with the three, that's terrifying. That's a 42+ win team, if/when that happens. If our upcoming draft pick is any good, they will sniff 50 wins. Eventually. Not next year, but will be interesting to see if there is any improvement from those three in that particular metric.

[Dat2U]

OK who do you draft in this scenario?

You have the 5th pick. Flagg, Harper, Bailey & Edgecombe are off the board. Who do you draft in this scenario?

5 Kasparas Jakucionis PG/SG |6'6" 205 lbs Freshman 19.1 yrs
6 Khaman Maluach C | 7'2" 250 lbs Freshman 18.8 yrs
7 Kon Knueppel SG/SF | 6'7" 217 lbs Freshman 19.9 yrs
8 Tre Johnson SG | 6'6" 184 lbs Freshman 19.3 yrs
9 Derik Queen C | 6'10" 246 lbs Freshman 20.5 yrs
10 Jeremiah Fears PG | 6'4" 182 lbs Freshman 18.7 yrs
11 Jase Richardson SG/PG | 6'3" 185 lbs Freshman 18.7 yrs
12 Asa Newell PF | 6'10" 205 lbs Freshman 19.7 yrs
13 Egor Demin PG/SG | 6'9" 190 lbs Freshman 19.3 yrs
14 Collin Murray-Boyles PF | 6'7" 231 lbs Sophomore 20.0 yrs
15 Nolan Traore PG | 6'3" 175 lbs International 19.1 yrs
16 Liam McNeeley SF | 6'8" 185 lbs Freshman 19.7 yrs
17 Noa Essengue SF/PF | 6'9" 194 lbs International 18.5 yrs
18 Ben Saraf PG/SG | 6'5" 200 lbs International 19.2 yrs
19 Thomas Sorber PF/C | Georgetown 6'10" 255 lbs Freshman 19.5 yrs

Out of this group, Queen is the oldest and Essengue is the youngest. (by 2 years).

I struggle between choosing Tre Johnson or Jase Richardson at the moment. Jeremiah Fears up there to.

[Benjammin]

At five I'm going Maluach if everything checks out in his workouts.

Sent from my Pixel 9 Pro XL using Tapatalk

[tontoz]

OK who do you draft in this scenario?

You have the 5th pick. Flagg, Harper, Bailey & Edgecombe are off the board. Who do you draft in this scenario?

Tre is an easy call for me.

[nate33]

30 win team next year, AT LEAST. Well, depends on injuries. Right now this is a team that wins a third of their games (27 win pace) and they should improve next year.

You gotta be careful about putting too much stock in late season wins against tanking teams. Yes, we have won 11 of our last 32 games, but that's only by cherry-picking the sample size at the start of that lone 3-game win streak in February. And of those 11 wins, 7 were against shamelessly tanking teams (2 CHO, 2 BRK, UTA, PHI, TOR).

[doclinkin]

Just heard an odd stat about Ace. He shot 44% on contested catch and shoot 3s but only 25% on open catch and shoot 3s.

Weird as hell, but I would chalk it down to just 136 3's shot in college. Bub shot more 3's than that last march alone. I tend to think if the sample size is small enough, and 136 isn't really that much, especially across 30ish games, you can occasionally find really weird silos of trends. As an example with Bub, he hit more 3's on April 3rd, than he hit in the 8 games between March 13th and March 26th combined. Kinda nutty, but it happened.

IIRC it was KD actually talked about this at one point, that it helped with his depth perception sometimes when he had a guy in front of him. He felt he shot better when guarded. Numbers suggest it's kinda true:

https://www.nba.com/stats/players/shots-closest-defender-10?CloseDefDistRange=2-4%20Feet%20-%20Tight&PerMode=Totals&dir=D&sort=FG3M

Basically because he was tall enough that they couldn't bother his vision and mechanics, he was able to use them as iron sights to line up his shot. That players often miss technical FTs for a similar reason.

[doclinkin]

At 5 this front office takes Maluach.

Me I debate between Maluach, Sorber, and CMB. I don't think Sorber lasts to 19, if we want him we will have to take him earlier. Or throw in a few 2nds to trade up. He has the best mesh of youth, stats, and upside. His potential already is showing in his production, but he's still young enough to get better. Not flashy, just reliable and smart. Big enough to add serious power to his game as he grows. IF his medicals check out.

I'd bank on CMB falling a bit after measurements.

[PaulinVA]

Didn't see this posted anywhere. Toppin staying in school.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/college-basketball-star-skips-nba-draft-for-4-million-nil-deal/ar-AA1CCoUD?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhover&cvid=f6cd9c4863644f178c95ab19b1e2370f&ei=8

[Jay81]

I don't think we tank next year. We have a solid 30 win team now, like it or not. Next question is how do you get to 60 wins and championship contention? Flagg is not getting us 30 wins.

I am never, ever going to get excited about a 49 win team ever, ever again. Fool me once, shame on me and all that.

Look at me all "us" and "we", I need to get my head examined

We do NOT have a 30 win team right now. Not even close. 30 wins means we are roughly the 8th-worst team in the league. Can you name the 7 teams worse than us next year? Can you even name 3?

Assuming we don't land Flagg, I'm not sure we're not the worst team in the league again next year. Maybe we beat Charlotte, Brooklyn and/or Utah, but that's it.

If Charlotte stays healthy next year and has a good draft, they could be better than us

[doclinkin]

Flagg is definitely good enough to instantly turn this dumpster fire around- into a respectable/competitive 30ish win team.

He’s the definition of generational.

I was thinking about the Flagg hype, and while I think he's a very good prospect, and better than anyone in the last draft class, he's not better than Wemby from just 2 drafts ago - an actual generationally great player.

I see Flagg as equivalent to a guy like Andre Kirilienko, if AK-47 had a 3pt shot. Now that's a damned good player. And he has leadership qualities that carry him even further in the right situation. But it's not a sure-fire can't miss HOFer the way some clearly are. His advantage is mental, not based on freak athleticism or unstoppable size and power. That's significant, but a guy like Wemby or Duncan had both

[nate33]

Flagg is definitely good enough to instantly turn this dumpster fire around- into a respectable/competitive 30ish win team.

He’s the definition of generational.

I was thinking about the Flagg hype, and while I think he's a very good prospect, and better than anyone in the last draft class, he's not better than Wemby from just 2 drafts ago - an actual generationally great player.

I see Flagg as equivalent to a guy like Andre Kirilienko, if AK-47 had a 3pt shot. Now that's a damned good player. And he has leadership qualities that carry him even further in the right situation. But it's not a sure-fire can't miss HOFer the way some clearly are. His advantage is mental, not based on freak athleticism or unstoppable size and power. That's significant, but a guy like Wemby or Duncan had both

I always thought Kirilenko was overrated. Yeah, he was unique in that he had the capability of occasionally dropping a 5x5 in the box score, but beyond that, he was a fairly underwhelming scorer (15 points per 36 minutes on only slightly above league average efficiency) and extremely turnover prone. And defensively, his help defense was superb but his man defense was only above-average. I'd take, say, Trevor Ariza over Kirilenko as a one-on-one defender.

I think Flagg has a way higher ceiling than Kirilenko. He'll be similar in help defense and man defense, but he's a sturdier rebounder, a better shooter (as you said), and I think he will eventually be a guy you can run an offense through. He may not be Luka-tier as a primary option, but probably somewhere between Avdija of the last 2 months and Tatum.