2025 Draft Thread

[willbcocks]

Now that Dallas won their feel-good game against the kings, I predict they wilt against memphis. Knock on wood.

[doclinkin]

Now that Dallas won their feel-good game against the kings, I predict they wilt against memphis. Knock on wood.

Dallas takes it. AD. Klay. And the Gafford/Lively combo is enough. Memphis has Ja but he’s going to try to attack the basket with a wall of size in front of him and get bounced. Unibrow cancels JJJ. Klay has experience on Bane. The Dallas bigs can overwhelm the rookie Edey. Unless someone on the Griz has the game of their life the Mavs advance. And the coaching staff is not fighting for their job. A draft pick helps more than another playoff series.

[nate33]

so we are in a bind

if we get Flagg...we likely lose our first round pick to the Knicks

I don't think so.

We only need to finish in the bottom 8 to avoid giving away that pick (and probably the bottom 6 to be safe). That's about 28 wins which is still a 10-game improvement. It's not that hard to tank your way into a bottom 6 finish. Toronto did it this year with a pretty talented roster. The East should be much better next year because Toronto and Philly won't be trying to tank their way into avoiding giving up a pick.

Even with Flagg and some projected improvement from Bilal, Bub and Sarr, I don't think this team is ready to win more than about 30 anyhow, even if Poole, Smart and Middleton play regularly. The team lacks a number one option scorer and we are still very undersized at center.

And if necessary, we can always come up with some phantom injuries down the stretch to ensure a late tank.

[AFM]

It’s a 12 game improvement on the entire year, what did we play at post Kuzma trade?

[DCZards]

Now that Dallas won their feel-good game against the kings, I predict they wilt against memphis. Knock on wood.

Dallas takes it. AD. Klay. And the Gafford/Lively combo is enough. Memphis has Ja but he’s going to try to attack the basket with a wall of size in front of him and get bounced. Unibrow cancels JJJ. Klay has experience on Bane. The Dallas bigs can overwhelm the rookie Edey. Unless someone on the Griz has the game of their life the Mavs advance. And the coaching staff is not fighting for their job. A draft pick helps more than another playoff series.

Agree..with one big quibble. At this point in their careers, Bane is a MUCH better player than Klay...and he's the Griz's most reliable player. (I love Bane's game.) If Memphis is going to beat Dallas it will be on the strength of Bane's play.

[nate33]

It’s a 12 game improvement on the entire year, what did we play at post Kuzma trade?

We were 10-23 post Kuzma trade. That's a 25-win pace.

I think a big factor next year will be the lack of horrible teams. Of our 18 wins last year, 10 came against pathetic teams (4 against CHA, 2 against BRK, 1 against UTA, 1 against PHI, 1 against TOR, and the final game against Miami's G-League roster). We only had 8 wins against actual, functioning franchises. I think there will be much fewer tanking teams next year. Last year was odd because both Philly and Toronto were trying to tank their way out of giving up a protected pick. The only teams I expect to be really bad next year are Utah and Brooklyn. Charlotte may also be bad because they're a poorly run franchise with an injury-prone best player, but they certainly have the talent to be better than us.

[The Consiglieri]

Why do you think the tanking effort will be smaller? The sense I get is that the '26 class is viewed as more talented (at least 1-3) than '25 is. I think the Suns will probably either tank from the jump, or start after the deadline. I'm not sure what Milwaukee or Philly would do, but I'd suspect both will try to compete, at least through the winter trade deadline, but the core group of horror show teams remains: Utah, Washington, Charlotte, not really sure what will happen with Brooklyn and Toronto.

But man, you have Dybantsa, and Peterson vying for 1.01, you've got Boozer, and then you have some dude named Ament whose apparently exploded up the rankings since winter '23-'24 and may make it a 4 player class.

I don't know, it's hard for me to see any of the above teams fighting hard to miss out on that group, especially if they end up on the outside looking in, in terms of the big 2 of this class. Tanking, admittedly, may be the wrong word for what I think I could see, maybe more jokeying for development of kids while keeping the losses piling up is a better way of saying it. I don't think any of those teams save Philly, Phoenix, and Milwaukee would be sad about sitting bottom 3 in losses in April of '26.

Btw, thanks for the win breakdown, I had no idea it was that scale of disparity, kind of opposite side of the coin of us rarely losing in close fashion, kind of makes more sense as a whole that typically we got pounded, and the rare times we didnt were nearly uniformally playing tanking/outright bad teams.

[dobrojim]

After watching the WC 9-10 game, I think DAL
probably wins. MEM cannot let Klay go off. Edey
cannot get in foul trouble and Ja, JJJ and Bane
all have to be really good. Sounds like a DAL win to me.

The other thing I've noticed is the better coached
teams are winning most of the time. I'm not sure
who was better coached between ATL/ORL but
Kerr > MEM coach, Spo > Donovan, Kidd > Christie.

Also home teams have not played well. Except GSW.

[The Consiglieri]

Hugely disappointing if it happens. Currently Dallas is +222, so for those of you convinced Dallas should win, it presents a prime betting opportunity. They aren't heavy underdogs, but they are clear underdogs in the Vegas markets (+6.5 last time I checked, -110). But if you think they'll win, you could play both sides, or just go ML. Either way, if we get heartbreak, at least you can win some money.

[dobrojim]

I'm not a gambler. Sorry.

Back to the Future pt 2.

[dckingsfan]

Hugely disappointing if it happens. Currently Dallas is +222, so for those of you convinced Dallas should win, it presents a prime betting opportunity. They aren't heavy underdogs, but they are clear underdogs in the Vegas markets (+6.5 last time I checked, -110). But if you think they'll win, you could play both sides, or just go ML. Either way, if we get heartbreak, at least you can win some money.

Ja is the variable. If he can play the entire game - that is one thing. If not, quite another.

The trio of our guy Gafford, Lively and AD will dominate the big guy game. Ja would dominate that part of the game. No Ja and no win, IMO.

[nate33]

Why do you think the tanking effort will be smaller? The sense I get is that the '26 class is viewed as more talented (at least 1-3) than '25 is. I think the Suns will probably either tank from the jump, or start after the deadline. I'm not sure what Milwaukee or Philly would do, but I'd suspect both will try to compete, at least through the winter trade deadline, but the core group of horror show teams remains: Utah, Washington, Charlotte, not really sure what will happen with Brooklyn and Toronto.

The Suns and Bucks can't tank because they don't control their picks. Philly tanking for a second season in a row with Embiid, George and Maxey on the roster would be unacceptable. The league would probably fine them. And Toronto didn't trade for and pay Ingram (not to mention Barrett and Barnes) if the goal was to tank.

I really think no more than 3 teams will start the season off with no real desire to make the playoffs: Washington, Utah and Brooklyn. That's it. There are a handful of not-very-good teams who could make a mid-season correction and decide to tank if they had a major injury or an unexpectedly horrible start - teams like Charlotte, Portland, Chicago, New Orleans and Dallas, but they won't start off that way.

[Kanyewest]

Why do you think the tanking effort will be smaller? The sense I get is that the '26 class is viewed as more talented (at least 1-3) than '25 is. I think the Suns will probably either tank from the jump, or start after the deadline. I'm not sure what Milwaukee or Philly would do, but I'd suspect both will try to compete, at least through the winter trade deadline, but the core group of horror show teams remains: Utah, Washington, Charlotte, not really sure what will happen with Brooklyn and Toronto.

But man, you have Dybantsa, and Peterson vying for 1.01, you've got Boozer, and then you have some dude named Ament whose apparently exploded up the rankings since winter '23-'24 and may make it a 4 player class.

I don't know, it's hard for me to see any of the above teams fighting hard to miss out on that group, especially if they end up on the outside looking in, in terms of the big 2 of this class. Tanking, admittedly, may be the wrong word for what I think I could see, maybe more jokeying for development of kids while keeping the losses piling up is a better way of saying it. I don't think any of those teams save Philly, Phoenix, and Milwaukee would be sad about sitting bottom 3 in losses in April of '26.

Btw, thanks for the win breakdown, I had no idea it was that scale of disparity, kind of opposite side of the coin of us rarely losing in close fashion, kind of makes more sense as a whole that typically we got pounded, and the rare times we didnt were nearly uniformally playing tanking/outright bad teams.

The Suns have no incentive to tank since they don't control their pick until 2032.

[GoneShammGone]

Why do you think the tanking effort will be smaller? The sense I get is that the '26 class is viewed as more talented (at least 1-3) than '25 is. I think the Suns will probably either tank from the jump, or start after the deadline. I'm not sure what Milwaukee or Philly would do, but I'd suspect both will try to compete, at least through the winter trade deadline, but the core group of horror show teams remains: Utah, Washington, Charlotte, not really sure what will happen with Brooklyn and Toronto.

But man, you have Dybantsa, and Peterson vying for 1.01, you've got Boozer, and then you have some dude named Ament whose apparently exploded up the rankings since winter '23-'24 and may make it a 4 player class.

I don't know, it's hard for me to see any of the above teams fighting hard to miss out on that group, especially if they end up on the outside looking in, in terms of the big 2 of this class. Tanking, admittedly, may be the wrong word for what I think I could see, maybe more jokeying for development of kids while keeping the losses piling up is a better way of saying it. I don't think any of those teams save Philly, Phoenix, and Milwaukee would be sad about sitting bottom 3 in losses in April of '26.

Btw, thanks for the win breakdown, I had no idea it was that scale of disparity, kind of opposite side of the coin of us rarely losing in close fashion, kind of makes more sense as a whole that typically we got pounded, and the rare times we didnt were nearly uniformally playing tanking/outright bad teams.

The Suns have no incentive to tank since they don't control their pick until 2032.

That is an absolutely astounding fact. Imagine being a Suns fan! <shudder>

I wonder if that is something the league might have to do something about? Some kind of competitive balance pick?

[J-Ves]

Hugely disappointing if it happens. Currently Dallas is +222, so for those of you convinced Dallas should win, it presents a prime betting opportunity. They aren't heavy underdogs, but they are clear underdogs in the Vegas markets (+6.5 last time I checked, -110). But if you think they'll win, you could play both sides, or just go ML. Either way, if we get heartbreak, at least you can win some money.

Might drop $100 on Dallas to hedge my sadness. If we lose that pick I’ll be beside myself as Buckhantz used to say

[Jay81]

we have to tank next year because if we lose our pick to the knicks, we also lose our pick sway from Pheonix. its a no brainer to have to tank

[dobrojim]

I've forgotten. Is Jordan still the owner or in charge
guy in CHA?

[AFM]

I've forgotten. Is Jordan still the owner or in charge
guy in CHA?

He sold almost all of his stake. He owns a small minority now, but no, not in charge.

[badinage]

He wasn’t in charge, even when he was in charge.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

so we are in a bind

if we get Flagg...we likely lose our first round pick to the Knicks

If we dont get flagg...lets say we get Tre Johnson or Ace and probably will be bad enough to be top 3/4 next year...

so would you rather have Flagg

or Tre Johnson and a top 5 pick next year?

is that a dumb way to look at it?

New scouting video on Flagg...

Watch on YouTube