I love to read reports from scouts, or writers who really know NBA basketball. I consider Sam Vecenie of The Athletic to be really good. He published a new mock draft yesterday. He has been given access to workouts by many of these lottery bound players.For this mock he used a simulator to create a draft order (Hornets FELL to #5), but that was just to give a positioning perspective. Regardless, his two biggest observations were in regard to Tre Johnson and Ace Bailey. I will give the link at the bottom, but he’s got me very high on Johnson if we end up 3rd. This is where he projects Tre to go. His observations:
Johnson was the most impressive player I saw working out during my trip to the U.S. He had one of the best shooting workouts I’ve ever seen from a teenage player, showcasing a serious-minded intentionality about how he goes about his craft. He displayed the ability to hit shots off movement at a high level, something that he rarely got the chance to do in an offensive scheme at Texas that could be charitably described as anachronistic but fairly described as hideously archaic. Even within that scheme, Johnson found his way into 19.9 points per game, even if he struggled a bit once he had to foray into the lane because of the team’s lack of spacing and his own still-improving overall strength level.
WOW! That is a player that would seem to slot right into our 4 M’s as a starter, with future star potential.
Sam has the Hornets at 5 drafting Bailey (who slide down below VJ). He sees some concerns about Ace but also gives some support for his potential:
Bailey drops a bit here, but don’t get it twisted: His range still starts at No. 3. I think that it extends a bit further down, though. He remains quite polarizing and has seemed to have borne the brunt of the blame from NBA personnel for Rutgers’ poor season. Yes, he averaged 17.6 points and seven rebounds while shooting 46 percent from the field and 34 percent from 3. But his style of play did not seem wildly conducive to winning basketball. He settles for a lot of long jumpers because he struggles to get all the way to the rim (he has a high handle and high center of gravity that gets knocked off its line a bit too easily). Defensively, he wasn’t always particularly engaged in help situations unless he saw an opportunity to go get the basketball.
And yet, it’s worth noting that Rutgers was a catastrophe when he wasn’t on the court. Even in Big Ten play, they lost Bailey’s minutes by only three points per 100 possessions. When he was off the court, they lost those minutes by 23 points per 100, per CBB Analytics. His presence was clearly helpful, and I think that’s what tracks most for me. Bailey is enormous, he’s long, he is a real shooter and he showed some defensive moments that were very positive in switch situations. I can’t really get him outside of the top five, and I think it would be very reasonable to take him at No. 3.
Sam applies “fit” to some of the teams as a rationale for his picks, so take rankings with a grain of salt. However he has Fears at 11 and Manuach 12th, with Carter Bryant jumping up to 9th.
Link to the article:
https://www.nba.com/news/the-athletic-2025-nba-mock-draft-050225I continue to wait...and hope...for the return to Hornet's glory.
