2025 NBA Draft Discussion Part 7

[WuTang_CMB]

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[Spates]

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I'll be so mad if we pass on this dude.

Not really seeing the fit. He’s gonna be off ball and I’m not gonna be confident in him taking 8-10 3’s in a high stakes game because he’s left open

He'd be under team control for a minimum of 5 years. I'm not sold on the raps being particularly good next year so there might not be many high stakes games.

[Dalek]

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lol gotta be careful with your words. We ain’t drafting him.

The Queen PR campaign in full effect. He seems like a typical AAU kid. Hasn't travelled much and is treated like royalty since age 12 so he is a little full of himself. Maybe you need an ego like that to succeed, but I like the humble guys who are respectful. This is him in front of a national audience.

[Indeed]

Those numbers made me a bit skeptical of if he'll be played off the court defensively being that slow.

I'm now at Queen or Jak at 9 with some thought to moving down and getting another asset and one of Fleming or Bryant.

I think you could argue if Jak just sat the rest of the year after he injured his forearm in January and had started playing worse, he would have remained in top 5, top 6 convos just off the stretch from end of Nov to mid Jan where his team went 8-2 and he averaged 20/5/5 (and 4 TOs) on 51/46/89 shooting taking 6 3's a game. Turnovers were an eye sore but thats incredible stuff

That guy is still in there and I think he's being too underrated now with where he's falling to in the draft.

I don't understand how is Bryant this low. I think he might even be picked before us.

Perhaps you can explain why Bailey is better than Bryant if you think Bryant is that low.

Aces shot making is elite when it’s at its best. Bryant had better efficiency numbers, but also on lower volume with a reduced role. I’m sure if Bryant had more offensive responsibility his numbers would look pretty bad.


I think Carter is more a high-end role player ala Gordon on the Nuggets

Bailey is not efficient. How do you define "at its best", only count those he makes? He is shooting against contested shots.

[Indeed]

If we didn’t have Scottie I’d be in on CMB. Mogbo isn’t good enough to make us pass on a guy, but with Scottie it makes little sense to draft CMB.

Trade Barnes for Giannis and keep the #9 pick for CMB if we love him as a player

They can coexist and there's still time for them to develop a shot especially the teenager who hasn't played in the NBA yet and has shown absolute elite touch (outlier) around the rim.
Also, Barnes isn't playing the entire game and when he's on the floor will have possessions where he isn't the focal point as like every other player can't have 100% usage.

These aren't decisions you have to make now, and for me I have CMB so far above everyone not named VJ, Cooper, or Dylan in this draft that passing on him for perceived fit issues (even though he fits the system really well) would be a major mistake.

They cannot co-exist contract wise.
3 point shooting would be horrible with both of them.

I don't see why Giannis wants to come to a team that is not designed for him and have someone near max at his position.
Look at how Milwaukee construct the lineup on his championship run, shooters in Lopez / Portis at C, Middleton at SF, all above average shooters.

[AkelaLoneWolf]

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makes sense. why wouldn't you want to have a cost controlled asset for 8 years in a small market team.

[SpezNc]

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I know I should not judge him on a sentence. But I don’t know even if we all know that NBA is a business and it was probably only a joke, it’s a bit of a disqualifier for me. Not really a disqualifier but I am cooling down.

Compare with Gradey when he said when prompted that he was not thinking about taxes at the moment. That was a mature response. A bit like not something to worry today.

Queen is saying that without being prompted on the subject…

Of course money matters for all players. And taxes will come in play at some point.

But I think a player should at least pretend it’s not important when you are in your drafting process.

Try to find the best cultural fit. Not thinking which teams has higher / lower taxes.

[Yallbecrazy]

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I'll be so mad if we pass on this dude.

Not really seeing the fit. He’s gonna be off ball and I’m not gonna be confident in him taking 8-10 3’s in a high stakes game because he’s left open

He'd be under team control for a minimum of 5 years. I'm not sold on the raps being particularly good next year so there might not be many high stakes games.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. He learned this past season how to score quickly vs slower guys and no one smaller than him is stopping him down low so if there's a scramble and he's left open as the defense rotates he doesn't have to shoot right away while open to punish the defense if the guy rotating to him is a guard or a slower big. Teams tried to double him so much this past year as his teammates were so bad he learned to make quick passes or initiate his offense before the double could get there.

[Dalek]

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I know I should not judge him on a sentence. But I don’t know even if we all know that NBA is a business and it was probably only a joke, it’s a bit of a disqualifier for me. Not really a disqualifier but I am cooling down.

Compare with Gradey when he said when prompted that he was not thinking about taxes at the moment. That was a mature response. A bit like not something to worry today.

Queen is saying that without being prompted on the subject…

Of course money matters for all players. And taxes will come in play at some point.

But I think a player should at least pretend it’s not important when you are in your drafting process.

Try to find the best cultural fit. Not thinking which teams has higher / lower taxes.

Dude is thinking about his pocket over basketball. At least CMB knows players on the team and is familiar. He is such an easy fit culture wise, but we just can't add another non-shooter, can we?

[Dalek]

Second round news: Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud 20 PTS, 9 REB, 3 AST in the Combine scrimmage. Tahaad Pettiford 23 points (including 4-of-8 from deep) and 8 assists. At 39, I maybe like him more than the other lotto guards. Koby Brea 1-7 from three (welcome to the almost NBA moment). Miles Byrd 11 points (3-6 from three) plus 4 assists - interesting!

[UnbelievablyRAW]

I don't understand how is Bryant this low. I think he might even be picked before us.

Perhaps you can explain why Bailey is better than Bryant if you think Bryant is that low.

Aces shot making is elite when it’s at its best. Bryant had better efficiency numbers, but also on lower volume with a reduced role. I’m sure if Bryant had more offensive responsibility his numbers would look pretty bad.


I think Carter is more a high-end role player ala Gordon on the Nuggets

Bailey is not efficient. How do you define "at its best", only count those he makes? He is shooting against contested shots.

I'm evaluating him on his ability to take on the role he was given within the context of the team he was on. He was inefficient because he was put into a creator role with no real offense or team construction that benefited him. I also think he lacks the tools as of now to take on that role so it made him look worse than he is. Both him and Harper would have looked much better on better teams which I think will be evident once they start up in the NBA.

When I say "at his best" I'm speaking of the flashes of high volume scoring excellence at his size. Its not consistent, but if it was he'd be the far and away number 1 pick.

I think if Ace was in the same role as Carter and only took open C&S 3's fed to him or transition attempts, his efficiency would look a lot better. Taking 5 shots a game in total and a usage of 16% also delineates one from the other in terms of potential ceiling

[SpezNc]

The Toronto Raptors fell from seventh to ninth in the lottery but have historically selected well in this position several times.

“Tracy McGrady. DeMar DeRozan. Jakob Poeltl,” as Raptors executive Masai Ujiri recounted previous Raptors selections at No. 9 overall. “We’ll be fine. I guarantee you we’ll be fine.”

With a healthy Brandon Ingram in the fold for next season, Ujiri and the organization are looking for a marked improvement.

“Continue to grow as a team,” Ujiri said regarding expectations for next season. “Everybody make a jump and see. Get BI (Ingram) back healthy and see how we all gel together. I think it’ll be great.”

Toronto will have some frontcourt decisions to make this offseason first, including what to do with RJ Barrett’s future, whether to extend center Jakob Poeltl, and whether or not they’ll re-sign Chris Boucher.

As previously reported on HoopsHype, the Raptors discussed trading Barrett in trade talks for Ingram before the Pelicans went with another package.

Poeltl is owed $19.5 million for the 2025-26 season and has a player option for the same figure for the 2026-27 season. Should Poeltl not get an extension done with Toronto, a team such as the Los Angeles Lakers – who are seeking an upgrade at center – could have trade interest. Poeltl has previously signaled he’d like to get an extension done and remain a Raptor, if possible, and Ujiri called him a “backbone” during his exit media availability.

Boucher, the longest-tenured Raptor, is valued and well-liked by many in Toronto’s organization. The question is if Ujiri wants to see more of what Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle can do with more minutes, a scenario he also alluded to during his exit media availability.

With all this in mind, a rookie big man such as Derik Queen could make sense for Toronto.

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I could be wrong but I don’t think we have the official luxury tax threshold but at the moment including the 120% max value to pick #9 and incl. Lawson (I think he is non guaranteed) I have 185,9M of projected salaries for 13 players while luxury threshold should be around 187,9M.

Without waiving Lawson or doing any trade, bringing Chris Bouchard back (or Temple for that matters) could means being over luxury tax to start the season.

It’s does not really matters because we can then shed some salary during next deadline but still an element to considers.

My feeling is that we will give the minimum salary for a 2nd rounder with pick #39, we add min veteran salary as 15th player, we don’t trade RJ during summer and we start season over luxury tax.

Then depending how the season is going we do a trade (Barrett or Ochai) next deadline to bring us below luxury tax.

Obviously I could be wrong and we are active this off season and we unload Barrett this summer OR we start next season with 13 or 14 players instead of 15.

[UnbelievablyRAW]

Not really seeing the fit. He’s gonna be off ball and I’m not gonna be confident in him taking 8-10 3’s in a high stakes game because he’s left open

He'd be under team control for a minimum of 5 years. I'm not sold on the raps being particularly good next year so there might not be many high stakes games.

There's more than one way to skin a cat. He learned this past season how to score quickly vs slower guys and no one smaller than him is stopping him down low so if there's a scramble and he's left open as the defense rotates he doesn't have to shoot right away while open to punish the defense if the guy rotating to him is a guard or a slower big. Teams tried to double him so much this past year as his teammates were so bad he learned to make quick passes or initiate his offense before the double could get there.

By no means did I do a deep dive but from what I've seen he's mostly a physical scorer in the paint. Not sure how successful that will be in the NBA against guys bigger and stronger than him.

He's likely to play as a small 4, but again his lack of shooting makes it hard to play him and another non-shooter. We're already one of the worst shooting teams in the league.

If we were Indiana or something I'd be all over getting someone like Boyles to play the 3 next to Hali and all the shooting he'd be surrounded with.

[Dalek]

The Toronto Raptors fell from seventh to ninth in the lottery but have historically selected well in this position several times.

“Tracy McGrady. DeMar DeRozan. Jakob Poeltl,” as Raptors executive Masai Ujiri recounted previous Raptors selections at No. 9 overall. “We’ll be fine. I guarantee you we’ll be fine.”

With a healthy Brandon Ingram in the fold for next season, Ujiri and the organization are looking for a marked improvement.

“Continue to grow as a team,” Ujiri said regarding expectations for next season. “Everybody make a jump and see. Get BI (Ingram) back healthy and see how we all gel together. I think it’ll be great.”

Toronto will have some frontcourt decisions to make this offseason first, including what to do with RJ Barrett’s future, whether to extend center Jakob Poeltl, and whether or not they’ll re-sign Chris Boucher.

As previously reported on HoopsHype, the Raptors discussed trading Barrett in trade talks for Ingram before the Pelicans went with another package.

Poeltl is owed $19.5 million for the 2025-26 season and has a player option for the same figure for the 2026-27 season. Should Poeltl not get an extension done with Toronto, a team such as the Los Angeles Lakers – who are seeking an upgrade at center – could have trade interest. Poeltl has previously signaled he’d like to get an extension done and remain a Raptor, if possible, and Ujiri called him a “backbone” during his exit media availability.

Boucher, the longest-tenured Raptor, is valued and well-liked by many in Toronto’s organization. The question is if Ujiri wants to see more of what Jonathan Mogbo and Jamison Battle can do with more minutes, a scenario he also alluded to during his exit media availability.

With all this in mind, a rookie big man such as Derik Queen could make sense for Toronto.

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I could be wrong but I don’t think we have the official luxury tax threshold but at the moment including the 120% max value to pick #9 and incl. Lawson (I think he is non guaranteed) I have 185,9M of projected salaries for 13 players while luxury threshold should be around 187,9M.

Without waiving Lawson or doing any trade, bringing Chris Bouchard back (or Temple for that matters) could means being over luxury tax to start the season.

It’s does not really matters because we can then shed some salary during next deadline but still an element to considers.

My feeling is that we will give the minimum salary for a 2nd rounder with pick #39, we add min veteran salary as 15th player, we don’t trade RJ during summer and we start season over luxury tax.

Then depending how the season is going we do a trade (Barrett or Ochai) next deadline to bring us below luxury tax.

Obviously I could be wrong and we are active this off season and we unload Barrett this summer OR we start next season with 13 or 14 players instead of 15.

Just to comment on the article, I had to LOL about the Jazz hiring Carlos Boozer as a scout. Already dreaming of Cam Boozer in 2026 after the great white hope Flagg failure of 2025.

[tms]

Surprised there haven’t been more dead-eye shooters the past few years. Would've expected there'd be a parade of marksmen emulating Steph, but that hasn’t materialized. Granted, I haven’t been following too closely.

[Tripod]

Lol I know I’m in the minority, but I’m definitely trading Scottie if Giannis says he wants to come here. I don’t see top five (or even low-key top 10) potential with him.

I don't think you are in the minority at all. No one should see top 5-10 in Barnes.

[Psubs]

Second round news: Stanford’s Maxime Raynaud 20 PTS, 9 REB, 3 AST in the Combine scrimmage. Tahaad Pettiford 23 points (including 4-of-8 from deep) and 8 assists. At 39, I maybe like him more than the other lotto guards. Koby Brea 1-7 from three (welcome to the almost NBA moment). Miles Byrd 11 points (3-6 from three) plus 4 assists - interesting!

Will Raynaud last until #39.

[DreamTeam09]

Players who are most likely to get their GM fired

Queen
Fears
CMB

Now all of these players could very well live up to their hype, all of them have flaws that could get a GM fired if they're drafted high enough

[WuTang_CMB]

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[MavCarter]

Givoni has CMB at 9 and fleming all the way at 27. What am i missing?