2025 Draft prospects - thread 2

[Rose2Boozer]

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

[Jcool0]

Read on Twitter

[nomorezorro]

skilled big automatically goes on my radar of guys AK might be interested in, although it would be out of character with his draft history to go after a senior

[LateNight]

skilled big automatically goes on my radar of guys AK might be interested in, although it would be out of character with his draft history to go after a senior

His quality draft history of only begrudgingly picking good players when they fall into his lap

[Repeat 3-peat]

If they could acquire a late first, I would be good with them taking a center like Raynaud or Wolf. Hansen Yang has intrigued me going back to last year, though a first may be a slight reach but he's got skills?

For #12, I'd assume CMB is the leader in the clubhouse to be the pick unless someone unexpectedly falls. AK/ME is likely all in on Giddey as the offensive engine and they'll surround him with defensive forwards, and try to add shooting via FA/trades.

Cedric Coward is intriguing, but not enough games this past season to use a lottery pick on him, and I'm not seeing any positive talk about his time at Easter Washington, maybe I've missed it.

[BullsSD]

Some notes from interviews:

Danny Wolf - Grew up going to the UC watching Chicago bball games. Loved watching D Rose in prime. Envisions his game as a combo between Sengun and Jokic. Thinks he can be effective at 4 or 5.

Wolf is moving up my draft boards for the simple reason I think he and Giddey could be super fun to watch together, and because there is a significant drop off from Maluach and Queen to the other centers. All the other centers have glaring issues I don’t feel good about at #12. Rather take the high upside with Wolf if going C at #12.

Cedric Coward - Unforgivingly himself. Does seem to have a dog mentality. Questions about consistency and durability, but could easily be this year’s Matas Buzelis. Great stretch ability, long frame, can play 2-3 and potentially be long term replacement for Coby if we opt to move him.

IMO, Cedric is worth trying to get a 2nd first round pick this year and swinging to the fences for him.

[The Box Office]

Cedric Coward is a project. He's raw. 2nd round talent currently. If we're going to take him, we better not use our first round pick on him. However, we rather take Cedric Coward over Maxine Raynaud in the 2nd round.

Raynaud is abysmal on defense. His advanced metrics show that. "Intensity?" More like "fake effort" on defense. Jonathan Givony should know better than to sell us on "intensity."

- Jase Richardson
- Thomas Sorber
- Collin Murray - Boyles

That's our best 3 prospects, to decide in the first round, when our turn to draft arrives.

[2weekswithpay]

Cedric Coward is a project. He's raw. 2nd round talent currently. If we're going to take him, we better not use our first round pick on him. However, we rather take Cedric Coward over Maxine Raynaud in the 2nd round.

Raynaud is abysmal on defense. His advanced metrics show that. "Intensity?" More like "fake effort" on defense. Jonathan Givony should know better than to sell us on "intensity."

- Jase Richardson
- Thomas Sorber
- Collin Murray - Boyles

That's our best 3 prospects, to decide in the first round, when our turn to draft arrives.

What makes Cedric Coward a project?

[2weekswithpay]

Some notes from interviews:

Danny Wolf - Grew up going to the UC watching Chicago bball games. Loved watching D Rose in prime. Envisions his game as a combo between Sengun and Jokic. Thinks he can be effective at 4 or 5.

Wolf is moving up my draft boards for the simple reason I think he and Giddey could be super fun to watch together, and because there is a significant drop off from Maluach and Queen to the other centers. All the other centers have glaring issues I don’t feel good about at #12. Rather take the high upside with Wolf if going C at #12.

Cedric Coward - Unforgivingly himself. Does seem to have a dog mentality. Questions about consistency and durability, but could easily be this year’s Matas Buzelis. Great stretch ability, long frame, can play 2-3 and potentially be long term replacement for Coby if we opt to move him.

IMO, Cedric is worth trying to get a 2nd first round pick this year and swinging to the fences for him.

Coward committed to Duke before the combine. If he doesn't get a first-round promise, I think he will take his name out of the draft.

[HomoSapien]

Rasheer Fleming is pretty interesting on the defensive end. We really need a standout defender on this team. I wish we had taken the time to find out more about Jalen Smith. I can't tell if these two occupy too much of the same space (Fleming is more of a 4/5 and Smith is more of 5/4 but still).

[nomorezorro]

i'm admittedly just skimming the surface of this draft class, but i was very surprised to find a lot of people comping fleming to defensive wings when everything about his measurements and statistical profile had me assuming he would optimally be playing the 5 in the nba

and honestly digging into his defensive highlights i'm still not convinced i was wrong? or like, at the very least i think he might have 4/5 versatility (positive) as opposed to 4/5 versatility (derogative)

[nomorezorro]

my almost-purely vibes-based initial assessments are:

go for it: maluach, fleming, bryant, lendeborg
not my favorite but i'm intrigued: jakuconis, coward, knueppel, raynaud, tre johnson
skeptical but not totally opposed: queen, sorber, newell, richardson
i don't know about that one: demin, wolf, mcneeley, murray-boyles

can't be bothered with the international players at this point in the process...i'll circle back next month once there's a clearer pecking order

[kodo]

Cedric Coward is a project. He's raw. 2nd round talent currently. If we're going to take him, we better not use our first round pick on him. However, we rather take Cedric Coward over Maxine Raynaud in the 2nd round.

We have no 2nd rounder, we gave it to San Antonio along with the 1st rounder and another 2nd rounder for Derozan. They traded it to Sacramento.

We've traded away all our 2nd rounders til 2028, 2nd round is irrelevant for us for a while.

[_txchilibowl_]

From the highlights I've seen Coward looks like a very beow the rim type of prospect. Would prefer more athleticism from the #12 pick.

[nomorezorro]

Cedric Coward is a project. He's raw. 2nd round talent currently. If we're going to take him, we better not use our first round pick on him. However, we rather take Cedric Coward over Maxine Raynaud in the 2nd round.

We have no 2nd rounder, we gave it to San Antonio along with the 1st rounder and another 2nd rounder for Derozan. They traded it to Sacramento.

We've traded away all our 2nd rounders til 2028, 2nd round is irrelevant for us for a while.

we have the 45th pick (from sacramento, got it in the derozan deal)

[PJSteven22]

Rasheer Fleming is pretty interesting on the defensive end. We really need a standout defender on this team. I wish we had taken the time to find out more about Jalen Smith. I can't tell if these two occupy too much of the same space (Fleming is more of a 4/5 and Smith is more of 5/4 but still).

Fleming has mobility issues. Which hurts him on the defensive end.

[2weekswithpay]

i'm admittedly just skimming the surface of this draft class, but i was very surprised to find a lot of people comping fleming to defensive wings when everything about his measurements and statistical profile had me assuming he would optimally be playing the 5 in the nba

and honestly digging into his defensive highlights i'm still not convinced i was wrong? or like, at the very least i think he might have 4/5 versatility (positive) as opposed to 4/5 versatility (derogative)

An athletic stretch 4 would be a more accurate description of how he's utilized IMO. I don't think he's a full time 5 unless it's off the bench. He spent half of his minutes playing next to another big and the other half at center. A lot of pick & pops with him at the 5 and at the 4, he functioned similarly to a 3&D forward.

[CobysHairpick]

Not surprised Raynaud played well and impressed. Doubt he'll be a 2nd round pick.

He may not be a defensive stalwart but neither was Vuc and AK valued him greatly. At least Raynaud will have games of multiple blocks way more often than Vuc did.

He may not feel worthy of the 12th pick at the moment, but I wouldn't be surprised if we looked back in a few years and say "we could've just drafted Raynaud to be our Center for the next 10+ years" considering he's the epitome of the modern day big in the NBA.

That being said, there are many solid prospects to pick from at 12 not unlike the NFL draft this year where there were 3 or so "elite" prospects followed by a whole bunch of "solid starters".

[The Box Office]

Still gotta perform on defense whether it's 2025 or 2055. We currently have a team that doesn't play defense and looked where that got us.

Look at Indiana Pacers today. Looked what they achieved for the past 2 seasons. Also, Boston Celtics last year.

[BullsSD]

What happened to the 45th pick? I’m 99% sure we are indeed drafting in the second round this year lol.

From the highlights I've seen Coward looks like a very beow the rim type of prospect. Would prefer more athleticism from the #12 pick.

He’s got fine hops (32.5 no-step vertical) and is an excellent shot blocker for his height. 7’2 wingspan and 8’10 standing reach. He’s a SG/SF. Half the league’s SG’s don’t play “above the rim.” What IS impressive, is his post work. He can post up other guards and own them with his length. Matchup nightmares.

Rasheer Fleming is pretty interesting on the defensive end. We really need a standout defender on this team. I wish we had taken the time to find out more about Jalen Smith. I can't tell if these two occupy too much of the same space (Fleming is more of a 4/5 and Smith is more of 5/4 but still).

Fleming has mobility issues. Which hurts him on the defensive end.

What??? Fleming has great mobility! He had the best shuttle run time in the entire combine ant 2.72 until someone else broke the all time record later in the day (forget who). He’s great lateral and has a 9’1 standing reach. As far as fit, I think he works better with Collins, but don’t see why he and Smith couldn’t coexist if one is occupying the block.