2025 Draft

[Kalamazoo317]

Its social media team is pretty much the only part of Duolingo that's not AI these days. That brand is nosediving straight into the garbage.

[ducler]

Maybe for the joke a team will draft both Fears and Coward...

[theBigLip]

Maybe for the joke a team will draft both Fears and Coward...

[whitehops]

We drafted Mehmet Okur at 38, Bruce Brown at 42, Dinwiddie at 38, and Middleton at 39. Obviously, for each of those there were another 5-6 second rounders that flopped, but there are hidden gems in every draft and overall basketball talent globally is as high as it's ever been.

the top half of the second round can be a great place to find value. a lot of the first round picks are teams swinging for the fences, taking the youngest, toolsiest prospects and hoping they develop into lead playmakers a few years. the players left over are usually seniors who are more likely to contribute right away as role players or draft and stash guys (jokic probably being the best example). stings a little bit that jokic went 3 picks after we drafted dinwiddie but it is what it is. in that draft there were 10 first round players that have played 10+ years in the league and there were 6 second round players to do that.

[whitehops]

Sweet. Pistons working out Chaz Lanier. A name I'm most certainly interested in at #37 if he's there.

elite shooter in college, can get his shot off in many different ways. some ability 1-1 but if we can't bring malik beasley back he would be a great cheap way of filling that role. having someone we can run off-ball sets for to mix in with cade's pick and roll is huge.

[Invictus88]

Sweet. Pistons working out Chaz Lanier. A name I'm most certainly interested in at #37 if he's there.

elite shooter in college, can get his shot off in many different ways. some ability 1-1 but if we can't bring malik beasley back he would be a great cheap way of filling that role. having someone we can run off-ball sets for to mix in with cade's pick and roll is huge.

I don't think it's at all realistic to expect a #37 pick of any pedigree to be able to step in and be a suitable fill-in for a guy who just made the 2nd most 3s in the league the previous year.

Our success as a team is too dependent on the spacing that the vets provided last year.

Regardless of who we draft we either need to resign beasley or find an established vet to take on that role.

[whitehops]

I don't think it's at all realistic to expect a #37 pick of any pedigree to be able to step in and be a suitable fill-in for a guy who just made the 2nd most 3s in the league the previous year.

Our success as a team is too dependent on the spacing that the vets provided last year.

Regardless of who we draft we either need to resign beasley or find an established vet to take on that role.

totally agree, i meant more about being able to fill that role where we can run sets to get him movement shots, even if he doesn't do it at the level beasley did. the logistics of keeping both THJ and beasley (or replacing them) are tough so it would be an alternative.

lanier also played 5 years in college and is 23 (turning 24 in december) so he's about as close to a veteran as we can draft.

[Invictus88]

I don't think it's at all realistic to expect a #37 pick of any pedigree to be able to step in and be a suitable fill-in for a guy who just made the 2nd most 3s in the league the previous year.

Our success as a team is too dependent on the spacing that the vets provided last year.

Regardless of who we draft we either need to resign beasley or find an established vet to take on that role.

totally agree, i meant more about being able to fill that role where we can run sets to get him movement shots, even if he doesn't do it at the level beasley did. the logistics of keeping both THJ and beasley (or replacing them) are tough so it would be an alternative.

lanier also played 5 years in college and is 23 (turning 24 in december) so he's about as close to a veteran as we can draft.

I don't think you totally agree. Because if you did you wouldn't then be trying to describe Lanier as an alternative of any form. You're basically expecting a 37 pick to have a ROY-caliber season (no, it won't win him it this coming year) if he is to be considered a fill-in for what Beasley is providing. It's just not realistic.

Signing Beasley is extremely likely for us with the MLE. I'm less concerned about getting THJ back given we are getting Ivey back but we honestly could likely get him back as well. We are going to have to operate above the cap but it's realistic to think that they will.

With all of this said, I have no issue with saying that the kid might turn into Beasley in a few years. Sure. Although with how desperate we currently are for PF depth I'd kind of hope we try another lottery ticket there instead with 37...