2025 Draft Thread - Part 3

[Dark Faze]

I have a hard time understanding how someone could choose Kon over Tre. Both great shooters, except one guy has great wingspan and strong athleticism and the other is bad in this regard.

[tontoz]

I have a hard time understanding how someone could choose Kon over Tre. Both great shooters, except one guy has great wingspan and strong athleticism and the other is bad in this regard.

To be fair Tre isn't that athletic either. Pretty sure he tanked his standing reach to make his vert look better.

But Tre was mocked ahead of Kon all season until word got out that the hornets liked Kon.

[Doug_Blew]

The Wiz haven’t drafted a player in the first round that has gone on to make the All Star game since 2012 with Beal. Please excuse me if I have a hard time believing in this front office, new or old.

Only player to make the all star team that was drafted since Dawkins was our GM is Wemby

[AFM]

Dawkins has draft 2 big guards in Bub and Tre and traded for another big (ish - definitely not small) guard in AJ Johnson.

Also several big-ish wings - Bilal, Riley, George.

Looks a lot like both Indiana and OKC, tbh. Plus each one has a guy who Sarr might one day approach - Myles Turner and Chet.

We better win the damn number one pick next year though. This year, I think Marcus Smart might be the heaviest guy on the roster. Champagnie is going to lead the team in rebounds.

Glad we traded Bey. Need to trade Kispert for something now too. Likely going to get a handful of second rounders but it is what it is at this point. Can't have both him and Middleton gumming things up.

They tried to trade Corey according to the leaks, but nothing transpired, they will try again.

HOU wanted Corey but of course they made that other trade.

[Rafael122]

I'm indifferent towards the Riley pick. At 21, similar to George, if you can churn out a solid career and be a rotational piece then it's a good pick. My only concern with him is that he's 6'8.5 with a 6'8 3/4 wingspan. You would want the wingspan to be +2 or +3 inches from his height.

I love the Tre pick. He was my guy from the get go. The only time I felt like I wavered was when we all thought Ace was a possibility but it's a home run pick. I love the quote he gave where Dawkins was basically calling him out for loafing on D. Dawkins seems to connect with these players.

Other random draft thoughts: Queen in New Orleans is a recipe for disaster.

Brooklyn legitimately might be the worse team in the NBA next season.

Speaking of New Orleans, arguably one of the dumbest trades in the last 15 years. This entire thing can blow up in their faces. Unprotected 2026 pick?

Atlanta has a bright future, love what they're doing.

[Ed Wood]

I didn't prefer Knueppel to Johnson either, but I don't find that choice crazy. Kon looked worse as a functional athlete based on measurables than he probably is and while Johnson's better than expected numbers are encouraging they're also probably overstating his case. Notably Kon is also much stronger, unsurprising given that he's 30 pounds heavier at about the same height, and strength is not a small part of athletic ability.

Having just learned the naming motif among Kon's various brothers (e.g. Kager) I am less charmed than I think his parents were going for.

[tontoz]

Portland has Clingan/Ayton/ Williams at C but draft Yang at 16?

[Kanyewest]

The Wiz haven’t drafted a player in the first round that has gone on to make the All Star game since 2012 with Beal. Please excuse me if I have a hard time believing in this front office, new or old.

Random note, I believe the Pacers haven't drafted one since Paul George but they did trade for Halliburton. I believe the Wizards have not traded for an all star since 2005 in Caron Butler.

not even the same comparison. How many top 10 picks have the Pacers had in comparison to the Wizards

Only a couple but recently in the 2022 and 2023 drafts. They also drafted Kawhi and traded him to the Spurs but they may have ended up taking someone else with the pick.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

lol you can thank Bub for making that useless shot in a meaningless game

#soWizards

What do you mean by that?

[Kanyewest]

Portland has Clingan/Ayton/ Williams at C but draft Yang at 16?

Ayton and Williams are expiring so they are probably going to move on from them.

[AWIZZINGBULLET]

Mock drafts can be fun but the more I read these pages the more I realized how confident, yet utterly wrong we can be.

Somebody mocked Coward to go 2nd round; at least I was hopeful that he could be had at 18.

Sheesh.

[awolfinwater]

Listening to Sam Vecenie podcast when our pick was taken.

Sam said he tried to update his draft guide to put Tre Johnson #3 earlier in the day. Discusses his work ethic and that Tre had one of the most impressive workout he's seen. The name dropped was Rip Hamilton.

Banking on him having the right mentality to continue to grow his game.

[Rafael122]

Listening to Sam Vecenie podcast when our pick was taken.

Sam said he tried to update his draft guide to put Tre Johnson #3 earlier in the day. Discusses his work ethic and that Tre had one of the most impressive workout he's seen. The name dropped was Rip Hamilton.

Banking on him having the right mentality to continue to grow his game.

Ringer had him 4th I believe. KOC on Yahoo had him 4th. From all accounts he was ranked 3-5 on most people's big board.

[dobrojim]

Same process with the Will Riley pick. They clearly don’t have interest in the ball dominant types like Jakicionis/Traore, or the players that don’t have good size like Richardson. Also stayed away from any upperclassman types like Fleming/Clifford/Wolf. I had ZERO interest in McNeeley or Asa Newell.

They once again roll with youth, shot creation/offensive upside, and positional size. Love the overall process even if Will Riley wasn’t on my radar personally. +Ast%, +A/TO, and 90th percentile in isolation scoring.

Would love to see them go after Toohey/Penda on day 2.

I feel exactly the same. Very clear what they value.
Need to play on AND off ball
Dribble, pass, shoot
Positional size
Gym rat and high level processor
Willing to overlook single college stats for FIBA/EYBL tape

I can see why Fears, Traore, Fleming, etc weren’t high on their board.

I think they also looked at developmental timeline. Or maybe I should say upside
from a youthful starting point.

[dobrojim]

Listening to Sam Vecenie podcast when our pick was taken.

Sam said he tried to update his draft guide to put Tre Johnson #3 earlier in the day. Discusses his work ethic and that Tre had one of the most impressive workout he's seen. The name dropped was Rip Hamilton.

Banking on him having the right mentality to continue to grow his game.

It will be interesting in 2-4 years to see where Tre/Kon/VJ/Ace are at relative to each other.
Will they rank in the order picked? (I can hear PiF now. LOL)

[Rafael122]

Regarding Kon, if you're OK with drafting Joe Ingles or Bogdan at 4, more power to you. Tre has more juice as an athlete.

[The Consiglieri]

Not thrilled about the draft outcome (with 6&21 would have just picked Maluach and Hugo). Will have to re-dive into Riley, it wasn't a 'do not draft' for me but wasn't what I would have picked either. In Johnson's case, I was pretty locked in Maluach and wouldn't have loved anything else (besides Ace), but I'm really concerned about his ability to get to the basket.

Riley was the last of the guys I had on my list worth trading up from 40 for. He was never who I intended to get at 18 or in the 20's. I thought he was a good target to try and chase if he was still there in the late first or early at the start of the 2nd. On the other hand, most projections I saw had him around 20-35, so not a reach but not great either in terms of value, what makes him more than that potentially is that classic: he's young, you can see a lot of skill, there's a tool kit there, he could really potentially be much better than he was winter '24-'25 by '27, but for now, he's a dart throw guy that really seemed, like Tre, a guy to really improve our shooting, but I never cared about fitting needs, we have plenty of pretty good players right now, we have no truly special ones, and I don't think Riley has truly special in his list of outcomes, and guys who went between 18 and 20, and after 21 did, for me, and that's why I wasn't a fan.

Still, interesting group, just disappointing. I think Tre could be great, I just don't expect him to be anything more than he is already, hopefully he surprises me, if he doesn't, if he plays out to expectations and critiques, this team is not close to turning this tank around and will require huge hits in '26, '27 and '28. If Tre maxes potential, we could contend for the playoffs by spring '28, if he doesn't, and Is just a great shooter, then we aren't contending till at least '29 unless we land stars in the next 2 classes (or get a star from what's in house, which for now, pre-Tre, struck me as 80/20 to 85/15 against).

[The Consiglieri]

Dawkins has draft 2 big guards in Bub and Tre and traded for another big (ish - definitely not small) guard in AJ Johnson.

Also several big-ish wings - Bilal, Riley, George.

Looks a lot like both Indiana and OKC, tbh. Plus each one has a guy who Sarr might one day approach - Myles Turner and Chet.

We better win the damn number one pick next year though. This year, I think Marcus Smart might be the heaviest guy on the roster. Champagnie is going to lead the team in rebounds.

Glad we traded Bey. Need to trade Kispert for something now too. Likely going to get a handful of second rounders but it is what it is at this point. Can't have both him and Middleton gumming things up.

Last years draft is more of the same: 3 of the top 4 projected guys (for now it looks like a 3-4 stud class) are guards/wings, only one big and he's a 4, we already have a 4, though Boozer certainly is a better prospect than Sarr was in his draft year.

So the big solution, that 5, I just don't see it, unless we acquire via trade, it will come with a pick in '27 or later, or a sneaky shock hit in round 2 or late round 1.

[The Consiglieri]

The best outcome of the draft might be the Suns trading for and drafting 2 redundant Centers who can’t switch and won’t be good on D yet this year. The worse they are the better our odds of the #1 pick next year

Yep, if we can be bottom 3 again (and Vegas currently has us in the bottom tier at +60000 alongside Charlotte. Those analytic metrics put us clearly in a tier of our own as the worst team in the '24-'25 season (which makes Utah stealing the 5th pick totally infuriating) and the Suns crash and burn, we can up our odds a great bit:

Vegas has the Suns in a tier at +25000 with 3 other teams, so anywhere from 6th worst to 9th worst, how that impacts our lottery odds:

6th worst: 23% of 1st overall, 22% of 2nd overall and 22% of 3rd overall and 21% at 4th overall. (top 4 of 88%)
7th worst: 21%, 21%, 20%, 20% (top four of 82%)
8th worst: 20% 19% 19% and 18% (top four of 76%)
9th worst: 17.8%, 17.5%, 17.2% and 16.9% (top four of 69% or something like that)


I'm still trying to figure out what we haven '26, is it 2 firsts, plus a pick swap and four 2nd rounders?

[Dat2U]

I'm still on cloud 9. I'm glad our GM wasn't worried about plugging weaknesses or finding a future backup PF because we already had too many wings.

So glad we did not draft guys who pronounced offensive weaknesses or guys with no ability to create or make a shot.

I would have been happy with Bailey but I'm happy we erred heavily on skill, feel and IQ.