[Givony/ESPN] Execs ring the alarms on 2027 draft

[-Luke-]

Could Bryce James be in this draft? At least ESPN & Co will have something to talk about.

[nomansland]

This kind of talk happens a lot. Really all it takes is 3-4 guys to not declare in 2026 and suddenly the draft class looks better.

However, I am glad that the Nuggets' pick in 2027 is going to OKC or LAC.

[chrisab123]

Celtics fans that want the Celtics to go to Tank City for multiple years please take note

[itrsteve]

Lot can change in a year, let alone two, let alone when we talk about kids still in highschool. And, are there really people concerned a draft is prohected to be weak, damn, people dont have problems.

haha, this is where my head went as well.

Also, just run down any recent drafts and look where scouts/experts got it completely wrong and impactful talents slipped far outside of what would be considered top picks.

[EmpireFalls]

From what I’ve seen it is that bad.

[Courtside]

Why would anyone be terribly concerned a draft year sucked, 2 years away. Its one year.

Well... if you are trying to trade a player away for picks it might make you ask for a FRP from 2028 instead of 2027...

Sorry... why does this make me concerned. As a fan. The poll question...

Well, if a particular draft is looking to be historically bad, then the odds of the Raptors winning that draft lotto go through the roof. That's why

[ShouldaPaidBG]

Quality of American progeny has been declining overall since like 2001

[CROBulls]

2013 was supposedly weak till we got an ATG in Giannis

One player doesnt make a draft. 2013 is just as bad as 2000 draft. But 2027 draft at this point certainly looks like gonna be weaker than 2024. Which I mind you still can end up being better than we think.

[PaulKellerman]

2013 was supposedly weak till we got an ATG in Giannis

One player doesnt make a draft. 2013 is just as bad as 2000 draft. But 2027 draft at this point certainly looks like gonna be weaker than 2024. Which I mind you still can end up being better than we think.

No, one player never does make a draft. Giannis is the only superstar in that class and Gobert + Oladipo the other All-Star selections. 2 HOF candidates isn't a bad outcome though the talent pool was decidedly weak.

[brackdan70]

The poll options don’t make any sense. Yes 2026 is a great draft and 2027 looks bad. We have all known this for a while now. 2027 might be on par with 2024 or even worse…what may save it is some talent returning to college for a second and third year to get paid.
Based on recruiting scores the top guys in 2027 would not be in the top 10 in 2026.

[penggemar]

Nathan Soliman will enter this draft, won't he?

[SkyHook]

Waaaay to early to be concerned with this, but of course this is the year when the Jazz have four three FRPs.

[tbhawksfan1]

All GMs should be aware of the draft quality projections for at least two years. They are trading draft picks. Dumars just showed once again that some of them don't have any projection ability

[HotelVitale]

Every team has the same players to evaluate, these types of reports just make me think that if franchises perform due diligence with scouting and prospect targeting, there's always a chance they find the exact player they need. If a franchise fails in that, well it is kind of on them.

I guess, there may not be the "Wemby" prospect but you cannot tell me that players will not be NBA players from this class, there are always ballers out there hungry for a chance and this entire circus is their motivation to get it together.

You're right that there will likely be a bunch of solid NBA pros here but not sure what exactly you're saying. No one thinks that the draft is so bad that no one will stick in the NBA, but if there just aren't any amazing prospects and/or the crop of nice but not quite elite prospects is smaller, then yeah on average the draft will be worse overall.

If you're also implying that every team can just work a little bit more and find great players in any draft--no matter how good or bad it is--I think that's out of touch with what NBA teams do to prepare for drafts. Most teams aren't sleeping on anything or skipping any steps or anything like that, drafting depts aren't like lazy and incompetent. And they all basically agree about which prospects are best, give or take like 5 slots or so. It's not like anyone's failing to see basic things or missing obvious reasons for why a prospect won't work out.

But good scouting simply does not equate to picking successful players every time. There are many reasons why that I tend to drone on about on realgm but, long story short, GMs and scouts tend to talk more about probabilities of a guy working out, and taking their best guesses on that. While we fans for some reason think that this is some straightforward thing in which smart GMs simply see into the future and know who's got the goods and who's BS, and dumb ones don't. In reality the margins of a player being good or just kinda okay are very small, and they're decided by a series of thousands of very small things in individual plays in individual NBA games; you can usually guess pretty accurately what a player will be generally effective or not, but it's pretty wildly unpredictable precisely how good they'll be at that stuff, and if that leaves them as one of the best 250 players in the world at the NBA game (and if not they're not sticking).

[kenwood3333]

A lot could change in 2 years. Even if you have multiple picks in the first round in a strong draft you could still fail, just look at the nets.

[Liam_Gallagher]

Some of those dudes are just starting to drive.

Relax.

[Rafael122]

Eh, I know folks are saying its 2 years away but scouts probably have a scouting binder of drafts 2-3 years out and are constantly updating it. It sounds like as of July 2025, its seen as a weak draft but so much can change obviously.

[HotelVitale]

2013 was supposedly weak till we got an ATG in Giannis

One player doesnt make a draft. 2013 is just as bad as 2000 draft. But 2027 draft at this point certainly looks like gonna be weaker than 2024. Which I mind you still can end up being better than we think.

No, one player never does make a draft. Giannis is the only superstar in that class and Gobert + Oladipo the other All-Star selections. 2 HOF candidates isn't a bad outcome though the talent pool was decidedly weak.

It's also strange reasoning to think that every draft NEEDS to have good players in it. It's not like the gods saw that the top of the draft was weak in 2013 and inserted Giannis into it to restore balance and order--the draft was weak at the top, and Giannis also by coincidence happened to be draft eligible that year. And he turned into one of the best sleeper/mystery raw upside picks of all time.

[CROBulls]

One player doesnt make a draft. 2013 is just as bad as 2000 draft. But 2027 draft at this point certainly looks like gonna be weaker than 2024. Which I mind you still can end up being better than we think.

No, one player never does make a draft. Giannis is the only superstar in that class and Gobert + Oladipo the other All-Star selections. 2 HOF candidates isn't a bad outcome though the talent pool was decidedly weak.

It's also strange reasoning to think that every draft NEEDS to have good players in it. It's not like the gods saw that the top of the draft was weak in 2013 and inserted Giannis into it to restore balance and order--the draft was weak at the top, and Giannis also by coincidence happened to be draft eligible that year. And he turned into one of the best sleeper/mystery raw upside picks of all time.

Good draft, bad draft can screw your franchise for decade.Sheer difference between 2003 top 5 pick and 2004 top 5 pick is likely a building a winning franchise. It happened to Bulls during 00's. You would rather prefer class to get Wade, Melo, Lebron, Bosh than get Gordon, Okafor, Livingston, Howard.

Nobody actually knows if draft class is good or not until few years passed by. Until then it's just a projection guess. This matters a lot in a league where teams are building their franchises through draft. And draft picks are considered "currency" to get better. And draft picks have cost related projections in a league where you have salary cap on how much you can spend before you get taxed.

This is a system on which NBA is based on. So if you are NBA team, you should be worried. Because 2027 top 5 pick is most likely meaningless and you would rather not have it. Just like Atlanta Hawks would like have win #1 pick in any other class in last decade than last year. Their #1 pick is worth crap. It's like drafting #11 in any other class.

[LarsV8]

Ah bollocks, Rockets could have 2 top ten picks!