2026 NBA Draft Thread.....

[Frichuela]

Phoenix's starting lineup today was Dillon Brooks, Oso Ighodaro, Ryan Dunn, Grayson Allen, Devin Booker. And the only player out injured is Jalen Green. They might be as bad as us this year.

They're getting routed by a pretty bad Kings team playing without Sabonis.

And this means as much as our record this year.

Literally twice the lottery odds.

This. I wrote the other day that if we finish bottom 4 and Phoenix has the 7th worst record: our odds for a top 3 pick exceed 60%!

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Duke at Tennessee Sunday at 7 on ESPN2. Got my DVR set!

[Frichuela]

Beast! He and Sarr together would make an amazing front court.

Read on Twitter

?s=46

[Jimmy Recard]

Landing Peterson or Boozer would do wonders for this franchise.

[9 and 20]

I read through the twitter comments on the Boozer highlights and all the damn Celtics fans claiming him. enraging, tbh. I'd rather he go to the Spurs, lol. One down year and of course Boston wants to be handed the next one.

Between the Dybantsa BYU connection and Carlos Boozer playing for Utah, I'm not sure who would make more sense for the Jazz. They already have Ace Bailey and Dybantsa is a similar type.

After last night, looks like we're a bottom 5 team for sure. Will need to keep Kispert for the full year in order to remain on track. And might as well let Flub Carrington play his way out of the funk he's been in.

[dobrojim]

They're getting routed by a pretty bad Kings team playing without Sabonis.

And this means as much as our record this year.

Literally twice the lottery odds.

This. I wrote the other day that if we finish bottom 4 and Phoenix has the 7th worst record: our odds for a top 3 pick exceed 60%!

If all the lottery teams had the same odds it would
be 2x the odds. If both PHX and WAS are bottom 5,
the odds start getting ridiculous.

[doclinkin]

I read through the twitter comments on the Boozer highlights and all the damn Celtics fans claiming him. enraging, tbh. I'd rather he go to the Spurs, lol. One down year and of course Boston wants to be handed the next one.

This is why I think the odds should be weighted towards the team with the worst record on the average of the last 3 years. Not to encourage tanking but because if you’re looking for parity (see the CBA) it does the league no good for a team to jump to dynasty status simply by bottoming out in a year when your centerpiece star takes an injury. Then he comes back to a reloaded team with a star rookie on a cheap deal and the bottom dwellers struggle forever.

[doclinkin]

And this means as much as our record this year.

Literally twice the lottery odds.

This. I wrote the other day that if we finish bottom 4 and Phoenix has the 7th worst record: our odds for a top 3 pick exceed 60%!

If all the lottery teams had the same odds it would
be 2x the odds. If both PHX and WAS are bottom 5,
the odds start getting ridiculous.

Glad everybody is finally on board for this. Sees the vision. People were trashing the Beal deal when it happened and I was standing on the street corner with my tracts and megaphone shouting about how the promised land was in sight. “You do not understand! The pick swaps are manna from heaven! We have traded for multiple lottery picks! Even if we get good!” And so on.

[nate33]

This. I wrote the other day that if we finish bottom 4 and Phoenix has the 7th worst record: our odds for a top 3 pick exceed 60%!

If all the lottery teams had the same odds it would
be 2x the odds. If both PHX and WAS are bottom 5,
the odds start getting ridiculous.

Glad everybody is finally on board for this. Sees the vision. People were trashing the Beal deal when it happened and I was standing on the street corner with my tracts and megaphone shouting about how the promised land was in sight. “You do not understand! The pick swaps are manna from heaven! We have traded for multiple lottery picks! Even if we get good!” And so on.

I didn't expect Phoenix to implode so quickly though. I thought the 2026 pick swap was highly unlikely to matter. And the 2028 swap is complicated by Memphis' involvement. I really only thought the 2030 swap would come into play as a benefit for us.

[doclinkin]

If all the lottery teams had the same odds it would
be 2x the odds. If both PHX and WAS are bottom 5,
the odds start getting ridiculous.

Glad everybody is finally on board for this. Sees the vision. People were trashing the Beal deal when it happened and I was standing on the street corner with my tracts and megaphone shouting about how the promised land was in sight. “You do not understand! The pick swaps are manna from heaven! We have traded for multiple lottery picks! Even if we get good!” And so on.

I didn't expect Phoenix to implode so quickly though. I thought the 2026 pick swap was highly unlikely to matter. And the 2028 swap is complicated by Memphis' involvement. I really only thought the 2030 swap would come into play as a benefit for us.

Right. Though if you looked carefully the writing was in the wall from the jump. As soon as I saw the pick swaps the story made sense to me and I started counting lotto balls.

The team was relying on 3 high usage players who all need the ball. All of whom miss significant games to injury every year. They had no defenders. Were capped out. With zero bench. And had Beals unmovable deal to prevent them from getting any better. All of this was thoroughly foreseeable.

The only thing I got wrong was expecting the late-career KD to potentially reaggravate his rebuilt leg and drop out of the top scoring leader boards. He’s a remarkable player with a game that succeeds regardless of any drop off in athleticism since he’s so skilled a shooter at that height. All he needs to do is stay upright and not in a cast and he can shoot forever.

[tontoz]

Duke at Tennessee Sunday at 7 on ESPN2. Got my DVR set!

I watched the game. Sorry to say i was underwhelmed.

Boozer is definitely a 4. He doesn't have the length or athleticism to defend the 5. Several guys in the game looked taller. His jumper just looks odd but he seems to be confident in it. He obviously has a good motor and IQ but his moves trying to finish inside don't look impressive. Looks like he just tries to bully his way to the rim.

Nate Ament.....i had to do a double take when they showed him up close. Looks like he is starting to fill out already. Not sure how much weight he's put on but it was pretty obvious compared to the HS vids i watched. maybe the extra weight messed up his jumper because he was way off. He wasn't just missing, he was missing the rim at times. Even the announcer said he has taken a lot of garbage shots. Problem was some of those shots were open looks that looked like they got hit by a gust of wind. he has a reputation as a good shooter so maybe it was just a glitch in the matrix.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

This. I wrote the other day that if we finish bottom 4 and Phoenix has the 7th worst record: our odds for a top 3 pick exceed 60%!

If all the lottery teams had the same odds it would
be 2x the odds. If both PHX and WAS are bottom 5,
the odds start getting ridiculous.

Glad everybody is finally on board for this. Sees the vision. People were trashing the Beal deal when it happened and I was standing on the street corner with my tracts and megaphone shouting about how the promised land was in sight. “You do not understand! The pick swaps are manna from heaven! We have traded for multiple lottery picks! Even if we get good!” And so on.

I'm not joshing when I say I was giddy when i heard Bradley Beal was traded.

[willbcocks]

In the clippers first three games, only two of which beal has played, he has 11 points, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds.

What a precipitous fall.

[Dark Faze]

In the clippers first three games, only two of which beal has played, he has 11 points, 2 assists, and 2 rebounds.

What a precipitous fall.

I imagine he'll round out to what he was last year: 50ish games played, 18ppg, a few assists, boards, on good efficiency at 30 or so minutes a night. He's a strong bench scoring guard with limited availability at this point.

[awolfinwater]

This. I wrote the other day that if we finish bottom 4 and Phoenix has the 7th worst record: our odds for a top 3 pick exceed 60%!

If all the lottery teams had the same odds it would
be 2x the odds. If both PHX and WAS are bottom 5,
the odds start getting ridiculous.

Glad everybody is finally on board for this. Sees the vision. People were trashing the Beal deal when it happened and I was standing on the street corner with my tracts and megaphone shouting about how the promised land was in sight. “You do not understand! The pick swaps are manna from heaven! We have traded for multiple lottery picks! Even if we get good!” And so on.

I couldn't find where you wrote this up, Frichuela. So I messed around with chatGPT (too lazy to code it myself but the results seems reasonable).

Wizards draft-swap scenarios (with Phoenix)

Code: Select all

Scenario | Description                      | Top-3 odds
---------------------------------------------------------
1        | WAS worst, PHX 2nd worst          | 67.4%
2        | WAS worst, PHX 4th worst          | 65.2%
3        | WAS 3rd worst, PHX 4th worst      | 65.2%
4        | WAS 4th worst, PHX 5th worst      | 57.2%
5        | WAS 4th worst, PHX 7th worst      | 53.8%


[9 and 20]

Critical game for the tank tonight - need Utah to beat Phoenix.

It's crazy that even with 2 shots at the lottery, the best we can do is 67%. 33% chance at pick 5, where I'm sure Silver will still want to slot us. F that dude, hope the FBI/Billups thing forces him out.

[DukeLecker]

I read through the twitter comments on the Boozer highlights and all the damn Celtics fans claiming him. enraging, tbh. I'd rather he go to the Spurs, lol. One down year and of course Boston wants to be handed the next one.

This is why I think the odds should be weighted towards the team with the worst record on the average of the last 3 years. Not to encourage tanking but because if you’re looking for parity (see the CBA) it does the league no good for a team to jump to dynasty status simply by bottoming out in a year when your centerpiece star takes an injury. Then he comes back to a reloaded team with a star rookie on a cheap deal and the bottom dwellers struggle forever.

Unless the team that bottoms out once in a blue moon is a big market team Boston, LAL, or Dallas.

[doclinkin]

I read through the twitter comments on the Boozer highlights and all the damn Celtics fans claiming him. enraging, tbh. I'd rather he go to the Spurs, lol. One down year and of course Boston wants to be handed the next one.

This is why I think the odds should be weighted towards the team with the worst record on the average of the last 3 years. Not to encourage tanking but because if you’re looking for parity (see the CBA) it does the league no good for a team to jump to dynasty status simply by bottoming out in a year when your centerpiece star takes an injury. Then he comes back to a reloaded team with a star rookie on a cheap deal and the bottom dwellers struggle forever.

Unless the team that bottoms out once in a blue moon is a big market team Boston, LAL, or Dallas.

Interestingly Boston is a smaller market than us.
https://hoop-social.com/nba-team-market-size-rankings/
They just have a winning history and thus a larger NBA fan base.

But they didn’t have to bottom out to win a top pick. They fleeced picks off Brooklyn. This year sure.

I don’t even think parity is necessarily good for the league. Fans love dynasties. But the CBA is set up to punish long term success and encourage turnover at the top. If the aim is parity then go all the way. Stop punishing the have-nots for bad luck and continued struggle.

[Tyrone Messby]

I’m dumb keep forgetting pick swap.

[Tyrone Messby]

And wait we have 4 second round picks in what’s supposed to be another deep draft? Surely we could package a few for another first.