Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft?

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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#21 » by One_and_Done » Sat Dec 6, 2025 5:05 pm

EvanZ wrote:
One_and_Done wrote:
atlantabbq99 wrote:Magic, Ralph Sampson, Ewing, David Robinson, Shaq, Webber, Duncan, Lebron, Bogut, Oden, Rose, Wall, Wiggins, Wemby...

In the last 50 years their has only been 13 times the media and experts have called a prospected so talented that they can change a franchise before even playing an NBA game.

Are Boozer, Peterson, and/or Dybantsa a legit gen talent like Shaq and Lebron, or just very good prospect like Blake Griffin, Flagg, or Larry Johnson?

Flagg wasn't a generational prospect. He was just hyped alot because of his marketability to US audiences. There's a distinction between who the media hypes the most, and who the respected analysts think is a rock solid franchise level prospect.

For instance, KD was seen as a generational/franchise talent. He went second, and was less hyped, because Oden was even more hyped. Luka was seen as a generational talent by pundits who knew what they were talking about, much more than Flagg, but because the first 2 teams were run by morons he was drafted #3. It wss surreal to see it unfold in real time, one of the few instances where the average pundit was smarter than 2 front offices. The analysts I respect were much more excited by Luka than Flagg.

Conversely, some of those guys you named were not that hyped by either the media or analysts, e.g. Bogut.

I would say the most hyped prospects since 97 were Duncan, Lebron, AD, Zion, Luka, KD, Oden, Embiid (before his injury issues were revealed), and Wemby. Flagg had media hype of a similar level to some of these guys, but not from analysts who had doubts about him being an MVP type of player (even though they loved him). Other guys analysts loved included Towns, Rose, and Dwight.

Wiggins was hyped leading into his college season, but he showed so many flaws that people had cooled on him by the draft. He and Jabari were seen as distant 2 & 3 behind Embiid, until Embiid's injury news. Wall was pretty hyped though.

Before 97, the most hyped guys were Shaq, Kareem, Magic, Hakeem, Sampson, Ewing, D.Rob, Webber, etc. Zo actually had alot of hype too. In non-Shaq years he'd have had a good chance of going #1.


This is misremembering history or not knowing. Embiid was virtually unknown before he got to Kansas. He just outshone Wiggins who had the actual hype that you're talking about.

Flagg had hype going back to like age 14 or 15. The dude was known by the draft community for literally years before he got to Duke. So, I don't know man, brush up.

I didn't say 'this is who had the most hype a year out'. I was very clear on the timing RE: Embiid. I wss clear in what I said on Flagg too. So, I don't know man, maybe brush up.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#22 » by FarBeyondDriven » Sat Dec 6, 2025 5:14 pm

generational is someone who is clearly in a league all their own because they bring something you rarely if ever see. There's only been about 10 in all of NBA history

Wilt
Kareem
Magic
Dr. J
Bird
MJ
Lebron
Shaq
KD
Wemby

It's early but I'm confident Peterson and Wilson are in that next tier along with guys like Flagg and AD but nobody is generational.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#23 » by One_and_Done » Sat Dec 6, 2025 5:31 pm

FarBeyondDriven wrote:generational is someone who is clearly in a league all their own because they bring something you rarely if ever see. There's only been about 10 in all of NBA history

Wilt
Kareem
Magic
Dr. J
Bird
MJ
Lebron
Shaq
KD
Wemby

It's early but I'm confident Peterson and Wilson are in that next tier along with guys like Flagg and AD but nobody is generational.

MJ wasn't even seen as better than Sam Bowie on draft day, while AD was seen as another KG, so this list is already wrong. And how can KD be listed, but not Oden?
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#24 » by ReggiesKnicks » Sat Dec 6, 2025 5:40 pm

One_and_Done wrote:
FarBeyondDriven wrote:generational is someone who is clearly in a league all their own because they bring something you rarely if ever see. There's only been about 10 in all of NBA history

Wilt
Kareem
Magic
Dr. J
Bird
MJ
Lebron
Shaq
KD
Wemby

It's early but I'm confident Peterson and Wilson are in that next tier along with guys like Flagg and AD but nobody is generational.

MJ wasn't even seen as better than Sam Bowie on draft day, while AD was seen as another KG, so this list is already wrong. And how can KD be listed, but not Oden?


It's incredible "In Hindsight".

Durant was a more unique prospect than Oden, but not better.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#25 » by One_and_Done » Sat Dec 6, 2025 5:46 pm

ReggiesKnicks wrote:
One_and_Done wrote:
FarBeyondDriven wrote:generational is someone who is clearly in a league all their own because they bring something you rarely if ever see. There's only been about 10 in all of NBA history

Wilt
Kareem
Magic
Dr. J
Bird
MJ
Lebron
Shaq
KD
Wemby

It's early but I'm confident Peterson and Wilson are in that next tier along with guys like Flagg and AD but nobody is generational.

MJ wasn't even seen as better than Sam Bowie on draft day, while AD was seen as another KG, so this list is already wrong. And how can KD be listed, but not Oden?


It's incredible "In Hindsight".

Durant was a more unique prospect than Oden, but not better.

KD had top 10-12 hype from the last 25 years, it's just absurd to mention him and not Oden.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#26 » by sikma42 » Sat Dec 6, 2025 6:52 pm

Negrodamus wrote:Yea, saying Embiid is one of the most hyped prospects since 97 is completely inaccurate. The most hype he had was when he went nuts during a filmed workout before his foot injury. I wouldn't say he was in the top 5 most hype of the past 5 years much less since 97.


There was a group pretty hyped about him during the Kansas season (I was there). He was the best big man prospect I’ve seen in my adult life. If people didn’t see it during thr season then they didn’t know what they were looking at. He just had an injury.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#27 » by Negrodamus » Sat Dec 6, 2025 8:58 pm

sikma42 wrote:
Negrodamus wrote:Yea, saying Embiid is one of the most hyped prospects since 97 is completely inaccurate. The most hype he had was when he went nuts during a filmed workout before his foot injury. I wouldn't say he was in the top 5 most hype of the past 5 years much less since 97.


There was a group pretty hyped about him during the Kansas season (I was there). He was the best big man prospect I’ve seen in my adult life. If people didn’t see it during thr season then they didn’t know what they were looking at. He just had an injury.


I'm not saying he wasn't a great prospect, but he didn't score over 20ppg once in the season. He had a pretty ridiculous foul rate. He shot sub 70% from FT. He had a few games where he was completely invisible.

He was a theoretical stud big man in the NBA with a load bearing injury on a body that was already 7ft 250lbs. I loved him as a prospect, I've loved him as a player (Sixer fan). He was not a generational prospect.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#28 » by DirtyDez » Sat Dec 6, 2025 9:08 pm

If Boozer had moderately better twitch he’d be a generational prospect. I’d be like Banchero with elite skill.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#29 » by ezhkw8u69e » Sat Dec 6, 2025 9:21 pm

People are clearly confusing generational prospects from generational players. The former is their reputation up to Draft Night. The latter is everything after.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#30 » by sikma42 » Sat Dec 6, 2025 10:11 pm

Negrodamus wrote:
sikma42 wrote:
Negrodamus wrote:Yea, saying Embiid is one of the most hyped prospects since 97 is completely inaccurate. The most hype he had was when he went nuts during a filmed workout before his foot injury. I wouldn't say he was in the top 5 most hype of the past 5 years much less since 97.


There was a group pretty hyped about him during the Kansas season (I was there). He was the best big man prospect I’ve seen in my adult life. If people didn’t see it during thr season then they didn’t know what they were looking at. He just had an injury.


I'm not saying he wasn't a great prospect, but he didn't score over 20ppg once in the season. He had a pretty ridiculous foul rate. He shot sub 70% from FT. He had a few games where he was completely invisible.

He was a theoretical stud big man in the NBA with a load bearing injury on a body that was already 7ft 250lbs. I loved him as a prospect, I've loved him as a player (Sixer fan). He was not a generational prospect.


If you took Cooper Flagg and Joel Embiid and put them side by side after the freshman seasons…Embiid is the better prospect hands down. Only consideration was the injury.


It was very obvious that he was going to be a dominant force if healthy. He was the best center prospect since Shaq. I’m not saying this retroactively.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#31 » by atlantabbq99 » Sun Dec 7, 2025 4:42 am

EvanZ wrote:
peZt wrote:
atlantabbq99 wrote:
If you are an MVP, then you are a gen talent.


Then we have completely different takes on what generational talent means. By definition, those should only come around once everey 10 years or so. Otherwise no sense in calling them generational talent


Which MVP's are coming around every draft cycle? Is there a Harden or Russ in every Draft? Because AFAICT those are the worst MVPs in the last few decades and they were pretty good. Maybe DRose is the least generational but he was cut down by injury so who knows.


Nash was a gen talent but he wasn't hyped in his draft class. Same with Westbrook and Harden.

Rose was a gen talent and lived up to the hype, but it was just injury issues.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#32 » by atlantabbq99 » Sun Dec 7, 2025 4:45 am

babyjax13 wrote:In the last decade 7 players have won MVP (SGA, Jokic, Embiid, Giannis, Harden, Westbrook, Curry), in the last 20 years you can add Durant, LeBron, Rose, Bryant, Dirk, and Nash. So, every decade, 6-7 players win MVP awards. Maybe a generational player is simply someone who wins multiple? So that would take out Embiid, Harden, Westbrook, Durant, Kobe, SGA (with the caveat that he seems pretty likely to get another) and Dirk? So, our generational players would be maybe SGA, Jokic, Giannis, Curry, Lebron, and Nash (+ add Duncan). Interestingly, only two of those guys went first (LeBron, Duncan) and no multi-time MVP has gone first since 2003.

I would consider generational prospects to be players we can reasonably expect are *more likely than not* to win an MVP in their career. To me, that basically narrows us down to (since 2000) LeBron, Durant, Oden, Luka <I know people will argue "no," but there were a lot of us who thought he was this level of prospect>, Zion, Wemby. There are some players you might also argue belong - Yao, Rose, Davis, and Flagg being the major ones, IMO. Of course, not all of those players have won MVPs (assuming Luka and Wemby do a little over half of my list of 'generational prospects' will have).


Dirk and SGA are defiantly gen talents. They have an MVP and Championship.

Clutch matters, winning matters, championships matter. Nobody in the top 10 or 15 have zero championships.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#33 » by atlantabbq99 » Sun Dec 7, 2025 4:52 am

Cammo101 wrote:No, but I think there are a handful of guys in that tier below.

Also, Yao was a much bigger prospect than a handful of the guys you listed. Certainly more generational than Bogut.


Yao is not on the list because he didn't get alot of hype because of talent, he just got hype because of the Chinese market. Jayson Williams, Gooden and Stoudemire were all competing for the #1 spot. the 2002 draft class wasn't considered weak, just decent or above average.

Yao basically got the same hype Luka got in his draft.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#34 » by atlantabbq99 » Sun Dec 7, 2025 5:00 am

One_and_Done wrote:
atlantabbq99 wrote:Magic, Ralph Sampson, Ewing, David Robinson, Shaq, Webber, Duncan, Lebron, Bogut, Oden, Rose, Wall, Wiggins, Wemby...

In the last 50 years their has only been 13 times the media and experts have called a prospected so talented that they can change a franchise before even playing an NBA game.

Are Boozer, Peterson, and/or Dybantsa a legit gen talent like Shaq and Lebron, or just very good prospect like Blake Griffin, Flagg, or Larry Johnson?

Flagg wasn't a generational prospect. He was just hyped alot because of his marketability to US audiences. There's a distinction between who the media hypes the most, and who the respected analysts think is a rock solid franchise level prospect.

For instance, KD was seen as a generational/franchise talent. He went second, and was less hyped, because Oden was even more hyped. Luka was seen as a generational talent by pundits who knew what they were talking about, much more than Flagg, but because the first 2 teams were run by morons he was drafted #3. It wss surreal to see it unfold in real time, one of the few instances where the average pundit was smarter than 2 front offices. The analysts I respect were much more excited by Luka than Flagg.

Conversely, some of those guys you named were not that hyped by either the media or analysts, e.g. Bogut.

I would say the most hyped prospects since 97 were Duncan, Lebron, AD, Zion, Luka, KD, Oden, Embiid (before his injury issues were revealed), and Wemby. Flagg had media hype of a similar level to some of these guys, but not from analysts who had doubts about him being an MVP type of player (even though they loved him). Other guys analysts loved included Towns, Rose, and Dwight.

Wiggins was hyped leading into his college season, but he showed so many flaws that people had cooled on him by the draft. He and Jabari were seen as distant 2 & 3 behind Embiid, until Embiid's injury news. Wall was pretty hyped though.

Before 97, the most hyped guys were Shaq, Kareem, Magic, Hakeem, Sampson, Ewing, D.Rob, Webber, etc. Zo actually had alot of hype too. In non-Shaq years he'd have had a good chance of going #1.



This is the worst case of revisionist history i've ever seen.

Flagg never made the list of hyped #1 picks because after a year at Duke he just showed he was average. look again at the list (Magic, Ralph Sampson, Ewing, David Robinson, Shaq, Webber, Duncan, Lebron, Bogut, Oden, Rose, Wall, Wiggins, Wemby...)

Luka was never hyped, he had so many haters during the draft, you can easily pull up youtube clips of experts and analyst saying, who is luka? or he is a total unknown.

i just remember things better, specially college basketball, you can look at old clips of the 2004 season and it was dominated by Bogut, who basically won every award like Duncan did in his senior year, and Bogut was also directly compared to Duncan because of his shot blocking and jumpshot for a 7footer.

Embiid had zero hype and it was all about Wiggins being the next Lebron
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#35 » by atlantabbq99 » Sun Dec 7, 2025 5:04 am

About 60% of the people who have posted here have no idea what hindsight is and have no clue what the topic is about.

the other 40% understand what hindsight is and are actually able to give intelligent comments and insights.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#36 » by DirtyDez » Sun Dec 7, 2025 5:40 am

Generational is dumb word to use honestly. Truly elite prospects since 2000:

Yao
Lebron
Darko
Melo
Oden
KD
Blake
Wall
AD
Towns
Ayton
Luka
Zion
Wemby
Flagg
fromthetop321 wrote:I got Lebron number 1, he is also leading defensive player of the year. Curry's game still reminds me of Jeremy Lin to much.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#37 » by johannking » Sun Dec 7, 2025 6:35 am

I like the idea of the best draft prospects over every 5 / 10 years on a rolling window. That's a good definition of generational prospects. Could start a thread over this ranking.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#38 » by King Ken » Sun Dec 7, 2025 4:42 pm

3 gen talents - Boozer, Dybantsa, and Peterson
2 elite talents - Wilson and Flemings

Last year you had one gen talent and 1 elite talent.
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#39 » by ReggiesKnicks » Sun Dec 7, 2025 7:01 pm

King Ken wrote:3 gen talents - Boozer, Dybantsa, and Peterson
2 elite talents - Wilson and Flemings

Last year you had one gen talent and 1 elite talent.


You have all of Boozer, Dybantsa and Peterson ahead of Harper?
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Re: Is There a Gen Talent in The 2026 Draft? 

Post#40 » by King Ken » Mon Dec 8, 2025 2:49 am

ReggiesKnicks wrote:
King Ken wrote:3 gen talents - Boozer, Dybantsa, and Peterson
2 elite talents - Wilson and Flemings

Last year you had one gen talent and 1 elite talent.


You have all of Boozer, Dybantsa and Peterson ahead of Harper?

Yes

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