2020 Draft

[pcbothwel]

Precious Achiuwa is a player I've been curious about as someone who might work his way into the top 10. His measurables are similar to Okongwu. The Draft Room scouting report on him is older and portrays him as a 223 pound SF while the more recent USA Today lists him as a 240 pound "Big". Could be be someone for us to consider if Okongwu is off the board? The combine should answer some questions with him as going from site to site his measurable really vary, as does his age 19-20, which seems high for freshman?

http://www.nbadraftroom.com/p/precious-achiuwa.html

USA TODAY
Big, 6-foot-9, 19 years old
Achiuwa, who was a top-15 recruit in this freshman class, is averaging 15.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game. There are flashes of greatness, like when he put up 22 points and 22 rebounds with four blocks in a recent game against Tulane. His defensive rebound percentage (24.3%) ranks second-best in his conference and sixth-best among all freshmen. Meanwhile, his block percentage (6.3%) ranks among the top five in the American Athletic Conference. Back in 2017, he measured with a 6-foot-11 wingspan and 8-foot-11 standing reach. The size is there for him to play a role in the NBA at some point in the near future, more likely in the post than as a forward.I

Bleacher Report
14. Portland Trail Blazers: Precious Achiuwa (Memphis, PF/C, Freshman)

Achiuwa made his strongest statement of the season on Saturday during a 22-point, 22-rebound, five-block effort against Tulane.

Even without a great deal of skill, he continues to impact games by maximizing his 6'9", 225-pound frame, 7'2" wingspan, mobility and motor for rim-runs, finishes, second-chance opportunities and defensive playmaking. Achiuwa's jump shot and decision-making still require significant improvement, but few bigs in the draft have a more impressive physical foundation to build off.

Precious is an explosive athlete - high ceiling but low floor prospect. It's a matter of how much he can improve on his skills. Very strong for a 225 lber - I think he has the frame to add some weight. Needs to cut down on to's.

Yuck... 3 times as many Turnovers as Assist, Terrible +/-, Inefficient, Cant hit a FT...
Racking up Blocks, Steals and Rebounds against UCONN, New Orleans, Bradley, and Jackson St. does NOTHING for me.

Hayes, Haliburton, Avdija, Cole Anthony, Okongwu

Even if you want to key in on hybrid Fowards/Bigs...Jalen Smith, Tyler Bey, Toppin, and Reggie Perry are FAR better choices

[gambitx777]

I do not understand these people not putting Wiseman at 1 but dear lord if he falls.od love to get him

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using RealGM mobile app

[Jamaaliver]

The guys I like most from this draft...

2020 NBA Draft Big Board: Latest updates after NCAA regular season

2. Onyeka Okongwu, USC: Big, 6-foot-9, 19 years old

Spoiler:

While he's a bit undersized at 6-9, he can play bigger than his height, given his 7-foot-2 wingspan. For example, his block percentage (10.0%) ranks among the top five of all freshmen this season. He is more celebrated for his defensive ability, but the offense is there, too. Okongwu is averaging 1.14 points per possession as an offensive finisher, per Synergy, which ranks in the 98th percentile among all NCAA players. Put it all together, and the USC big man currently has the best box plus-minus in college basketball. Even if there might not be as much star potential as a player such as Georgia's Anthony Edwards, he feels much closer to a sure thing in the NBA.

4. Tyrese Haliburton, Iowa State: Guard, 6-foot-5, 20 years old

Spoiler:

Haliburton is a skinny, lengthy guard measured with a 7-foot wingspan though and 170-pound frame. But most important is his valuable 3-and-D skill set. Before his injury, his 3-point percentage (41.9%) and steal percentage (3.8%) were both among the best in the NCAA. As a distributor and lead ballhandler, despite an unusually low usage rate, his assist rate still ranks in the top 10 among all underclassmen at high-major programs. Haliburton has been productive enough to suggest he can take over as the starting point guard in the NBA as soon as next season. There may be a low ceiling, but there is also a very high floor.

6. Deni Avdija, Maccabi Tel Aviv: Forward, 6-foot-8, 19 years old

Spoiler:

One reason why Avdija's stock is rising is his stellar play at the recent 2020 Eurobasket Qualifiers. He scored 21 points with eight rebounds, two assists, one block and one steal. Avdija also shot 3-for-6 from beyond the arc, showing his shooting may be an asset. The hype is there, too, as the prospect took home MVP honors at the U20 Euro Championship in 2019. Previous winners of that award include NBA talents such as Ersan Ilyasova, Nikola Mirotic and Cedi Osman.

8. Devin Vassell, Florida State: Wing, 6-foot-7, 19 years old

Spoiler:

Seminoles sophomore Devin Vassell is widely considered the best team defender among NBA prospects. The wing has a solid 6-foot-10 wingspan, and with his help, per KenPom, FSU's defensive rating currently ranks among the top 15 in the nation. On the offensive side of the ball, his 3-point accuracy (42.7%) has been dominant all season. When he plays against tougher opponents, Vassell has risen to the occasion. His box plus-minus against Top-100 competition ranks as the best in the NCAA among those who have played more than 10 such games thus far. Vassell might be the most underrated prospect, considering he has played like a lottery talent.

9. Isaac Okoro, Auburn: Wing, 6-foot-6, 19 years old

Spoiler:

Okoro, who is an incredible athlete, is shooting 67.9% at the rim, and the majority of those attempts have been unassisted. He has been more than capable of creating his own offense on post-up attempts, isolation looks, ballhandling in transition and on putbacks. But the biggest concern with Okoro is that only 17.2% of his field goals have been from beyond five feet of the basket, which simply won't fly in the NBA for someone his size. His shooting talent is borderline anemic, but there might be enough to like about the rest of his intangibles to put him in the lottery. If he isn't able to figure out at least a basic catch-and-shoot game, his upside is limited to becoming a role player.

12. Obi Toppin, Dayton: Forward, 6-foot-9, 22 years old

Spoiler:

Toppin, the most prolific dunker in college basketball, is currently averaging 1.17 points per possession on offense. That ranks second-best among D-I players who have finished at least 400 possessions thus far, per Synergy. The high-volume finisher has helped Dayton make a case for being the most exciting team in college basketball this season. The bad news, however, is that Toppin likely can be played off the floor during big moments due to his poor defensive instincts. His pick-and-roll coverage is easy to criticize, and his measurable statistics when guarding opponents don't do him any favors, either. Despite that, his box plus-minus ranks as the best among all players at mid-major schools. For a big man, he projects as a solid role player and likely starter.

USA Today

[Ruzious]

I like Vassell but not at 8. Like I've said before, I'd compare him to Danny Green. I think teammate Patrick Williams is a better long-term prospect - though he's so raw that he could easily be a bust.

I want Toppin to be picked before the Wiz pick, so he'll knock somebody else down to the Wiz.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

DRAFT ROOM updated mock 3/5
http://www.nbadraftroom.com/p/2020-nba-mock-draft.html

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

If you look at the numbers Okongwu projects future star (or superstar).

The more I look at this draft, the closer I'm coming to the conclusion that Okongwu is the player we must come away with. Our defense is so incredibly bad... And no he is not a cure all, but he would certainly be a step in the right direction. He really is an ideal fit for this team. And I think we are an ideal fit for him. I would say a trade up is in order if necessary. I'm not sure what would be needed, at this point I'll have to be patient and see how the draft slotting shakes out, and see if we can't just get him straight with our pick.

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Watch on YouTube

Sent from my SM-A205U using RealGM mobile app

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

No might be. He is IMO.

He's not the outside shooter that Jalen Smith is; however, Okongwu plays FEROCIOUS defense, especially in the paint, and he's much stronger.

Smith and Toppin would each be real good picks, but Okongwu is a stud.

Ok Okongwu might be the #1 guy for us. He can go over left or right shoulder, finish with left or right hand. He'd slot perfectly in with Rui in the front court. Wiseman may just be the consolation prize.

Sent from my SM-A205U using RealGM mobile app

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Tremendously good post, pif

I think Jalen Smith at 15 will prove to be worth a lot higher pick.

I thought Zards' comment would be best discussed here:

...many experts are saying that the 8th or 9th draft pick in next year's draft probably won't yield a much better player than a pick a little later in the draft.

This year, next year's any year's. Here are 11 drafts

Year: #9 pick <> #15 pick (list of players taken later than either of them who are better than at least 1 & often both of them)

2008: D.J. Augustin <> Robin Lopez (Ryan Anderson, Kosta Koufos, Nic Batum, Serge Ibaka, DeAndre Jordan, & a couple others)
2009: DeMar DeRozan <> Austin Daye (Jrue Holiday, Ty Lawson, Jeff Teague, Darren Collison, Taj Gibson, Demarre Carroll, Jonas Jerebko, Patrick Beverly, Danny Green, Patty Mills, & a few others)
2010: Gordon Hayward <> Larry Sanders (Eric Bledsoe, Quincy Pondexter, & a dozen other guys better than Sanders -- not to mention Paul George better than Hayward)
2011: Kemba Walker <> Kawhi Leonard (no one better than Leonard. Better than Walker = Jimmy Butler & maybe IT)
2012: Andre Drummond <> Maurice Harkless (Tomas Satoransky, Jae Crowder, Draymond Green, Khris Middleton, Will Barton, Kyle O'Quinn)
2013: Trey Burke <> Giannis Antetekounmpo (better than Burke -- Snell, Dieng, Hill, Hardaway, Gobert, Ennis)
2014: Noah Vonleh <> Adreian Payne (Nurkic, Napier, Capela, Spencer Dinwiddie, Jerami Grant, Glenn Robinson, Nikola Jokic, Dwight Powell, Jordan Clarkson, Jordan McRae)
2015: Frank Kaminsky <> Kelly Oubre (Terry Rozier, Delon Wright, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Larry Nance, Kevon Looney, Cedi Osman, Monrezl Harrell, Richaun Holmes, Josh Richardson, Pat Connaughton)
2016: Jakob Poeltl <> Juan Hernangomez (Malik Beasley, Caris Levert, Pascal Siakam, Skal Labissiere, Dejounte Murray, Malcolm Brogdon, Patrick McCaw)
2017: Dennis Smith <> Justin Jackson (John Collins, Jarrett Allen, OG Anunoby, Derrick White, Josh Hart, Thomas Bryant, Jordan Bell, Dillon Brooks, Monte Morris, Edmond Sumner)
2018: Kevin Knox <> Troy Brown, Jr. (DiVincenzo, Kevin Huerter, Chandler Hutchinson, Brunson, Graham, Robinson, Bonga, Diallo, Melton, Bates-Diop & maybe a few others are better than Knox at least).

The 4 best guys taken #9: DeRozan, Hayward, Walker, Drummond.

The 4 best guys taken #15: Lopez, Leonard, Giannis, Oubre

The 2 best players overall -- Leonard & Giannis -- both taken #15

The 35 best players in that whole list? In no particular order: DeRozan, Hayward, Walker, Giannis, Leonard, Butler, Anderson, Batum, Ibaka, Jordan, Holiday, Beverly, Green, Middleton, Gobert, Capela, Jokic, Nance, Drummond, Looney, Harrell, Connaughton, Siakam, Murray, Brogdon, Collins, Allen, Anunoby, White, Bryant, Morris, Brown, Robinson, DiVincenzo, Brunson.

4 of them were only available if you had the #9 pick. The other 31 were all available at #15. In fact, many of them could have been had in pairs by trading down from the #15.

How about the guys taken before #9 but outside the top 3 picks, how many #4-8 picks have been better than guys on that list of 35? Well, Curry ('09), Cousins ('10 -- maybe), Lillard ('12), Porzingis ('15 -- no, but it's easier just to list him than argue), Jarren Jackson ('18 -- & that is only if he develops a whole lot from where he is now).

Sent from my SM-A205U using RealGM mobile app

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/jalen-smith-1.html

Jalen Smith

19.7 points, 13.5 rebounds, 3.0 blocks per 40.

Read on Twitter

This is a truly inane tweet! The two guys aren't alike at all, & Collins Sophomore numbers are much much better than Toppin's. Not to mention that Wake Forest played a much tougher schedule than Dayton has this year.

I could be wrong of course, but I wouldn't spend a high pick on Toppin. OTOH, I'd say Tyler Bey is under-rated.

Sent from my SM-A205U using RealGM mobile app

[Ruzious]

Read on Twitter

This is a truly inane tweet! The two guys aren't alike at all, & Collins Sophomore numbers are much much better than Toppin's. Not to mention that Wake Forest played a much tougher schedule than Dayton has this year.

I could be wrong of course, but I wouldn't spend a high pick on Toppin. OTOH, I'd say Tyler Bey is under-rated.

I don't know if they're related, but I like Saddiq Bey as well as Tyler. Both similar sized in that 6'8ish 220ish lb range that seems popular in today's NBA. Tyler's the better rebounder and has better defensive stats, while Saddiq looks to be a better shooter/scorer. Tyler seems to fit as a modern 4, while Saddiq's more of a 3. I'm guessing they're both either late 1sts or early 2nds. Tyler probably gets picked a little earlier.

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Watching the USC - UCLA game now... Okongwu looks great, very impressive his athleticism & bounce, fun to watch!

[SUPERBALLMAN]

Watching Duke UNC right now. I must be crazy but Vernon Carey looks like helluva center to my eyes. If Okongwu is gone I wouldn't be mad if we ended up with him...

Looking at the Draft Room mock, the potential problem is there are 8 very good prospects... Wiseman, Edwards, Ball, Toppin, Okongwu, Avdija, Hayes, Okoro... And the Wizards are currently projected at 9. Hence they have us taking Hampton.

So hopefully we move up, or Okongwu drops...

If not Carey looks good to me as I said, or perhaps Stix. Otherwise I'd say a trade up is in order for Okongwu.

[payitforward]

A trade up from #8 or 9 is very difficult to put together. Using Pelton's chart as a rough guide, to get from #9 to #4, you'd have to have a low R1 pick to add. We don't have that, & I don't know what we could substitute. Maybe the #9 pick plus Wagner would get us the #4 pick? If it brought us Okongwu, I'd do that.

In fact, the Hawks gave the #8 pick, the #17 pick & #35 pick last year for the #4 pick.

[gambitx777]

I would rather keep the pick and take who we can and get another pick, Bryant moved maybe? Also we are still in the loto if we get lucky then the trade back situation becomes much nicer for us. But that's gamby being hoppful again .

A trade up from #8 or 9 is very difficult to put together. Using Pelton's chart as a rough guide, to get from #9 to #4, you'd have to have a low R1 pick to add. We don't have that, & I don't know what we could substitute. Maybe the #9 pick plus Wagner would get us the #4 pick? If it brought us Okongwu, I'd do that.

In fact, the Hawks gave the #8 pick, the #17 pick & #35 pick last year for the #4 pick.

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using RealGM mobile app

[payitforward]

I would rather keep the pick and take who we can and get another pick, Bryant moved maybe? ....

What R1 pick do you think we could get for Thomas Bryant?

Do you think we could get, say, the #17 pick from Boston?

Here are the last 10 guys taken @ #17: Kevin Seraphin, Iman Shumpert, Tyler Zeller, Dennis Schroeder, James Young, Rashad Vaughn, Wade Baldwin, D.J. Wilson, Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

You do not trade 22-year-old big men who have shown that they can play at a high level in the league. Especially when you have them on bargain contracts for this year & the 2 following. Not for a random pick.

[payitforward]

Watching Duke UNC right now. I must be crazy but Vernon Carey looks like helluva center to my eyes. If Okongwu is gone I wouldn't be mad if we ended up with him...

You're not crazy. This kid is putting up killer numbers for a Freshman.

...the potential problem is there are 8 very good prospects... Wiseman, Edwards, Ball, Toppin, Okongwu, Avdija, Hayes, Okoro... And the Wizards are currently projected at 9. Hence they have us taking Hampton....

Sheesh... I wonder how many times I'd have to demonstrate it.... No, the guys projected as the top 8 picks are not the 8 best prospects in the draft.

That is never the case. In no draft is that the case. Not even 1 draft out of all the dozens that have been held.

In fact, it is incredibly rare for the top 3 guys taken to be the 3 best prospects. Forget "rare" -- off the top of my head, I can't think of a single year in which that worked out to be the case, so I'll just say that it's never happened. Period.

IOW, at least one guy -- more likely a whole bunch of them -- taken later, probably way later, than #3 is going to be better than at least 1, maybe all, of the guys taken from #1-3.

[doclinkin]

Watching Duke UNC right now. I must be crazy but Vernon Carey looks like helluva center to my eyes. If Okongwu is gone I wouldn't be mad if we ended up with him...

Looking at the Draft Room mock, the potential problem is there are 8 very good prospects... Wiseman, Edwards, Ball, Toppin, Okongwu, Avdija, Hayes, Okoro... And the Wizards are currently projected at 9. Hence they have us taking Hampton.

So hopefully we move up, or Okongwu drops...

If not Carey looks good to me as I said, or perhaps Stix. Otherwise I'd say a trade up is in order for Okongwu.

I’m on board with Carey too. And on more than a few mocks he could be gotten with a trade down. I like Stix as a 3&D big. But Carey has shown himself as a force. Overlooked somewhat. Okongwu or Carey plus a high rd 2 pick are the outlines of a happy draft for me.

I still like Tillman in rd 2 if we miss either of these two defensive Bigs.

[payitforward]

There will be a terrific player available at #9, there always is. Maybe the best player in the draft will be there, or the 2d or 3d or 4th best. Happens all the time. Sometimes the guy is available waaay later -- like at # 21 or at #35.

The best guy in the '09 draft went #7. In 2010 it was #10. In 2011 it was #15, in 2013 it was #15 again, in 2014 it was #41 (& if you want to argue he wasn't the best, then I'm sure you'll agree he was the 2d or 3d best), in 2016 most people would say that the 2d or 3d best guy went #27, in 2018 #2 was terrible -- #3 was the best but #36 is also just tremendous.

[youngWizzy]

Tommy Sheppard did his AMA on reddit earlier today at 3:00 pm. He said this when talking about the 2020 NBA draft.

A fan asked:

Have we already started our draft board? If so, what are we gunning for this year in the draft?

Tommy replied saying:

Yes, we have. We've had eyes on every game, every coast, every conference, every country, not just for the draft, but for exhibit 10s, G League, etc.

Best overall player - certainly we have some needs at the wing for depth. The biggest thing we need is more talent and that's what we're looking to add. We have Chicago's second round pick this year as well, which is looking like a higher pick than expected.

Doesn't seem to me like we'll be targeting a big like Okongwu unless he's the "best overall player."

Here is the thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ffgunu/hello_im_tommy_sheppard_general_manager_of_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

[payitforward]

TBH, I would take everything Tommy (or any GM) says about the draft with a grain of salt -- maybe a whole pillar of salt!

It's true that we have needs for depth at the wing -- or, to put it another way, we don't have a backup 2 guard. We moved McRae. We have Jerome Robinson, Garrison Mathews & Admiral Schofield (assuming we play him at the 2, where he played in college).

Then again, we're 23-39. Is there a position where we don't have needs? We need a young point guard to develop. We need a young 2 guard. We need a strong defensive player at the 4 and/or 5. We need... everything.

As to Okongwu -- doesn't it seem overwhelmingly likely that he'll be gone by our turn to pick?