2020 NBA Draft Thread

[jake_swivel]

Then double your odds by not trading up. Also, this draft isn't bad at picks 15-30. It was the top that sucked.

That was actually the strategy I was advocating for. Multiple late picks seem like a better strategy. But if Sam is in love, I’m glad it’s someone that appears to have unicorn qualities. At least he’s not a super athlete that can’t shoot and went to an academy/played in Australia.

[ThunderBolt]

Read on Twitter

[spearsy23]

I read today that Durant and someone else that was pretty good was the same weight at this age. If we draft him I’ll see if I can’t find it.

I mean, sure, but KD was a sf who was actually playing sg in the nba. If the dude had that type of athleticism then do you presti.

Scouts say he moves like a guard. I mean, I’m not sold on him but I don’t think we would be drafting him as a center, that’s for sure.

What scouts? Everything I've found on him indicates he's a fluid athlete for a big, nowhere near guard athleticism.

[spearsy23]

Read on Twitter

"Includes"? Okay, that could change things.

[Dadouv47]

So...we get a 2nd ?

[spearsy23]

So many of these kids seem like such great guys. I like how vulnerable they've allowed themselves to be.

[Dadouv47]

what's the ''package'' ?

[ThunderBolt]

I mean, sure, but KD was a sf who was actually playing sg in the nba. If the dude had that type of athleticism then do you presti.

Scouts say he moves like a guard. I mean, I’m not sold on him but I don’t think we would be drafting him as a center, that’s for sure.

What scouts? Everything I've found on him indicates he's a fluid athlete for a big, nowhere near guard athleticism.

Vecenie
*wing

The player: There isn’t really anyone who has presented this combination of skills at this level at this size and weight. That isn’t to say they’re the best, just different. At 7-foot tall with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and over a 9-foot standing reach, he has NBA center size measurements and length. That is particularly impressive because Pokusevski also moves around the court like a wing. His coordination, fluidity and speed is not that of a 7-footer. Pokusevski is a legit perimeter player at this size. That is his skillset. This a 7-footer who can legit run off of screens, set his feet and fire. Olympiacos used him basically as a wing coming off of baseline and pin-down screens. He hit just 32 percent from 3, but those attempts were fairly high-degree difficulty in the actions that he would run. Pokusevski is comfortable putting the ball on the floor with either his right or left hand, especially out in transition. Can execute somewhat advanced footwork and crossovers at reasonably high speed.

[jake_swivel]

So many of these kids seem like such great guys. I like how vulnerable they've allowed themselves to be.

And Patrick Williams is gonna get his teammates flowers.

[spearsy23]

Scouts say he moves like a guard. I mean, I’m not sold on him but I don’t think we would be drafting him as a center, that’s for sure.

What scouts? Everything I've found on him indicates he's a fluid athlete for a big, nowhere near guard athleticism.

Vecenie

The player: There isn’t really anyone who has presented this combination of skills at this level at this size and weight. That isn’t to say they’re the best, just different. At 7-foot tall with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and over a 9-foot standing reach, he has NBA center size measurements and length. That is particularly impressive because Pokusevski also moves around the court like a wing. His coordination, fluidity and speed is not that of a 7-footer. Pokusevski is a legit perimeter player at this size. That is his skillset. This a 7-footer who can legit run off of screens, set his feet and fire. Olympiacos used him basically as a wing coming off of baseline and pin-down screens. He hit just 32 percent from 3, but those attempts were fairly high-degree difficulty in the actions that he would run. Pokusevski is comfortable putting the ball on the floor with either his right or left hand, especially out in transition. Can execute somewhat advanced footwork and crossovers at reasonably high speed.

That's a little more interesting. I haven't seen anyone else that glowing on his movement. Mostly seeing him projected as a 4.

[jambalaya]

It happened.

Poku.

[ThunderBolt]

So many of these kids seem like such great guys. I like how vulnerable they've allowed themselves to be.

Okongwu had me tearing up.

[jake_swivel]

Heh, love this dude’s Dad.

[Dadouv47]

We should have traded for Shamet

[spearsy23]

Alright. He's the dude so I'm hoping he can be the dude. Is he coming over this year?

[ThunderBolt]

Probably not supposed to post this but here is Vecenie’s full write up if anyone wants to read...

Spoiler:

BACKGROUND: The 2020 NBA Draft’s International Man of Mystery. Pokusevski’s family fled Kosovo in 1999 and settled in Serbia. Father was a basketball coach and helped train Aleksej from a young age. Eventually, his father began to upload YouTube clips of Aleksej online, and someone from Olympiacos contacted them. Considered to be a hard worker. He moved to Greece when he was 13 and signed a youth contract for Olympiacos. Because he moved to Greece before age 14, he was eligible to represent either Greece or Serbia in international competition. Chose Serbia, and his first major tournament was the U17 World Cup in 2018. Averaged about eight points, eight rebounds and three blocks. Then played in the U18 Euro in 2019, and caught many evaluators’ eyes due to his ability to shoot 3s at 7-foot tall. He only averaged 10 points and eight rebounds, but he blocked four shots per game and grabbed two steals, making the skillset intriguing. It was a continuation of his emergence from the previous fall and spring, where playing for Olympiacos’ junior team he averaged 16 points, seven rebounds, 3.5 blocks and 2.3 steals at the Next Generation Tournament in Belgrade. Late in that 2018-19 season, Pokusevski became the youngest player to ever debut for Olympiacos in Euroleague play at 17 years and just under three months old. Officially got called up to being a full-time senior player in 2019-20. Played with Olympiacos’ team in the second division of Greece, which is where the team was situated following a conflict with fellow Greek basketball powerhouse Panathinaikos regarding refereeing disputes. Was the most dominant player physically in the league, putting up ridiculous per-minute numbers. However, injured his knee midway through the season and missed three months. NBA scouts wondered privately if Pokusevski had been promised by someone and thus was shut down. However, he returned to action for a Euroleague game in February prior to the shutdown, then returned for three further domestic league games. Decided to declare for the draft following this season, and he’s seen as a likely first-round pick.
YEAR TEAM LEAGUE
2018-19 Olympiacos Euroleague 2019-20 Olympiacos HEBA A2 (Greece)
Age GP PPG RPG APG TOPG BPG SPG FG% 3P% FT% 17 2 0.5 1.0 0.5 0.5 0.0 0.5 00.0 00.0 50.0 18 11 10.8 7.9 3.1 1.8 1.8 1.3 40.4 32.1 78.3

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STRENGTHS: The strengths are elite, and the weaknesses are concerning. And to be frank, basically everything at this stage is theoretical because the quality of competition is just not particularly strong in second division Greece. Having said that, this is a genuinely unique player. There isn’t really anyone who has presented this combination of skills at this level at this size and weight. That isn’t to say they’re the best, just different. At 7-foot tall with a 7-foot-3 wingspan and over a 9-foot standing reach, he has NBA center size measurements and length. That is particularly impressive because Pokusevski also moves around the court like a wing. His coordination, fluidity and speed is not that of a 7-footer. He moves exceedingly well, and has tremendous balance coming off of high-level offensive actions.
Pokusevski is a legit perimeter player at this size. That is his skillset. This a 7-footer who can legit run off of screens, set his feet and fire. Olympiacos used him basically as a wing coming off of baseline and pin-down screens. He hit just 32 percent from 3, but those attempts were fairly high-degree difficulty in the actions that he would run. Everything about his release is fluid. Has a bit of an exaggerated ball dip, but a very compact shot that has a very clean release coming out of his hand. The level of shot diversity he has is pretty staggering for his size. He made shots like side-step, pull-up step-backs to the right, fadeaway shots to his right on the move, pull-ups going around ball-screens, step-back, relocation shots off of flare screens to his left. It’s just kind of wild.
In large part, he’s capable of all of this because of his coordination both without and with the ball. Pokusevski is comfortable putting the ball on the floor with either his right or left hand, especially out in transition. Can execute somewhat advanced footwork and crossovers at reasonably high speed. Can eurostep and change angles at the basket to finish with finger rolls and touch. More than that though, Pokusevski is a pretty exceptional passer for his size. He’s not Nikola Jokic or anything, but he makes really high-level reads and executes high-degree-of-difficulty passes. Can make them off of a live dribble with dump-offs to guys in the dunker spot or with either hand on cross-corner kickouts. Or, can stop and survey the court and make whip passes or touch passes from a standstill. His passing and general unselfishness might be his best skill.
Finally, it’s worth noting how active and reactive he is defensively. He’s a terrific weak-side shot blocker who gets a lot of blocks from behind or rotating as the secondary rim protector. Gets a ton of deflections coming over from the weak side because he sees the game and is more athletic than most players in that second division of Greece. His blocks and steals metrics are among some of the best recorded in recent draft years. He makes a ton of plays happen because his feel for playing basketball is really high.
WEAKNESSES: Honestly, one of the most bizarre, difficult-to-project players I’ve seen, in large part due to relatively limited sample size. Teams only have 35 games and about 700 minutes to evaluate over the last three years, and very little of that tape comes against high-level quality of competition. Even the typical one-and- done freshman in college has two-to-three times that amount of tape. To put it into perspective, NBA teams have been able to wrangle more tape of James Wiseman in AAU and high school settings than they have of Pokusevski. Teams will be picking Pokusevski without much certainty.
He is extremely skinny right now. It wouldn’t be a stunner if he was under 200 pounds at 7-foot tall. He gets moved and pushed around even in the Greek second division at times. The production is not as elite as you’d anticipate it to be for the competition level. The highlights look great, but the fact of the matter is that he’s still a guy averaging about 11 points while shooting 40 percent from the field in second division Greece. The overall tape when you watch it is a bit less than the sum of its parts. The flashes are great, but the consistency just hasn’t quite been there yet. Then again though, he’s 18 years old playing against professionals. Is it valid to complain about him lacking consistency?
The real, biggest concern, though, is that he’s also not overly explosive. Much more fluid than he is quick-twitch. Struggles to elevate over the top of players around the basket and isn’t really so quick that he can just blow by defenders in isolation-type situations. If he gets bumped at all, it slows down his momentum in a real way. It is exceptionally difficult to play in the NBA if you can’t play through contact. This is why he doesn’t finish nearly as well at the rim as you’d expect. Only made about 53 percent of his shots at the basket in the halfcourt, a number more in line with a guard who is strong at finishing.
In general, he has not had any boundaries put on his game. It’s helped his skill level improve and develop at a young age, meaning it’s going to benefit him in the long run. But in the short term, Pokusevski has a tendency to make some wild passing reads where he thinks he has a window, and it’s really just a five percent chance at completing the pass. Goes for the flash over the smart play sometimes. Also can over-dribble a bit.
Finally, has real issues guarding in space when on the ball. Just hasn’t really done it at either the international or club level. Really, really poor defensive stance. Can get driven easily on close-outs. Doesn’t fight through screens when deployed as more of a perimeter player. Doesn’t always make the solid rotational read, and instead will go ball-hunting. Much better as a floater away from the ball where he can wreak havoc with his length as a rim protector and passing lane ball-hawk. Kind of a riverboat gambler, too.
Ultimately, the big question here is what exactly is his role? He’s a mismatch magnet right now on defense because he’s not strong enough to battle inside against bigs, and not a good enough perimeter defender to play out in space. Even though he’s excellent and active away from the ball, teams would just involve him right now in every single action and force him to guard ball-screens in space, play solid gap defense as a drop guy, or get posted up.
SUMMARY: Genuinely the most interesting player in this draft. Has skills that are honestly just totally elite and unlike anything in today’s NBA. It is so incredibly easy to sell yourself on Pokusevski having more upside than almost any player in this class. His ability to shoot at that size is rare. His fluidity at that size is even rarer. His passing ability both from a standstill and on the move is pretty bananas. But he also has flaws that could completely crater him as an NBA player if they don’t work themselves out. He doesn’t really have a defensive role at the moment. He can’t really play through contact on offense efficiently. So where does that leave him? Honestly, I have no idea. You could sell me that a team with a strong developmental track record could take him in the top-10 and I wouldn’t bat an eye. You could also sell me that he should go outside of the top-20. I’ve split the difference here at No. 15. I’m not totally sure I can sell myself on using a lottery pick on him, but the upside is so great that it’s tough for me to go lower. You could tell me Pokusevski ends up like Jan Vesely and out of the NBA quickly, or you could sell me he turns

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into an All-Star. The sample size we’ve seen so far isn’t representative or big enough to have any degree of certainty with Pokusevski. But what I do know is that there are real tools here, and his career is going to be one of the most interesting to track in this draft going forward.
GRADE: Late lottery to mid-first round.

[Dadouv47]

still remote chances of S&T Gallo?

Rubio + 2 FRP for n°17 was crazy (what about the ''package''?)

[ThunderBolt]

If we can get another pick, Bane and Woodard are guys I would take a chance on late frp maybe early second round.

[ThunderBolt]

still remote chances of S&T Gallo?

Rubio + 2 FRP for n°17 was crazy (what about the ''package''?)

It was a bit of an overpay but I don’t think it was crazy. I like that the thunder feel confident in this kid.

[RunOKC]

Hope he can hold up in the NBA