2021 NBA Draft Thread

[Dadouv47]

My realistic "dream'" draft night would be : Barnes or Kuminga at 6 (I don't love Barnes but it's a less risky pick, sometimes I love Kuminga but also have a bad feeling about him being a bust); trading #16, #35 & Denver 2023 to get GIddey and move a small asset to get Sengun. Then would pick Vrenz at 36 so we could have a cool belgian on our roster

I think Sengun is getting the hype blast to put him in a position that it likely takes 16 + 18 to secure him. I think he is going to be seen as a less bouncy Clint w/ the potential to shoot a few 3's.

As an outsider, this would be my ideal OKC draft. Lets hope the Barnes to TOR talk isnt fake and that ORL goes need over talent:

6 - Jalen Suggs G

Trade 16 + 18 to CHA for 11

11 - Franz Wagner F

Trade 34 + 36 + DEN 2023 FRP to ATL for 20

20 - Usman Garuba CF

G - Jalen Suggs
G - Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
F - Franz Wagner
F - Alejsek Pokusevski
C - Usman Garuba

That looks really, really good. IMO both Wagner and Garuba go higher than these projections but who knows.

well your ideal draft is better than mine. I just don't see how Suggs could fall into 6. I can see Toronto drafting Barnes but then Orlando has to pick Suggs. They may even get Kuminga at 8 (or gonna pair Suggs with Bouknight/Moody).

I can see a small possibility of Suggs falling to 5 and Presti overpays Orlando to get him.

[Dadouv47]

Is Jeremy Woo reliable? First KOC saying we want Bouknight at 6 but I didn't believe it but now...that's a lot of talk.

[thedoppelganger]

Is Jeremy Woo reliable? First KOC saying we want Bouknight at 6 but I didn't believe it but now...that's a lot of talk.

Don't think he's Chad Ford levels of just trying to generate clicks, but doubt we're leaking our preferred pick around league circles like that. Could be a smokescreen to try to rush Orlando to take him at 5, or push someone in the 7-9 range to overpay to move up for him if we think our preferred option (Barnes) is going at 5 and we could get the next guy on our board a little further down.

I keep waiting for an updated mock from Vecenie or ESPN as they usually have good intel and haven't put out anything since the lottery.

[ThunderBolt]

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[Dn4sty]

If OKC moved back a bit (like 6 and 18 for 7 and 14). Then take 16 and 14 to move back into the 10 range to end up with Giddey and Moody I’d be really happy with this draft

[ThunderBolt]

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[thedoppelganger]

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Not much of interest to us here, but details of workouts for the top teams:

Cunningham is only working out with Detroit, while Green is only working out with Detroit and Houston interestingly. Can't believe Cleveland is so lucky to have Mobley fall to them at 3, glad Houston seems to be passing on him.

Barnes is working out for Toronto today, and Givony has him as his projected #5 pick now.

[ThunderBolt]

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Not much of interest to us here, but details of workouts for the top teams:

Cunningham is only working out with Detroit, while Green is only working out with Detroit and Houston interestingly. Can't believe Cleveland is so lucky to have Mobley fall to them at 3, glad Houston seems to be passing on him.

Barnes is working out for Toronto today, and Givony has him as his projected #5 pick now.

The hope is that the stories about Kuminga’s workout going well in Cleveland are true. Most likely they are meaningless but I’ve got 9 more days until I shift my irrational hopes to the guy we are left with at six.

[jake_swivel]

The hope is that the stories about Kuminga’s workout going well in Cleveland are true. Most likely they are meaningless but I’ve got 9 more days until I shift my irrational hopes to the guy we are left with at six.

What don’t you like about kuminga, just out of curiosity?

[ThunderBolt]

The hope is that the stories about Kuminga’s workout going well in Cleveland are true. Most likely they are meaningless but I’ve got 9 more days until I shift my irrational hopes to the guy we are left with at six.

What don’t you like about kuminga, just out of curiosity?

I don’t dislike him. He just scares me. He doesn’t really do anything well but that doesn’t mean too much at his age. I just wanted more of a sure thing with our pick this year. If we draft him, I’ll hope for the best.

[Devilanche]

Same for me . If that’s who we end up with after draft night I can totally get behind him. But with lotto odds and SGA already being this good early plus various other improvement that I can expect, I would just want more of a sure thing but yet I don’t want to give up too much of the upside for the higher floor.

[ThunderBolt]

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Spoiler:

1 CADE CUNNINGHAM Tier 1 Superstar upside
2 JALEN SUGGS Tier 2 All star upside
3 EVAN MOBLEY Tier 2
4 JALEN GREEN Tier 2
5 JONATHAN KUMINGA Tier 3 High upside starters
6 SCOTTIE BARNES Tier 3
7 MOSES MOODY Tier 4 Potential Starters. No other tiers for the rest of the first round.
8 ALPEREN SENGUN
9 JAMES BOUKNIGHT
10 DAVION MITCHELL
11 USMAN GARUBA
12 JOSH GIDDEY

[Old Man Game]

Watching that finals with Giannis and Booker starring for their teams, neither one a top ten pick, I can't help but reflect back on how disappointed we were when we got pick 6.

[slick_watts]

Watching that finals with Giannis and Booker starring for their teams, neither one a top ten pick, I can't help but reflect back on how disappointed we were when we got pick 6.

luck is a factor in all successful endeavors. unless you get a top 3 pick (top 2, really), there's a lot of luck associated with drafting a star and keeping them during their prime years. that bucks front office is inept but won a title anyway because they scored a generational player in the middle of the 1st round and did just enough to convince him to stick around.

as for this draft, at pick 6 i'd be mostly ok with anyone projected in the range. unless sam presti does something odd like draft keon johnson there i'm ok. i'd try and combine the other two 1sts to move up a bit. my 1st round draft crushes are sengun, bouknight, and moody.

[Old Man Game]

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Spoiler:

1 CADE CUNNINGHAM Tier 1 Superstar upside
2 JALEN SUGGS Tier 2 All star upside
3 EVAN MOBLEY Tier 2
4 JALEN GREEN Tier 2
5 JONATHAN KUMINGA Tier 3 High upside starters
6 SCOTTIE BARNES Tier 3
7 MOSES MOODY Tier 4 Potential Starters. No other tiers for the rest of the first round.
8 ALPEREN SENGUN
9 JAMES BOUKNIGHT
10 DAVION MITCHELL
11 USMAN GARUBA
12 JOSH GIDDEY

That roughly tracks with my thinking at the moment. That's why I can't get too hung up on the Barnes vs Kuminga thing. I think they're pretty similar in terms of their realistic upsides. You have heard Kuminga physically compared to Jalen Brown, even K. Leonard, but realistically solid starter is probably a more likely best case which I think is about the same as Barnes.

If anything, I find Barnes more intriguing because of the distributor aspect which could open the offense in interesting ways but his shooting woes keep it from being anything to get overly excited about.

[Old Man Game]

Watching that finals with Giannis and Booker starring for their teams, neither one a top ten pick, I can't help but reflect back on how disappointed we were when we got pick 6.

luck is a factor in all successful endeavors. unless you get a top 3 pick (top 2, really), there's a lot of luck associated with drafting a star and keeping them during their prime years. that bucks front office is inept but won a title anyway because they scored a generational player in the middle of the 1st round and did just enough to convince him to stick around.

as for this draft, at pick 6 i'd be mostly ok with anyone projected in the range. unless sam presti does something odd like draft keon johnson there i'm ok. i'd try and combine the other two 1sts to move up a bit. my 1st round draft crushes are sengun, bouknight, and moody.

Bouknight is a guy I keep coming back to when I think about what we have and what we need on the roster. Outside of Shai, we just don't have one of those professional bucket getters. I think he could make a lot of sense here even if the mocks say drafting him at 6 is sort of a reach.

[ThunderBolt]

Spoiler:

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[spoiler]1 CADE CUNNINGHAM Tier 1 Superstar upside
2 JALEN SUGGS Tier 2 All star upside
3 EVAN MOBLEY Tier 2
4 JALEN GREEN Tier 2
5 JONATHAN KUMINGA Tier 3 High upside starters
6 SCOTTIE BARNES Tier 3
7 MOSES MOODY Tier 4 Potential Starters. No other tiers for the rest of the first round.
8 ALPEREN SENGUN
9 JAMES BOUKNIGHT
10 DAVION MITCHELL
11 USMAN GARUBA
12 JOSH GIDDEY

That roughly tracks with my thinking at the moment. That's why I can't get too hung up on the Barnes vs Kuminga thing. I think they're pretty similar in terms of their realistic upsides. You have heard Kuminga physically to Jalen Brown, even K. Leonard, but realistically solid starter is probably a more likely best case which I think is about the same as Barnes.

If anything, I find Barnes more intriguing because of the distributor aspect which could open the offense in interesting ways but his shooting woes keep it from being anything to get overly excited about.

Yep. All of these draft rankings go out the window pretty quickly once these guys take the court. If a guy like Bouknight looks really good early, people tend to change their tune about how it was so obvious that his scoring would translate and his weaknesses were only a result of his situation at UCONN.

Draft ranking revisionist history is really silly to me. Experts, GM's and others all say that luck is a huge factor. I think it was Vecenie's podcast where he was talking to Tim Connelly of the nuggets about Jokic and Connelly basically wouldn't accept praise for drafting him because he said it was complete luck. Presti has said the same thing.

[thedoppelganger]

Lot of draft intel dropping today, updated mocks from Athletic + Bleacher Report, and KOC is updating his today also. Sounds like Barnes has taken Kuminga's place as the presumptive #5 pick, and noise is getting louder about us liking Bouknight at 6. Everyone seems to acknowledge that there's expected to be a lot of movement on draft night as well with all the teams that have multiple 1sts.

From Vecenie's mock today which left me fairly uninspired:
6 - Kuminga

Spoiler:

"Kuminga has turned into one of the true wild cards of draft night. I think his range starts here and lasts down even until the 11 or 12 range. Things with his situation are that uncertain right now. However, where he lands will have a significant cascading effect on the rest of the proceedings. The Thunder are notoriously secretive, but the name that has come up most as a potential party-crasher in the top-six is James Bouknight. A Bouknight choice would particularly create some confusion down the order, as there is some uncertainty regarding how teams below this level feel about Kuminga. Also, don’t forget Sam Presti is one of the most active general managers on the trade market. Teams are trying to navigate his season with the Ignite and are struggling to come up with where they fall on him. Is he more Jeff Green or Jaylen Brown? Or somewhere in the middle like Harrison Barnes? Each individual team feels differently, and he’s something of a polarizing player. The Thunder can afford to take a flier, given that they have one of the best developmental programs in the NBA. I’m going for Kuminga for now, but there is a real chance this adjusts with more information."

16 - Isaiah Jackson

Spoiler:

The Thunder are seen as likely to come away from the 2021 NBA Draft with at least one big man, given that there aren’t any true bigs on the roster right now. Jackson is the name I’ve heard most associated with them in that regard, as he’s a high-character player who has high upside on defense. Kai Jones also has come up as a possibility. Obviously though, with picks No. 16 and 18, Presti will be active in the trade market and will scour to see what’s available.

18 - Jared Butler
34 - JT Thor
36 - Tre Mann

Bleacher Report has us taking Bouknight, Sengun, Jalen Johnson, Dosnumu, Aaron Henry. Similar intel here as above regarding Bouknight being the player we're rumored to prefer if Barnes is off the board.

[ThunderBolt]

To my knowledge the Isaiah Jackson rumors are simply because he left the combine...which leads to speculation he had a promise...which brings OKC to mind. That seems pretty shakey to me.

The Bouknight rumors seem more believable to me. I wish KOC would elaborate on how solid his source was on this.

[Old Man Game]

To my knowledge the Isaiah Jackson rumors are simply because he left the combine...which leads to speculation he had a promise...which brings OKC to mind. That seems pretty shakey to me.

The Bouknight rumors seem more believable to me. I wish KOC would elaborate on how solid his source was on this.

Just speculating here but I also think the Kentucky connection plays a role in that speculation. Nazr Mohammed and just the overall kentucky flavor our roster has had the last several years.