2022 NBA Draft

[clyde21]

Nzosa is gonna be a pretty ridiculous rim runner, his ability to turn and pop to the rim to finish with strength/speed is Giannis like...obviously defensively projects to be a pretty elite rim protector too...it'll just be a question of high he goes without having a real offensive game to him outside rolling/putbacks/lobs but his speed to power finishing @ rim is absurd

only seen highlights. how consistent are these ridiculous defensive reads he's making off ball? because some of the coverage in these clips are insane.

yea, his floor coverage is pretty insane and closing speed to the rim whether he's finishing or blocking shots is top tier.

[Marcus]

Nzosa is gonna be a pretty ridiculous rim runner, his ability to turn and pop to the rim to finish with strength/speed is Giannis like...obviously defensively projects to be a pretty elite rim protector too...it'll just be a question of high he goes without having a real offensive game to him outside rolling/putbacks/lobs but his speed to power finishing @ rim is absurd

only seen highlights. how consistent are these ridiculous defensive reads he's making off ball? because some of the coverage in these clips are insane.

yea, his floor coverage is pretty insane and closing speed to the rim whether he's finishing or blocking shots is top tier.

from what little i could see he didn't look out place guarding outside as well. intriguing to say the least. Definitely looks more comfortable on that end of the floor. Would you give him a higher ceiling than Badji right now?

[clyde21]

only seen highlights. how consistent are these ridiculous defensive reads he's making off ball? because some of the coverage in these clips are insane.

yea, his floor coverage is pretty insane and closing speed to the rim whether he's finishing or blocking shots is top tier.

from what little i could see he didn't look out place guarding outside as well. intriguing to say the least. Definitely looks more comfortable on that end of the floor. Would you give him a higher ceiling than Badji right now?

yea, better than Badji...Badji is humungous but really still missing that go-to skill and doesn't have some of the connective tissue in his game that Nzosa does while being younger.

[DCasey91]

Banchero’s comp is like a bulkier Tatum just from the eye test. Big kid is an understatement

I mean it’s more fitting to Banch then it is to Cade.

Maybe final form Ben Simmons, Huge Cade or Bulky Tatum?

Either way he’s one or two in this years draft no doubt about it.

[babyjax13]

I'm wondering how the top prospects are going to do at the next level from high school (whatever that is going to be for them) next year. As of right now I like quite a few, but there aren't any that pop to me in the same way that Cade/Green/Kuminga/Johnson did in high school. Granted, some of the players that did not impress me as much as those three pretty easily vaulted themselves up as soon as the season started (Suggs/Mobley, to a lesser extent, Barnes). My gut is that Banchero obviously translates and Griffin might be overshadowed a bit by him, kind of like Barrett was with Zion (but less extreme). Patrick Baldwin Jr. might not get as much exposure just because of where he's gone, but I really like him. The forwards in this class are super interesting, I feel like lots of teams will especially end up with their starting small forward from this year.

[Sea2003]

Nzosa is gonna be a pretty ridiculous rim runner, his ability to turn and pop to the rim to finish with strength/speed is Giannis like...obviously defensively projects to be a pretty elite rim protector too...it'll just be a question of high he goes without having a real offensive game to him outside rolling/putbacks/lobs but his speed to power finishing @ rim is absurd

He has great touch around the rim and a solid floater. he projects to be a somewhat decent shooter( 75% from the line; 0.7 attempts). The fact that he's this far long In his development despite him only playing basketball for 4 years( and only being 17) gives me hope that the sky is the limit for him. A Giannis like outcome may not be crazy

that's like virtually no attempts tho for a big, that's the problem, right now it's pretty much all runs/rolls..and I think charactizering his offensive game as anything more than that at this point is wrong.

Yea true but I like the potential and the base that he already has. I think he can be much than a roll big. Don't know what a good high end outcome comp is for him. JJJ?

[Sea2003]

good thread on 6'10 big Nikola Jovic. Solid group of intl yet again:

Read on Twitter

[Sea2003]

Hardy is getting a lot of buzz. Not really a fan--Edwards without the athleticism and body is my comp(They're about the same size. Very good shot creator but his frame/size coupled with the lack of burst prob means he isn't in that Green/Edwards tier when it comes to score first guards

I'm a fan of Baldwin. Such a smooth/polished scorer at his age and size. He's got some MPJ/Tatum to his game. Haven't looked at his defense but I'm guessing he isn't great. Shame he's playing in Milwaukee. Some team could get a steal of he falls because of that

I'm really digging Jabari Smith Jr. 6'10 sniper with creation potential. He's a solid defender. got the tools to be an elite one. Great faceup game. u19 and HS stats are great

Haven't looked at everyone but I think my top 5 is:

Banchero
Smith
AJ
Chet
Nzosa

Still need to look at Duren, Jovic, and Watson

[gorz]

I have Adrian Griffin Jr as my 2022 1st pick in draft. He's a dark horse pick but his talent is going under the radar.

Jaden Hardy reminds me of malik newman. Both were great scorers in high school but that lack of burst/atlhleticsm really exposed them at higher level. In that 6'4/6'5 build but his athleticism is below guys like most recent James Bouknight.

Super Early top 10

1. AJ Griffin
2. Chet Holmgren
3. Jalen Duren
4. Paolo Banchero
5. Patrick Baldwin Jr.
6. Nikola Jovic
7. Caleb Houstan
8. Peyton Watson
9. Jabari Smith
10. Jaden Ivey

[Marcus]

I have Adrian Griffin Jr as my 2022 1st pick in draft. He's a dark horse pick but his talent is going under the radar.

Jaden Hardy reminds me of malik newman. Both were great scorers in high school but that lack of burst/atlhleticsm really exposed them at higher level. In that 6'4/6'5 build but his athleticism is below guys like most recent James Bouknight.

Super Early top 10

1. AJ Griffin
2. Chet Holmgren
3. Jalen Duren
4. Paolo Banchero
5. Patrick Baldwin Jr.
6. Nikola Jovic
7. Caleb Houstan
8. Peyton Watson
9. Jabari Smith
10. Jaden Ivey

what gives Duren the nod over Banch for you?

[RollingWave]

I would think with Hardy one has to first point out that his shooting ability alone means that there's a floor where he's this awesome spacing player, I would say that something along the lines of Rocket version of Eric Gordon is what I think he'll be ( no injury or weird things happening obviously)

Evaluating if a guy can shoot or not is always tricky but I'm pretty comfortable in saying in terms of high end prospect he's in the rarest echelon of guys ( Hield / Klay / Steph etc ) I've seen anyway.

I get the concern that he might not be like James Harden, the rare thick guard that's also shifty as heck, but still at least my view on prospect is that how well they can shoot changes how the rest of their game works big time

[clyde21]

AJ Griffin way too high on some of these lists

[Sea2003]

AJ Griffin way too high on some of these lists

where would you rank him? Kinda hard to get a read on him( don't think he played his senior year) some of his performances( his'19 eybl and u16 for example) were very impressive.

[clyde21]

AJ Griffin way too high on some of these lists

where would you rank him? Kinda hard to get a read on him( don't think he played his senior year) some of his performances( his'19 eybl and u16 for example) were very impressive.

not sure where I'd have him yet but most likely outside my top 8 or so, i need to see where his skill set lands because he kinda developed physically a lot earlier than the dudes he's playing against and I'm always weary of these dudes if I don't see any outlier skills to their game.

but yea, at this point putting him top 3 (especially ahead of Chet/Paolo) is just crazy to me and even top 5 is too rich until proven otherwise @ Duke.

[Sea2003]

AJ Griffin way too high on some of these lists

where would you rank him? Kinda hard to get a read on him( don't think he played his senior year) some of his performances( his'19 eybl and u16 for example) were very impressive.

not sure where I'd have him yet but most likely outside my top 8 or so, i need to see where his skill set lands because he kinda developed physically a lot earlier than the dudes he's playing against and I'm always weary of these dudes if I don't see any outlier skills to their game.

but yea, at this point putting him top 3 (especially ahead of Chet/Paolo) is just crazy to me and even top 5 is too rich until proven otherwise @ Duke.

Totally understand that with certain guys( like Kumimga). Harder to look at guys who are just way bigger and stronger than everyone else but I think he's shown some real skill. His shooting in EYBL and HS was great( around 78% from the line; 46% from 3 on 216 attempts). I think he's significantly better than a guy like Kuminga in that department that had a similar frame and size.

Unfortunately he didn't play in his senior season but considering his age and what he's done before that, I think its fair to put him in that top 5-7 range.

good article on him from the Stephan: https://www.thestepien.com/2019/10/08/adrian-griffin-jr-deserves-1-pick-consideration/

[clyde21]

5-7 is fine, not that huge a deal either way, i just wouldn't have him that high at this point until i get a clearer look @ his toolbox and his physical profile against bigger/stronger dudes.

but having him #1 right now doesnt make any sense to me.

[Duke4life831]

Tier 1:
Paolo
Chet

Tier 2:
AJ
Baldwin
Hardy

Tier 3:
JD
Daimion
Brown
Christie

That's probably how my top 10 are going right now. As many know Im very big on AJ, have been for year +. I think he will catch some by surprise because he didnt play last year. 6'7 with long arms and very bouncy, and that shot seems to be getting better and better. I think he can jump up into the top tier and make this a 3 man class at the top if he shows he can bring the motor every game.

Also for all the talk of Duren being that 3rd big that can jump up to challenge the top 2 guys, as of right now give me Daimion Collins. I get Duren is much further along physically than the super skinny Daimion. But boy do I love his potential far more than Duren's.

Edit: Thanks to Clyde for reminding me Scoot is 23 class.

Also for those that dont know how I do my prospect picks, I dont include Euro/foreign guys. I dont watch them except for a few highlights after people talk about them. So I only do domestic guys.

[clyde21]

Tier 1:
Paolo
Chet

Tier 2:
AJ
Baldwin
Hardy

Tier 3:
JD/Scoot
Daimion
Brown
Christie

That's probably how my top 10 are going right now. As many know Im very big on AJ, have been for year +. I think he will catch some by surprise because he didnt play last year. 6'7 with long arms and very bouncy, and that shot seems to be getting better and better. I think he can jump up into the top tier and make this a 3 man class at the top if he shows he can bring the motor every game.

Also for all the talk of Duren being that 3rd big that can jump up to challenge the top 2 guys, as of right now give me Daimion Collins. I get Duren is much further along physically than the super skinny Daimion. But boy do I love his potential far more than Duren's.

When it comes to JD/Scoot. Not in love with either guy, but as of right now I would take the flier on one of them. I can easily see both of them not making much noise next year, but ya I would take the flier that one of these PGs (who arent real PGs) with crazy athleticism will find a way to make some noise.

Scoota is a 23 guy

[Duke4life831]

Tier 1:
Paolo
Chet

Tier 2:
AJ
Baldwin
Hardy

Tier 3:
JD/Scoot
Daimion
Brown
Christie

That's probably how my top 10 are going right now. As many know Im very big on AJ, have been for year +. I think he will catch some by surprise because he didnt play last year. 6'7 with long arms and very bouncy, and that shot seems to be getting better and better. I think he can jump up into the top tier and make this a 3 man class at the top if he shows he can bring the motor every game.

Also for all the talk of Duren being that 3rd big that can jump up to challenge the top 2 guys, as of right now give me Daimion Collins. I get Duren is much further along physically than the super skinny Daimion. But boy do I love his potential far more than Duren's.

When it comes to JD/Scoot. Not in love with either guy, but as of right now I would take the flier on one of them. I can easily see both of them not making much noise next year, but ya I would take the flier that one of these PGs (who arent real PGs) with crazy athleticism will find a way to make some noise.

Scoota is a 23 guy

I forgot he was a February kid. Alright take out Scoota and just leave JD then haha. JD is my athletic PG/Scoring Guard Ill ride with. Daimion is still the guy I think isn't getting talked about enough in this class.

[clyde21]

this is how id have it more or less at this point, taking a flier on Tchicamboud this early but I love what I saw so far

Chet Holmgren
Paolo Banchero

Jabari Smith
Kendall Brown
Nikola Jovic

Patrick Baldwin Jr.
Ousmane Dieng
Yannick Nzosa
Caleb Houstan
Jayson Tchicamboud

Hardy, Ivey, Griffin, Mathurin, Montero guys that could pushing in that tier3 at some point