2025 General Draft Discussion 2

[Snidely FC]

I know he's not on any of your like lists because he's 24 but the Hornets also worked out Eric Dixon
6'8, 255 lbs, +4 wingspan
40% from 3, 81% ft
led the nation in scoring last yr
ALL TIME LEADING SCORER AT VILLANOVA
Knows how to play
prolly go undrafted because of his age but a team that likes plug n play rooks ought to sign him

[JMAC3]

I know he's not on any of your like lists because he's 24 but the Hornets also worked out Eric Dixon
6'8, 255 lbs, +4 wingspan
40% from 3, 81% ft
led the nation in scoring last yr
ALL TIME LEADING SCORER AT VILLANOVA
Knows how to play
prolly go undrafted because of his age but a team that likes plug n play rooks ought to sign him

Yeah he might be worth looking at in SL for sure.
Really good shooter as a pick and pop big.
However, he is pretty small for a "big"
6' 7.50'' barefoot and only a 8' 8 standing reach.
The key number for centers on Standing reach is 9'1 so he is 5 inches shorter than that.
Also, only had 3 dunks on the season.

Basically he is a stretch 4 that can't really guard anyone.

[fatlever]

Watch on YouTube

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rumors, koc, barlowe bros
- ace - might have to "reprogram" him. heard that like 50 times in past month
- maluach - hornets good fit. barlowe - hornets cant bring mark back after trading him, right? relationship damaged, km can replace mark for cheaper
- fears - some teams view fears upside higher than harper
- bucks sniffing around lotto
- essengue
- traore
- sleepers

[Rich4114]

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;t=501s

rumors, koc, barlowe bros
- ace - might have to "reprogram" him. heard that like 50 times in past month
- maluach - hornets good fit. barlowe - hornets cant bring mark back after trading him, right? relationship damaged, km can replace mark for cheaper
- fears - some teams view fears upside higher than harper
- bucks sniffing around lotto
- essengue
- traore
- sleepers

I disagree that the relationship with Mark is damaged, but I would not be surprised if Jeff still wants to trade him. If they end up with Maluach somehow, it's almost a guarantee. I think that would be a mistake right now though.

The idea that New Orleans is high on Ace is intriguing because trading back (if you're getting premium value back like being part of a Zion deal or Tre Murphy or someone) and then can still get a top 7 prospect... then maybe you highly consider it

[fatlever]

next up...

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kon - spurs/sixers, not highest ceiling, but can help win immediately. great fit for spurs and sixers. but for big boards, lower because upside isnt as high.

jaku - best fit, nets. high level starter. is he primary pg or offball? high turnovers vs low 3pt %, smart crafty, finish at rim. only had 23 open cs 3s all season. long term shooting optimism

ace - love to seem him in nets. needs freedom to experiment. winning should be low priority, player dev needed, not team trying to win, potential star if you have great player dev

maluach - best fit, raptors, but prob off board by then, sneaky fit spurs

vj - charlotte, fit so obvious. easiest fit of all draftees, very serious star potential defensively

queen - chicago

tre - utah. sexton or george not long term answer. collier/tre backcourt

[JMAC3]

Watch on YouTube

;t=501s

rumors, koc, barlowe bros
- ace - might have to "reprogram" him. heard that like 50 times in past month
- maluach - hornets good fit. barlowe - hornets cant bring mark back after trading him, right? relationship damaged, km can replace mark for cheaper
- fears - some teams view fears upside higher than harper
- bucks sniffing around lotto
- essengue
- traore
- sleepers

Trading Mark for future picks or whatever garbage he can bring in now that his trade value is at an all-time low..... just to spend a top 5 pick on a center in Maluach who might not be any better doesn't feel like needle moving decisions.

It is no different then trading LaMelo for future picks and drafting Fears. How would that make us better?

[MasterIchiro]

Watch on YouTube

;t=501s

rumors, koc, barlowe bros
- ace - might have to "reprogram" him. heard that like 50 times in past month
- maluach - hornets good fit. barlowe - hornets cant bring mark back after trading him, right? relationship damaged, km can replace mark for cheaper
- fears - some teams view fears upside higher than harper
- bucks sniffing around lotto
- essengue
- traore
- sleepers

Means Spurs are getting calls on 2 for Harper and Fears. But also adds value to picks 3 and 4. Puts another player on the top tier where 3-7 was flat.

[HornetJail]

Trading Mark for future picks or whatever garbage he can bring in now that his trade value is at an all-time low..... just to spend a top 5 pick on a center in Maluach who might not be any better doesn't feel like needle moving decisions.

It is no different then trading LaMelo for future picks and drafting Fears. How would that make us better?

it is exactly what Kupchak did with Monk and Bouknight... except Mark is actually already really productive

[fatlever]

Obviously it would be incredibly disappointing that the continued fallout from the Lakers getting cold feet would be that we have to burn a top four pick to replace the guy that got his feelings hurt by being traded. The trade was a big enough disaster as is, this would just compound it by 10. That can't be the rationale for picking km At 4. You pick him because you legitimately believe he is a future stud at center. None of us really know what the relationship is now between Mark and the front office. Certainly didn't give any indication in the last month or so that he was angling to get out of Charlotte. At the front office is moving on from work I would hope it's not because of irreparable relationship image but more because they don't want to commit long term money because they don't trust him to stay healthy or they don't trust him to improve defensively.

[fatlever]

Trading Mark for future picks or whatever garbage he can bring in now that his trade value is at an all-time low..... just to spend a top 5 pick on a center in Maluach who might not be any better doesn't feel like needle moving decisions.

It is no different then trading LaMelo for future picks and drafting Fears. How would that make us better?

it is exactly what Kupchak did with Monk and Bouknight... except Mark is actually already really productive

I will never for the life of me understand what any of the front offices or draft gurus saw in bouk That year to have him consistently mocked in the top 10. I dont watch college basketball but I watched that dude play for 5 minutes and was completely baffled why anyone would have picked him that high. And I think it would have only taken a 5 minute interview with the dude to understand that his maturity was rock bottom. a skinny undersized shooting guard who was a terrible and unwilling passer, terrible handles, was a terrible three point shooter, a terrible defender, an absolute black hole on offense, with low maturity and terrible body language. Unreal he was even projected in the top 10. The archetype for that player actually succeeding is so incredibly rare. I could have faulted them for taking a player that didn't workout, and we know that draft was loaded with land mines in and around our pick. But I will never understand that one.

[Braggins]

Yeah I didn't get the Bouk hype at all. The only thing he was good at in college as a sophomore was being pretty decent at driving layups.

The Kai hype was even more baffling. He didn't even start on his college team as a sophomore and sucked at basically everything.

[fatlever]

Yeah I didn't get the Bouk hype at all. The only thing he was good at in college as a sophomore was being pretty decent at driving layups.

The Kai hype was even more baffling. He didn't even start on his college team as a sophomore and sucked at basically everything.

kai at least had insane athleticism, good size, and the possibility of a 3pt shot - despite having awful bbal iq.
but an interview with him should have raised some red flags

[fatlever]

https://archive.ph/u0iCf

Pelton projecting top 30 using warp

Flagg
Kon
Vj
Harper
Evans
Fears
Ace
Essengue
Cmb
Jaku

Sent from my SM-G973U using RealGM mobile app

[fatlever]

Read on Twitter

the most unhinged big board yet

[fatlever]

Read on Twitter

cue randy newman

[Diop]

using what happened with Mark Williams as a reason to draft a player is down right stupid.

[Diop]

Watch on YouTube

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rumors, koc, barlowe bros
- ace - might have to "reprogram" him. heard that like 50 times in past month
- maluach - hornets good fit. barlowe - hornets cant bring mark back after trading him, right? relationship damaged, km can replace mark for cheaper
- fears - some teams view fears upside higher than harper
- bucks sniffing around lotto
- essengue
- traore
- sleepers

Means Spurs are getting calls on 2 for Harper and Fears. But also adds value to picks 3 and 4. Puts another player on the top tier where 3-7 was flat.

i think that's a bit of a leap to say that Spurs are receiving calls on Fears. i think its more that Fears is one of the prospect who seems to have a wide range between his possible upside and floor. if you asked those same teams who is more likely to reach that upside Fears or Harper, i'm confident the majority would say Harper. he's the more likely bet.

Fears ball handling and movement is intriguing as he can get almost anywhere he wants, if that can be developed into a great lead NBA point guard is another question. my concern is he wants to be more scorer than point guard, but he is definitely interesting

[Bassman]

These O’Connor videos are fun to watch, even if some of the ideas sound wacky. One thing I DO hear from Kevin and a couple other analysts is positives around the Hornets potential when healthy. He speaks of CLT being a team that could make a huge jump with a key trade for an impact player (a REAL impact player, not an over the hill oldster saddled with a massive contract).

That link to the wierdo player rankings was wild. Some guy who celebrated 1000 followers. Yep……

The Kevin Pelton piece via ESPN on using his formula for prospects was interesting as always. Shows why Knipple gets deserved attention (ranked second in WARP), but also shows the danger of giving such stats too much weight over eye test by ranking Isaiah Evans of Duke 5th. Evans shooting has a lot of promise but he didn’t show much of anything else. But seeing VJ 3rd is encouraging given his obvious defensive gifts. Note how Tre ranked 12th, Maluach 17th, Ace 7th, Fears 6th.

[driveandkick]

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the most unhinged big board yet

I’m probably more skeptical on Ace than anyone on this forum. But you’re dramatically overcomplicating this if you have 31 players ranked better than him.

[JMAC3]

That is the type of board where they get one thing right and only talk about that, not how they threw 16 darts and 15 missed.