2022 NBA Draft

[Duke4life831]

We need to get rid of the damn draft altogether. What other profession requires guys to live in places they don’t want to. It’s hogwash IMO.

What other profession makes millions of dollars in their first year of their careers?

Ya you lose me with the "what about the players?" stuff when the issue we are talking about is 19-20 year olds being paid millions of dollars to play in a city like New Orleans. Oh the horror!!! And if they hate it that bad, they can go choose their next place to play in 5 years after they have made 50+ million.

[baldur]

We need to get rid of the damn draft altogether. What other profession requires guys to live in places they don’t want to. It’s hogwash IMO.

What other profession makes millions of dollars in their first year of their careers?

Your argument is going to soon be eliminated once these top amateur prospects will no longer be required to basically play for free for so long before becoming professionals.

It's another subject. My point is pretty much 99 percent of the people in the world would live in a small town far from their home, if their annual salary is millions of dollars in their first year of their career.

[Big J]

What other profession makes millions of dollars in their first year of their careers?

Your argument is going to soon be eliminated once these top amateur prospects will no longer be required to basically play for free for so long before becoming professionals.

It's another subject. My point is pretty much 99 percent of the people in the world would live in a small town far from their home, if their annual salary is millions of dollars in their first year of their career.

The question that we are asking shouldn't be would players do it, but rather why should players be forced to do it? If every team has the same amount of $ to spend then things will work themselves out competition wise, and every guy will be playing for the team he actually wants to play for.

[baldur]

Your argument is going to soon be eliminated once these top amateur prospects will no longer be required to basically play for free for so long before becoming professionals.

It's another subject. My point is pretty much 99 percent of the people in the world would live in a small town far from their home, if their annual salary is millions of dollars in their first year of their career.

The question that we are asking shouldn't be would players do it, but rather why should players be forced to do it? If every team has the same amount of $ to spend then things will work themselves out competition wise, and every guy will be playing for the team he actually wants to play for.

Every draftee #1 would go to Los Angeles then. If you don't call it forced, you will see it as much fairer.

[Big J]

It's another subject. My point is pretty much 99 percent of the people in the world would live in a small town far from their home, if their annual salary is millions of dollars in their first year of their career.

The question that we are asking shouldn't be would players do it, but rather why should players be forced to do it? If every team has the same amount of $ to spend then things will work themselves out competition wise, and every guy will be playing for the team he actually wants to play for.

Every draftee #1 would go to Los Angeles then. If you don't call it forced, you will see it as much fairer.

In this scenario there would obviously be no rookie scale, no max salaries and a hard cap to prevent that from happening.

[Duke4life831]

My end of week 1 rankings

Jabari
Paolo
Chet
Ivey
Baldwin
Hardy
Collins (my sleeper)

Too lazy at the moment to dig any deeper than these guys at the moment.

My end of Month 1 rankings
Jabari
Paolo
Ivey
Brown
Chet
Baldwin
Hardy

Dont think there are any franchise guys in this draft. Jabari though I think has a good mix of high floor and solid ceiling. Paolo I can end up seeing being a box score machine like a Julius Randle and I think he will be a smarter player than Randle. Just way too big of a question mark on the defensive end for me. Ive been a big fan of Ivey for awhile, with this not being the strongest draft, Im cool taking Ivey top 3. His speed and quickness is flat out ridiculous. Not in love with his shooting form and wish he had a better natural facilitating feel to him. But ya Im cool taking him top 3 and hoping he can build upon that speed. The athletic profile in Brown is hard to pass up, I like his floor just from the defensive side of it, but one of those guys if it clicks I can see him being a good offensive player too. Chet Ive made it pretty known the issues I have with Chet. Just dont know if he has the physical profile or the athletic profile where his offensive skills will translate all that well against NBA competition. He wont drop outside the top 5 for me because if those skills do end up translating, the dude will be very good.

Since a few others did their tier rankings a few days ago, thought I would join in on the party (Im a follower, what can I say).

Tier 1:
Paolo
Jabari
Sharpe

Tier 2:
Ivey
Chet

Tier 3:
Bennedict
AJ

Tier 4:
Christie
Baldwin
Brown

Im more sold on my tier ranking than actual order. But that is probably the order I would have them at the moment as well. Ya even with all my criticisms of Paolo (again in my opinion just pushing back on some takes I dont quite see), Ive had him jump to #1 over the last couple weeks. Also as the season has gone by, I still dont see a franchise guy in this draft, but Im liking the depth of it more and more.

Well since we're entering the final weekend of the regular season. Thought I would give an update on my tiers going into tournament time.

Tier 1:
Jabari
Chet
Sharpe

Tier 2:
Paolo
Ivey
Bennedict
AJ

Tier 3:
Murray
Davis
Eason

Tier 4:
TyTy
Williams
Sochan
Brown

[Xanadu]

Have my rose colored glasses on for sure. Having said that I really think people are starting to undervalue Davis due to his sub par 3 point percentage. If you watched the Purdue game you should understand. The guy couldn't even get near the ball without being swarmed and mugged. No other player in the Big Ten or perhaps the country is given the defensive attention he is. Ivey for example was pretty much played one on one. People think Davis will struggle in the NBA but if anything I think he will thrive. Suddenly he won't be given Kobe like attention and have modern spacing as well. He is still able to score despite the constant doubles and game planning against him. His strength and ability to finish through contact are underrated. His shot is going to surprise a lot of people in the future as well. The guy improved this much in one year of college. No one thinks he has another level with NBA coaching. Rant over and Badger homer will now retreat into my burrow.

[MemphisX]

Have my rose colored glasses on for sure. Having said that I really think people are starting to undervalue Davis due to his sub par 3 point percentage. If you watched the Purdue game you should understand. The guy couldn't even get near the ball without being swarmed and mugged. No other player in the Big Ten or perhaps the country is given the defensive attention he is. Ivey for example was pretty much played one on one. People think Davis will struggle in the NBA but if anything I think he will thrive. Suddenly he won't be given Kobe like attention and have modern spacing as well. He is still able to score despite the constant doubles and game planning against him. His strength and ability to finish through contact are underrated. His shot is going to surprise a lot of people in the future as well. The guy improved this much in one year of college. No one thinks he has another level with NBA coaching. Rant over and Badger homer will now retreat into my burrow.

My issue with Davis is his lack of explosion at the rim. Hard for me to project him as a primary guy with his athleticism but I need to watch him more.

[tmorgan]

2022 is going to cost some GMs their jobs. This is gonna be a tough one. Every top guy has glaring issues. No clear franchise players. Lots of interesting depth.

Should be fun.

[Foliohattu]

Read on Twitter

What a sequence by Tari Eason in the OT to take the lead.

[Saints14]

The question that we are asking shouldn't be would players do it, but rather why should players be forced to do it? If every team has the same amount of $ to spend then things will work themselves out competition wise, and every guy will be playing for the team he actually wants to play for.

Every draftee #1 would go to Los Angeles then. If you don't call it forced, you will see it as much fairer.

In this scenario there would obviously be no rookie scale, no max salaries and a hard cap to prevent that from happening.

It would be interesting if you could still keep the rookie contracts the way they are and say that the worst team or lottery winner has $45M/4 (Cade's contract) to spend on a rookie, 5th worst has $30M, 15th has $16M, etc. I would imagine most top guys would still want to go to the team that can pay them the most, but if you had a situation where a guy like Zion just really didn't like the idea of playing in New Orleans he could take a minor pay cut to play in NY. Location aside, it'd give guys a little more agency to find the basketball situation that's best for them too (like maybe Kuminga would have preferred to play for a worse team where he could get more minutes) and discourage tanking to some degree because guys wouldn't want to sign for straight up dumpster fires

Could get complicated with trading "picks", like in this scenario could the Thunder roll up all their rookie dollars into one contract or have to spend it on 3 player? Could a bad team use their $ on two lesser players instead of one? Or could a team save up their rookie dollars for future years, within reason?

[Big J]

Yea man, I just hate the idea that these kids are being told where they have to live. **** reminds me of stuff the NCAA pulls. The Lakers are never going to be getting rookies anyway because they would have already spent their entire cap on established veteran stars.

[Duke4life831]

Not draft related. But all week long ESPN has been talking up how this is K's last game tonight. Yet they gave no buffer between games and the entire celebration for K isnt even being televised on ESPN haha. I mean give it a 30 minute buffer between games so you could actually televise the thing you've been talking about all week long.

Haha and now OT. And ESPN decided to air professional tag on ESPNews instead of the K ceremony. ESPN completely butchered the timing for this. They've been hyping it up for quite sometime now haha. This is real basic stuff, how do they screw it up this badly? Well at least Im lucky that they're airing the game on 4K so Im not missing anything. But damn I would be pissed right now if they weren't airing the game on the 4k channel.

[SelfishPlayer]

Every draftee #1 would go to Los Angeles then. If you don't call it forced, you will see it as much fairer.

In this scenario there would obviously be no rookie scale, no max salaries and a hard cap to prevent that from happening.

It would be interesting if you could still keep the rookie contracts the way they are and say that the worst team or lottery winner has $45M/4 (Cade's contract) to spend on a rookie, 5th worst has $30M, 15th has $16M, etc. I would imagine most top guys would still want to go to the team that can pay them the most, but if you had a situation where a guy like Zion just really didn't like the idea of playing in New Orleans he could take a minor pay cut to play in NY. Location aside, it'd give guys a little more agency to find the basketball situation that's best for them too (like maybe Kuminga would have preferred to play for a worse team where he could get more minutes) and discourage tanking to some degree because guys wouldn't want to sign for straight up dumpster fires

Could get complicated with trading "picks", like in this scenario could the Thunder roll up all their rookie dollars into one contract or have to spend it on 3 player? Could a bad team use their $ on two lesser players instead of one? Or could a team save up their rookie dollars for future years, within reason?

Remove the salary cap altogether. Get rid of rookie contract limits, bird rights, etc.. keep guaranteed contracts, but allow teams to waive a player, and the only way that player can play for another team is if that team wants to fulfill the rest of his contract or the player gets tired of sitting out as a waived player and wants to renegotiate a contract at different terms with a team to replace the guaranteed contract he currently has.

[zike_42]

Yea man, I just hate the idea that these kids are being told where they have to live. **** reminds me of stuff the NCAA pulls. The Lakers are never going to be getting rookies anyway because they would have already spent their entire cap on established veteran stars.

They're not forced to play basketball. If they are so against living in Minnesota, they can go be a plumber in LA. Also, how many players have houses in LA/NY and live there in the offseason? And they're on the road for most of the season anyway? All your suggestion will do is make five teams competitive and make the season worthless for the other 25.

[SelfishPlayer]

Yea man, I just hate the idea that these kids are being told where they have to live. **** reminds me of stuff the NCAA pulls. The Lakers are never going to be getting rookies anyway because they would have already spent their entire cap on established veteran stars.

They're not forced to play basketball. If they are so against living in Minnesota, they can go be a plumber in LA. Also, how many players have houses in LA/NY and live there in the offseason? And they're on the road for most of the season anyway? All your suggestion will do is make five teams competitive and make the season worthless for the other 25.

That's not true. The proof is that Utah is always competitive without top draft picks, free agents, or desirable location. Milwaukee just won the title without any of that. The LOS ANGELES Clippers always find a way to lose. Winning organizations will largely still be winning organizations because they have the front office, coaching staff, locker room, and talent all operating at a high level. OKC had Durant, Harden, Westbrook, Ibaka, and Reggie Jackson. They won nothing and concerned themselves with who they wouldn't pay. I hate that. The small markets can actually get away with getting rid of talent because they don't want to pay them. New Orleans should have never let Lonzo Ball go. That completely cemented their lack of a title contending future. Talent rots away on the bench...

[Chi town]

Read on Twitter

What a sequence by Tari Eason in the OT to take the lead.

Eason is my fav player in the draft. His activity and motor are exceptional.

[azcatz11]

Not draft related. But all week long ESPN has been talking up how this is K's last game tonight. Yet they gave no buffer between games and the entire celebration for K isnt even being televised on ESPN haha. I mean give it a 30 minute buffer between games so you could actually televise the thing you've been talking about all week long.

Haha and now OT. And ESPN decided to air professional tag on ESPNews instead of the K ceremony. ESPN completely butchered the timing for this. They've been hyping it up for quite sometime now haha. This is real basic stuff, how do they screw it up this badly? Well at least Im lucky that they're airing the game on 4K so Im not missing anything. But damn I would be pissed right now if they weren't airing the game on the 4k channel.

They should have cut to the opening ceremony and got rid of the KU game. I didn't want to turn to the app on my TV. Literally I wanted to wanted to watch Coach K's last game in entirety and they messed it up.

So instead we ended up watching a new Below Deck because I really didn't care about the actual game. ESPN blows. My dad said they had something after the game but I didn't realize they were doing that and I was looking forward all day

[Big J]

Yea man, I just hate the idea that these kids are being told where they have to live. **** reminds me of stuff the NCAA pulls. The Lakers are never going to be getting rookies anyway because they would have already spent their entire cap on established veteran stars.

They're not forced to play basketball. If they are so against living in Minnesota, they can go be a plumber in LA. Also, how many players have houses in LA/NY and live there in the offseason? And they're on the road for most of the season anyway? All your suggestion will do is make five teams competitive and make the season worthless for the other 25.

So every star in the league is going to take 1/5 of his potential salary so they all can play in LA/NY? Nah.

[Duke4life831]

Not draft related. But all week long ESPN has been talking up how this is K's last game tonight. Yet they gave no buffer between games and the entire celebration for K isnt even being televised on ESPN haha. I mean give it a 30 minute buffer between games so you could actually televise the thing you've been talking about all week long.

Haha and now OT. And ESPN decided to air professional tag on ESPNews instead of the K ceremony. ESPN completely butchered the timing for this. They've been hyping it up for quite sometime now haha. This is real basic stuff, how do they screw it up this badly? Well at least Im lucky that they're airing the game on 4K so Im not missing anything. But damn I would be pissed right now if they weren't airing the game on the 4k channel.

They should have cut to the opening ceremony and got rid of the KU game. I didn't want to turn to the app on my TV. Literally I wanted to wanted to watch Coach K's last game in entirety and they messed it up.

So instead we ended up watching a new Below Deck because I really didn't care about the actual game. ESPN blows. My dad said they had something after the game but I didn't realize they were doing that and I was looking forward all day

Haha I wont lie, I didnt stick around to watch the end of the game. I get it was an emotional night, but that might have been K's worst coaching performance Ive seen. Zero offensive sets, zero defensive adjustments. Oh and he kind of forgot it was Senior Night and he has a Senior on the team.

Joey Baker getting a coaches DNP on Senior Night, is pretty damn low. You can call it a dumb tradition, but anyone who watches college basketball knows that Seniors get at least a ceremonial minute or two of action on Senior night. Especially scholarship players who have been there all 4 years.

I can give him a pass for not coaching a good game because of the moment, but DNPing your only Senior on Senior night honestly pisses me off.