[Dgtool2Participant]

16 of the top 18 picks in the mock are freshmen. Anyone else notice this?

[ph90702]

 And half of them will be labeled as busts by this time next year.

[binetParticipant]

It’s probably because players are realizing that more often that not you should take the opportunity to get drafted asap. The Ivan Raab "stay 1 more year" compared to Steven Adams declaring when most foresaw him staying speaks for itself. Same with some players like James McAdoo whose stock decreased more and more year after year. Ivan Raab is probably going to end up a secound rounder right now just because he has not improved enough and the upside feels bigger for younger freshmen, some of it was predictable with him having virtually no quality that should translate to the NBA, given he is neither strong neither long enough to keep the rebounding that high, and he neither defends that well nor can space the floor, with archaic basketball moves that should not translate (he is far from the barely good enough Jahlil Okafor level there), but still, it always seems that when a guy looks promising enough to be a first round lock, returning to school is not a good idea, especially with teams only looking for upside and the more you play and older you gets the less upside you show in general. That’s obviously not true for players that are not hyped as freshmen and can take several years to emerge but there are no upperclassmen high raisers à la Buddy Hield in this class(yet: march madness could surprise),  and it’s even more true with the talent of the freshman class.

 

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