2020 Draft Talk

Carey will be a solid NBA starter. I’m not sure whether he’s a top 3 guy but I can see him being a safe pick for a team looking for a good defensive frontcounter.

Outisde of Wiseman, Edwards and Ball I haven’t had chance to really watch this year’s crop. It certainly looks PG heavy so teams looking at other positions could see a few surprise guys going higher.
N’Flay Dante could be the sort of guy who does a really good workout and goes a lot higher or a lot of teams pass on him and he falls way down the draft.

My Top 14
1. Anthony Edwards
2. James Wiseman
3. Lamelo Ball
4. Obi Toppin
5. Jaden McDaniels
6. Tyrese Haliburton
7. Deni Avdija
8. Nico Mannion
9. Cole Anthony
10. Isaac Okoro
11. RJ Hampton
12. Amar Sylla
13. Onyeka Okongwu
14. Precious Achiuwa

I think Carey is in the 10-late 1st range right now I would have him as 16 on my list behind Theo Maledon at 15.
N’Faly Dante I think would be best served coming out next year where he could work himself into a mid 1st rounder. If he comes out this year currently I have him as an early 2nd rounder.

Sleepers…1.cassius stanley is underrated…i think he’s duke’s top pro prospect…he will be in the lottery…2.another sleeper is aleksej pokusevski a 7 footer from Serbia is a name u will hear more of as draft rolls around….3.Nick Richards..reminds me of JaVale McGee minus the antics…4.tres tinkle ..5.payton pitchard .6.robert woodard

I agree Stanley has the most pro upside of the Duke players, but Carey will be drafted before him, Stanley is a mid 2nd rounder.
Pokusevski reminds me of Raef Lafrentz he should go in late 1st round.
I agree with the Richards and McGee comparison.

I think Sylla will be like Pascal Siakam and Vernon Carey like Domatas Sabonis so yes I would.

Pokusevski is one of those typical tall skinny Europeans who teams would always hope would turn into the next Dirk. He’ll be one of the younger guys in the draft having turned 18 only last month. But will be the sort of player a lot of teams later in the first round may well look at. Whilst contenders may go for an NBA ready guy or flip the pick, some canny GMs would draft and stash him or bring him over and just allow him to quietly develop.

Teams with additional first rounders later in the draft could well feel they can take a flyer on a guy like him.

Great call by Rude Boy for highlighting one of this year’s likely wildcards.
A 7 foot European Combo Forward is just the sort of player that one GM could really like and as I always say it only needs one GM to like you to get drafted.

Not a fan of this draft class, I would trade down/out given the option.

1. LaMelo Ball- the floor might be Rubio-ish, but the playmaking upside is there.

2. Cole Anthony- UNC’s floor spacing was so bad this year, he deserves a mulligan.

3. Killian Hayes- really coming on strong lately, will be interesting to see if he’s really grown a couple of inches at the combine.

4. Anthony Edwards- needs to be more consistently aggressive attacking the rim, settles too much for contested threes.

5. Isaac Okoro- shot not there yet, but lots of Andre Iguodala parallels, a winning player.

6. Deni Avidja- good playmaker from the wing, free throw % is worrisome for shot projection.

7. Onyeka Okongwu- reminds of Adebayo will lesser passing but better chance to shoot it.

8. Tyrese Halliburton- needs to put on weight, but definitely a winning player, might be best as an off ball point next to a ball dominant wing.

9. Nico Mannion- a likely rotation/starting point in the league without a ton of high end upside.

10. James Wiseman- a lot Hassan Whiteside in Wiseman’s game. Needs to improve floor awareness on both sides of the ball.

11. Obi Toppin- old for his class (22 year old sophomore) should be a solid guy along the lines of Patrick Patterson.

12. Tyrese Maxey- I think the shot will come around, could be Lou WIlliams with better D.

13. RJ Hampton- hard to judge based on his current role off ball.

14. Theo Maledon

15. Zeke Nnaji- nice bet as a Channing Frye type stretch 5.

16. Precious Achiuwa- looks better on D right now than O.

17. Paul Reed- reminds of Thad Young, underrated.

18. Josh Green- I think the shot comes around, will have a KCP type career.

19. Vernon Carey- excellent college player who doesn’t exactly fit the NBA, think he’ll be too slow to guard 4s and lacks the length to guard 5s. Could be a Domantas Sabonis-type if he improves passing on short roles and keeps weight off.

20. Ashton Hagans- feisty defender, likely to carve out a Cory Joseph type career.

I’m all about the sleepers this year. Paul Reed, Aaron Nesmith, Tyrell Terry. If the Sixers get one of those guys, I am a happy camper

Luka Garza has a solid basketball pedigree and would be a 2nd rounder possibly late first rounder if he entered this year IMO. But he seems the sort of guy who would want to finish his education first to give him options going forward. His mum is diplomatic staff so the family are likely fairly comfortable and I think he’ll see out his college years first then probably automatically enter 2021 draft.

If he wasn’t drafted when he enters then he’ll get Summer League, pre-season looks from teams. I think he’ll end up on a roster somewhere in the NBA eventually and if that didn’t work out then he’ll get lots of nice offers from Europe.

It is not the easiest of classes to get excited over. A good part of this is that three of the biggest names entering the season haven’t played much. Wiseman only played 70 minutes, so it is hard to be overly pinned down on an opinion. He obviously has the physical makeup anyone would want, but did not strike me as being as skillsy as advertised when Jay Bilas was throwing out the Chris Bosh comparison. He was more of a catch-and-finish at the rim guy, but again 70 minutes where two of the opponents were overmatched is not much to go off. LaMelo Ball put up overall numbers were unlike any American who went abroad directly out of high school, but also was a 37 percent shooter, and 24 percent from three on a team. His counting stats also were inflated in that spell after Aaron Brooks went down with a torn Achilles. His team (already not all that good) was getting thumped, but Ball did fill a stat line. Cole Anthony started out the season with an exceptional performance against Notre Dame, but over the next 8 games shot 34 percent from the floor and 31 percent from three to go with more turnovers than assists. He wasn’t sharp in his return, but that is to be expected after missing a couple months. A number of the other name one-and-done guys have been underwhelming. R.J. Hampton has largely been what Americans look like when they go to the NBL, or elsewhere abroad. He is a middling performer, and inefficient shooter. Nico Mannion does not strike me as a certainty, and has laid a number of duds against better opponents. I also think that as the conference season has gotten into swing that Jaden McDaniels has been exposed as being much less prepared than he was touted as being. Both Arizona and Washington have highly regarded prospects, but Arizona is a middling team and Washington is bottom of the league. Khalil Whitney lost his spot in Kentucky’s rotation and announced that he will transfer. Anthony Edwards feels like an open court player who is further from his potential than is ideal for a high lottery pick. A team is going to bet on the athleticism and length, and hope he grows into his game like Victor Oladipo, but what if he is more like Terry Rozier prior to his shot developing?
The big men grouping seems pretty good. Obi Toppin has a little Aaron Gordon to him. He probably doesn’t have enough perimeter skills to him to be an NBA 3, but does have enough size and athleticism to be effective at the 4. Onyeka Okongwu has a similar style and size to Montrezl Harrell, which is probably going to lead him to rise by the summer. Daniel Oturu seems more skillful and versatile than he gets credit for being, but want to see where he checks out. 6’10 240 lbs in big in the college game, but not in the NBA for how he plays. Vernon Carey might not be quite as long as Wendell Carter, but has a similar size, toughness, and style. He has the benefit of not being paired with Bagley, so he is getting featured more than Carter did. Filip Petrusev is going to rise. He has great hands, touch, and feel for the game. People probably aren’t going to come around on him until March, but they will. I like Oscar da Silva. He has great length, skill, and versatility. This year or next, he could be another Kyle Kuzma. Isaiah Stewart seems a bit too small to be an ideal center, but has been good.
Deni Avdija is in an interesting situation, because he is on a stacked team that might win the Euroleague. His Euroleague minutes are miniscule, and I generally am concerned when a coach doesn’t think a guy is ready to help him win but then gets pegged as a lottery pick. It mostly puts a guy in a position to fail. Then again, because Israel has a rule about Israeli players getting minutes in their domestic league, he is playing quite a bit there and producing. He is very smooth offensively, and do not think his production in the Israeli league is simply a result of his team just operating on another level financially from everyone else. He will probably ride the wave of Luka to a top 5 pick. Then again, Dragan Bender rode the Porzingis wave to a top 5 pick, and it did not work out for anyone. I don’t think this will be a redo, but it is still something in the back of my mind. Killian Hayes also seems likely to rise. He is a bit of a Dejounte Murray type where he is solid but unspectacular offensively and both of whom probably will grow in confidence and aggression as the years go on, but top notch defensively. When Hayes’s teammate Tyler Harvey (former 2nd rounder) went down for a month or so and when Zoran Dragic missed a few games, Hayes picked up his level of offensive aggression and put up his best numbers, so that side to him is there.

Deni Avdija throwing one down is even cooler when you see it is off a save from Amare Stoudemire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCOmnuDZWeY

l’m fairly confident theres two players in this draft nobody is talking about right now who will be very good pros.

Not of a lot of overwhelming talent and prospects are starting to become self conscious of their stock worse than instagram models but this draft isn’t as bad as people make it out to be.. definitely value floating around

College Basketball has been real funky this year but I think theres some solid talent..