[valentine]

Whilst I may be placing a target on my back with these explosive allogations, I often question the integrity of numerous profit-driven draft resources.

Now I’m all for business’s getting paid. But surely ‘selling’ a lottery pick place on a sites mock draft is a little bit unreasonable. In fact, my legal representation believes that this practice is also highly unlawful in most jurisdictions. 

Ive been keeping a close eye on the draft game for a number of years now, and the build up to the 2016 draft (inc. player scouting) just seemed historically inaccurate and the timing of when a prospects stock would rise/fall often had more to do with relationships than actual interest from NBA teams. 

Also, draft sites have grudges with certain agents, and ‘punish’ prospects by reducing their stock if they go with an agent who notoriously gives them zero access to the player in the pre draft buildup. Thon Makers handler was notoriously uncooperative with draft sites, and they punished him despite obvious talent. 

Furthermore, I also believe certain college programs would make nice to certain scouts with a high media profile. Wealthy programs aiming for 4 & 5 star recruits love seeing their players highly ranked and ultimately, getting drafted.

As for compensation paid….it’s anyones guess. I certainly have no proof, but could provide tons of examples that I consider highly suspicious.

No doubt a number of high profile people will want to silence the Hype Machine for this stunning exposé, but the good people of the draftnet forum deserve to know the truth. 

 

 

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 I like what you’re getting at but the notion that people making decisions on who to draft are using draft sites to make those decisions is kind of ridiculous.

I doubt Sam Hinkie was patrolling NBAdraft.net and DraftExpress when he was pondering who to take doesn’t seem realistic.  They have more information, footage and dirt on these draft prospects than these sites could ever dream of having.

So what would be the benefit for an agent to pay a draft site to pump their player?  It would be a poor financial decision and a complete waste of money if it doesn’t have an impact on the people making the decisions to draft said players… which it most certainly doesn’t.

 

 

[Robb_CParticipant]

You have the right idea but directing your theory in the wrong direction,  Typically Scouting sites dont really have extensive knowledge of prospects like NBA scouts do.. Typically scouting sites are three steps behind NBA scouts and execs as far as players theyre actually targeting.. Execs and Scouts are master smoke screen artist, Ive learned this first hand talking to some of them.  The amount of false information execs  give to the media is plenty, typically the reason why draft sites opinions change so dramtically is due to a team suggesting theyre high on a player for whatever reason and will end up working out a completely diiferent player closer to draft time.. Also another example would be Kris Dunn, before the college basketball season last year Kris Dunn was ranked going around 12th on NBADraft.net, No NBA scout had Kris Dunn going 12th before the season last year.. 

[SeattleSuperChronicsParticipant]

 I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy but I don’t think this is the case. Of course agents can play roll (that’s their job). My question to you is how much could this possibly affect NBA scouts? 2-3 positions maybe. The cream always rises to the top. 

Thon wasnt punished because of his agents. He was a relatively unknown vs high level competition and still got drafted in the lottery. Bruno Caboclo on the other hand….

[Magic JordanParticipant]

 According to Fran’s timeline, Bruno is now only one year away!  I’ve secretly wanted the Lakers to trade for him for awhile as something ( by something I mean absolutely nothing he has shown on the basketball court) has told me he just needs to be freed.  That and the fact he always ends up as a solid role player in a 2k association mode.

[Jaymes BrownParticipant]

 Are you suggesting Thon Maker’s camp paid Scouts Honor $50-100k to hype Thon and put him in S.H.’s top 3?

Are you suggesting it worked, and got Maker drafted in the top 10?

 

If so, that sounds like my dream job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HitsterParticipant]

 If Aran is sat there reading this on his luxury yacht then we will know this is true.

But realistically I don’t think it would ever happen. Players don’t get agents until they commit to turn pro and a draft status is earned across a season or longer. If prospects aren’t available for interviews then a site will not know about the guy so much and might think the agent could be hiding immaturity issues whilst if another player they have hads access to comes across as articulate and well grounded then this would be a positive for him on a draft board.

I doubt anyway that the likes of Danny Ainge would even look at a site like this ( no disrespect to everyone who does a fantastic job on here) but teams have huge scouting departments and draw up their own data from expert sources.

 

 

[Snatalini247Participant]

But the draft hype train was real back in the early 2000s with euro players and highlight tapes, where people barely could get any real life scouting done of players across the world and through word of mouth would end up crazily over hyping prospects like Darko Milicic with out barely being able to see them. Wasnt pay related though

 

  

[Snatalini247Participant]

I believe Aran himself even gave some type of interview on this at one point 

[JoeWolf1]

Draft outlets are more concerned with connections to agents and NBA teams than the other way around. Outlets are trying to get the most recent and reliable information to predict the draft. The closer they get to the actual draft, the better reputation they get, and the more viewers come to their cite. That’s way Ford and DX will almost completely scrap their mock 2 or 3 hours before the draft when the catch wind of intel.

NBA teams, could probably care less who’s #9 on a couple websites when they’ve spent a year plus sending their trusted employees to games, camps, draft events, and then meeting and working out the actual players . You see guys with lotto hype drop to the end of the first, or the 2nd round every year. The teams are what agents focus on, not draft media. Sure, draft analysts have their own opinions, and take the time to break down players, so of course there isn’t a universal draft order between outlets, but that’d be one dumb agent to focus on bribing a couple outlets rather than pump all his time and effort into working with NBA teams, scouts, and coaches.

I don’t doubt draft sites will occasionally put a name in someone’s head or maybe get someone to view a player in a different light, but in terms of holding so much influence over the NBA that an agent will pay their own money to attempt to bribe one? I don’t think so. It honestly sounds like an episode of the long lost ESPN drama playmakers, and I know that’s kind of what you like to do, and that is present an interesting idea to ruffle some feathers or get people talking outside of stats, and real plus minus etc, and that’s perfectly fine, I know some people enjoy that. I just don’t think this has any legs in terms of truthfulness.

DX had Skal going 15, nbadraft.net had him going 11, ESPN had him going 9. NBA teams had other ideas and he dropped like a rock. An NBA franchise is a minimum 400 million dollar organization with the higher priced teams having value in the billions. The scouts, coaches, player development guys, and GM aren’t that concerned with a couple mock drafts if they’ve seen the guy workout with their team, interact with their staff, and sat down and had a conversation with.

[Jaymes BrownParticipant]

 The mock drafts determine public opinion, so teams pay attention because most of them don’t want a fan backlash.

There’s only so many Phil Jacksons not afraid to draft a guy like Porzingis and watch the boos come raining down.

 

 

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