NBA Draft Discussion

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

This Big Five talk will be mainstream soon and set the stage for a very painful landing in the 6th spot for one of the several tanking teams. If you’re Silver, you have to rig it so the Cavs, Pistons or Rockets get that 6th pick. They’ve won titles, they’re not moving or getting contracted no matter what happens, and they’ve only been tanking for one season (or not really trying to tank at all in the Cavs case). All the other teams currently with 14 wins or fewer have felt hopeless forever.

 

[rome8180]

It would be such a waste of Minnesota gets the #1 pick again. Nothing is turning that franchise's fate around. Also, half their roster is PGs and SGs, and that's most of the top 5 right now.

Silver is probably calling Griffin, telling him to make a bunch of trades to make NO worse, and that he'll rig the lottery for him again if he does. Like 2019, this is a draft where not even Griffin could fuck up the #1 pick.

 

[rome8180]

I'm normally staunchly against drafting big men in the top 5, but I might be a believer in this case.

 

[rome8180]

The Pelicans should try to tank to draft him to pair with Zion and shed Adams' salary.

 

[rome8180]

I signed up for ESPN + because I wanted to read Lowe's articles. I plan to share as much premium content as possible while I have the subscription just as a fuck you to them for putting everything decent behind a paywall.

On that note, here's Givony's mock draft. It's the only one I've seen that makes sense (order if not team fit). Others had dumb shit like Mobley #4 or Sharpe #14.



2021 NBA Mock Draft

PICK	PLAYER	TEAM	HEIGHT	POS.	AGE
1. MIN	Cade Cunningham	Oklahoma State	6-8	PG	19.3
2. CLE	Evan Mobley	USC	7-0	C	19.6
3. NYK	Jalen Green	G-League Ignite	6-6	SG	18.9
4. ORL	Jalen Suggs	Gonzaga	6-4	PG/SG	19.6
5. DET	Jonathan Kuminga	G-League Ignite	6-8	SF/PF	18.3
6. WAS	Jalen Johnson	Duke	6-9	SF/PF	19.1
7. CHI	Keon Johnson	Tennessee	6-5	SG	18.8
8. OKC	Ziaire Williams	Stanford	6-8	SG/SF	19.3
9. SAC	Sharife Cooper	Auburn	6-1	PG	19.6
10. CHA	Corey Kispert	Gonzaga	6-7	SF	21.9
11. ATL	James Bouknight	Connecticut	6-5	SG	20.3
12. HOU	Moses Moody	Arkansas	6-6	SG	18.6
13. MEM	Scottie Barnes	Florida St	6-9	SF/PF	19.5
14. NOP	Alperen Sengun	Besiktas	6-9	C	18.5
15. SAS	Isaiah Jackson	Kentucky	6-11	PF/C	19.0
16. IND	Kai Jones	Texas	6-10	PF	20.0
17. HOU (via POR)	Usman Garuba	Real Madrid	6-8	PF	18.9
18. NYK (via DAL)	Cam Thomas	LSU	6-4	SG	19.3
19. GSW	David Johnson	Louisville	6-5	PG	19.9
20. OKC (via MIA)	Franz Wagner	Michigan	6-9	SF	19.4
21. PHX	Josh Giddey	Adelaide	6-8	PG/SG	18.3
22. TOR	Marcus Bagley	Arizona St	6-8	SF/PF	19.2
23. BOS	Greg Brown	Texas	6-9	PF	19.4
24. DEN	Josh Christopher	Arizona St	6-5	SG	19.1
25. PHI	Terrence Shannon	Texas Tech	6-6	SG/SF	20.5
26. BKN	B.J. Boston	Kentucky	6-7	SG	19.1
27. UTA	Day'Ron Sharpe	North Carolina	6-11	C	19.2
28. MIL	Charles Bassey	Western Kentucky	6-11	C	20.2
29. LAC	Davion Mitchell	Baylor	6-2	PG	22.4
30. LAL	Jared Butler	Baylor	6-3	PG/SG	20.4
31. OKC (via MIN)	Filip Petrusev	Mega Bemax	7-0	PF/C	20.7
32. NOP (via CLE)	Tre Mann	Florida	6-5	PG	19.9
33. PHI (via NYK)	Juhann Begarin	Paris	6-6	SG	18.4
34. ORL	Jeremiah Robinson-Earl	Villanova	6-9	PF	20.2
35. NYK (via DET)	Ayo Dosunmu	Illinois	6-4	SG	21.0
36. NOP (via WAS)	Justin Champagnie	Pittsburgh	6-6	SF	19.5
37. CHI	Ariel Hukporti	Nevezis	7-0	C	18.8
38. OKC	Bones Hyland	VCU	6-3	PG	20.3
39. SAC	Jaden Springer	Tennessee	6-4	PG/SG	18.3
40. DET (via CHA)	Keyontae Johnson	Florida	6-5	SF	20.6
41. BKN (via ATL)	Roko Prkacin	Cibona Zagreb	6-9	PF	18.1
42. HOU	Matthew Hurt	Duke	6-9	PF	20.7
43. SAC (via MEM)	Daishen Nix	G-League Ignite	6-5	PG/SG	18.9
44. NOP	Terrence Clarke	Kentucky	6-7	SG/SF	19.4
45. SAS	Luka Garza	Iowa	6-11	C	22.0
46. IND	Ochai Agbaji	Kansas	6-5	SG/SF	20.7
47. MEM (via POR)	Rokas Jokubaitis	Zalgiris	6-5	PG	20.2
48. DAL	David Duke	Providence	6-5	PG	21.3
49. UTA (via GSW)	Herb Jones	Alabama	6-8	SF	22.3
50. ATL (via MIA)	Isaiah Livers	Michigan	6-7	SF/PF	22.5
51. BKN (via PHX)	Trayce Jackson-Davis	Indiana	6-9	PF/C	20.9
52. DET (via TOR)	Sandro Mamukelashvili	Seton Hall	6-11	PF/C	21.6
53. BOS	Joel Ayayi	Gonzaga	6-4	PG/SG	20.9
54. OKC (via DEN)	Scottie Lewis	Florida	6-5	SG/SF	20.8
55. PHI	Aaron Henry	Michigan St	6-6	SG	21.4
56. CHA (via BKN)	Carlik Jones	Louisville	6-1	PG	23.1
57. IND (via UTA)	Chris Duarte	Oregon	6-6	SG	23.6
58. IND (via MIL)	Jay Huff	Virginia	7-1	C	23.4
59. CHA (via LAC)	John Petty	Alabama	6-5	SG/SF	22.1
60. SAC (via LAL)	Yves Pons	Tennessee	6-6	SF/PF	21.7

 

[rome8180]

The Bagley we didn't even both to recruit will go higher than Matthew Hurt. Moses Moody and Bones Hyland are all-time great names.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Cavs getting Mobley instead of the Jalen Johnson they deserve would be infuriating. Why are the Knicks drafting 3rd?

 

[rome8180]

Mobley doesn't even make sense there unless they plan to flip Jarrett Allen. Still, he's the right pick from a talent standpoint.

Detroit is below them in the standings, aren't they? I wonder if he determines draft order by random computer simulation or predicted record or what.

 

[bdotling]

Jay Huff is fucking old

 

[rome8180]

The draft is so irrational. I'm happy it is, but imagine using a 2nd round pick on Jay Huff when Mark Williams is available. Just so much entrenched thinking or lazy scouting or something.

 

[rhfarmer]

The draft is so irrational. I'm happy it is, but imagine using a 2nd round pick on Jay Huff when Mark Williams is available. Just so much entrenched thinking or lazy scouting or something.

Jay Huff can shoot 3's.

 

[rome8180]

He can't do anything else that's going to work at an NBA level.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Sounds like he will declare for the draft.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

I’m sold on Mobley and would almost hope to get the #2 overall pick so there’s less pressure and scrutiny on the selection.

We’re seeing more of a top 2 developing, followed by the next 3, then a larger gap to the rest. There’s some gap between Cade and Mobley but it’s closing, and there are probably going to be some teams with Mobley 1st on their board.

 

[rome8180]

I'm not sure that there is a real gap between Cade and Mobley. The only reason I would take Cade first is because I think big ball handlers are more important than big men (no matter how good). But this isn't a Luka vs. Ayton situation.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

I agree with that, but I think the gap exists in the mainstream. There hasn't been a single mock draft out there with Cade lower than #1, maybe ever.

I still would take Cade #1, because I doubt Mobley will ever be that guy who can win close playoff games by himself offensively. That's the most important trait to win a title and it's hard to justify picking someone who doesn't really have that potential over someone who does at the #1 spot, no matter how great Mobley can be at everything else.

It's like choosing between Giannis and Lillard (trying to think of two players with similar team playoff results). I know who is the better player overall and who would have a more positive effect on winning day-to-day, but that weirdly seems so irrelevant when picking #1. I would choose Lillard, without hesitation, over the 2-time reigning MVP and best overall player in the league.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

This is the guy who tore up Tre Jones’ defense and the Duke 2020 team in an exhibition game. Had 27 points on 18 shots, with 7 3s. Not on any mock drafts.

 

[StopThePumpFakesShav]

We’ll beat one of these teams by 8 points in October and panic.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Both of these tweets seem dumb in different ways, though when I looked at the numbers for Baylor’s guards, I became a lot more convinced that they’re at least going to give Gonzaga a challenge unlike anything Gonzaga has faced this season.

Mitchell’s numbers are excellent as expected. His one glaring flaw that places a hard ceiling on his pro potential is inability to get to the line and bad FT shooting once he’s there (61%). His huge jump to 45% 3pt shooting this season is extremely unlikely to translate to the NBA.

Mitchell’s biggest problem in raising his draft stock is his backcourt partner Butler being strictly better than him. Much better projected shooter, much higher usage without losing much efficiency, arguably better defensive numbers (though both are amazing on defense), same great passing.

This is an elite two-way backcourt, and I hadn’t heard of them until yesterday. Gonzaga will deserve the accolades if they dominate these guys.

 

[SeanMayTriedToEatMe]

Baylor’s frontcourt is pretty bad. They should be playing their white guy (Mayer) a lot more and Flo Thamba a lot less.