Looking ahead to the 2023 Draft

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
ya know I gotta say, n its kind of a minor elephant in the room.. Harrison Ingram truly made a terrible choice going to Stanford.. Idk how u could even muster a counter argument at this point..

38% from the field freshman year
36% this year his sophomore

like what the heck is actually going on.. his ast/to ratio would be a lot better in a more appropriate fit(surrounded by 3pt shooters) too..
But think about how much better he’ll look next year when he gets to pass the ball to Andrej Stojakovic.
 

Feel like Fox and Monk could take him under their wing like Dame/McCollum did for Anfernee Simons.

I like the idea of us taking a player whos got the kinda confidence this kid has. He would be a minor development project, not a threat to take Davion or Monk's job right away. He does seem liek the type who just might sort of make it into a rotation earlier than expected thru sheer willpower and effort.

He's obviously got a similar frame to De'Aaron. I think he might actually be a little taller but its obviously super super close I'd say within half or quarter an inch.
 
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But think about how much better he’ll look next year when he gets to pass the ball to Andrej Stojakovic.
Idk I feel like he might look a whole lot better somewhere else. Is this really the best spot for this player? That just can't be... Can't help but wonder what Andrej thinks while looking at this current team play, they've gotta be far worse than he expected... IDK what other conclusion their is to be drawn.. team full of bricklayers

just atrocious performance given the quality of the recruits..

Look at the 3pt shooting %'s of all the top players.... Team cant throw it in the ocean these are genuinely very unhealthy conditions for Ingram's game to flourish/thrive getting downhill..

Spencer Jones 30%
Michael Jones 26%
Harrison Ingram 27%
Brandon Angel 23%
Maxime Raynaud 27%
Michael O'Connell 15%
Isa Silva 20%

Kind of like Yakety Sax worthy.. That list is the same list as the only players on the team playing 15mpg.
 
and why not another Miller

Emmanuel Miller 6'7 217lb almost 23 year old Senior at TCU, he throws down powerful dunks n get a block per game, he's shooting 60% from the field and 46% from 3

TCU is pretty good this year and he's a big reason why. They handed KSU its 2nd loss of the season today.
 
Colin Castleton HAS TO make the NBA in some form..

I refuse to believe you could be as effective in so many areas in the SEC as he is, and not make it. He's 6'11 240lbs mobile and has a decent amount of finesse for a player that size.

In todays win vs #20 Mizzou - 7/11 from the field, 5orebs 13 total, 6 assists 3stls 2 blks.
 
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Duke loses to a Clemson team that shoots 3/17 from 3...

PJ Hall just made them all look like the underclassman they are.. sheesh I thought they were gonna be so much better this season..
 
N'Faly Dante with a decisive victory over Oumar Ballo in the Zona-Oregon heavyweight battle at C.


This was SUCH a good game by Dante actually.. Hopefully he keeps this play going..
 

Tetsujin

The Game Thread Dude
Gonna need the international/Serbian posters on here to chime in on this one but is there any reason that Tristan Vukcevic isn't ranked higher in the draft prospect rankings that I'm not aware of? I've just seen the highlights but you'd think teams would be falling over each other to draft/ draft-and-stash a 6'11" Serbian big man with a solid perimeter stroke and seemingly good passing instincts considering a 6'11" Serbian with a solid perimeter stroke and good passing instincts is on pace to win the NBA MVP award three seasons in a row (please note that I am not saying Vukcevic plays like Jokic at all).
 
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Big update to ESPN's best available list since I last checked. lotta movement. Bilal Coulibaly up to #40!

I really liked what I saw from this player this summer, he's young but seems plenty talented. How about that block on the first play of the highlights.. I do enjoy seeing blocks on the perimeter like that one. also like how he uses those long arms to keep his dribble relatively low. IDK how u could really debunk/dismiss this player as an unworthy project, I must be missing something big if thats the case.

32% from 3 on 4.2 attempts per game. Its good to see he's getting that kind of volume!
 
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Other movement that stood-out on ESPN's Best Available list;

-Max Lewis to #17.. It was a fun pipedream while it lasted but he's probably going to keep trending out of our range.

-Jalen Hood-Schifino is up to #27! so I guess scratch that recent post of mine where I pointed out he'd be crazy value bottom of the 2nd. Solid example of a player who was highly rated but still underrated.

-Sidy Cissoko down to #37.

-Tristan Vukecevic 1 spot above Durisic at #42 and #43

-Ricky Council down to #45 along with Jordan Walsh #47, Jalen Wilson #48 and Emoni Bates #49.

-Bryce Hopkins up to #55. Not sure if Hopkins has ever been mentioned in this thread so I'll post highlights, seen a few games (i live in big east territory) interested in seeing how he does later in conference play. He's 'junkyard dog' levels of scrappy. 6'7 with 6'11 wingspan n very strong 220lbs. He's also got an excellent nose for grabbing boards.


-Julian Strawther down to #57 --- What a win it'd be to land him as an UDFA!
-Amari Bailey down to #60...
 
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Jalen Wilson is having an outer body experience in this 2nd half and OT vs KSU.. few minutes to go


Objectively he played bad in the 1st (everyone on kansas except KJ adams did), this has been an unreal 2nd half performance tho ill edit the highlights into this comment.

clutch jumper after clutch jumper, making all his ft's. Keyonte Johnson and KSU have the last laugh! What a game!
 
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Dudes starting to slip in some mocks for some reason and I can’t figure out why.
The SG's projected 1thru like 45 are just much more unsettled than the other positions, plus the Nick Smith situation makes it feel like we've got a wide open competition at the top/hitting that lottery paydirt.. I expect we'll see a lot more shuffling and I'd predict even til the final days of the draft. Max Lewis is a big wildcard. Terquavion Smith sorta sits right in the middle of the pack of all this right now, I figure that can't last, somethings gotta give.
UConn has 2 (very different) SG's seemingly in our range.

Keyonte George will not fall far though. He's too pure of a 3pt shooter and has too many crafty scoring tricks up his sleeve.There was a great moment when he was on fire, it looked like the type of defense D'Angelo Russell would face at OSU; TTU sent 4 defenders at him before the 3pt line n he just lobbed it up to his big guy for easy layup.

these mocks didnt even have malakhi branham's name on them at this point last year, he was being dismissed as a 2-n-done.. n really he was playing great.. sorta how it goes..
 
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Oscar Tshiebwe just scored 38 pts and grabbed 24 rbs.
Holmes has gotta go for Tshiebwe to make sense here.

The other thing I get hungup on about Tshiebwe in Sacramento is;

Why not just take James Nnaji in the first round? He's much younger and longer and most importantly has a great pair of feet and gets down in an impressive defensive stance n starts gliding laterally like a much lighter player.
 

Just turned 21 a few days ago. Possible 3-and-D center.. legit 7footer, 7'6" wingspan and runs really well and a 70+ % FT guy. clearly an above avg shooter for a 7-footer, just look at his form. He's got very good body control for things like catching lobs(see the finish at 2:16), good at filling the lane on the break.

much stronger than he was a few years ago. Used to be much more of a stick figure. Think that is definitely gonna help with how teams evaluate him this year, certainly thats what they told him to work on when he entered last draft.

Obviously Queta would go to the Kings and youd put Kalkbrenner in the G-League basically the entire season n then re-evaluate the summer after. That sounds like a solid plan and solid value to me. He should fit great with the up-and-down high paced style of ball played in the G-League n thats why I think he'd be a match with the kings too even if its just for a few mins a game.
 
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Holmes has gotta go for Tshiebwe to make sense here.

The other thing I get hungup on about Tshiebwe in Sacramento is;

Why not just take James Nnaji in the first round? He's much younger and longer and most importantly has a great pair of feet and gets down in an impressive defensive stance n starts gliding laterally like a much lighter player.
Tankathon currently has Nnaji 8 picks behind Tshiebwe on their big board (#48 and #40 respectively) with both going around those picks in the 2nd. I haven't seen him play, so I can't say if I think he should be considered a first rounder
 
Tankathon currently has Nnaji 8 picks behind Tshiebwe on their big board (#48 and #40 respectively) with both going around those picks in the 2nd. I haven't seen him play, so I can't say if I think he should be considered a first rounder
Tshiebwe will turn 24 just a few games into next season.. He's a year older than Keegan Murray and only a few months off from being 5 full years older than James Nnaji..

Until I see proof otherwise, I also dont even believe Tshiebwe's a legit 6'9".. Which to me signals not a very good match.

N furthermore U cant convince me that if Tshiebwe did somehow find himself on an NBA team that could put him on the floor and try and use him a lot right away, that he wouldnt get blocked a lot, which is one of the reasons regardless of where he's projected, it's pretty low.


I feel strongly that the Senior 7-foot bigman at Utah who's got very little hype (for now)--- Branden Carlson, would be a better fit here.

I see it as we're looking for a guy to take Queta's spot in the G-League for 1 year of polish, thats not a good situation for Tsihiebwe, he needs a spot he can fight for a backup role right away (which is why I say Holmes has gotta go for Tshiebwe to make any sense here)...


Carlson's stats are great across the board. Bigtime senior season, just posted career high last night, in 28mpg;

16.6ppg, 57% from the field while attempting 3.3 3's per!, 27/62 from 3 (43%)!!!, 75% ft's (last year he shot 81%!), 7.5 rebs, 1.6ast, 2.3blks
 
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James Nnaji on the otherhand. IMO, is clearly a player we could only hope to draft in the first round. Thats why I kind of dont even like the idea of entertaining a thorough Nnaji v Tshiebwe breakdown (especially in response to someone saying they havent seen Nnaji play)


I'll just say this, I follow basketball recruiting very closely, I'm plenty familiar with Oscar Tshiebwe's story/recruitment thru HS/WVU and now UK. In my personal opinion when you compare those 2 players at the same age (18) Nnaji wins in a landslide, it's not close. In fact it's completely rediculous to think that a player like Nnaji would need 4 years of college to get ready for the NBA..

Nnaji left his family in Nigeria when he was 14 and didn't see them for 4 years until just recently. I'm convinced he'd win the fans over here quickly. He's just a super hardworking kid with a giant smile.

The real deciding factor is when you see how Nnaji's feet move in a defensive stance on the perimeter(he glides, not lumbering whatsoever). N so Coach Brown is gonna like him way better than Tshiebwe for that simple fact alone, i refuse to believe otherwise. There's also quite a lot of plays/catches/orebs that'd result in Nnaji dunking the ball where for Tshiebwe it'd take a lot more finesse and a ballfake / bump for him to just try and get a clean layup off.

N we all know that if Tshiebwe could do that sorta stuff defensively, he'd have gotten drafted last year. So I kinda just reject the idea that these players should even be compared. Nnaji is taller and longer aswell..

Nnaji's reported measurements are highly unusual.. They say he's 6'10 with a 7'7" wingspan which if true will prove to be quite deceptive, you can see it in the footage from this season, offensive players think they have freebies near the rim n he recovers n pins their shot on the backboard with ease..

Once you really start to digest the footage you see how Nnaji has this magnificent ability to go from low center of gravity(and still moving well laterally n staying strong) to exploding upwards in the blink of an eye. In that sense Tshiebwe is more like your standard 87 octane gasoline while this kid has got the 102 octane they use for F1 racecars pumping thru his veins.
 
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Jordan "Jelly" Walker

5'11" 170lb razor sharp scoring PG with fantastic change of direction n ball handling, all sorts of fakes and hesitations stutter steps. He's very old for this draft being born in 1999. He's 2nd in the nation right now in scoring at almost 24 per game.

This is a player I'd like to see on the summer league team though. Extremely entertaining highlights.

40% from 3 2 seasons in a row on INSANE volume (he takes 11 3's per game this year n 8.6 last year). DEEP range too, just look at these highlights he's pulling up from almost halfcourt.


lights out FT shooter 88% this szn 86% last.
 
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