2024 NBA Draft Thread

[JPB]

I respect people saying they're not sold in a vacuum but mock drafts who have Risacher sliding because he cooled down in the secod part of the season is terrible scouting and evaluation process. That's everything you shodln't do, evaluate a prospect player in the moment. Should he have stopped playing in 2024, he would be the consensus #1...

Meanwhile, same mock drafts keep Topic top 5 who stopped playing in 2024 after 2 terrible Euroleague outings because of a mysterious 4 week tuned month injury that suddenly got better lately afer his team was out of the Euroleague... And College players keep being evaluated upon their tounrament performances every year, while every pro scout and (good) GM will tell you the Tounament isn't that important in their evaluation and can be deceptive...

Risacher played the equivalent of 2 College seasons in one year, in pro, compe ive leagues, Put Castle, Dilly, Sheppard... in that position and they probably struggled a bit after 40 games too... It's all about potential. And if you don't like, fine. but you're betting on developing a player like Risacher so he built on that first part of the season (and what he's still showing). At least, that's something, and more than 2 or 3 Tournament games.

[Vienna]

I respect people saying they're not sold in a vacuum but mock drafts who have Risacher sliding because he cooled down in the secod part of the season is terrible scouting and evaluation process. That's everything you shodln't do, evaluate a prospect player in the moment. Should he have stopped playing in 2024, he would be the consensus #1...

Meanwhile, same mock drafts keep Topic top 5 who stopped playing in 2024 after 2 terrible Euroleague outings because of a mysterious 4 week tuned month injury that suddenly got better lately afer his team was out of the Euroleague... And College players keep being evaluated upon their tounrament performances every year, while every pro scout and (good) GM will tell you the Tounament isn't that important in their evaluation and can be deceptive...

Risacher played the equivalent of 2 College seasons in one year, in pro, compe ive leagues, Put Castle, Dilly, Sheppard... in that position and they probably struggled a bit after 40 games too... It's all about potential. And if you don't like, fine. but you're betting on developing a player like Risacher so he built on that first part of the season (and what he's still showing). At least, that's something, and more than 2 or 3 Tournament games.

totally agree. remember Lamelo? he played 12 games in Australia, got injured in November (would have missed 4 weeks) and decided to shut down the season. player who don't play usually don't fall, if they already got a certain status with the teams regarding the upcoming draft. so why should players fall, who do play?
it will rather count for Risacher, that NBA teams could see that his body can stand a long season. he missed just 2 games the whole season, while playing at least 2 games a week since September last year.

I can see, that he isn't the most fascinating prospect, when talking about a top3 pick, considering his expected role in the NBA.
and in most other drafts he might be an estimated 6 to 10 pick. nothing wrong about that. but, as we know, this draft lacks that kind of highly talented players, so he moves up. not his fault. I doubt he will be the number 1 pick, that will likely be Sarr, because of his supposed upside. so Risacher will likely be picked at 2 or 3. I rather see Topic fall to mid lottery. (he might become available with the Raptors pick).

[Dejounte]

All Risacher built during the “first part” of his season was the fact that he looked the part of a tall guy who could shoot and then for the “second half” he looks like just a tall guy who is an average shooter. That’s it. He’s way more being judged by the fact that he’s not great with the ball in his hands and has little potential there in his future.

The real equivalent here is Patrick Baldwin Jr. from last year. The guy was a top 5 pick and then had a college season that was underwhelming. There’s your “potential” guy that you would have fallen for since you love a guy who's tall and looks like they could shoot. Except PBJ saw his stock drop, just like Risacher rightfully should, because the weaknesses of his game got exposed.

[Vienna]

yeah sure. Baldwin, a guy as athletic as 40 years old Dirk, playing 11 games for a joke collge in a joke conference is now the Risacher equivalent. oh well..

[Dejounte]

yeah sure. Baldwin, a guy as athletic as 40 years old Dirk, playing 11 games for a joke collge in a joke conference is now the Risacher equivalent. oh well..

It’s not Baldwin’s fault he was born an American

Let’s come back here in five years to see who turned out right about this guy.

People cry about the current Spurs roster being a team full of role players and they want to draft another one in Risacher. Smh

Risacher will have his 20 pt games every now and then because that’s what shooters do. Forbes had multiple 20 pt games. What we’re betting here is that Risacher is a role player and nothing more. And you don’t waste a top 5 pick on a guy whose ceiling is clearly limited, even in a weak draft like this.

[spurraider21]

It’s not Baldwin’s fault he was born an American

Let’s come back here in five years to see who turned out right about this guy.

People cry about the current Spurs roster being a team full of role players and they want to draft another one in Risacher. Smh

Risacher will have his 20 pt games every now and then because that’s what shooters do. Forbes had multiple 20 pt games. What we’re betting here is that Risacher is a role player and nothing more. And you don’t waste a top 5 pick on a guy whose ceiling is clearly limited, even in a weak draft like this.

Absolutely nothing wrong with role players so long as they actually fill their roles. Champagnie as a 3 and D role player who doesn’t hit all that many 3s and doesn’t defend particular well while not adding much else in other departments is frustrating to see play starters minutes. Sochan as the defensive specialist who only seems to have a big impact in about a quarter of his games is frustrating. Don’t think people complain about Tre Jones being a role player since he usually plays up to his role.

[The Truth #6]

Dejounte, are there any players you particularly like in this draft?

[JPB]

Givony updated his mock draft today:

https://www.espn.com/nba/insider/sto...p-25-prospects

His top 10:

Risacher
Sarr
Clingan
Dilly
Topic
Buz(elis)
Sheppard
Knecht
Castle
Williams

As he noted, Risacher got out of his '(relative) slump these last 4 games, in front of a bunch of scouts. I also still believe he's #1... 6"10, versatile, nice defense, and you bet on actually making him a reliable shooter in the NBA. I mean Wemby was shooting 27.5% on 3 last year in the french league. He shot 32.5% this year and progressing. Risacher is shooting 39% on 3 over the season.

[JPB]

4. Rob Dillingham | PG | Kentucky
6-2 | Age: 19.3 | Previously ranked: 4

"Dillingham is one of the more polarizing players projected in the lottery, and where he gets drafted will depend on how the final lottery order shakes out. Teams in need of playmaking help will have to look hard at him: He creates shots off the bounce more naturally than anyone in the class and has developed into a very good shooter. On the other hand, many around the league are skeptical Dillingham becomes a starter on a winning team, primarily due to his lack of size and what he's likely to give up on the defensive end. As a result, he's a major risk-reward proposition early in the draft, and might be looking at a pretty wide range of outcomes within the lottery, depending on how the pre-draft process goes. -- Woo"

[CorrectCrusader]

As long as we come out of the draft with a kentucky guard I'm happy

[LeBowen]

As long as we come out of the draft with a kentucky guard I'm happy

Imo, it's pretty clear what's going to happen, unless someone impresses in workouts.
Risacher or Sarr if they're available because they're just too good to pass on. I expect them both to be top3 picks, so it's about how the lottery goes.
If Spurs aren't in top3, then it's between Dillingham, Sheppard and Topic, with Spurs having the choice between those three since it's just the Wizards that could also select a point guard.
But they'll either be in top3 and select Risacher/Sarr or drop below Spurs so it won't matter.

Then if Toronto pick conveys we can talk about Buzelis, Williams and other wing prospects.

[spurraider21]

after reading some of dejounte's comments i went back and watched an additional 34 hours of Risacher film and came away more assured that he's atop my board, or at least 1a/1b with Dillingham

[DPG21920]

Ya - at this point I hope SA gets 2 picks and walks away with both Dillingham and Zaccharie Risacher.

Seems like a perfect outcome in terms of potential, need (shooting) and overall pedigree.

[scott]

People cry about the current Spurs roster being a team full of role players and they want to draft another one in Risacher. Smh

The problem for me in this draft is that you could make this same statement about any of the prospects in this draft. Holland and Collier seem to me the highest upside players in this draft, but all-star is such a small portion of their range of outcomes that include a very large possibility of busting. Even Dillingham, who I like, might project to his most likely outcome being a backup PG. Sarr to me has Clint Capela written all over him. Capela's career would be a great outcome, just not really what you want out of a top 3 pick. All of these prospects have major flaws that project most of them to being role players.

So yeah, I definitely had that we have a team that consists of Wemby, a bunch of role players, and a bunch of players who shouldn't be in the league... but this draft might not be the one where you can really solve that. At least maybe we can upgrade the role players on our team.

With that said, that's why I want to double up on wings if the TOR pick conveys. To me, one of Risacher, Buzelis and Holland have the best chance of reaching the upper end of the range of outcomes. Buzelis and Holland would be my ideal combo. at say, 4 and 7.

[heyheymymy]

Thanks for the Givony ESPN updated rankings, here is a free view non paywall link:

LXTul

[JPB]

Thanks for the Givony ESPN updated rankings, here is a free view non paywall link:

LXTul

Thanks, I was not sure if you guys could see it (it's free for me). I wanted to post the whole thing but that's pretty long. Nice you could you find a link.

[ginobilized]

The combine and, especially team workouts will determine the draft order. I do feel like the Spurs rubrics for workouts might be pretty solid.
My guess is that most teams have a hypothetical big board and that may be very open to change once players get worked out.
Hopefully, the Spurs get to see the players they want without a ton of leaks as to who they are working out. This will be one of the weirdest, wildest drafts in recent memory.

The top 10 likely has a few players that are able to surpass Champagne, Branham and Tre. That's a decent start.

[stnick2261]

Topic pretty much has stayed in top 4 of the draft for several months and I think they will pick him because he fits a need, but also because he probably is that high on there board as far as talent. I think Bleacher Report just came out with a new mock that has us taking Topic and then with Raptors pick getting Dilly ...

I would actually be really happy with that outcome. Double the chances that one of them will stick and then focus on SF/PF in 2025 draft and FA

[heyheymymy]

I was also thinking load up on guards in 2024 draft and then target SF/PF in 2025 draft and that's still not a bad strategy to consider.

But looking at 2025 more closely and they have some nice guards in that draft too. Nolan Traore is a French PG who looks promising and Harper a solid 6-5 SG.

So maybe I'm back to "get one of each" again if TOR conveys in 24 lol. Obvs not going to be in range for all those names barring trades or luck so def wildly idealistic here but

25-26

Traore/Jones
Vassell/Sheppard
Risacher/Sochan
Flagg/Essungue
Wemby/Zollins

Jut trying to look a little further ahead to the possible endgame here but probably way too best case scenario and open to debate for sure.

[heyheymymy]

Just starting to think answering these 2024 draft questions may involve 2025 draft events incorporated into the concepts and how best can you rope in some 2025 names with whatever SA gets from 2024 and be mostly done building afterwards to best suite Wemby's likely win-now timeline mindset.

[heyheymymy]

Problem with Topic is whether the 3PT shooting can improve to be enough of a threat to open up the offense or alternatively whether Tre Jones can build on his 3PT progression some more because otherwise doesn't it seem like you take one out the game for the other and it's overlapping non 3PT threats so the redundancy would kill SA with spacing issues and non stop 4 on 5s with defenses doubling off that Spurs get no break from barring additional personnel changes

[stnick2261]

Just starting to think answering these 2024 draft questions may involve 2025 draft events incorporated into the concepts and how best can you rope in some 2025 names with whatever SA gets from 2024 and be mostly done building afterwards to best suite Wemby's likely win-now timeline mindset.

I would absolutely love* if Toronto wins the lottery this year. I wouldn’t even care who we drafted this year if we had the chance to draft SF Ace or PF Flagg (even by trading up from our plenty picks)… and fill the other slot with SF OG Anunoby or PF Lauri Markkanen through Free Agency.

*I would actually love a whole bunch of scenarios

[LeBowen]

Problem with Topic is whether the 3PT shooting can improve to be enough of a threat to open up the offense or alternatively whether Tre Jones can build on his 3PT progression some more because otherwise doesn't it seem like you take one out the game for the other and it's overlapping non 3PT threats so the redundancy would kill SA with spacing issues and non stop 4 on 5s with defenses doubling off that Spurs get no break from barring additional personnel changes

Yeah, Spurs were definitely trying to find a versatile point guard rather than a floor general who needs the ball at all times.
Primo experiment failed even before he went full exhibitionst, Sochan experiment was even worse.

In that KOC interview Wemby talked about how Spurs expect him to take some handling duties and how the system is about sharing the ball, kind of what Nuggets are doing.
That's why I wouldn't rule out Sheppard. He doesn't have to be an elite playmaker, just competent enough. His elite 3pt shooting and off ball movement would be invaluable to that system.

It would've been ideal if Jeremy experiment was a success. If only he could get to let's say SlowMo level of playmaking, but I'm not optimistic.

[heyheymymy]

I would absolutely love* if Toronto wins the lottery this year. I wouldn’t even care who we drafted this year if we had the chance to draft SF Ace or PF Flagg (even by trading up from our plenty picks)… and fill the other slot with SF OG Anunoby or PF Lauri Markkanen through Free Agency.

*I would actually love a whole bunch of scenarios

Love the 6-9 SF Ace Bailey he would be a great prospect just depends on any logjams there. Edgecomb would be a possible Branham upgrade. 2025 looks loaded but long way away so we'll see how it shifts

[heyheymymy]

Agreed LeBowen Spurs may be eyeing a decentralized playmaking-by-committee thriving on indirect creation especially with Vic's potential as a hub QB. Vassell started more effortlessly racking up AST in the tail end of this season, wonder if that's a changing development. But even if it was just the extra pass, Dev's emergence as more connective or should any other Spurs players join in it may demonstrate the role is more or less fulfilled. Then are you still looking at the PG need as closely?

If PATFO thinks they can get fluid ball movement and build a system that feeds off of secondary orchestration they may decide they do not need to run the ball through a traditional PG style. Then an off ball wing would plug in more naturally perhaps? Does SA already have the initiators sufficient to operate a well oiled offense and then shouldn't the focus swing to talented recipients?

Obvs I think SA still needs a PG anyway, Jones/Wesley feels too barren. But perhaps you could get away with a less valuable one that just stopgaps the position as opposed to blowing considerable draft capital on a name brand guard.