2024 NBA Draft Thread

[BatManu20]

In unrelated news, looks like this will be the last year of Inside the NBA on TNT. For shame. End of an era tbh.

[Vienna]

let's say three years from now the Spurs are back in the mix to win the West.

so, what will be the main challange on the defensive end? stop Jokic, stop Luka, stop SGA, stop Ant. we might add Booker to this list. Lebron, Curry, KD are out.

Spurs already have an answer for Jokic, so a big defensive guard (like Castle would be) is the most glaring need for a future play off run.

[tbdog]

With Washington and Houston might be looking for win now players trying to make the playoff there is a chance Sarr will fall to #4

Washington are taking this rebuild slow.

[exstatic]

In unrelated news, looks like this will be the last year of Inside the NBA on TNT. For shame. End of an era tbh.

Show was better, pre-Shaq. Technically, one of the other networks could buy out all of the contracts except Charles. His contract states that he is free if TNT loses the media rights.

[exstatic]

Washington are taking this rebuild slow.

Next year’s draft will make the Wemby tanking year look tame.

[R. DeMurre]

The draft should be framed as shooters VS non shooters. Tons of guys who can defend but cant shoot with only three shooters in Dilly/Shep/Knecht. Select a shooter at 4 and take the left over defender with no jumper at 8. Plenty of defenders to choose from and lets be honest we're splitting hairs between all the defenders. Let someone else split the hairs for you and take the shooter first.

Why are you assuming Sheppard isn't a defender? He led the SEC in steals, he had the best DRtg & the best DBPM on his Kentucky team, had a huge amount of blocks for a guard, and tied for first in maximum vertical leap at the draft combine... There's a decent chance that if he plays PG, he could actually be a defensive asset, and not a liability at all, especially playing off of Wembanyama.

[exstatic]

New feature on TaT. Combine participants have some measures on their profile pages now.

[Mr. Body]

In unrelated news, looks like this will be the last year of Inside the NBA on TNT. For shame. End of an era tbh.

Too bad ESPN is involved at all. Disney drives everything into the ground and their coverage is trash.

[Mr. Body]

Why are you assuming Sheppard isn't a defender? He led the SEC in steals, he had the best DRtg & the best DBPM on his Kentucky team, had a huge amount of blocks for a guard, and tied for first in maximum vertical leap at the draft combine... There's a decent chance that if he plays PG, he could actually be a defensive asset, and not a liability at all, especially playing off of Wembanyama.

I'll speak up. In college, Sheppard was not a good man-to-man defender. He was consistently blown by on the perimeter and does not navigate screens well. While he does have good leaping ability, and swatted a few three-point attempts, it's widely thought that he gamed the jump portion of the combine by not extending his arms all the way up for his standing reach. Not a big deal either way - he can jump.

What he's really good at are his hands and quick reactions, poking balls, deflections. Very good defense in transition. He freelanced too much in help defense, but this might have been a coaching decision.

His lack of lateral quickness will hurt in the NBA, not to mention his size. I'm generally baffled by his incredible defensive metrics. He did win possessions out of nowhere with steals, but he's not a shut-down defender in any sense.