2021 NBA Draft Discussion

There’s no nba hall of fame, unless you were being sarcastic. Even then, there’s no nba hall of fame.

College basketball fans should openly root for things that help their program win and be upset when something gets in the way of that.
If that involves being salty to an adult about to make a lot of money playing professional basketball, so be it.

Well that’s fine, but if you are going to do that then don’t make a moral argument when something doesn’t go your way.

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In a shocking turn of events, sports fans continue to act like sports fans have for decades :roll_eyes:

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I’ve watched most of Dauster’s videos on upcoming draft prospects and enjoy them. I agree with pretty much everything said in this video.

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That would be great. Bridges is already a Finals starter. Probably the fourth best Sun behind an all-time great and two young superstars

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And that’s the ideal role for him too…third or fourth guy on a good team that is really valuable but isn’t asked to be a star.

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Yeah in the early 90’s a dominant front court was very viable. That’s why the trade shocked me. C Webb at the high post, shaq down low, acceptable guard play….

Of course Penny and shaq did well together too iirc.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: Six takeaways from Caleb Houstan’s U19 World Cup performance

Yeah, Orlando made the Finals in 1995 (swept by Hakeem and the Rockets) after beating a newly returned Jordan in a pretty great series and then made the Conference Finals in 1996 where they were swept by the 72-10 Bulls (probably the greatest team ever).

The following year Shaq left for the Lakers and Penny carried the team to a playoff berth and a first round loss (and perhaps more significantly Penny started having the knee problems that would damper the rest of his career).

FWIW - 90s NBA was my jam.

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Before he was injured, Penny was the premier back-court player in the league short of Jordan.

In the 4 years between his rookie year and his injury he was 1st team All-NBA 3 times, and 3rd team once (he got hurt and missed 15 games that year).

Also, the trade was at least in part because Shaq laid the law down with the Magic front office because he had become buddies with Penny on the set of Blue Chips (which you should watch if you haven’t).

My apologies to the mods (Dylan) - I’ll stop talking 90’s NBA in the draft thread.

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Oh man, Blue Chips. What a movie!

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So I watched some of the top few guys again, and I think I have my rankings down.

My 1-2-3 is pretty straight forward: Cade, Green, Mobley in that order. I think Mobley is more likely to be an all star than Green, but Green is the player type that the league revolves around, and I don’t think you can pass that ceiling up.

4 is where it gets interesting. If I were to pick a 4th guy in this class who may turn into an All-NBA first team player, it’s Kuminga. He’s super young (he is over a year younger than Cunningham, because he re-classed). He’s had about three years of formal basketball training at this point, and he’s just a crazy athlete with I think good feel (he makes some pretty juicy passes and shows flashes of defensive instincts). His stats were probably not served well on a team that was built to showcase him and feed him usage (a college coach would have pulled back on the reigns a bit, for better or worse). There is way too much here to pass up - way more than Suggs.

That said, the team drafting 4th - the Raptors - are sort of unique in that they may be trying to win next year. I’m pretty comfortable with the idea that Suggs will be a better rookie than Kuminga, and probably a better second year player. For a team looking for an immediate impact, and a boost in the standings now, Suggs makes sense (and it seems like Lowry is unlikely to stay, and Suggs and VanVleet can play together). Thus, putting myself in their shoes, if the order remains this way, I’d take Suggs here and hope Kuminga doesn’t turn into a monster in Orlando (if I were Kuminga I’d much rather be in Toronto’s development system over the miserable Magic one).

We all know OKC is going to swing at upside and they love their massive athletes - Keon Johnson seems like their type of guy.

The Warriors are DEFINITELY going to be trying to win games next year, and I think a guy like Moses Moody gives a solid plug and play game.

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This is a great write up and makes a lot of sense.

I dont love what Moses Moody could do to Poole’s time at GS. Seems like a less ball dominant (although potentially more effective) and better shooting version of Poole

Is he definitely a better shooting version? He only shot 35% last year, which was lower than Poole’s college percentage. He also shot slightly lower percentage from the FT line. The numbers are so close that the differences are negligible, but I don’t know that it’s a fact he’s a better shooter. He is a little bigger with a longer wingspan though so probably more upside defensively.

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Maybe it isnt cut and dry that Moses is a better shooter. From my recollection, Moses had a lot more on ball/playmaking duties and took more tough shots than Poole who “just sat in the corner” (sorry I couldnt help myself) at Michigan. You are right though, it is debatable. All thing created equal though, I think the shiny new object who will be on a rookie contract longer might be the more desirable outcome for GS. Maybe there is room for both on the team, it just doesnt seem like it to me.

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Little Jack Horner sat in the corner canning threes and spacing the floor and earning the trust of his teammates and cashing in after his contract year.

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They seemed to run Poole as a backup PG so he could play with Moody. I think Wagner is a perfect fit for them though.

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The Warriors right now figure to have 3 people who can make a jumper (Curry, Klay, Poole), 2 that can play off the dribble (Curry, Poole), and 0 that can guard a 1, 2, or 3 (I don’t have high hopes for Klay’s defense next year)

I don’t see Moody as being duplicative of Poole, I think they’d make a pretty logical backup backcourt (and I think Moody could very plausibly be a SF as well, since I don’t think we can assume Wiggins will be back without a doubt).

I’m not sure Moody is a better shooter than Poole (I think he’ll be a perfectly fine NBA shooter), but I think he’s a better athlete…and it would be hard to be a worse defender.

You may be underestimating the growth that Jordan Poole has had athletically since leaving Michigan. Dude has a really good first step (even by NBA standards) and is a really quick vertical jumper off the dribble. He basically dunked on Javale McGee this past season. I say basically because Javale got a piece but the ball still went in!

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