My eyes skimmed over your post and thought I saw “Spurs,” and “5” and “NBA” and got flashbacks to that Finals game.
Why leave your man, Sheed? 
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Sigh. Again.
Oh no I was being serious. Over exaggerating a bit, but serious at the core. If you’re playing non top tier high school comp, you should be dominating at an absurd level. So I guess I say I concur
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UMHOOPS PISTONS DRAFT BOARD
- Victor Wembanyama
- Scoot Henderson
- Brandon Miller
- Cam Whitmore
Barring a trade, the furthest the Pistons can fall is 5th. Who should be the worst case selection for Stones?
- Amen Thompson
- Anthony Black
- Ausar Thompson
- Cason Wallace
- Gradey Dick
- Jarace Walker
- Jordan Hawkins
- Keyonte George
- Nick Smith
- Taylor Hendricks
0 voters
I did Ausar Thompson. The guy I like the best that’s left is Cason Wallace, but while I STRONGLY encourage BPA with the Pistons, he’s way worse than Scoot I think, and I can’t bring myself to go for a third on-ball guy if he’s that caliber (I think Scoot is undeniable). The guy of the people left I’m most confident will be a quality pro is Grady D*ck, but that’s a floor/upside thing. If I’m the Pistons, I’m still trying to find a STAR, and I’m well aware of the Thompson Twin’s struggles, but I think this is the highest upside pick left (also, the floor is through the earth’s mantle). Ausar isn’t a good shooter, seems like he is better than Amen.
I will admit that I was really close on Nick Smith.
In this scenario, my PREDICTION for their pick at 4 or 5 would be Jarace Walker, who hits all the pleasure spots in Weaver’s particular player evaluation kink.
My personal list (for the Pistons) would be:
Wembayana
Henderson
Whitmore
Ausar Thompson
Amen Thompson
My team agnostic board is close
Wembayana
Henderson
Whitmore
Wallace
Ausar Thompson
at 6 I’d do D*ck.
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I’m torn between Ausar and Jarace. I really liked Walker’s game when Michigan was recruiting him. And I like his fit next to Duren. He’s closer to being what I/they hope Stewart can be.
With Ausar, the hope is he’s like a Trevor Ariza. Connector on offense, Lockdown on defense.
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Do you not like Miller’s game, or is the off-court stuff keeping him off your list?
If he wasn’t implicated in a murder he’d be #4 for me (on both lists).
I still like Whitmore more.
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Taylor Hendricks would be #5 on the Pistons big board for me. He’s an athletic 6’9" who can shoot and defend. He fits the Pistons roster nicely at PF and can bump out to SF if necessary. I’m higher on him than the consensus. His skillset scream modern wing players.
This poll is pretty close so far…
I like Walker, but I just don’t know how he projects as a shooter and the Pistons already have so many non-shooters. Thompson twins have that issue too. Really hope the Pistons don’t fall to #5. Feels too high to take Hendricks and 
, but they’d fit the Pistons needs better. Lower ceiling than the other guys too.
James Edwards III, Pistons beat writer for the Athletic, thinks that if the Pistons don’t pick in the top 3 they just trade the pick
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I would prefer that. But I also don’t know that other NBA teams are really coveting the guys after the top 3 to want to trade assets to move up. They could just stand pat and hope the preferred player falls since there isn’t much of a consensus 4-10.
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I mean if someone really wants Amen/Ausar/Jarace/Whitmore, I could see it happen. I also think throughout the draft process, the big board will become a bit more clear.
I’m not sure how likely it is, but James is quite connected and has been right with a lot of this stuff before.
Skeptical. You do hear that from teams a fair bit this time of year. If they are out of the top 3 the BPAs are at a position of need.
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I mean we can be skeptical, all I’m saying is I’ve been following James closely for 2-3 years now and he’s in the know
Doesnt mean it HAS to happen but still
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He floated the idea (not coming from the org) that the Pistons could be part of a three team deal. Something like Lillard to the Celtics, Jaylen Brown to the Pistons and #2 pick to Portland. That was a hypothetical, but the Pistons have cap space and a top 5 pick that make them a flexible trade partner.
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Just tracked down Pelton’s post on his draft model for the year: Not unexpectedly, he doesn’t have projections for the Thompsons bc OTE. As a reminder he has a stats-only model and then he combines that with Givony’s rankings to provide a more predictive output. I’ll list Givony’s ranking as of when the post was written and then the stat-only ranking in parentheses.
- Victor Wembanyama (Givony: 1 / Stats: 18)
- Brandon Miller (Givony: 3 / Stats: 3)
- Cam Whitmore (Givony: 7 / Stats: 2)
- Cason Wallace (Givony: 13 / Stats: 6)
- Gradey Dick (Givony: 11 / Stats: 13)
- Taylor Hendricks (Givony: 12 / Stats: 12)
- Keyonte George- (Givony: 9 / Stats: 16)
- Brice Sensabaugh - (Givony: 18 / Stats: 11)
- Dereck Lively - (Givony: 22 / Stats: 9)
- Scoot Henderson - (Givony: 2 / Stats: 60)
- Jarace Walker - (Givony: 6 / Stats: 30)
At the time, Givony had Amen 4th & Ausar 5th. A non terrible way to back into where they might have ended up is that the model weights stocks and making 2’s pretty highly. I think there’s a pretty good argument for at least Amen? ahead of everybody that isn’t Whitmore/Miller based on what I remember Vecenie/Spinella saying about his athleticism.
Donovan Clingan is no. 1 to KP’s stats-only model. Jett comes in 17th. Kobe didn’t make the first round.
And I guess Scoot’s stats really have been that bad. KP says the issue is he really just hasn’t made enough shots to project better. As of the current Givony board, he’s moved down to 3. So I think there’s actually a non-terrible argument for Whitmore 2nd overall?
KP also says that this OAD class actually stands up pretty well to recent classes, fwiw.
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Scoot has been playing against grown men for 2 years. He’s looked incredibly comfortable in the rising stars game 2 years in a row.
I’m not too worried about the stats - his film has been awesome. I would be absolutely shocked if he doesn’t go 2nd. I do like that they have Whitmore high here. Personally I’d rank it Victor, Scoot, Brandon, Whitmore
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Now THAT is 
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