Justin Jaudon

Man, this team is going to be able to PASS!

Yeah, Cole should be the happiest guy on the team. Banchero fits WAY better in a lineup with him starting long-term than Fultz. (By the way, I haven't given up on All-Star Cole yet!)

Well, I said I wouldn't throw a fit at any of the top 4 guys, and I won't. Wasn't the guy I wanted, but hey. You know what I wanted last year? Anyone but Scottie Barnes; thought he would never be able to score in the NBA. As I've said for a while now, I'm learning to evaluate guys from college, but I don't watch college ball any more, so it's tough to do it through selected games, draft profiles, and articles. Paolo Banchero is going to be a perennial All-Star, right? He will win rookie of the year, right? He's going to be all those things injuries stole from Jabari Parker, plus way more passing, right? I can see it. Bring it on, big fella!

I miss that guy here. Probably because I tend to agree with him on basketball stuff, lol.

I would look around to make sure no one else saw the theft, first; but yeah, if the Hornets wanted to get rid of him that bad, I'd do it. Heck, I'd probably throw in at least one of our second-rounders, too.

You're probably right. But I think we might be ready to cash in some of the youth we already have like Mo/Chuma/Hampton to make room. Not likely, but possible.

Draft Prediction: 1. Chet Holmgren 32. MarJon Beauchamp (HE'S SO LONG!!!! HOW GOOD COULD HE BE IF HE LEARNS TO SHOOT??!! smh) 33. Trade for cash and a future 2nd. Weeks of Justin trying really hard to convince himself this is a great draft (and maybe it even would be).

Another interesting draft: 1. trade back for 3 and 17 plus another (probably heavily protected) first 3. Paolo Banchero 17. TyTy Washington (I don't know how well his game will translate, but he's a BASKETBALL PLAYER in every sense, makes the right plays, seems to understand the game really well) trade back into the first for: Jaden Hardy (this is a theme, I know).

I get this, I'm just particularly high on the notion that Ivey is the type of guy you build around. If he pops, you find shooting by trading guys who still have some value like Cole/Suggs who he makes somewhat expendable.

Draft I want: 1. Jabari Smith trade back into the first for : Jaden Hardy I've explained before why I'm so high on Smith, and nothing has changed that. I like Jaden Hardy a lot better than anyone in the second, though if we had to use them I'd say Ron Harper Jr. and Trevor Keels. Draft I'd be fascinated by: 1. trade back for 3 and 17 plus another (probably heavily protected) first 3. Jaden Ivey 17. Nikola Jovic trade back into the first for: Jaden Hardy

My top 6: 1. Jabari Smith Jr. 2. Jaden Ivey (I know that's an unpopular one) 3. Chet Holmgren (big risk/reward player, to me) 4. Paolo Banchero (I actually like Paolo quite a bit, and think the defensive problems might be overstated) - I would not be particularly upset with any of those picks (though I'm very high on Jabari myself, I understand not everything goes my way, and I could be wrong about him) 5. Keegan Murray (could be the steal of the draft, even here) 6. Bennedict Mathurin (Also could be the steal of the draft, even here) I could see any of those guys being perennial All-Stars, the two at the top are just the ones I think most likely.

I will say that I won't throw a fit if we draft the stick figure. Chet has bananas talent for a guy his height. My issue with Chet isn't even really about his weight, though that is certainly part of it. I don't like super-skinny guys; but I have missed on other prospects for that reason before. I thought Durant would get roughed up in the NBA. I thought Gobert would fold in half. I didn't like Mobley, either (though, to be fair, I didn't really like anyone in last year's draft except Cunningham and Green). I don't trust that guys like that will not spend most of their time injured. And Chet is WAY skinnier than any of those guys, in terms of frame. What bothers me about Chet (aside from the obvious) is two-fold: he wasn't the main focus of his college team's offense and he wasn't good against top talent. And I think Orlando needs a star with the first pick, not a giant Swiss Army Knife. Chet is basically a taller Isaac, from what I've seen (with a little better shooting), and while I like Isaac, he isn't the guy you draft at #1. I see all the talent that Chet has, different skills that you just don't see in a 7-footer. But the question for me is, 'what in Chet's game will translate and actually matter?' He's a monster of a shot-blocker, but so is Porzingis, and he was traded to make Dallas better because he was actually a defensive liability. The weird thing is: shot-blocking doesn't necessarily equal great defense. Chet's scary-looking in transition, because he's a 7-footer who can run the floor and dribble. But is that really all that useful? How many times in a game will that matter at all? Is it truly impactful, or just a novelty? Chet's got cool post moves, but will he be able to use any of them on grown men who will just put him off-balance and man-handle him? Bigger college guys man-handled him, NBA guys will EAT him. He would need to put on at minimum 30 pounds before 90% of the league wouldn't be able to gently nudge him to any spot on the floor they want him, and probably 50 lbs before most Centers won't be able to. Will he be able to do that, and if he does, will he be the same guy? What good will post moves mean if he can't hold a position long enough to use them? (so the weight does mean something, but it's more than just about whether he'll be injury-prone). Are we so enamored with this guy because he's so crazy skilled, or because he's got a lot of better-than-average skills and is 7 feet tall. Now Chet might very well come in and become the Dirk/Noah combo that I DO see in there if I squint. That's why I hate tanking so much. You can tank for ten years to finally get the first pick, and you get a guy who might be an all-time great, or he might not even be a starter; or he might be an all-time great who you lose when a stiff wind carries him off a cliff, or a toddler bumps him at Disney and his twig leg snaps. Or you draft Jabari and he's either taller Paul George/Jayson Tatum or he isn't a number one option so he's basically taller Mikal Bridges (better than Chet's worst-case-scenario, but not worth 10 years of tanking, that's for sure). Or you draft Paulo and he's either better passing Melo, or just Jabari Parker 2.0, a man out of time in the modern NBA who's defense is so bad his above-average offense can't off-set it. Or you draft Sharpe, and he's either whatever form of Jesus the Kentucky Stans seem to think he'll be, or he's Dwayne Bacon. What I know is, like many others have said, I'll convince myself I love whoever we pick. At least for a while.

This ignores the part where Jabari is already an elite shooting prospect from outside. I mention Kawhi because HOW they scored in college INSIDE THE 3POINT LINE was similar, and spoke to some of the supposed knocks on Jabari's prospects as a #1 option. The main knock on Kawhi, and why people see him as an 'outlier offensive development', was that he was not a good outside shooter in college, and thus he was great at nothing. He developed that, and the rest of his game is very similar to where it was, with some typical NBA improvements to ball-handling and acumen, plus outlier defensive development (which is actually where his biggest improvement aside from 3point shooting came; he was considered a decent defensive prospect, but called sloppy and possibly low-IQ on that end). Also, I don't think anyone needs to shoot 50% from mid-range to be an elite #1 scorer. Steph Curry is a career 46% from mid-range; Kevin Durant: 45%; Kawhi: 45%; Paul George: 40%; Dirk Nowitzki: 47%; Devin Booker: 44%. The list goes on. And of those guys I listed, only Kawhi gets better than ~25-26% of their offense from inside 10 feet, at around 31%. The rest get basically 3/4 of their offense from the mid-range or outside, like Jabari. Jabari needs to improve his % from mid-range, sure. That's absolutely true. It's why there's even a question of Chet at #1. But the idea that Jabari can't dribble well enough to be a main option is the point I was making in comparing him to Kawhi. Kawhi's handle is not elite now, nor is Jayson Tatum's, the other guy I compared him to in my last post. Jabari's handle is better than he gets credit for, owing I think to a mix of the long legs/high shorts combo making it look less smooth and the very deliberate one-to-two moves style in which he gets buckets (which is why I mentioned Siakam as well, though I understand that Siakam is WAY more inside dominant in his actual finishing spots).

For those that think Jabari Smith can't become a #1 scoring option, I ask you to watch Kawhi Leonard college stuff, research what guys were saying about him. Not great handle, scores best off one or two moves. And he didn't have Jabari's outside shot, not even close. I've never seen the Kevin Durant thing. Durant is a natural scorer like we haven't seen elsewhere. Jabari Smith isn't like that. But he is a scorer, make no mistake. The comparison to Klay Thompson is unfair, as Klay is basically a HOF-level catch-and-shoot guy, but it's questionable if he could be THE guy. Jabari already can score in isolation better than Klay, I think. There's a ton of tape of him scoring off pull-ups and turn-arounds, usually on one or two moves. Kawhi was certainly more of a 3 than Jabari, with a somewhat better handle. But it was still stiff, and he struggled tremendously using his left in college. He scored on a lot of mid-range pull-ups and turn-around moves, though, just like Jabari, and just like Jabari it was usually after one or two moves. Another note is that Tatum was also accused of having a stiff, upright handle that led to struggles with length at the rim (indeed, people still complain about that, if you're watching the finals). Tatum played in a super up-tempo offense and he was used more as a cutter than Jabari, but I see similarities in their supposed limitations as well. What I'm saying is this, really: Jabari has shown he can shoot off the dribble in the mid-range. He just needs to improve that handle, which he certainly will, working with a good NBA coaching staff. Shooting off the dribble in the mid-range, getting to the line (underrated part of his game, he got there as often as Banchero and made a higher %), and being already a lights-out 3-point shooter, he has the most important tools to be a #1 scoring option in the modern NBA. The only thing that is an actual question mark is his lack of close-up dominance for a guy who's 6-10. And even that doesn't really bother me that much. It's weird, sure. It draws attention. But with his size and obvious touch, I don't worry much about it, as that really isn't his game. Offensively, I see him as projecting very well to be a #1 scoring option, like a mix of Kawhi, Tatum, and maybe a little more Siakam, if he figures out the 0-3 feet stuff. Maybe not as good a ball-handler as the first two, but a better outside shooter than Siakam (and maybe all of them), and bigger than all of them.

Jabari. Please. Just do it.