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2024 NBA Draft Mega Thread

If you're truly trying to build a contender shouldn't you always draft for positional size unless there is a clear cut talent gap?
Well… yeah. There haven’t been a ton of small guards drafted in the first round lately.

That’s the thing with Dilly and Shep though. There is a clear cut talent gap. Dilly would be my bet to be the 25 PPG scorer in this draft. I have been debating if that means he should be my number one prospect or not… still undecided.
 
Still really interested to see where Collier gets mocked after the combine/workouts. He doesnt have any official measurements out there, but it's rumored he has a negative wingspan. I could see something like that dropping him out of the lottery and if that's the case he would be an absolute steal outside the lottery. I still have him in my top 6-ish. I just think he's really talented.

Collier was a consensus top 3 HS recruit and he was ranked #1 in ESPN mocks early on in the season before dropping off because of USC's failure and his eventual injury. He returned from injury and was pretty great. He's probably the closest proxy for Keyonte George from last year if he falls out of the lottery. Not because of their play, but just being high recruits who dropped down draft boards despite having some clear cut flashes of high potential. Collier only scored under 10 points twice all season, which I would guess is the best out of all the freshman lottery prospects.

Even if he has a negative wingspan, he's still a pretty big combo guard w/ potential to play point (really talented passer imo, outside of Topic he's probably the best driver/passer). He should have good defensive potential, but his defensive reactions this year were pretty concerning.
 
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No i think it’s really hard to draw lines on the talent tiers. Last year you had Wemby, the. miller and Scoot seemed to be in a tier but some would have had Scoot a tier above Miller… and that is only the first three picks.

I think that we think about this concept similarly, as far as tiers, bpa, fit, etc.

Personally as an armchair gm with very limited information I see the draft with less tiers than I would expect our FO to have who has way more information and should be very detailed in their approach. Or in other words I would expect there to be more separation with greater detail.

For myself with few tiers, I'm always thinking fit because I don't see a lot of separation of talent (especially in this draft).
 
The Portsmouth Invitational was held this week with participants probably not being 1st round picks due to age. Raequan Battle a 6'5" well traveled wing was the leading scorer but hoisted a lot of shots to achieve that honor. I thought the two most impressive players were Isaac Jones a big from Washington State and Riley Minix a 6'7" dude from Morehead State. A couple of other guys that impressed me were RayJ Dennis from Baylor and Branden Carlson from Utah. RayJ is a guard that was brought in to replace Key and Carlson is a big. These guys are all probably 2nd round picks or UDFAs but look like they could help the Jazz.
 
Well… yeah. There haven’t been a ton of small guards drafted in the first round lately.

That’s the thing with Dilly and Shep though. There is a clear cut talent gap. Dilly would be my bet to be the 25 PPG scorer in this draft. I have been debating if that means he should be my number one prospect or not… still undecided.

I agree. If there were prospects as talented as Dilly + Shep with positional size, they would easily be the number one overall pick in this draft.

When you look at the league and even focus in on the very best players, I think people would realize that there are more guys who have elite size/athleticism etc. The guys that do still often have elite skill/talent beyond their physical prowess. Size/athleticism definitely still has it's place when trying to determine the guys with the most potential, but I think we probably weigh the physical attributes too much compared to the skills. It's easy to look at a raw athlete and think, "the sky is the limit if he improves on X, Y, Z". But realistically you have to determine who is most likely to develop the elite skills and often times it's the guy who is already really good at the stuff even if he doesn't have the same physical attributes.
 
Still really interested to see where Collier gets mocked after the combine/workouts. He doesnt have any official measurements out there, but it's rumored he has a negative wingspan. I could see something like that dropping him out of the lottery and if that's the case he would be an absolute steal outside the lottery. I still have him in my top 6-ish. I just think he's really talented.

Collier was a consensus top 3 HS recruit and he was ranked #1 in ESPN mocks early on in the season before dropping off because of USC's failure and his eventual injury. He returned from injury and was pretty great. He's probably the closest proxy for Keyonte George from last year if he falls out of the lottery. Not because of their play, but just being high recruits who dropped down draft boards despite having some clear cut flashes of high potential. Collier only scored under 10 points twice all season, which I would guess is the best out of all the freshman lottery prospects.

Even if he has a negative wingspan, he's still a pretty big combo guard w/ potential to play point (really talented passer imo, outside of Topic he's probably the best driver/passer). He should have good defensive potential, but his defensive reactions this year were pretty concerning.

I've kind of wondered about Collier compared to Topic. I feel like they are similar in the sense that their key attribute is the ability to penetrate and either score/pass out of that. Both have questionable jump shots. Topic seems like a more likely shooter because of his FT%....Collier's is a big red flag imo. But Collier does have the better physical tools imo. He's also a decent steals guy which is a big plus for me.
 
I agree. If there were prospects as talented as Dilly + Shep with positional size, they would easily be the number one overall pick in this draft.

When you look at the league and even focus in on the very best players, I think people would realize that there are more guys who have elite size/athleticism etc. The guys that do still often have elite skill/talent beyond their physical prowess. Size/athleticism definitely still has it's place when trying to determine the guys with the most potential, but I think we probably weigh the physical attributes too much compared to the skills. It's easy to look at a raw athlete and think, "the sky is the limit if he improves on X, Y, Z". But realistically you have to determine who is most likely to develop the elite skills and often times it's the guy who is already really good at the stuff even if he doesn't have the same physical attributes.
The guys with elite dimensions also seem to get extra chances even if they do nothing with their first. Its not fair, but it is understandable.
 
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