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Following Potential 2025 Draftees

I honestly don’t get the Queen love. He has a particularly long way to go to be an NBA player given his speed, poor defense, and old school skill set. Ogre ball hasn’t been effective in decades at this point. He has some passing chops and can shoot a little but it doesn’t look anywhere close to sufficient for the NBA.
He has the best handles of any of the bigs (besides Wolf). He has advanced feel and processes the game at a higher speed than most. He has good touch around the basket. He has quick hands. He has been one of the most productive freshman this season and carried his team to a lot of wins. I'm not personally a fan of Queen, but I get why others do like him.

There are a lot of players in the 7-25 range who have questionable fit in the NBA. Queen is certainly towards the top of that list. I personally don't like centers who don't defend the rim. It will be interesting where he goes.
 
Queen has been playing well, but I get less and less convinced on him by the day. At this point I’d have CMB, Newell, and Wolf all ahead of him. CMB and Newell can at least defend a position at the next level and while Wolf has similar concerns to Queen on defense, offensively he plays like a perimeter guy. Queen is dependent on playing the 5 on offense but also doesn’t have a position on defense. Not convinced of him defending at the 5 at all.

I don’t know how serious Sorber’s injury is, but I also would prefer him as I see him as a true defender at the 5.

I think he's ideally a 4. Offensively, he's skilled enough to play out on the floor. Defensively, he can matchup with some 4s. He's not conventional by today's standards, but he's skilled enough to compensate. I think he'll need to play next to another rim protector. He'll also need to stretch his shooting range. He's the kind of guy you can space the floor around and start to build more of an offensive system. Put Lauri and Keyonte on the wings. Put Queen at the high post. Start with Walker on the baseline and run big-to-big actions. Queen can draw defenders and make any pass on the floor.
 
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I think he's ideally a 4. Offensively, he's skilled enough to play out on the floor. Defensively, he can matchup with some 4s. He's not conventional by today's standards, but he's skilled enough to compensate. I think he'll need to play next to another rim protector. He'll also need to stretch his shooting range. He's the kind of guy you can space the floor around and start to build more of an offensive system. Put Lauri and Keyonte on the wings. Put Queen at the high post. Start with Walker on the baseline and run big-to-big actions. Queen can draw defenders and make any pass on the floor.

I can see Queen developing his skillset beyond the what he is now, but I really can’t see how he’s so much better than the other guys. Like I wouldn’t fuss if you said his offense is the best (though it needs a lot of development/change) but guys like CMB/Newell are miles ahead defensively/athletically.

I think Queen is a zero position defender and the only real benefit of him playing the 4 is that you don’t have a horrible C on defense, just a horrible 4. He needs as much development as the others to make being a 4 work in the first place. All this perimeter stuff is mostly theoretical.

I guess what I’m getting at is I understand why people question Newell’s or CMB’s fit. But I don’t understand how that same criticism isn’t applied to Queen where people seem to look at him as some quirky, unique player instead. The other guys at least can play defense at one position or in Wolf’s case is way ahead at the perimeter stuff on offense.
 
John Fanta of Fox released his 2.0 Mock draft and he had Derick Queen at 5 over VJ Edgecomb among others. So I guess there are guys who REALLY like Queen.
 
Was he dropped on his head as a baby?
I'm more debating if he is a fake person.

In Finland we had this "hero" in old ads back in 70s, 80s and 90s called Kari Grandi. His surname was a juice brand and his heroic duties were about saving beautiful women from thirst.

In my head John Fanta sounds like the American version of that guy. Except instead of juice he serves that radioactive-orange colored soda he is named after.
 
Some interesting takes in that draft.

I understand salivating over Malauch's physical tools...but taking him at #5 ahead of Tre Johnson would be a headscratcher.
If you believe in Malauch he's definitely a better prospect than Johnson and he fills a need.
 
I'm more debating if he is a fake person.

In Finland we had this "hero" in old ads back in 70s, 80s and 90s called Kari Grandi. His surname was a juice brand and his heroic duties were about saving beautiful women from thirst.

In my head John Fanta sounds like the American version of that guy. Except instead of juice he serves that radioactive-orange colored soda he is named after.
I really like Fanta. He really knows college basketball as well as anyone.
 
I dont really love Malauch, but I do think he projects to be a better Mark Williams. Williams doesnt have much defensive feel, but he's huge with good touch on offense, and that seems to be Malauch. So if you are drafting Mark Williams who can stay on the court at 5, that's not a bad pick at all. Maybe if Williams could play entire seasons, he would develop feel.
 
You shouldnt draft based on fit, but sometimes fit does dictate who you draft. Drafting Queen just doesnt make any sense for Utah given how good Kessler is and that Filipowski (and just 13 months older) is as talented as Queen is, but can actually shoot. You would have to be extremely high on Queen for the pick to make sense.

Even though I really like Queen, if I made a Jazz draft board, he wouldnt be on it.
 
While I like watching Queen (quirky players are my guilty pleasure) and can appreciate his skill and natural talent, there's also something extremely annoying about his overblown hype.

It's so... NCAA. Extremely insular. Disproportionate.

College ball is a place where future NBA 8th men can be superstars for a while. I don't blame the fans for getting swept up in all the craziness and the atmosphere, but any professional scout who can't see in five minutes that Queen isn't a starter in the league should get fired.
 
If you believe in Malauch he's definitely a better prospect than Johnson and he fills a need.

Count me in the "don't believe in Malauch yet" camp.

Meaningful minutes at Duke is nothing to sneeze at but he strikes me as ~2 years away from NBA rotational minutes on a bad team.

I miss the big man era, though and love long / disruptive bigs so I hope he proves me wrong.
 
Count me in the "don't believe in Malauch yet" camp.

Meaningful minutes at Duke is nothing to sneeze at but he strikes me as ~2 years away from NBA rotational minutes on a bad team.

I miss the big man era, though and love long / disruptive bigs so I hope he proves me wrong.
Best case I think's he is a more athletically gifted and healthy Mark Williams, which could be a very good player.
 
I think Derik Queen is more or less the Domantas Sabonis of this draft. He'll have an impact in the league if he's used right. He's got shortcomings, probably on the defensive end the most, but if he catches the ball 15 feet in, the defense will need to collapse on him and from there he's a triple threat. He needs to measure out fairly well, but I'll assume he will.

I get the potential of Maluach if he goes to a team that's good at developing and motivating bigs. He just has stretches where he seems to coast and not really impose himself on the game like he could. Rudy Gobert had the right combination of tools, athleticism and competitive drive. The part that may be missing with Maluach is the competitive drive. But maybe it's also a confidence issue he can overcome. He's come a long way since Hoop Summit last year, where he looked pretty bad, quite frankly. His measurables are eye-opening.

Hopefully, the Jazz will stay in the top 5, but there's a pileup of teams now, with Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Antonio and now Dallas, who could tempt the league to move them up in the lottery.
 
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