2024 NBA Draft Mega Thread

Saint Cy of JFC said:

Worst case Castle is Isaac Okoro.

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He can dribble doe.

Ferguson_Mellochill said:

If Reed Sheppard played today, hit five 3s and had 4 steals, everyone would be calling him a top-4 pick again. Gotta chill the recency bias.

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Or maybe you should revisit his success given another very important data point. He was already trending top5-6 imo.

If we move up to 3 or 4 in the lottery I’d love to get Castle.

Legit excited for this title game. I do think the UConn guards will be the difference.

Given the chance, everyone gives up our pick and Kessler for Castle and Clingan, right?

Bawse Dawg said:

Given the chance, everyone gives up our pick and Kessler for Castle and Clingan, right?

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I would

New ESPN 2024 NBA Draft Big Board from Givony and Woo was just updated today:

1. Risacher
2. Sarr
3. Clingan
4. Dillingham
5. Topic
6. Buzelis
7. Sheppard
8. Knecht
9. Williams
10. Collier
11. Walter
12. Holland
13. Edey
14. Castle
15. Salaun
16. Filipowski
17. Carter
18. Da Silva
19. McCain
20. Missi
21. Smith
22. McCullar
23. Klintman
24. George
25. Carrington

Biggest risers and fallers since their last big update in January:

Clingan 13 -> 3
Sheppard 16 -> 7
Buzelis 10 -> 6
Dillingham 7 -> 4

Salaun 6 -> 15
Walter 4 -> 11
Filipowski 9 -> 16
Williams 3 -> 9

Dunn went from 12 to not in their top-25. Da Silva and McCain went from not in their top-25 to 18/19.

Bawse Dawg said:

Given the chance, everyone gives up our pick and Kessler for Castle and Clingan, right?

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I'm not there. I agree that Clingan is an upgrade on the offensive side over Kessler. Kessler is very dependent on pick-and-roll. But I'm not sure Clingan is enough of an upgrade to make me want to jump. Also, Castle just isn't my guy inside the top 10.

I think when the chips are down, the first 4 picks in the draft will be Sarr, Risacher, Topic and Buzelis. I could see Clingan go in the 7-10 range. For me, Castle starts to enter the debate along with Holland, Sheppard and Knecht. Williams is a wildcard who didn't look good coming back from injury. If he works out well during pre-draft, he'll move up a few spots again.

Elizah Huge said:

New ESPN 2024 NBA Draft Big Board from Givony and Woo was just updated today:

1. Risacher
2. Sarr
3. Clingan
4. Dillingham
5. Topic
6. Buzelis
7. Sheppard
8. Knecht
9. Williams
10. Collier
11. Walter
12. Holland
13. Edey
14. Castle
15. Salaun
16. Filipowski
17. Carter
18. Da Silva
19. McCain
20. Missi
21. Smith
22. McCullar
23. Klintman
24. George
25. Carrington

Biggest risers and fallers since their last big update in January:

Clingan 13 -> 3
Sheppard 16 -> 7
Buzelis 10 -> 6
Dillingham 7 -> 4

Salaun 6 -> 15
Walter 4 -> 11
Filipowski 9 -> 16
Williams 3 -> 9

Dunn went from 12 to not in their top-25. Da Silva and McCain went from not in their top-25 to 18/19.

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Where do they have Kel'el Ware?

I just want to point out that compared to Stephon Castle, Ron Holland is bigger, younger, a whole level more athletic, and at least as good a defensive playmaker. Both have shooting concerns, but Holland at least played in a tougher league against bigger, more mature defenders. Castle is more reliable with the ball in his hands, but I'm not sure if teams are going to want to put the ball in his hands. Even at UConn, Castle was treated as a 4th option on offense. He got more looks today because NC State was daring him to shoot, literally backing off 8 or 10 feet. Once Castle missed a few jumpers, he started passing up looks and trying to post up instead.

Handlogten's Heros said:

He can dribble doe.

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Yeah, I do think he's better at that, but Okoro could dribble at the college level but just doesn't at the NBA because offensively he plays with ball dominant guards.

Ferguson_Mellochill said:

I just want to point out that compared to Stephon Castle, Ron Holland is bigger, younger, a whole level more athletic, and at least as good a defensive playmaker. Both have shooting concerns, but Holland at least played in a tougher league against bigger, more mature defenders. Castle is more reliable with the ball in his hands, but I'm not sure if teams are going to want to put the ball in his hands. Even at UConn, Castle was treated as a 4th option on offense. He got more looks today because NC State was daring him to shoot, literally backing off 8 or 10 feet. Once Castle missed a few jumpers, he started passing up looks and trying to post up instead.

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Double down lmfao

Also the Ignite were even ******** when Holland played.

Also the GLeagu.e might be more mature, but it's harder to score in college and the games actually matter. The Ignite got cancelled for a reason

Ferguson_Mellochill said:

If Reed Sheppard played today, hit five 3s and had 4 steals, everyone would be calling him a top-4 pick again. Gotta chill the recency bias.

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Yeah cuz that would be a good performance and it's like good performances are what dictate who is good and not good.

Also what is this recency bias? We have been pimping Castle for a minute now.

To me Castle has a bunch of pathways to being a good player because he's a winning player who plays hard, has a high IQ and has great size for a versatile guard who can play up or down a position.

This draft absolutely 100% is a dumpster fire so a guy like Castle stands out like crazy because there just aren't any guys with that combo in this draft.

And the absolute gall of someone to poopoo Castle for being a 4th option (on UConn) when they were making weekly nut post about Cody Williams, a fifth option on a bubble team.

Castle > MJ

The only downside to castle is all the dumbass cringy puns people will make with his name. I can hear Holly talking about “cute” nicknames for 10 minutes already.

Watching the Alabama vs UConn game now. Castle just makes so many winning plays... and he makes them in so many different ways... unselfish outlet passes, skip passes to free shooters, hustle plays for loose balls, strong rebounds against bigger players, moving the ball quickly and decisively creating advantages for his team even if he never ends up with a stat for said play, entry passes, smart cutting without the ball, defensive positioning, fighting through screens, doesn't seem to be forcing anything at any time. I don't think any of the other players in this draft do as many high BBIQ, high positive impact plays... I just don't see a way he isn't at the very least a really high level glue guy. We need a player like that so bad... do we even have a single player of that mold on this roster? A player who doesn't care one bit about his stats and does all the little things to make you win games?

And his shot really doesn't look bad. It looks natural and it looks like it should be going in more than it is from 3... and from FT... it's pretty good already. I don't see a reason to think he couldn't develop into at least average shooter. I'm not sure he will be able to shoot it off the dribble, but even if he's an off-ball shooter with the handle he has he shouldn't have any problem punishing opponents for either leaving him open(like they did in this game) or for closing out on him by attacking the close outs and making good decisions against a rotating scrambling defense.

Watched both games last night. Thought Clingan looked the best out of any of the prospects. He’s a really safe pick. Going to be a good defender, probably not going to expand his offensive game much or be an elite rim runner. Kinda clumsy around the hoop. Not an elite athlete.

Castle had a really good game, but it’s so obvious he can’t shoot right now. Made plays and UConn had some nice adjustments when Bama abandoned him….but his shot is really a limiting factor right. Still think he’s very likely to be a useful player on the NBA. Super smart and does a lot of things to help the team win. Bruce Brown style.

Sears can really hoop, he’s sooo small though.

Edey had good numbers, did not think it was the best look for him. Looked slow and methodical out there. This game really highlighted how different the college game is. Don’t think his post up game will translate. I think he has his merits, great hands + touch around the basket. But his dominance on the college game is just so antithetical to how the NBA game is played.

The thing that confuses my brain on Clingan is how awkward he looks for how athletic he is.

He just looks awkward AF, but he actually has impressive recovery speed? Is there some hidden athleticism when he matures into his body? He's just so uncoordinated that I don't have high hopes for his offensive game expansion and he's a worse jumper than Walker is, who is already very mediocre for a rim runner

Saint Cy of JFC said:

The thing that confuses my brain on Clingan is how awkward he looks for how athletic he is.

He just looks awkward AF, but he actually has impressive recovery speed? Is there some hidden athleticism when he matures into his body? He's just so uncoordinated that I don't have high hopes for his offensive game expansion and he's a worse jumper than Walker is, who is already very mediocre for a rim runner

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Kind of like ... Rudy...