2023 NBA Draft Megathread

[NUMBERICA]

1.8 SPG and I think he works hard defensively.

My take is that he is a basketball genius and works hard, so his team defense CAN be really good.

I’m a fan, but at that position it’s important to stay in front of players, and these players are NBA athletes.

He just does some crazy **** out there so I could see him popping or just flat out failing due to athleticism. I don’t know what to believe but I’d be happy to bet #28 on it, just not #16.

 

[KqWIN]

Podz brings up the question of is it more important to be athletic or more important to be good at the things athleticism is supposed to do?

Answer is a both, of course, but I think athleticism can be a little overrated or overvalued. It’s easy to misjudge athleticism in the first place. The athletic ability to play basketball and win a dunk contest or test well at the combine are very different. This is especially the case for “potential”. Many of the guys who end up really overachieving later in the draft fell because their physical attributes were not good on the surface.

Podz numbers are crazy good, and not just from raw output. I don’t think it’s that crazy to think he’s in play at 16. He’s more of a guy I’m looking at for 28, but it would not surprise me if he rises throughout the process.

 

[HermanG]

Should we be talking about Podziemski being in play at 16? I’m really not sure why he’s not currently projected to go higher. My guess is it’s because he’s probably going to measure at 6’4-6’5?

I hope not. I would love to get him at #28 but at #16 he might be too much of a stretch... especially if Jordan Hawkins is still on the board.

However while some people always lust for the guys who can beat defenders off the dribble they forget the system we run is based on spacing and ball movement. Dribble and drive is complementary to us if we get the spacing to work but since we already have a non-shooting big we cannot add non-shooting guards to big minute rotation or we will be playing against clogged paint every damn game.

In that sense Podz is a very good fit and I think he can play team defense and he can play on and off ball offensively and be a threat either way. He also has one of the hardest things to learn which is natural feel for the game. He makes good decisions and plays all the time where it seems he knows what is happening next.

Also lets not pretend that 20 year old cannot develop in athleticism, or that non-athletic guys cannot make impact in the NBA (Luka). Cam Thomas of Brooklyn is someone who is very similar to Podz in the sense that he is slow and not very athletic but he is amazing at reading defenders. Podz adds better team ball, elite rebounding for a guard, some passing chops and more defensive effort to what Thomas does.

 

[whatthe]

Podz brings up the question of is it more important to be athletic or more important to be good at the things athleticism is supposed to do?

Answer is a both, of course, but I think athleticism can be a little overrated or overvalued. It’s easy to misjudge athleticism in the first place. The athletic ability to play basketball and win a dunk contest or test well at the combine are very different. This is especially the case for “potential”. Many of the guys who end up really overachieving later in the draft fell because their physical attributes were not good on the surface.

Podz numbers are crazy good, and not just from raw output. I don’t think it’s that crazy to think he’s in play at 16. He’s more of a guy I’m looking at for 28, but it would not surprise me if he rises throughout the process.

I hope not. I would love to get him at #28 but at #16 he might be too much of a stretch... especially if Jordan Hawkins is still on the board.

However while some people always lust for the guys who can beat defenders off the dribble they forget the system we run is based on spacing and ball movement. Dribble and drive is complementary to us if we get the spacing to work but since we already have a non-shooting big we cannot add non-shooting guards to big minute rotation or we will be playing against clogged paint every damn game.

In that sense Podz is a very good fit and I think he can play team defense and he can play on and off ball offensively and be a threat either way. He also has one of the hardest things to learn which is natural feel for the game. He makes good decisions and plays all the time where it seems he knows what is happening next.

Also lets not pretend that 20 year old cannot develop in athleticism, or that non-athletic guys cannot make impact in the NBA (Luka). Cam Thomas of Brooklyn is someone who is very similar to Podz in the sense that he is slow and not very athletic but he is amazing at reading defenders. Podz adds better team ball, elite rebounding for a guard, some passing chops and more defensive effort to what Thomas does.

Would he be a 6th man or a starter?

 

[SoberasHotRod]

Just for fun, I looked back at two mock drafts from about this time of year last year. Look at Sam Vecenie (opinion with some intel) and DX (intel with some opinion). If history repeats itself, expect a lot of changes in opinion between now and June.

Players who fell in the predraft process (ranking, actual draft position):

Vecenie:

AJ Griffin (5, 16)
TyTy Washington (10, 29)
Kendall Brown (13, 48)
Patrick Bladwin (17,28)
Jaden Hardy (20, 37)
Jean Montero (24, Undrafted)

DX:
AJ Griffin (8, 16)
TyTy Washington (14,29)
Kendall Brown (25, 48)
Kennedy Chandler (19, 38)


Players who rose in the predraft process:

Vecenie:
Jeremy Sochan (19, 9)
Ousmane Dieng (35, 11)
Jalen Williams (Not ranked, 12)
Dalen Terry (Not ranked, 18)
Jake LaRavia (Not ranked, 19)

DX:
Ben Mathurin (12, 6)
Ousmane Dieng (18, 11)
Jalen Williams (52, 12)
Dalen Terry (43, 18)
Jake LaRavia (41, 19)

2022 NBA Mock Draft 5.0: Chet Holmgren at No. 1; AJ Griffin in top 5; questions abound with this year’s class

Sam Vecenie explains why, with fewer upperclassmen emerging, this is potentially shaping up to be the year of the "pre-draft" for teams.

theathletic.com

NBA mock draft: Did Paolo Banchero hurt or help his case to go No. 1?

With the men's college basketball season complete, ESPN's NBA draft experts Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz recap the players on the move.

www.espn.com

This is much more movement than I would have expected. Thanks for looking this up.

 

[HermanG]

Would he be a 6th man or a starter?

Long term prospect would be to develop him to be a starter if he can develop his defense and athleticism to be able to play big minutes against NBA starters. I think he can bring more from the bench early on in his career sort of like Tyler Herro who was not very athletic coming off college either but who could impact games big time. Podz might remain as a bench guy long term also but if he can shoot 40%+ from 3, bring hustle and rebounding and also create some for himself and for others off the dribble he would be invaluable as a bench player.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

My take is that he is a basketball genius and works hard, so his team defense CAN be really good.

I’m a fan, but at that position it’s important to stay in front of players, and these players are NBA athletes.

He just does some crazy **** out there so I could see him popping or just flat out failing due to athleticism. I don’t know what to believe but I’d be happy to bet #28 on it, just not #16.

He's a better athlete than you are giving him credit for though. His steal rate and rebounding rate are nice indicators

 

[seattlejazzfan]

Ehh. I think Exum is the cautionary tale for drafting international prospects from lower leagues and having sky-high hopes. Exum was destroying kids prior to coming here. Shot like a million free throws a game. Was supposed to be this force at the rim but it turns out he just didn’t ****ing play anybody.

That being said, Bilal DUNKS the ball with ferocity and gets UP.

TLDR; we really know so little until they get here and matchup in the NBA.

he wasn't even destroying kids though. he averaged about 17 ppg on 42% FGs in his high school league.

 

[seattlejazzfan]

Also… Hezonja? I don’t remember his name.

Meanwhile Jokic went in the 2nd round. Maybe unless it’s an obvious home run, overseas should generally be seen as a place you find diamonds in the rough (Ginobili, Tony Parker), not blow lottery picks on projects that haven’t played anybody.

the thing jokic, parker, manu and even AK, have in common as opposed to guys like milicic, tskitishvili, bargnani and hezonja, is that those guys produced before coming over. and you can say the same about luka. the key with euros is to take the guys who have shown they can at least produce at that level. it's not a guarantee they will be good, and by the same token it's not impossible to find player who didn't produce (Giannis), but if you're playing the odds, go get the guys who have actually done something.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I'd roll the dice at the Podz God being available at 28 though. Get your elite athletes/positional size early with Black/Jackson and get Air Podz at 28

 

[Elizah Huge]

I'd roll the dice at the Podz God being available at 28 though. Get your elite athletes/positional size early with Black/Jackson and get Air Podz at 28

I highly doubt he will be there. He’s going to be a riser.

 

[fishonjazz]

He is not a hit, true. But is he a bust? We traded him for Jordan Clarkson so I don't know if you classify him as having no value.

I think he is a bust. Just cause another team made a poor decision and a poor trade doesn't make exum a good player or a good pick

 

[fishonjazz]

That’s not what I remember. I think there were some that wanted Gordon but as a whole Jazzfanz were excited about his drafting. If I recall nba draft experts were calling him the next Kobe I think as far as makeup and drive or something.

I'm talking about after we had him for a while jazz fans weren't happy we drafted him. Cause he sucked really bad

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I highly doubt he will be there. He’s going to be a riser.

Maybe. I hope he does the 5-on-5 game. Seems like he could be someone who could really make his first round case guaranteed if he played well there.

 

[fishonjazz]

If you can get Black and Jackson at 9 and 16 you are starting to develop an extremely big, physical, and athletic team.

True.

 

[fishonjazz]

It would probably be 9 and 16 for 7.

I would rather keep 9 and 16

 

[Thee Idiotic Minivan K]

I would rather keep 9 and 16

This is where I’m at. That’s an awful lot to give up to move two spots for a guy comparable to what you’d get at 9. Now if we were moving up 4-5 spots then yes pull that trigger

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

This is where I’m at. That’s an awful lot to give up to move two spots for a guy comparable to what you’d get at 9. Now if we were moving up 4-5 spots then yes pull that trigger

For me only Amen or Jarace would wet my whistle enough to think about doing that for 7. It would be a thought.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I'd roll the dice at the Podz God being available at 28 though. Get your elite athletes/positional size early with Black/Jackson and get Air Podz at 28

He’s intriguing at 28… just eye test he looks slow. I would not reach for him at 16. Some of the slow guys end up working… some just aren’t over the threshold of athleticism needed to succeed in the nba.

Right now we seem to have like 40 guys in the top 16. If pods isn’t there at 28 someone else good will be.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

He’s intriguing at 28… just eye test he looks slow. I would not reach for him at 16. Some of the slow guys end up working… some just aren’t over the threshold of athleticism needed to succeed in the nba.

Right now we seem to have like 40 guys in the top 16. If pods isn’t there at 28 someone else good will be.

I think he looks like a solid athlete to me to make it. It really comes down to how much of his offensive game translates. His rebounding and steal rate are just really good indicators of his activity level defensively. I think him and Anthony Black would make for a nasty summer league duo.