I'm not 100% sure, but I think I saw a pic of Ainge at the actual practice. I'm guessing they got an in person interview as well, likely with the agent there too. The Jazz sent people to watch the Twins on their Euro tour, so hopefully they have a decent idea of how Bilal stacks up against other elite athletes in this draft. The other thing to think about is that Bilal's decision is not finalized. I'm curious if draft and stash is still a possibility, because if he's not coming over immediately he might want to roll the dice and just go into the 2024 draft. In the very early conversations about him we talked about the possibility of giving him a promise to stay in a stash situation, but his stock has grown way past that imo.
I think the middle of the first is likely where he lands. There are unknowns who get drafted higher, but they are usually US high school players that have been on the radar for awhile. Bilal wasn't necessarily on the radar in France and without a predraft process I think it will be hard for him to get higher unless he gets more offensive reps. I mentioned this before, but I do wonder what affect his senior team play is having on his draft stock. I think he's playing well and establishing himself on the defensive end in particular....but there was probably more excitement about his offensive potential when he was just dominating the junior competition. So while he's playing well, he might also be losing the mystery man hype.
I'm a huge believer in Bilal, but I still think a Jaden McDaniels/Herb Jones type is what's most likely and he's senior team play has been confirming that. He has improved his case as an A+ defensive prospect, but at the same time his play has somewhat muted those high end outcomes that might have been come about from watching his junior team footage. I am firm on him as a prospect at #16, I think that would be an outstanding pick and despite his question marks I still have him at play at #9. The prospects at #9 aren't without their faults either, and I am a big fan of the late bloomer trajectory. Can't forget how young he is either, so I would be careful to make to many strong judgements on what type of player he can become.
I wonder what would have happened to Poku's draft stock had be played more for his senior team instead of the lower league. He got all this unicorn hype doing some weird **** against bad competition, but if he was playing for the senior team he would have been in a more structured role like Bilal. The jury is still out on Poku, but it's getting clear that he's not some 7 foot unicorn ball handler and more like a Muscala type. I think the unicorn stuff was kind of a distraction from what his real NBA skills were and what his path to being an NBA player was. I do believe that when players are so raw, we tend to lose sight of what the realistic path to being an NBA player is. I'm not trying to discuss whether or not Poku was a good pick, but I do think that he was aided by the mystery/hype created from dominating **** competition and that's interesting to think about as Bilal is losing his mystery.
The good news for Bilal is that his archetype is one that every team is dying for, so I think he ends up being drafted mid first round if his play/role stays the same. So even if the hype about him being a scorer lessens, being cast as an athletic defensive wing with excellent length and some offensive potential ain't a bad thing. If in the NBA he becomes the player that we're seeing today for Mets92 a lot of teams would be very happy with that.
