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2023 NBA Draft Megathread

KqWIN said:
Dean is a crazy guy for sure haha. I like reading his thoughts, but this is one of those one's I don't necessarily agree with. There will be teams that pass on him because of his lack of box score production, but in terms of mystery prospects Bilal really isn't that big of a mystery anymore. I don't even think being a mystery hurts draft stock anyways. I can see them saying cool story to Bilal, but in the same way some teams said might have said cool Dieng last year and say cool story to his crappy play in AUS. There have been way more "out there" picks made in the past and certainly by TOR and OKC in particular. It only takes one team to like him, and the teams most likely to do that are in the the 11-13 range. Every team needs 6'8 athletic wings.

I'm biased, but it doesn't even feel like a reach to draft him the lottery. I've seen a lot of people come around to that opinion as well. Not everyone is high on him, but I don't think if he went 12 or 13 that's some kind of giant unexpected leap. The sticker shock of ranking him so high isn't what it was when he was still playing with the Jr team when I first mentioned him. Where would you rank him? I noticed that you drafted him at #15 in the mock.
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Not trying to throw cold water on Bilal... I just think NBL has a better history and is easier to gauge with guys. The French league Bilal plays in has had some duds in recent history so it might not be viewed as the same. Hayes, Sekou, Maledon, Okobo... I am painfully ignorant on overseas leagues... but not sure this one has a ton of clout atm.

Have there been some big wins I am not considering out of that league? I just think that ultimately works against him.
 
lol at those who think they invented following this guy.
Leonard Miller was largely considered a triple t before he opted for the g league last year. He was always a lottery level or fringe one imo. He has solidified it further the closer we get to the draft, and is worth every single penny to take a 16th overall if they don't think he will be taken 10-15. I think he is gone before 16.
That being said, I think he could maybe even have a meteoric big board rise in stock for a team like us, and we take him at 9.
 
Eddie Zero said:
lol at those who think they invented following this guy.
Leonard Miller was largely considered a triple t before he opted for the g league last year. He was always a lottery level or fringe one imo. He has solidified it further the closer we get to the draft, and is worth every single penny to take a 16th overall if they don't think he will be taken 10-15. I think he is gone before 16.
That being said, I think he could maybe even have a meteoric big board rise in stock for a team like us, and we take him at 9.
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You weren’t around when PGAB was a regular poster here were you? He quite literally invented following guys since they were 6-years old.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
Not trying to throw cold water on Bilal... I just think NBL has a better history and is easier to gauge with guys. The French league Bilal plays in has had some duds in recent history so it might not be viewed as the same. Hayes, Sekou, Maledon, Okobo... I am painfully ignorant on overseas leagues... but not sure this one has a ton of clout atm.

Have there been some big wins I am not considering out of that league? I just think that ultimately works against him.
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I think the NBL is harder to evaluate because almost everyone gest squashed on offense unless you grew up playing there. Lamelo was bad, Hampton was bad, Dieng was bad, Rupert bad this year. I think Giddey is the only player to come out of AUS not looking really bad. We know it's a tough league but it's so tough that it's hard to tell who is good and who isn't because everyone is in the GG zone where it's too hard to play.

Bilal is just like any other international prospect. He's not playing in Euro league, but he's also not coming from a second division only like Poku was. I don't think teams really discriminate heavily one way or another. There may be some bias in either direction where GM's prefer one path to NBA over another, but ultimately if they think you're good they're going to draft you and if they don't they will not. It's a secondary consideration. There was a time where I think overseas ball was a mystery box and only certain teams knew what they were doing, but those days are long gone IMO. He's also not playing in some dimly lit gym, he's playing alongside the most watched prospect since LeBron.

If Wemby is great, it won't be because he came from the French League. Players don't pass/fail because of where they came from. These things come in waves anyways. It's been a tough run on French prospects, but their failures don't mean much for the future generation just as the prior generation didn't mean much for them. Guys like Parker, Batum, Fournier, and Gobert did not guarantee success for the future generation. I think it's a mistake to read too much into this angle. The difference between Bilal, Rupert, and Sidy is not who the league they play for....it's how good they are at basketball and I hope that's how the FO makes decisions.
 
KqWIN said:
I think the NBL is harder to evaluate because almost everyone gest squashed on offense unless you grew up playing there. Lamelo was bad, Hampton was bad, Dieng was bad, Rupert bad this year. I think Giddey is the only player to come out of AUS not looking really bad. We know it's a tough league but it's so tough that it's hard to tell who is good and who isn't because everyone is in the GG zone where it's too hard to play.

Bilal is just like any other international prospect. He's not playing in Euro league, but he's also not coming from a second division only like Poku was. I don't think teams really discriminate heavily one way or another. There may be some bias in either direction where GM's prefer one path to NBA over another, but ultimately if they think you're good they're going to draft you and if they don't they will not. It's a secondary consideration. There was a time where I think overseas ball was a mystery box and only certain teams knew what they were doing, but those days are long gone IMO. He's also not playing in some dimly lit gym, he's playing alongside the most watched prospect since LeBron.

If Wemby is great, it won't be because he came from the French League. Players don't pass/fail because of where they came from. These things come in waves anyways. It's been a tough run on French prospects, but their failures don't mean much for the future generation just as the prior generation didn't mean much for them. Guys like Parker, Batum, Fournier, and Gobert did not guarantee success for the future generation. I think it's a mistake to read too much into this angle. The difference between Bilal, Rupert, and Sidy is not who the league they play for....it's how good they are at basketball and I hope that's how the FO makes decisions.
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Its how you determine how good or good they will be where you start to measure where he plays though. Wemby is a whole different animal. If they look at the last run of prospects on Bilal's level that have come out I think that puts a bit of a dent in his stock. Its kind of like pulling out comps from your neighborhood when buying a house. Its a "copycat league"... so I think some will look at recent history fair or not when trying to gauge how good he is.

It only takes one ahole as they say... so I could see OKC or Toronto drafting him... but there are also others that represent the types of swings those clubs could make.
 
Ferguson_Mellochill said:
I'm not in on Leonard Miller. I think his feet are a bit slow and he may not be a starter. He becomes interesting at the 5 though. Bobi Klintman is more fluid and well rounded, imo.
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Klintman is cute but I doubt Miller would have been riding the pine all year at Wake... dude put up way better per minute numbers against grown *** men over a huge sample size.
 
Elizah Huge said:
You weren’t around when PGAB was a regular poster here were you? He quite literally invented following guys since they were 6-years old.
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talk about your dedication to delusion. Alex who? helium balloons in hand no less with big fat red boots and a horn? I bet Lenn gets the last laugh though, that dude is elite at something probably smh
 
Speaking of Leonard Miller, Tony Jones said the Jazz are really interested in him on ESPN700 this morning. He also mentioned JHS, Bufkin, Keyonte, Smith Jr., Clowny, Murray, Hawkins and Rupert as guys the Jazz would be interested in at 16. Jaquez Jr., Podziemski, GG and Colby Jones as guys they would be interested in at 28. He mentioned again that he personally really likes JHS. He didn't seem to think they would take GG at 16 but may at 28 if he happens to still be there. I was surprised that he didn't mention Bilal.

He also said that the Jazz really like this draft...they think they can get a really good player at 9 that they can potentially build around, they also think they can get a good player at 16 and even think there will be good talent available at 28. They will be involved in conversations about possibly moving up...if they don't move up they will keep 9 and 16, sounds like 28 could go either way, they may keep it or they may trade it.
 
Handlogten's Heros said:
Its how you determine how good or good they will be where you start to measure where he plays though. Wemby is a whole different animal. If they look at the last run of prospects on Bilal's level that have come out I think that puts a bit of a dent in his stock. Its kind of like pulling out comps from your neighborhood when buying a house. Its a "copycat league"... so I think some will look at recent history fair or not when trying to gauge how good he is.

It only takes one ahole as they say... so I could see OKC or Toronto drafting him... but there are also others that represent the types of swings those clubs could make.
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Sure....but the truth is these prospects are all independent of each other and don't actually set the fate of the next player. Bilal, Rupert, or Sidy play in different leagues and it doesn't make them better or worse players. There's been no hesitation to draft players with even less of a track record than Bilal and this is especially the case for the teams in the late lottery and like you said it only takes one. I also think the multiple levels of competition helps Bilal because the different contexts allow for different reasons to like him. You get to see him both as a Giannis dominating the youth and as a serious, effective role player at a senior level of competition.

I think you have 60-70% he will be there at 16, I'll take the reverse and say he's 60-70% gone by 16. If these guys are being overrated in the draft process you could take that as a sign that Bilal is also going to be overrated and that NBA FO's hold the league in high regard. Maybe this year is the year they change their tone, but imo the failure of recent prospects is more of a point to the question of should they draft them higher and not will teams draft them higher. These are not two mutually exclusive things, but I think you get the idea.
 
Jingled said:
Speaking of Leonard Miller, Tony Jones said the Jazz are really interested in him on ESPN700 this morning. He also mentioned JHS, Bufkin, Keyonte, Smith Jr., Clowny, Murray, Hawkins and Rupert as guys the Jazz would be interested in at 16. Jaquez Jr., Podziemski, GG and Colby Jones as guys they would be interested in at 28. He mentioned again that he personally really likes JHS. He didn't seem to think they would take GG at 16 but may at 28 if he happens to still be there. I was surprised that he didn't mention Bilal.

He also said that the Jazz really like this draft...they think they can get a really good player at 9 that they can potentially build around, they also think they can get a good player at 16 and even think there will be good talent available at 28. They will be involved in conversations about possibly moving up...if they don't move up they will keep 9 and 16, sounds like 28 could go either way, they may keep it or they may trade it.
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Great summary.

Seemingly unrelated. I want to outline how effing screwed the Hawks are right now and how we likely setup a theft of John Collins and some assets... as I think we really could end up with 9, 15,16. The Hawks have punted this decision down the road to a point where they now need a team with current space to help them out of the jam. Can't just be expiring contracts... they need someone to assume the obligation for the future and send back like $10M less salary. They don't have a lot of other good places to cut unless they find a home for Capela.

Nabbing Collins and either flipping him immediately - to a team like Dallas for ****** salary and picks - or having him put up some numbers in our system and flipping him later for assets has absolutely been setup by Danny's interest last season. Except now they will need to add assets (either the Kings pick, or we could swap 28 for 15, or if the market is really ******... both). We could also just keep Collins if he plays well and the rookies we have behind him aren't showing enough to replace him.

If they just keep him and go deep into the tax... they still need to move him later... and they will start the repeater clock right before they give raises to Murray and Okongwu (maybe?). There is blood in the water and Danny been circling the boat for a while. Maybe a dumb team bails them out... but their options are limited to teams with cap space... good luck.
 
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