Following Potential 2025 Draftees

[framer]

We are

I have a sneaking suspicion we are getting Ace.

Definately drafting him. Remains to be seen if we keep him.

 

[SojoDave]

I fear we will draft Fears ... Thanks, I'll be here all week. Try the veal.

 

[KqWIN]

A couple things I agree and disagree with from Locke's podcast today:

Agree
- The no workout/agent stuff shouldn't matter much. Maybe it solidifies some concerns you already had for him, but if he was your guy before, I think he should still be your guy now.
- Ace has low bust potential, there are just so many avenues for him to potentially help a team it's unlikely he's so bad he's out of the league. You have to suck really bad to not be in the NBA with his tools

Disagree
- Locke is very forgiving of players for having weaknesses related to youth. I think that's fine, but he goes to far. He often says something like "they all do this or they all don't do that". That's just not true. Some guys are ahead of others despite sharing youth. That doesn't mean someone like Ace can't close the gap or exceed them in the future, but you shouldn't discredit another player for being more mature and chances are if a player is ahead/behind now they stay that way. Not a guarantee, but it's a trend.
- "Ace can shoot".....well maybe. I think he is better than the percentages say, but at the end of the day he has mediocre 3FG%, bad FT%, and lowish volume. The indicators are what they are.
- "At worst he's a Jabari Smith". This is just a flaw in ceiling/floor talk. I get why people reference Jabari Smith as a bad outcome, but it's also possible for Ace to be a worse version of Jabari Smith. Tunneling on Jabari as a worst case scenario outcome is allowing comparisons to do too much heavy lifting.

 

[rippimpc]

Kind of think draft goes how we thought it would a month ago.

Cooper
Dylan
Ace
VJ
Tre

Idk that u trust any intel rn. In fact id probably sell all the news as if it were Cramer giving out stock tips.

 

[Miggs]

uhh, what defensive specialist does Indy have?

And saying Tre Johnson doesnt fit when the Pacers won a game due to Bendecit Mathurn is kind of a wild thing to say.

He didn’t say Indy has a defensive specialist.

 

[Miggs]

I’m all-in on trading back. Try with the Bulls for 12 and their 2026 1st. No idea why the Bulls would do this but bad teams often make dumb moves. And Fears is from Illinois.

 

[HadAnEffectHere]

Sam Vecenie hates Fears so much so you can really hear the trepidation when he projects Fears to Utah here.


View: https://www.youtube.com/live/YxaZmlLOI9Q?si=KwxRuOhHRXmu8XIG&t=1792


He says "maybe Utah has done an amazing job smokescreening everyone [with regards to how much they like Fears]" which does imply that the smoke from Utah is that they're going for Fears.

 

[KqWIN]

I think we all called Ace before news starting coming out. If we draft him at 5, it would be the most obvious smokescreen in hindsight.

 

[Bodhi]

I think we all called Ace before news starting coming out. If we draft him at 5, it would be the most obvious smokescreen in hindsight.

Honestly this is where I’m at with it.

 

[mhindy]

I think we all called Ace before news starting coming out. If we draft him at 5, it would be the most obvious smokescreen in hindsight.

That's where I'm at. I'd be pretty shocked if we didn't end up with Bailey or Johnson or a haul to trade back.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

I can tell you… the Fears stuff is either the weirdest and most convincing smokescreen or very very real. I think there is a very real chance it happens and not sure it’s even a trade down thing.

 

[mhindy]

I can tell you… the Fears stuff is either the weirdest and most convincing smokescreen or very very real. I think there is a very real chance it happens and not sure it’s even a trade down thing.

It makes some sense to me if they're either trying to prevent someone trading up to 4 or entice someone to do so for 5.

Of course, could easily just take fears too.