Reading through the various mocks that Casey compiled is this tweet, it seems like the groupthink is beginning to settle on Sarr/ZR/Reed/Castle/Buzelis being consistently 5 of the first 6 picks.
I think our second round picks will be significantly older than our first round picks, and probably play more minutes next season, too. At this point I'm not even particularly interested in our first rounders.
Are you more interested in how the team does this upcoming year than how it does farther down the road? Because while the long term future doesn't look great, 2024-25 looks horrible. Hope for farther down the road is the only thing keeping me interested, which means that first rounders are definitely more interesting to me than second rounders later this month.
Yes, call me weird, but when I'm watching a game I care about that game not some hypothetical future game. I'm not saying it's a bad strategy to pick a young guy with all-upside over a better-right-now older player (although it's the strategy that favored Anfernee over Jalen Brunson), I'm just saying I live in the present, like normal human beings.
I don't think most sports fans are like that... more interested to see what older likely scrub is going to play more minutes on a terrible team than a younger lottery pick that will be a key to the team's success or failure down the road. I'm not criticizing you, but I don't think most people have the stomach to follow sports like you claim you do here.
"Stats-only draft projections" Clingan Sheppard Sarr Edey Risacher Ja'Kobe Walter (!) Rob Dillingham Johnny Furphy (!) Topic Castle Collier (!) McCain Kyshawn George Filipowski Salaun Payton Sandfort (who went back to college) Buzelis Tyler Smith Ron Holland Devin Carter Ryan Dunn Carlton Carrington Kam Jones Baylor Scheierman (Dalton Knecht does not appear in the top 30)
ESPN compares needs with value Don't know much about Ja'Kobe Walter. Baylor seems to be another team stacked with players who are getting drafted which seemed to underachieve? It's a lot like Colorado and Kentucky in that regard. And like Colorado, I'm drawn more to their do-it-all forward (Tristan da Silva/Jalen Bridges) than the higher ranked players.
Basically both Woo and Givony agree on the top 6, only disagreeing about 1 and 3 Risacher/Clingan Sarr Clingan/Risacher Sheppard Buzelis Castle (boo!)
Somebody who seems to have leaped up their mock: Devin Carter: he's gone at 8 (Woo) or 9 (Givony). Knecht is the mirror image, the other guy for each at 8 and 9 (fitting, given that he's sort of a mirror image game-wise). Both agree that Topic goes at 12 to OKC, which is a little weird (he's not win-now) but then again Presti marches to the beat of his own drum. They also agree that McCain goes at 13 to Sacramento (which is where he's from), which I think makes sense.
That would be very good if Clingan goes in the top3, let those teams reach for the limited upside of a bench player. I'd be super happy with us getting Castle.
I did a mock draft a few days ago and those 6 are who I had as well. It is #7 that I have problems with. Knecht, Williams, and Holland all seem to be possibilities over Salaun.
Givony seems to be single handedly driving this Clingan train. No one else has him in their top 5 seemingly.
Walter was #8 in his high school class and the top ranked shooting guard. similar to knecht we could play the circular 'is he a guard or a wing?' game. outside of scoot it seems like portland has been selecting and targeting guys with plus size at their position. could walter and sharpe play together? maybe? walter's defense seems more theoretical than real at this point. it seems like a slight misread by woo—i'm not sure anyone in the blazers fanbase would say walter is best fit available at that spot.
seems like it, doesn't it rolling out some tin-foil, I keep trying to see how driving the Clingan train helps out his good friend Schmitz. Simple conspiracy answer is it would make it easier for the Blazers to justify taking Clingan at #7: "we didn't think we had a shot at grabbing Clingan, but he slipped down to us at 7 so, no-brainer" I'd agree there wouldn't be much brain involved
Certainly was last yr. But it depends on how close we are to the draft. They are very accurate the week of.
If his goal is to help out Schmitz, then hyping a player we want does not make sense to me. My tin foil hat would lean towards Givony hyping Clingan so someone we really want slips to us.
