I have a feeling that if you ask him to name names he's not going to. Unless perhaps you asked: "who's a guy you were shocked got drafted as high as he was that proved you wrong?" That way he's not dissing anyone or giving away any intelligence.
It's (relatively) easy to crunch numbers. How do you take Strength of Competition into account? Rebounding tends to translate to the NBA. Which other skills translate, which don't?
looking at the last 5 drafts (not counting last season): 31 Nic Claxton 36 Cody Martin 38 Daniel Gafford 43 Jaylen Nowell 46 Talen Horton-Tucker 41 Tre Jones 42 Nick Richards 49 Isaiah Joe 35 Herbert Jones 38 Ayo Dosunmu 31 Andrew Nembhard 37 Jaden Hardy 52 Toumani Camara 57 Trayce Jackson-Davis 14 players out of 150 and none of the players have averaged more than 10 points. The best 3 are probably Claxton, Nembhard, and Camara now, if you go back to 2018, and go backwards there are more: 33 Jalen Brunson 36 Mitchell Robinson 37 Gary Trent Jr. 42 Bruce Brown 54 Shake Milton 42 Thomas Bryant 43 Isaiah Hartenstein 45 Dillon Brooks 51 Monte Morris 32 Ivica Zubac 36 Malcolm Brogdon 31 Cedi Osman 32 Montrezl Harrell 37 Richaun Holmes 40 Josh Richardson 41 Pat Connaughton 46 Norman Powell 33 Joe Harris 38 Spencer Dinwiddie 39 Jerami Grant 41 Nikola Jokić 45 Dwight Powell 46 Jordan Clarkson maybe NBA front offices have become better at utilizing all of the pre-draft processes
Team: Cronin clearly expected Scoot to be a lot more advanced in his rookie year than what actually happened. Do they still expect Scoot to hit that high ceiling? Does Shaedon have the mindset required to be a go-to player in the playoffs? Can this be nurtured? General: When should a team begin to think about positional need vs talent in the draft? Why have there been so few domestic superstars or late? What are the players in US missing?
I think Scoot is going to be a late bloomer, relatively speaking. He played zero college ball. He’s young. PG is hard to learn. And he’s made great strides since the all star break. Chauncey is the perfect coach for him, especially because Chauncey was a late bloomer point guard too.
A couple of good takeaways from the luncheon with Schmitz – - At a time in the year when most players are long gone, at least half of our team is still here in Portland, working out at the practice facility. - The second half of the season really showed that things are coming together, that their commitment to culture and player development is working. They look for guys who are coachable, team-first, defensive minded, tough, good guys, community oriented. He compared the team they are putting together to the old Pistons team with Isiah, Chauncey, and Laimbeer - no clear superstar, but a lot of excellent multi-functional players. - They all loved Toumani and wanted to draft him, but it was Joe who had really dialed into him and made him part of the trade. - The draft prep is incredibly rigorous and they have known most of these guys for a long time. This really surprised me - they have been scouting most of these players since they were 15-16 years old. Schmitz first scouted Deni when he was 15 years old.
nitpicking, Chauncey's Piston days didn't overlap Isiah or Laimbeer's missing them by nearly a decade. STOMP
