Mulhollanddrive wrote:I rated Ty Jerome higher than Kolek now so don't have much faith in drafting in the 20 range
It really depends upon which prospects your looking at in/ after that range, as well as skillset/production/outlier attributes/potential overlooked or underlying elite talents waiting to be established and developed further in the right situation. The most successful franchises take the draft seriously enough as a viable avenue for cost controlled talent acquisition with 4 yrs of contractual control. But unlike Jones, they don't ignore it altogether or brush off it's value, they actually do significant work in order to identify under the radar prospects with underlying high impact potential.
I guess my point here is that you can find legit impact or even the occasional high level talent at unbelievable value IF (your front office is actually willing to do the work to identify them. For example, just in the last 5-6 years, you have players that went in the 20s' of the draft and were easily much better/impactful than expected with names like:
2019 draftMatisse Thybulle, Brandon Clarke, Grant Williams, Jordan Poole, KELDON JOHNSON, NIK CLAXTON (#30), Daniel Gafford (#38), Taylor Horton Tucker (#46), TERRENCE MANN (#48), JALEN MCDANIELS (#52) all very good value/impact for their teams.
2020 draftPrecious Achiuwa (#20), TYRESE MAXEY (#21), IMMANUEL QUICKLEY (#25), Payton Pritchard (#26), DESMOND BANE (#30), Xavier Tillman (#35), Nik Richards (#42), ISAIAH JOE (#49), Kenyon Martin Jr (#52), Paul Reed (#58).
2021 draftJalen Johnson (#20), Quenton Grimes (#25), Bones Hyland (#26), CAM THOMAS (#27), HERB JONES (#35), Miles Mcbride (#36), Ayo Dosunma (#38), BJ Boston (#51), Aaron Wiggins (#55).
2022 draftCHRISTIAN BRAUN (#21), WALKER KESSLER (#22), NIKOLA JOVIC (#27), Peyton Watson (#30), ANDREW NEMBHARD (#31), Jaylin Williams (the 6'10 one) (#34), VINCE WILLIAMS (#47), Jabari Walker (#57).
2023 draftCAM WHITMORE (#20), Kris Murray- Blazers (#23), Julian Strawther (#29), Maxwell Lewis (#40), Rayan Rupert (#43),
GREG JACKSON (#45), Emoni Bates (#49), TOUMANI CAMARA (#52), TRACE JACKSON DAVIS (#57). ** And Jaime Jacquez and Brandon Podziemski both went right before the 20s' and could've possibly fallen to that range too!
2024 draft (to be determined..................................... But best prospects for us in that range to the late 2nd THAT WILL BE IMPACTFUL/PRODUCTIVE are:
Zach Edey,
Tyler Smith,
Tyler Kolek,
Dayron Holmes,
Ulriche Comche,
Ryan Dunn, Dillon Jones,
Jalon Tyson, Baylor Schierman, Alex Karaban,
Ajay Mitchell,
Cam Spencer,
Tristin Newton,
Keshad Johnson. The highlighted ones are the ones that we should aggressively pursue either from our pick, or preferrably in a trade down scenario! Maybe ......just maybe we can walk out of this draft with
two under the radar impact talents, AND THEN one from the undrafted pool? (I recommend more size, physicality, rim protection- 4/5) or a 6'8-6'9 jumbo floor spacing wing possibly??