Draft 2026 NBA Draft Prospects Thread

Do we trade away our pick or draft a player?

  • Draft

    Votes: 50 84.7%

  • Trade

    Votes: 5 8.5%

  • Cash Considerations

    Votes: 4 6.8%
  • Total voters
    59
Shmurs said:
His extreme lack of athleticism is confounding. Maybe this works in the pros. But man this is a role player if there ever was one. Maybe a great role player. But day 1 of training camp there’s going to be a GM having a panic attack for picking him over a handful of other guys.
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I tend to agree. He'd be a seamless fit next to Wemby though tbh. Too bad we won't have a shot at him.
 
Ridiculous Freshman class tbh.

G_eEdfrXgAABryy
 
if you think AJ isn’t the clear 1, you should be trusted with very little decision making in your personal life. This seems incredibly obvious.

Peterson is a 35 year old. Very talented but his jumper ain’t gonna stand out like that in the pros and his body is f’d.

And Boozer might touch the rim some day. We all get there.
 
Shmurs said:
if you think AJ isn’t the clear 1, you should be trusted with very little decision making in your personal life. This seems incredibly obvious.

Peterson is a 35 year old. Very talented but his jumper ain’t gonna stand out like that in the pros and his body is f’d.

And Boozer might touch the rim some day. We all get there.
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You seem like you know what you're talking about and are very confident in your assessment! How confident are you that AJ will be the better player than Boozer in their mid-career? Would you be willing to lay 4:1 odds on that? 10:1?

I personally have all 3 as fairly close but have Boozer as probably the best overall value of the 3, but who knows maybe you are right and I've made all the wrong decisions in my personal life.
 
Man Boozer looks stiff as fuck. I cant argue with the skill but he has subpar athleticism. His finishes look wonky.
 
SpursBills said:
You seem like you know what you're talking about and are very confident in your assessment! How confident are you that AJ will be the better player than Boozer in their mid-career? Would you be willing to lay 4:1 odds on that? 10:1?

I personally have all 3 as fairly close but have Boozer as probably the best overall value of the 3, but who knows maybe you are right and I've made all the wrong decisions in my personal life.
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I’m definitely confident. Definitely don’t know what I’m talking about. Quite a duality.

10:1 on boozer being a better pro in year 1 or year 8. Or both. Take your pick.

He scores and looks bad doing it. I admit this is a very rare type of situation. I actually don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a combination of producing output and looking like you cannot produce output. Maybe the ride continues.

Rating him as 1 means you believe he can be the #1 on a competitive team. That’s what the others are, so by default he would have to be the same. So how is he going to score against the top wings in the league?
 
Shmurs said:
I’m definitely confident. Definitely don’t know what I’m talking about. Quite a duality.

10:1 on boozer being a better pro in year 1 or year 8. Or both. Take your pick.

He scores and looks bad doing it. I admit this is a very rare type of situation. I actually don’t know if I’ve ever seen such a combination of producing output and looking like you cannot produce output. Maybe the ride continues.

Rating him as 1 means you believe he can be the #1 on a competitive team. That’s what the others are, so by default he would have to be the same. So how is he going to score against the top wings in the league?
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It's an interesting question for sure - I think compared to Boozer, you're right that AJ moves a lot more fluidly and profiles as more of an on-ball creator. They're both not good defenders, as Boozer seems to be more stiff on the perimeter while AJ gets lost a ton.

I may be biased by the last two drafts but to me, Reed Sheppard and Kon Knueppel have already exceeded what their physical profiles suggested they could do after producing way less than Boozer at an older age. Sheppard's got basically the worst physical profile / worst archetype in basketball (drafted that high because analytics) and a bench player at Kentucky and he's 80th percentile EPM in his second season. Knueppel was not athletic at all, has short stubby arms, and can barely dunk and yet looks like he might be some Klay Thompson / poor man's Devin Booker hybrid. Both were minus athletes who didn't produce nearly as well and were about a year older than Boozer is now. In terms of how he scores, I don't think Boozer's necessarily an S tier engine or anything, but between bully-ball, passing, earning extra possessions through rebounding, shooting potential, and just knowing when to cut/where to be, he's got his own ways to score. I see Kevin Love thrown around as a comp a decent amount, but Boozer's better at a younger age than Love and has a stronger shooting signal and is a better decision-maker, so maybe Boozer is to Love what Cooper Flagg will be to Franz Wagner.

Dybantsa's obvious path to success is as an offensive engine. But do you see him as some amazing playmaker? If not, does he provide ancillary value? Like is he a great rebounder, will he set good screens for you, will he space the floor? Does he look like he'll have a good off-the-dribble 3 if teams play for the drive? Or are you relying on him to maintain elite efficiency through high volume scoring via FTs, drives to the paint, and mid-range jumpers, in which case he'd basically be Tracy McGrady? Is it a concern at all that his EFG% drops from 59 to 50 against top 100 competition, and down to 48 against top 50 competition? Like I have no doubt AJ's a stud, he'd be my odds-on favorite for ROY because I think he's going to put up more points than anybody else in this draft class especially from the outside.

I don't know, this is why I'm not as confident that one's going to be better than the other.

But then again, 10:1 odds seems like a bargain price to me - I'll happily put down any amount up to $500 on that if you're willing, especially going by DARKO, EPM, or 3 year RAPM by year 4 that Boozer's the better pro.
 
SpursBills said:
It's an interesting question for sure - I think compared to Boozer, you're right that AJ moves a lot more fluidly and profiles as more of an on-ball creator. They're both not good defenders, as Boozer seems to be more stiff on the perimeter while AJ gets lost a ton.

I may be biased by the last two drafts but to me, Reed Sheppard and Kon Knueppel have already exceeded what their physical profiles suggested they could do after producing way less than Boozer at an older age. Sheppard's got basically the worst physical profile / worst archetype in basketball (drafted that high because analytics) and a bench player at Kentucky and he's 80th percentile EPM in his second season. Knueppel was not athletic at all, has short stubby arms, and can barely dunk and yet looks like he might be some Klay Thompson / poor man's Devin Booker hybrid. Both were minus athletes who didn't produce nearly as well and were about a year older than Boozer is now. In terms of how he scores, I don't think Boozer's necessarily an S tier engine or anything, but between bully-ball, passing, earning extra possessions through rebounding, shooting potential, and just knowing when to cut/where to be, he's got his own ways to score. I see Kevin Love thrown around as a comp a decent amount, but Boozer's better at a younger age than Love and has a stronger shooting signal and is a better decision-maker, so maybe Boozer is to Love what Cooper Flagg will be to Franz Wagner.

Dybantsa's obvious path to success is as an offensive engine. But do you see him as some amazing playmaker? If not, does he provide ancillary value? Like is he a great rebounder, will he set good screens for you, will he space the floor? Does he look like he'll have a good off-the-dribble 3 if teams play for the drive? Or are you relying on him to maintain elite efficiency through high volume scoring via FTs, drives to the paint, and mid-range jumpers, in which case he'd basically be Tracy McGrady? Is it a concern at all that his EFG% drops from 59 to 50 against top 100 competition, and down to 48 against top 50 competition? Like I have no doubt AJ's a stud, he'd be my odds-on favorite for ROY because I think he's going to put up more points than anybody else in this draft class especially from the outside.

I don't know, this is why I'm not as confident that one's going to be better than the other.

But then again, 10:1 odds seems like a bargain price to me - I'll happily put down any amount up to $500 on that if you're willing, especially going by DARKO, EPM, or 3 year RAPM by year 4 that Boozer's the better pro.
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If the Spurs get lucky with the Hawks pick and get to the top 3.. I think Boozer is the most apt choice for how the team's make up is and how you put his abilities and skills are. Fingers crossed that lightning strikes again.

But if the Hawks pick is stuck in late lottery.. I don't think the Spurs should break the Castle-Harper core to go for Boozer. Or even Fox. Get the best talent available at that range..make a good attempt at Free agency to replace Barnes or get another shooter to go with Barnes and Champs... And hope for improvement from Castle and Harper to take the Spurs further towards Seis.
 
If the Spurs land the #2 pick and Dybansta gets taken #1 I hope they can trade down to #4 for a nice package and take Wilson. Kid is the exact PF this team is lacking tbh.
 
SpursBills said:
It's an interesting question for sure - I think compared to Boozer, you're right that AJ moves a lot more fluidly and profiles as more of an on-ball creator. They're both not good defenders, as Boozer seems to be more stiff on the perimeter while AJ gets lost a ton.

I may be biased by the last two drafts but to me, Reed Sheppard and Kon Knueppel have already exceeded what their physical profiles suggested they could do after producing way less than Boozer at an older age. Sheppard's got basically the worst physical profile / worst archetype in basketball (drafted that high because analytics) and a bench player at Kentucky and he's 80th percentile EPM in his second season. Knueppel was not athletic at all, has short stubby arms, and can barely dunk and yet looks like he might be some Klay Thompson / poor man's Devin Booker hybrid. Both were minus athletes who didn't produce nearly as well and were about a year older than Boozer is now. In terms of how he scores, I don't think Boozer's necessarily an S tier engine or anything, but between bully-ball, passing, earning extra possessions through rebounding, shooting potential, and just knowing when to cut/where to be, he's got his own ways to score. I see Kevin Love thrown around as a comp a decent amount, but Boozer's better at a younger age than Love and has a stronger shooting signal and is a better decision-maker, so maybe Boozer is to Love what Cooper Flagg will be to Franz Wagner.

Dybantsa's obvious path to success is as an offensive engine. But do you see him as some amazing playmaker? If not, does he provide ancillary value? Like is he a great rebounder, will he set good screens for you, will he space the floor? Does he look like he'll have a good off-the-dribble 3 if teams play for the drive? Or are you relying on him to maintain elite efficiency through high volume scoring via FTs, drives to the paint, and mid-range jumpers, in which case he'd basically be Tracy McGrady? Is it a concern at all that his EFG% drops from 59 to 50 against top 100 competition, and down to 48 against top 50 competition? Like I have no doubt AJ's a stud, he'd be my odds-on favorite for ROY because I think he's going to put up more points than anybody else in this draft class especially from the outside.

I don't know, this is why I'm not as confident that one's going to be better than the other.

But then again, 10:1 odds seems like a bargain price to me - I'll happily put down any amount up to $500 on that if you're willing, especially going by DARKO, EPM, or 3 year RAPM by year 4 that Boozer's the better pro.
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Brutal spanking. Even I was like “daddy”.

Don’t expect that guy to post money. He makes a lot of matter of fact statements and then melts into the shrubbery.
 
BacktoBasics said:
Brutal spanking. Even I was like “daddy”.

Don’t expect that guy to post money. He makes a lot of matter of fact statements and then melts into the shrubbery.
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What does melting entail, exactly? By my estimations, I’m still making the same points as when this board launched.

It’s true that I’m not actually interested in exchanging money with theoretical people on the internet. You got me there. On this Sunday morning I’m not going to arrange some kind of escrow to put my $500 in, as it sits there for a few years while we settle this. Is that something you think a reasonable person would do?

Boozer’s a stiff. Pretty straightforward. I didn’t hear anything from Op about how he’ll be able to function as a #1. I was mainly hearing about how AJ might end up like Paolo, basically. Which is a reasonable concern. But it doesn’t mean boozer will conquer gravity.
 
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