Just looking at this year's draft and it looks really amazing:
- Flagg is definitely going to be franchise talent;
- Harper, Edgecombe and Kon look like potential franchise talent, but good likelihood of being All-NBA level guys. All three of them can be #2 on a contender, or a #1 on a playoff team.
- Bailey, Tre and Fears look like bucket getters. If they can work on other parts of the game like defence and facilitation, can be all-star players.
- Coward still looks impressive, can be a solid starter in the league for a long time. Not sure about his upside due to his age.
- Queen, Demin, Nique Clifford, Wolf, Riley, Traore, and our very own Carter Bryant can all turn out to be good role players.
- Raynaud and Kalkbrenner looks like solid pieces for good teams, or can be major contributors for bad teams.
- Then there are those Maluach, Small, Asa Newell, Drake Powell guys who could be NBA journeyman or even a decent contributor on the right team.
- CMB looks great and I can see him being a Green/Bam type of player if he develops right.
- Essengue, Sorber haven't played yet due to injuries, so jury is still out.
Steve Aschburner makes his choice for Kia Rookie of the Year, celebrating a competitive race as the season comes to a close.
www.nba.com
Guys like CMB, Egor, and Kalkbrenner, can be 2nd team material in most drafts.
We will see how this year's crop stacks up in a few years.
24 draft looks pretty bad as expected.
23 draft looks good with Wemby, the Thomspon twins, Miller, Cason Wallace and Lively, but then Podz and Jaquez made first team, so did Greg Jackson. I am not sold on Keyonte George as I just think he's a tank commander. Camara is great, Black and Walsh could become somehting great.
22 draft is relatively weak. Chet is an uber role player, Paolo is a 3rd banana masquerading as a #1. Jalen Duren is a solid #2/3. So is J-Dub. Jabari Smith catches a lot of flack but he is a decent player. Braun is in the irght situation. Dyson Daniels is on and off.
21 had Cade, Wagner, Mobley, Sengun, and Barnes, which are great, Jalen Johnson, Dosunmu and TMIII seems to be coming alive latelym but then the quality just falls off.
20 Haliburton was amazing of course along with Antman, Ball is a loser, Beef Stew is insane, Okongwu, Pritchard, McDaneils, Avdija, Bane and Bey are OK. Then there are the Vassells and Tre Jones. Other than that it just dropps off.
19 is probably the biggest disappointment. Both Morant and Zion turned out to be disappointments for different reasons. PJ Washington, Gafford, and Rui are role players. garland is looking worse and worse. Keldon, Barrett and Coby White looks like lifetime bench players (good ones, but with limitations). NAW looks great.