I made the Sengun trade up post last year, so hopefully lightening strikes twice. Every championship contender wants a player (or multiple players) like Tari Eason. Long, athletic, hard-working, shooting wing that can defend multiple positions, and above average on offense. Tari Eason has 3/D+ (elite role player) potential. It is extremely hard to find a player like Eason. OG Anunoby and Warriors Iguodala comes to mind. Possibly Mikal Bridges. Jeremi Grant has never been an elite defender (per DBPM and RAPTOR), Otto Porter and Danny Green’s aren’t good on offense other than shooting. Eason is taller and longer than all of them with bigger hands. Positives Physical Profile - 6’8 w/ 7’2 wingspan and 9’ standing reach, massive hands, and extremely athletic Defense - Elite defender. Could guard all 5 positions in college, at least 1-4 in the NBA. - 4.5 STL% and 6.2 BLK% is almost god-tier - For comparisons - Mikal Bridge’s last year in college had 2.7 STL% and 3.5 BLK%. Franz Wagner’s was 2.3%/3.2% and Herb Jones was 3.4%/4.0%. Drawing Fouls - 5.7 FTAs in 24.4 minutes at LSU. - Rate is #15 best in the whole country (per KenPom) Offense - Averaged 27.7 pts per 40 minutes, so he has ability to be more than 3/D type player. - Can drive, but currently lacks refinement. - Very good in transition, especially converting defense to offense. Massive Impact - BPM was 14.7, which was 3rd in the whole nation last year behind Keegan (15.7) and Chet (15.0) Work Ethic - Improved every part of his game from Cincinnati to LSU. - Shot 36% on 3s and 80% on FTs (5.7 FTs) after shooting 24% and 57% last year High Motor - Dives for lose balls, plays hard, and sets tone on defense. Negatives Committing Fouls - 4.5 fouls per 40 minutes, although decreased from last year. - Some of this may be due to aggressive defensive style Shooting - Shot poorly at Cincinnati as mentioned above. Hope his LSU season isn’t a fluke. Passing and Low AST/TO ratio - Needs to get better at reading defenses and make better decisions - Possible low offensive IQ at times. Unless he has Stromile Swift level IQ, he should be a plus player - This can be possibly mitigated by using him initially as strictly 3/D and transition offense. Why do we need to trade up? He can fit on every single team in the lottery. After the first 4-5 players in this draft, as many as 10-15 players may have similar valuations that all it takes it for 1 team to fall in love with a player to take him high. Therefore, we need to do everything in our power to trade up for a player that we like, unless there are similar players with similar valuations. I see Sochan often being compared to Eason, but Sochan currently is an absolutely horrible shooter. While his defense is on par, you cannot expect and can only hope someone gets better at shooting. Keegan Murray is not as good of a defender, not as athletic, and may not be able to guard shorter/quicker players. Potential Trade Partners Portland (7), NO (8), Washington (10), NY (11), and Charlotte (13) are all teams that are win-now and potentially value players like Wood, Tate, and maybe even Gordon. I am willing to include our 17th pick, 2023 unprotected Bucks pick, Wood/Tate/KJM/Gordon, and possibly more. Summary - Tari Eason has potential to be a 3/D+ elite role player that should be valued at much higher than his current positions suggests. We should do everything to trade up for him.
Excellent thread, kudos to OP. Stone needs to target Tari Eason even if needs to trade up to get him.
I like Eason a lot. But I think Leonard Miller and Kendall Brown could be there at 17, develop into 3& D guys and you don’t have surrender assets to get them.
I like him but depending on who we get at 3. If we get bachero and plan to play him at 3 then there is no point bc you have senguin prob manning the 4.
I guess we just dont care about defense then man. Sengun, Banchero and Green in a lineup is going to take a long time to be passable defensively.
Never heard of him... but this post was 10x better than most insider articles.. Seems reasonable and well thought out.... Just don't tell me you copied/pasted from an article.. lol
@Medicine N Music and everyone who follows Eason: Is Eason's ceiling, a Kawhi Leonard? The Spurs are picking @ 9, and I can definitely see them taking Eason.
None of the mocks I've seen has Eason in the top 10. Almost every mock I've seen has Sochan over Eason because Sochan is just as good on defense (some would argue better), is younger, plays with a frenetic energy and has better ballhandling skills and athleticism. Eerily enough their combine measurements are super similar but I dont know if there can be another Kawhi Leonard. For one thing Eason isnt as athletic as Kawhi was and we dont know if his shooting will improve to Kawhi levels as well. Eason also played as a PF in college so I dunno if he is quick enough to be an SF full time. Personally I dont think theres a need to jump in the top 10 to get him, maybe 11-15 is still good enough. If the oppprtunity is there to trade up though Rox should totally jump on that.
