Meh, there’s a reason why Smith is favored to go #1. I just think Paolo to the Magic makes sense because what they need more than anything is a true go-to scorer, and Paolo has the highest ceiling in that regard.
This is something i'm a bit interested in - the "reason" Smith is favored to go #1. I wasn't really following betting odds pre-lottery. I had started listening to pods and stuff, but for the most part was just doing my own analysis in my head lol, where I've had Chet #1 for me for most of the season, and Jabari/Paolo basically tied at 2. But IMMEDIATELY after the lottery, all the eyes turned to Jabari as the heavy favorite. Was this because it was Orlando that got the top pick and folks knew something about their thinking at that time? Was he the heavy favorite pre-lottery? Late game Paolo push aside, its interesting to me because if you listen to all the pods/youtubes of the bigger guys, its BY NO MEANS a Jabari 1st consensus. Frankly there isn't a consensus, it seems fairly evenly split to me. Mock drafts heavily predict Jabari, Chet, Paolo still... but their big boards are different.
At that point I would trade down or take Ivey, or maybe Sharpe. I think Smith will be solid, but not worth a top 3 pick. I'm starting to drink the Paolo Kool Aid. Regardless of which of the 3 bigs we get, Rockets FO will say they had him number #1 on their board
I’m pretty sure carmelo was a much better scorer in college. It kind of panned out in the nba as well into a top 10 scorer all time.
I wouldn’t be so sure. OKC is reportedly enamored with Holmgren. This is the same team That burned a mid first round pick on Pokusevski just two years ago… And Orlando reportedly is strongly leaning towards Jabari Smith. I don’t think they will change their minds last minute. They’ve been scouting these guys for months now.
Could Paolo, Sengun and Duren make it work defensively as your front court? https://www.si.com/fannation/nba/fa...-nba-mock-draft-3-0-week-before-draft-edition
I mean, yeah, they like it, but it was ALWAYS going to be whichever of the 3 bigs dropped. They'd like Chet or Jabari just as much if they happened to be the big that dropped.