What is your current Rockets Top 5 Draft Big board?

1) Wemby - BPA by a wide margin
2) Miller - I think his talent is similar to Scoot's but his positon is more valuable and his fit is seamless
3) Scoot - Stud pg prospect but his season, as a whole, makes me less confident than I was that he is D Rose or Westbrook level player
4) Walker - I dont love his fit on this team with Smith and Eason at the 4 and Sengun and Garuba at the 5.
5) Whitmore - The NBA is driven by shooting and by wing play. Whitmore appears to be a solid wing prospect and his shooting is way ahead of the Thompson twins.

 

Wemby
Scoot
Ausar Thompson
Miller
Amen Thompson

 

1) Wemby -- for obvious reasons
2) Scoot -- his feel for the game and athleticism is unreal, especially for his age (what would have been his senior year of high school and freshman year of college) going against that level of competition. His competitive fire is high as well.
3) Jarace Walker -- he's going to be a huge impact player on defense, guarding multiple positions, quarterbacking the defense, with an insane motor, high basketball IQ, great strength and surprising mobility for his size. He also has high basketball IQ on offense, and is a good connective piece on offense.
4) Miller -- I actually don't love Miller as a prospect, since he's already 20, kind of a tweener positionally, and all the off court issues -- but the shooting and scoring seems real enough where he has to be this high.
5) Cason Wallace -- point of attack defense on elite primary ball handlers is one of the rarest skills in the NBA right now, and Cason brings it. Can play both guard spots on defense, has some point guard potential, and shooting is coming along. Another guy with an amazing defensive motor too. Does the thing Eason does where he just ganks the ball right out of the hands of offensive players. Reminds me a lot of Jrue Holiday.

I'm low on the Thompsons because of their issues, horrible competition level (so hard to know how good they really are) and they are 20 going up against that low level of comp and still having those issues. You would think with their age against that level of comp, then they would look even better than they have.

 

My Top-10 Overall:
1. C V.Wembanyama
2. PG S.Henderson
3. SF/PF B.Miller
4. SF C.Whitmore
5. PG A.Black
6. PF J.Walker
7. PF T.Hendricks
8. PG/SG K.George
9. SF J.Howard
10. SF G.Dick

Top-5 for the Rockets:
1. C V.Wembanyama
2. PG S.Henderson
3. PG A.Black - I think his size/unselfishness would be great for us. He might need a year or two, but he's at the top of my board, fit-wise, after the top-2.
4. SF C.Whitmore - He's not the best passer, which isn't good for our squad, but I'm also sure he's going to be a much better pro than CBB player. He'll get into the paint/finish at will with more space.
5a. SF/PF B.Miller - He's a hell of a scorer, but him and Jabari would be a tad redundant.
5b. PF J.Walker - Walker fits anywhere with his defense/versatility, even though he's only 6'8".

 

1. Wemby. Yes, I know, injury history with guys this tall isn't good, but it's a small sample size and I think it's easily worth the risk to get a guy who scouts are saying could be one of the GOATs.
2. Scoot. I believe in the athleticism, point guard skills, work ethic, and competitive attitude. Even if everything hasn't totally lined up this season, I think it's a minor blip not worth getting too worried about.
3. Jarace Walker. I think his draft stock has actually been hurt by the fact that he's a young guy on an incredible team. He's not getting showcased the way he would be if he didn't have such good players ahead of him in the pecking order (including another first round pick who is going to be there based on his polished game as a senior). We just haven't gotten the chance to see what he could actually do as the focal point of an offense. And despite that, he's been very productive and flashed a strong, multi-faceted game to go with an NBA-ready, strong-as-hell body and elite athleticism. His touch around the basket is great, and he's shown signs of being able to stretch the floor. He's a great, creative passer, similar to Sengun in that regard. His defense is switchable and already extremely strong. I see a very high floor guy who helps our defense and rebounding immediately with the upside to be a second/third option on offense as he develops. I don't necessarily see the ceiling to be a superstar who runs the offense, but I do see the potential for a perennial all-star who's the second best overall player on a championship team (when you factor in defense and rebounding).
4. Amen Thompson. When you're bad, you swing for the fences. Yes, he doesn't really have a three point shot and his jump shot in general needs a lot of work. Yes, he's playing against bad competition. However, this is an elite, elite athlete, Derrick Rose type comps. He has an incredible first step, he's an explosive leaper, and he's not entirely without skills--he has ball handling and playmaking abilities already, just needs to learn to shoot the ball. We have seen guys come into the league and develop a shot over time. If he can do that, he could be a top-tier point guard in the league, and I think you have to gamble on that potential.
5. Ausar Thompson. I go back and forth between these two guys. Ausar is already showing signs of developing his jump shot, but the ceiling is a bit lower. Still a great athlete, just not the insane-level athlete Amen gets you. Similar upside play though--I think either of these guys slots in at PG for us to replace KPJ, and either of them will require a couple of years of development before they hopefully break out.

Side note: I wouldn't spend a top 5 pick on Brandon Miller after recent events, and since we're probably picking in the top 5 plus the late teens, I hope he doesn't become a Rocket. Too many questions about his character, and I'm not sold on the upside. College star does not necessarily equal NBA star. He may well just be a shooter, not a shot creator against NBA-level athletes, and he doesn't bring elite defense to the table to help out his value.

 

Wemby
Scoot / Miller
Miller / Scoot
Amen
Whitmore

For the Rockets

 

1. Wemby
2. Brandon Miller
3. Jarace Walker
4. Scoot
5. Nick Smith jr.

If a franchise doesn't land any one of these guys in addition to maybe 1 or 2 other guys, it's a massive drop off in legitimate upside to get a good player thats likely to be in the league for awhile.

 

Wemby
Scoot
Miller
Amen
Whitmore

 

1. Wemby
2. Scoot
3. Miller
4. Amen
5. Ausar

Lots of potential starter-level players from 6-15, but nobody with elite upside. Jarace, Whitmore, Nick Smith, Keyonte, Dick -- all project to be good players, but I don't think even their 90th percentile outcomes are all-star level.

On the Thompson twins: Yes, the jumper is terrible. Yes, OTE is weak competition. But Amen is the best athlete in the draft since Anthony Edwards or Zion, and the best passer since LaMelo. There is a high bust potential, but also the highest "top 10 player in the league" potential other than Wemby.

This will be our last top 5 pick in a while. We don't need more 20-21 year old guys who can be solid starters a few years down the line, we've got a lot of those. We should go boom or bust.

 

I generally agree with your perspective, except I think you're too low on Walker (who I do think has multiple all-star potential) and too high on Miller (which I won't belabor any further).

With Walker, I think he has DPOY kind of defensive potential, to go with very good rebounding and a variety of offensive skills. I do not see him as an elite shot creator, that's true... but that's not the only path to being an all-star.

 

To be fair I'd have Walker and Whitmore above the rest of that group. Walker feels a little jack of all trades, master of none-ish to me, which isn't necessarily a bad thing in the modern NBA. It gives him a great platform if he can surprisingly develop one skill to be elite (the shot, the rim protection, ball handling).

I think he'd be above Ausar for a few other teams. I also think the Thompsons could fall to us at #5 or even #6, depending on who is drafting at #3 and #4. Hard to see Detroit, Indiana, Portland, or Orlando taking one.

 

Fair enough. I will say I'm totally with you on Amen. I know a lot of posters on this board are down on him, but the kind of athlete we're talking about is hard to pass up. He could be the #1 pick in a weaker draft class on the basis of his potential. I also think that, even though you don't draft for need, he would be a nice fit with this team. His passing skills and ability to collapse the opposing defense with his quickness would really help everyone else get better looks. Guys like Green and Jabari could benefit from having a guy like that from day one, even if I don't think Amen is likely to light up the scoreboard himself unless/until he develops some kind of shot (even if it's just midrange).

 

1) Wembanyama
2) Brandon Miller
3) Amen Thompson
4) Cam Whitmore
5) Ausar Thompson

 

1) Anthony Richardson
2) Windy
3) Scoop
4) KPJ Jr.
5) Chappie

 

Dick
Dick
Dick
Dick
Dick

Give me dick all day every day

 

Chappie rising on the mock boards.

 

I can't really do a ranking but I can sort by tiers. here's my top 3 tiers as of today:


Tier 1: superstar potential

wemby

Tier 2: all star potential

scoot
miller
amen - I might drop him lower. I really believe if you can't shoot at all you either have to play center or you hurt your team's spacing.

Tier 3: high end starter potential

whitmore
walker
george
smith

I think if we're drafting 5th, we're picking from these guys in tier 3. I have a few other players in tier 3 as well but I wouldn't consider them for the rockets at pick 5 or 6.

I would go with whitmore in this case. George and walker overlap too much with jalen and jabari. smith could be a nice kpj replacement if the rockets want to go that route. but he would need to learn how to play PG, and it took kpj more than 2 years to competently make the same transition. I'm not sure I want to reset the clock with that.

 

I see you like that Dick. Pretty SUS I tell you.