Why would you fear it if we weren’t even supposed to have the 3rd pick to begin with !? I think he’s good and has a bunch of potential . No reason to fear or be upset if he falls to us
I feel about Sheppard like I did about Banchero. I feel he will be the best player of the top 3 available. If we get stuck with Sarr it won't be a disaster, but it will like getting Jabari all over again, not the best option we could have had.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5585502/2024/06/25/2024-nba-draft-confidential-sarr/ Alex Sarr | 7-0 big | 19 years old | Perth Wildcats Eastern Conference executive No. 1: When Overtime started, I went there early. Let me see this circus. I remember going the first time to see the Thompson twins (Amen and Ausar) and I was like, what is this, actually? The twins were ferocious. This was two years before their draft. I remember saying, I don’t know about this smoke and lights and lasers and all that s—, but I was like, I tell you one thing, those two guys are freaking animals. They were guarding people and just punking kids. … It was like, man, they are not trying to be friends with any of these guys. I know they live with them, I know they go to school with them, but when these lights turn on, they’re trying to rip everybody’s heads off. So I was like, OK, I can respect this. This is not as much of a clown show as I thought it would be… Fast-forward, all these kids defect. The Thompson twins get drafted, and everybody leaves. (Center Izan) Almansa goes to Ignite, Sarr goes (to Perth). (Rob) Dillingham goes to Kentucky. Every single one of these kids, they’re getting drafted. Every single one. I guess you can say they left OTE because they weren’t giving them what they needed. I guess you can say that. But you can’t tell me, with that track record, you can’t tell me there was no development going on. There’s no way you’re jumping all those kids, every single one of them is jumping like that. There was some foundation of player development, work ethic. Sarr, at the time, because he was there, people didn’t really know how to evaluate it. … But you see them out of that environment. Dillingham thrived. Almansa thrived. Sarr thrived. Every single one of them. Tyler Smith, from Ignite, he thrived. So, I’m not shocked at his jump, especially in a league like Australia. That’s a great league if you have some level of maturity, and you’re talented, and athletic. There’s a level of athleticism that that league just lacks. So if you go down there and you’re really quick and can handle the ball and do a bunch of s— like LaMelo (Ball), you’re going to pop. None of them White Australian guards can guard you, and there’s only so many other Americans on the team. You’re going to look good and do well. And he went to a good program. Perth’s a great program. They’ve had a bunch of NBA guys pass through that program. Eastern Conference executive No. 2: I don’t totally dislike him, but I wouldn’t take him at No. 1. I don’t see a lot of offensive skill. It’s limited. I don’t see a tenacious rebounder. If he was a tenacious rebounder or if he showed good offensive skills, then I’d say OK. But I don’t see tenacious rebounding and offensive skills. I don’t see bad skills. I went to Vegas when they played Ignite. He wasn’t bad; pretty good actually. But they played the second day, and the kid didn’t show up. Then he goes to Australia and does decently well, but he didn’t blow them away, either. I’ve got some other guys that I’d bet on before I bet on him. The timing of this being a very, very down draft, in a normal circumstance, he would have taken the same jump; it’s just that that jump would have put him at 10 (in the first round). In a normal draft, he’d be being discussed at six through 10. Those kids are really not built to go No. 1. Neither of them, (Zaccharie) Risacher or Sarr. And one of them, unfortunately, might get that target on their back, especially falling after Wembanyama and Chet (Holmgren). If you could take the edge off and those guys could go four, that would be unbelievable for them. But because there’s really nobody to put in front of them, somebody’s going to take them one or two, and at at the latest, three. Eastern Conference executive No. 1: This draft, it’s almost like a perfect storm to set him up to go a little too high. It’s just a little too big of a jump. If you know that kid’s background, he’s not that type of kid. He wants to present as competitive, he wants to present as somebody not afraid of it. But he does not want to carry that No. 1 pick s— on his back. He just doesn’t. He’s never been like that. All the French junior national teams, he’s always been a complementary, talented player. He’s always been a talent, but he’s always been a complementary player. He’s never been the dog, he’s never been the alpha of his generation. Eastern Conference executive No. 3: He’s more bouncy, he’s more athletic than Jaren Jackson, to me. Jaren Jackson is more long than he is athletic. But in that category.
