With the 10th pick in the NBA Draft the Houston Rockets Select...

Slow release and starts his windup at his stomach. I guess the touch is encouraging, but I don’t see his 3 pt shooting as serviceable right off the bat against NBA players. If we keep the pick and he falls to 10, he might be worth a development gamble. He won’t get minutes his first year though.

 

He’s a lotto pick to me. He’s played the best of all the French prospects since January. He’s also like the 3rd youngest guy in the draft. Extremely good handle, pushes the pace extremely well, and he’s shown he can knock down shots (although lots more development needed there). Defensively he’s not good. But huge upside. He’ll go higher than people think. Some really high upside point guards in this draft, but shooting is a question for most of them.

 

Unless you draft a Jr or Sr. They have the seasoning and mature body to contribute. An 18 or 19 year old Fr/So will take some time.

 

That's the neat part, we don't!

But, in all seriousness, if we keep the pick, we won't find minutes for whoever we draft this year. And if we do make a trade, this pick is almost out the door in whatever package we send out.

 

Matas Demin Buzelis

 

For a big man who is not known for shooting, that is great. Personally I think he would start to get minutes midway through the season. He would be much more serviceable as a defender in his 1st season. The scoring will come as time continues.

 

I just went through some old threads and it's hilarious seeing how quick people are to trade away lotto picks and how often those trades would've been a horrible mistake.

 

Do you really think Jalen has that kinda value around the league?


Making the$$ work isn't difficult - one of Middleton or Poole satisfies the math ..... but which one?


Even if you added Cam, I think that's a poor deal for the Bullets.

 

So depressing we have a thread like this for the 10th pick. Nothing at 10 intrigues me at all for this team. There’s no space for another project.

Meanwhile Dallas gets gifted. I hate this league.

 

I’m not totally opposed to the guy at 10, but no way I try to move up and get him. He is pretty soft, but he is definitely a project. Ime has not shown any indication that he is going to play a long enough rotation, even during the regular season, for him to get significant minutes.

 

Cedric Coward is the name most people don't have on their radar that I think will be under consideration for us at #10.

Coward is 21yo, 6'6, 7'2 wingspan, strong athlete and very good shooter. Skyrocketing up boards now. Had a circuitous route to D1 basketball and missed most of last year due to a shoulder injury so he's been under wraps.

60% from 2, 40% from 3 and 85% from the line. 67% EFG% and 70% TS over his college career, most of that at mid major level. He can play the 2/3, and be huge for the position.

The cons are that he doesn't have a significant sample size against high level competition (even going back to HS), he's a little older, and he probably doesn't have on-ball creation juice.

IMO his high end comp is Trey Murphy. Similar pathway and age too. Could also see him as shooting guard Tari Eason, with less defensive playmaking and much more coordination and shooting touch. Low end comp is a little bigger Ochai Agbaji.

Buzz is that teams are looking at him as high as the late lottery, and that may rise further. This year's Jalen Williams. Definitely could see a landing spot and day 1 minutes for him in Houston.

 

I don't know any of these kids discussed, so I'm just going to hop on a bandwagon just like last year.

 

Post of the hour.

 

Looks slow and jumper takes 5 business days.

 

Egor is really an intriguing prospect. At 6'9.5" in shoes, he has great handles, a better shot and finisher than the stats show. I was looking for something that could collaborate why his shooting percentages were so bad at BYU. It appears he started hot and then injured his knee and wasn't the same afterwards. Here's a video on him, that talks about the injury...

He could be a great pickup at #10 and give us some more flexibility with his passing and ball-handling. Not too many dudes his size with these skills.

 

I do think up through 2023 we didn't have anywhere near enough to talent to justify making win-now trades rather than taking another swing, especially at the top of the lottery. Last year was debatable. This year, especially all the way back at #10, I'm really starting to feel like "even if a guy is good for a rookie, where do the minutes come from? He'll have to beat out playoff-caliber rotation players, and what are the odds of that?"

It makes me worried about not developing these guys and them ending up getting punted somewhere else for pennies on the dollar.

I'm fine if we want to make the pick and keep the young talent rolling in, I just sort of feel like trading back to pick up a future FRP might make sense if possible. Get one of the older dudes (I've been banging the drum for Nique Clifford) who are more likely out of the gate to be able to compete not just with other rookies, but actual NBA rotation players.

Another possibility could be a consolidation trade of other players to upgrade another spot in the rotation, I suppose. That might free up enough minutes to be able to get a raw rookie some playing time.

 

I just jumped into some Jakucionis tape and I'd be very happy if he ends up being the tape. We need some more high IQ playmaking type players to spread the love around. Yes, his 3pt% last year was a mediocre 31% but some of those shots were ridiculous stepbacks that he was taking confidence so I think that'll be much better with a cleaner shot diet. His FT% was 85% which has always been a better indicator for NBA 3PT% than college 3PT%.

 

for me, part of the problem is that I have no idea what Jalen’s value is around the league. I think heading into the playoffs it was the highest it’s been since his rookie yr because he had finally improved his shooting efficiency to 35% and all his other numbers were up. But the disappearing act in the playoffs must have made GM’s question the mental makeup to be great. So there’s probably GM’s who buy the talent but really question the mental. And I think that makes it hard to really know what his value is. Also now that he’s making $36 mil per he’s even more risky.

Still I would think a team like the Wiz who has cap space and needs to be taking shots on star talent woukd be interested for the right price. There’s gotta be some GM’s out there that believe in the talent and think he might thrive in a different environment.

I still expect a lotto pick value for Jalen. Can’t see him being worth much more than mid-lotto, but it wouldn’t surprise me if some GM’s would rather bet on Jalen than a Kon or a Maluach or a Fears, etc…those are the guys you are looking at in the mid-lotto.

 

Who is the best athlete and worst shooter, that's who we'll be going after.

 

Giddy comp