2018 NBA Draft

[UrinalCake]

Time to start an official thread for this year's draft. A lot of conversation will focus on our guys, but there's plenty to discuss about all of the players. To kick things off, here are the current projections from all the mock drafts I could find (I don't have insider access to ESPN/Givony's mock but it's behind a paywall so I wouldn't repost it anyways.

                   Bagley    Carter    Trent    Duval    Allen
NBADraft.net         2         7        20       24       28
SI                   4         7        43       48       33
CBS                  2         9        28      2nd rd   2nd rd
Sporting News        4         11      2nd rd   2nd rd   2nd rd
Hoops Hype           2         9        16       23       26
The Ringer           5         10      2nd rd   2nd rd    29
Basketball Insiders  4         6        34       33       31

Important dates:
May 15 Draft Lottery
May 16-20 Combine
June 11 deadline to withdraw
June 21 Draft

[JasonEvans]

Someone with strong feelings on it needs to wager a pie on who goes first between Grayson and Duval... but I don't feel strongly enough about it either way to be the guy to do that.

-Jason "actually, if you were really bold, you could include Trent in the mix and make it a 3-way pie bet..." Evans

[proelitedota]

Duval is going first round. He compares favorably to Westbrook and John Wall at the same point in their careers.

I can't see how a league that drafts on potential pass up on Duval in the first round.

[WillJ]

Duval ...He compares favorably to Westbrook and John Wall at the same point in their careers.

If this were true, I think we would have won a title this year. We didn't.

[CDu]

Duval is going first round. He compares favorably to Westbrook and John Wall at the same point in their careers.

I can't see how a league that drafts on potential pass up on Duval in the first round.

Westbrook sure. But no way is Duval as far along as Wall was at the same point in their careers. Wall averaged 16 and 6 on better shooting in his one year of college. There is a reason he went #1 in his draft.

[Natty_B]

The Athletic latest mock had Duval at 57 that’s dangerously close to not drafted territory.

[Troublemaker]

Someone with strong feelings on it needs to wager a pie on who goes first between Grayson and Duval... but I don't feel strongly enough about it either way to be the guy to do that.

-Jason "actually, if you were really bold, you could include Trent in the mix and make it a 3-way pie bet..." Evans

Well, since you requested it, I would definitely put a pie on Grayson getting drafted before Trevon. (I'm less sure about Grayson vs Gary).

[kAzE]

I actually kind of hope the Celtics take Grayson with the #27 pick.

[phaedrus]

I actually kind of hope the Celtics take Grayson with the #27 pick.

I want Grayson to be drafted by the favorite team of whoever I know that dislikes Grayson the most.

I'm having a hard time narrowing it down, though.

[kAzE]

I want Grayson to be drafted by the favorite team of whoever I know that dislikes Grayson the most.

I'm having a hard time narrowing it down, though.

I just want him on the Celtics, because I'm a Celtics fan, and I believe in him. He's underrated IMO.

I thought he played a little bit out of his comfort zone this past year on a somewhat weird college team with too many big men and not enough ball handlers, but in Brad Stevens' system, with the play makers they already have, Grayson could be really, really good. Getting him at #27 could be good value if I'm right. But I wouldn't be surprised if they drafted a big man instead. Depends on what they do with Aron Baynes and Daniel Theis this off season.

In my perfect world, they re-sign both of those guys and draft Grayson

[Ian]

Well, since you requested it, I would definitely put a pie on Grayson getting drafted before Trevon. (I'm less sure about Grayson vs Gary).

I don't do pie bets since I try to stay away from sweets but if I did I'd join you. Grayson can help somebody right away, Duval is at least 2 years away from being able to help anyone, so I can't see any team spending a 1st round pick on him.

[superdave]

Anyone want to wager that Carter goes ahead of Bagley?

I wonder what the odds of that are once the ping pong balls drop and we know draft order.

I keep reading about how Bagley is a tweener who will be hard to plug in at the 5 because he doesnt protect the rim. But Carter does protect the rim and shot well from 3. It seems unlikely, but would not be a huge shock if they went 5 and 6 with Wendell going first.

As far as Treyvon, it's goign to be all about the workout buzz for him. If he measures well and works out hard, he should be a first rounder. He's an elite athlete.

[dukelifer]

Duval is going first round. He compares favorably to Westbrook and John Wall at the same point in their careers.

I can't see how a league that drafts on potential pass up on Duval in the first round.

It is all about shooting now. Westbrook was a better three point shooter and FT shooter in his full year of starting at UCLA. If Duval can improve his shooting- he will have a career. His workouts will have a big impact on where he is drafted. I am not sure I saw Duval hit many if any pull up jumpers. That has to be part of his repertoire.

[JasonEvans]

Anyone want to wager that Carter goes ahead of Bagley?

I wonder what the odds of that are once the ping pong balls drop and we know draft order.

I keep reading about how Bagley is a tweener who will be hard to plug in at the 5 because he doesnt protect the rim. But Carter does protect the rim and shot well from 3. It seems unlikely, but would not be a huge shock if they went 5 and 6 with Wendell going first.

As far as Treyvon, it's goign to be all about the workout buzz for him. If he measures well and works out hard, he should be a first rounder. He's an elite athlete.

I'll take Bagley is you want to take Carter. I don't know why there would be concerns about Bagley at the 5 because he is a prototypical NBA 4.

-Jason "odds that Bagley drops out of the top 5 in this draft are darn close to 0%, IMO" Evans

[brlftz]

I don’t think I’d put money on the draft bet, but I wouldn’t be shocked if Carter is a better pro. He’s a better shooter and rim protector and fits within nba schemes better. Bagley reminds me of Jah in that he can be a ball stopper who mostly brings scoring in ways the nba doesn’t want to score anymore. I can imagine a scenario where nba guys figure out that he has no right hand and can take away the things he does best.

I’m not saying that’s all likely, especially since Marvin showed a decent outside shot as well, but it’s possible and depends on how hard Marvin works on his game.

[mgtr]

So it appears that Grayson might well go near the end of the first round. Any WAG on where he might have gone at the end of his sophomore year? Definitely earlier in my book, but then the question would be how well he would stick on a team.

[Troublemaker]

So it appears that Grayson might well go near the end of the first round. Any WAG on where he might have gone at the end of his sophomore year? Definitely earlier in my book, but then the question would be how well he would stick on a team.

Likely higher because the 2016 draft was a weak one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_NBA_draft

My WAG would be Grayson would've gone somewhere in the Denzel Valentine (pick #14) to Caris Levert (pick #20) range.

[UrinalCake]

Twitter tells me that NBA Combine invitations were sent out on Friday. I haven’t seen an official list posted anywhere, but various parties are tweeting out players that have received invites.

Udoka Azubuike (Kansas)
Devonte’ Graham (Kansas)
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Kansas)
Malik Newman (Kansas)
Billy Preston (Kansas)
Lagerald Vick (Kansas/alternate)
Tyus Battle (Syracuse)
Rawle Alkins (Arizona)
Brian Bowen (Louisville commit)
Jaylen Barford (Arkansas)
Kenrich Williams (TCU)
Melvin Frazier (Tulane)
Mitchell Robinson (Western Kentucky commit)
Zhaire Smith (Texas Tech)

If it’s like last year, we’ll get a continued slow trickle of news that players have been invited, and then a full complete list in a few days. I have always felt that if a player isn’t invited to the combine, he should go back to school.

[JasonEvans]

Twitter tells me that NBA Combine invitations were sent out on Friday. I haven’t seen an official list posted anywhere, but various parties are tweeting out players that have received invites.

Udoka Azubuike (Kansas)
Devonte’ Graham (Kansas)
Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk (Kansas)
Malik Newman (Kansas)
Billy Preston (Kansas)
Lagerald Vick (Kansas/alternate)
Tyus Battle (Syracuse)
Rawle Alkins (Arizona)
Brian Bowen (Louisville commit)
Jaylen Barford (Arkansas)
Kenrich Williams (TCU)
Melvin Frazier (Tulane)
Mitchell Robinson (Western Kentucky commit)
Zhaire Smith (Texas Tech)

If it’s like last year, we’ll get a continued slow trickle of news that players have been invited, and then a full complete list in a few days. I have always felt that if a player isn’t invited to the combine, he should go back to school.

To be clear, I am sure that a bunch of other guys got invited -- Bagley, Ayton, Carter, K ox, Porter, and so on -- but they refused the invite because guys who are automatic first rounders do not play at the combine. It is for guys who are likely 2nd rounders who want to play their way into the end of the first. For example, Frank Jackson was arguably the best player at the combine a year ago and it made him the 1st pick of the 2nd round.

-Jason "the locked first rounders may show up to get officially measured and do some interviews, but won't work out, that's for sure" Evans

[UrinalCake]

guys who are automatic first rounders do not play at the combine.

I think it’s more like guys who are guaranteed top-5 picks do not play at the combine. There are still lottery pick-level guys who attend. It really depends if they think they can show something above what they demonstrated during the season, or whether they would risk having a couple bad days and then dropping as a result. I think it’s possible that Wendell would choose to attend. He’s generally projected as the fourth or fifth big among Ayton, Bagley, Bamba, Jackson and Porter, and the knock on him is that he is not athletic enough to defend on the perimeter. Maybe a solid combine performance would change that.

But yeah, I always felt like combine performances need to come with a big asterisk. Whenever I read that so and so player had the highest vertical leap in the history of the combine, I quietly scream in my head that he’s not better than all of the top players.