The hard part about making a big board is that typically most of my analysis goes into the top prospects, and otherwise I’m taking guesses on thin sliced analysis.
The under-the-radar player I hope can get out of Houston and on a real team is Usman Garuba. He hasn't shown much in the NBA, but I still hope he can be a spot contributor on a good team.
If Wemby fully reaches his potential, there is no combination of lesser players who would approach his value. If he just becomes Rudy Gobert with somewhat better offensive ability (even if not elite), he's probably at least as valuable as Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. The Spurs would have been insane to trade this pick, and giving it a C+ makes no sense.
The injury risk is real, but the existence of Gobert, Kareem, & Shaq (shorter, but given his size and conditioning an injury risk), suggest it is possible for very tall guys to have productive careers and not get hurt.
Also, even assuming Cam Whitmore is a likely bust, isn't it worth it to take a flyer on him at pick 20? At the very least it's not a crazy idea.
Giving the pick an A or A+ makes no sense because it was luck to acquire it and they made the choice anybody else in the world would have. That’s a B- job even if it’s an A outcome.
I disagree with not entertaining trades, which puts it slightly below average to C+ which is perfectly reasonable.
All of the bigs you listed are 7’1/7’2. Wemby is 7’5, which is significantly different.
Everyone is always obsessed with the good “ifs” and dont take enough time to consider the bad ones. What if he is Oden’d and the winning lottery ticket evaporates to dust? This cuts both ways.
As for whitmore, sure it’s not crazy. I didn’t give it a D or an F bc it’s not terrible. My inkling is that it will not work out so i’m not high on it, but it’s far from worst pick in the draft
Predraft Ousmane Dieng was almost identical to Rupert, I don't understand how one went 11th and one went 43rd
Interesting comp. Dieng can do more on offense but Rupert better on D.
You could argue Dieng taller with more skills to build on and should be valued a bit higher. But tough to see the full round difference
The under-the-radar player I hope can get out of Houston and on a real team is Usman Garuba. He hasn't shown much in the NBA, but I still hope he can be a spot contributor on a good team.
If Wemby fully reaches his potential, there is no combination of lesser players who would approach his value. If he just becomes Rudy Gobert with somewhat better offensive ability (even if not elite), he's probably at least as valuable as Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero. The Spurs would have been insane to trade this pick, and giving it a C+ makes no sense.
The injury risk is real, but the existence of Gobert, Kareem, & Shaq (shorter, but given his size and conditioning an injury risk), suggest it is possible for very tall guys to have productive careers and not get hurt.
Also, even assuming Cam Whitmore is a likely bust, isn't it worth it to take a flyer on him at pick 20? At the very least it's not a crazy idea.
Giving the pick an A or A+ makes no sense because it was luck to acquire it and they made the choice anybody else in the world would have. That’s a B- job even if it’s an A outcome.
I disagree with not entertaining trades, which puts it slightly below average to C+ which is perfectly reasonable.
All of the bigs you listed are 7’1/7’2. Wemby is 7’5, which is significantly different.
Everyone is always obsessed with the good “ifs” and dont take enough time to consider the bad ones. What if he is Oden’d and the winning lottery ticket evaporates to dust? This cuts both ways.
As for whitmore, sure it’s not crazy. I didn’t give it a D or an F bc it’s not terrible. My inkling is that it will not work out so i’m not high on it, but it’s far from worst pick in the draft