Kingston Flemings is yet another example of this rookie class looking like they belong on an NBA court through the preseason. For the people who believed in him, he has shown everything you hoped for. He looks great with NBA space, he's been aggressive with his shot, his vision has looked excellent, he's shooting more 3s and hitting them, and he's taking care of the ball in a way most rookies just can't. His ability to penetrate the defence with or without a screen is good and his vision/decision making is great bordering on elite, but what really makes his ball security top notch is his ability to stop on a dime, rise way up and shoot a mid range jumper over his defender to bail him out of a possession that may otherwise turn into a lost possession.

I am so excited to watch this rookie class in real NBA games. It's nearly here.

2027 NBA Mock Draft: Tyran Stokes, Jordan Smith Jr., Stefan Joksimovic headline top picks - CBS Sports https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/2027-nba-mock-draft-tyran-stokes-jordan-smith-jr-stefan-joksimovic/

What are your thoughts on Hannes Steinbach as an NBA prospect?

I'm curious to hear some objective opinions from outside the Hornets fan base. Steinbach has been pretty impressive in his limited preseason minutes, and I think the parts of his game that could translate to the NBA are already pretty clear. He has great hands, rebounds well, and has really nice touch around the basket. But I also think he might be underrated as a potential offensive hub in the high pick-and-roll. Between his passing, screening, pick-and-pop ability, and rim-running, I think there's more versatility to his offensive game than he gets credit for. His basketball IQ has really stood out to me, too.

Defensively, I'm not expecting him to become an elite defender, but I've seen flashes of decent footwork, good positioning, and an ability to contest shots. I wonder if he could end up being a better defender than people anticipate, rather than the slow-footed, plodding big that some might expect from an international prospect.

Im still not sure if he's a 4 or 5. Or a 4.5. He had moments against Edey last night. And was much better than Kalkbrenner.

I've seen comps ranging from Domantas Sabonis to Isaiah Hartenstein, with Kevin Love as a potential high-end offensive comparison. I'm curious whether he could land somewhere in the middle of those archetypes: a versatile, high-IQ offensive big who can facilitate, rebound, and finish, while potentially being a little better defensively than expected, even if he never reaches that same offensive ceiling.

Am I getting too optimistic about him based on a small preseason sample, or is there something here? How do you all see Hannes Steinbach's game translating to the NBA, and what do you think his realistic ceiling and floor might be? Swing skills will be shooting and defense.

After his debut vs Pittsburgh State, I've seen a lot of people claim that Stokes looks too slow for the NBA. But keep in mind, many big point guards are able to get by and be elite in the big league despite slower foot speed. Namely, Cade Cunningham and Luka Doncic.

I think that if the basketball IQ is there, it can more than compensate for slower foot speed. I don't know, let me know your thoughts.

They have a new coach after sacking the previous one due to their poor form in the euroleague. Is it too late for to transfer to college football. Because I think he'll be riding the bench all season.

Is this legit? Flagg is listed at 6’10 now. if this is legitimate…

The annual Raptors 905 tryout draws dreamers, diehards — and the delusional. Three hours later, Star reporter Libaan Osman knew which one he was.

Osman writes:

An awkward silence fell over the crammed dressing room of basketball hopefuls at the OVO Athletic Centre.
Someone had made the mistake of saying: “We’re going to have fun today, right?” He was met with silence as hopefuls bolted for the court without a word, sizing each other up before battle.
That was when I realized what I was getting into.
There were two extremes of people who showed up at the Raptors 905’s annual open tryout last month. Some were fighting for one last shot at their basketball dreams. Others paid $275 to find out exactly what separates a dreamer from a professional. Me? I wanted to experience what it was like to be a pro for a few hours.
One person brought his own basketball and refused to let anyone touch it. Another group savoured every moment, taking selfies with their 905 practice jerseys, capturing videos of the hallways and snapping pictures of posters of Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet, taken when they first joined the organization and won an NBA D-League title with the 905 in 2017.
I’ve seen the dedication and talent needed to become an NBA player. I have none of that, and knew my hopes of making the 905 were less likely than winning the lottery. 

Read the full story with this gift link. You won't hit the paywall.

​

#1 Pau Gasol (Pick 3, Round 1)

#2 Tony Parker (Pick 28, Round 1)

#3 Gilbert Arenas (Pick 31, Round 2)

#4 Joe Johnson (Pick 10, Round 1)

#5 Zach Randolph (Pick 19, Round 1)

#6 Tyson Chandler (Pick 2, Round 1)

#7 Richard Jefferson (Pick 13, Round 1)

#8 Jason Richardson (Pick 5, Round 1)

#9 Gerald Wallace (Pick 25, Round 1)

#10 Shane Battier (Pick 6, Round 1)

#11 Mehmet Okur (Pick 38, Round 2)

#12 Troy Murphy (Pick 14, Round 1)

#13 Samuel Dalembert (Pick 26, Round 1)

#14 Brendan Haywood (Pick 20, Round 1)

#15 / #16 Eddy Curry (Pick 4, Round 1) or Vladimir Radmanović

(Pick 12, Round 1)

His 3 point shooting has been TERRIBLE, his jumper is terrible. He’s like 2/20 since Summer League. Was it this bad in college? I find it hard to believe such a glaring weakness was overlooked when taking him with the 1st overall pick.

From what we've seen, incredible rebounder, very explosive, solid on defense but lacks of finishing near the rim.

Could he evolve into a Mitchell Robinson type of player with maybe a little bit wider skillset ? Could he be above Luke Kornet in the rotation next year ?

All three reclassified and will be playing college basketball at just 17 years old this season.

What are your expectations for each of them? How much of an impact do you think they’ll have as freshmen, and what kind of production do you expect?

Who do you think will have the best season of the three? Not necessarily who has the highest NBA ceiling, but who will be the most productive and impactful this year.

How would you rank them 1–3?

Always dangerous to invest is summer league stock but seem quite promising, I'm curious to see once he gets some minutes in real NBA games.

Also had 2 steals, all in 18 minutes. I know this game wasn't much watch TV, but his defensive prowess is night and day compared to Acuff. Was scared the Nets made the wrong choice, but this silenced all my fears.

Still getting to know this class, but I'm not particularly excited by it, especially if you're a franchise looking for a player to change your fortunes. There does appear to be some potential depth in this draft, though.

I'm comfortable having Tyran Stokes at No. 1, and I'm probably a little higher on some of the sophomores than others. I previously had Cameron Williams higher, but apparently he's been battling a virus, and Joaquim Boumtje Boumtje looks to have locked down the starting spot.

Brandon McCoy would be somewhere around the middle of the first round for me, but he's now unlikely to play this season.

I also think the consensus is sleeping on Marcius Ponder. A lot of freshmen get projected as first-rounders early in the draft cycle but never find themselves in a position to establish meaningful minutes. Marcius, on the other hand, has a clear path to playing time.

Pick Player

1 Tyran Stokes

2 Jordan Smith Jr.

3 Caleb Holt

4 Hugo Yimga-Moukouri

5 Stefan Joksimović

6 Alijah Arenas

7 Tounde Yessoufou

8 Bruce Branch III

9 Anthony Thompson

10 Thomas Haugh

11 Sheldon Henderson

12 Dame Sarr

13 Dylan Mingo

14 Baba Oladotun

15 Cameron Williams

16 Patrick Ngongba II

17 Malachi Moreno

18 Braylon Mullins

19 JJ Andrews

20 Quentin Coleman

21 Jason Crowe Jr.

22 Amari Allen

23 Motiejus Krivas

24 Abdou Toure

25 Cameron Houindo

26 Miikka Muurinen

27 Luigi Suigo

28 Colben Landrew

29 Marcius Ponder

30 Deron Rippey Jr.

Second Round

Pick Player

31 Sayon Keita

32 Billy Richmond III

33 Christian Collins

34 Trey McKenney

35 Tyler Tanner

36 Klark Riethauser

37 Jalen Haralson

38 Davis Fogle

39 Juke Harris

40 Ivan Kharchenkov

41 Rueben Chinyelu

42 Moustapha Thiam

43 Dash Daniels

44 Mor Massamba Diop

45 Milan Momcilovic

46 Neoklis Avdalas

47 Austin Goosby

48 Alex Condon

49 David Mirkovic

50 Andrej Stojakovic

51 Flory Bidunga

52 JT Toppin

53 Daniel Jacobsen

54 Dwayne Aristode

55 Miles Byrd

56 Pavle Bačko

57 Marc-Owen Fodzo Dada

58 Jeremy Fears Jr.

59 Najai Hines

60 Nikolas Khamenia

Like his conditioning has already started to improved and he’s shown to be pretty coordinated for a huge Center. As well as his pick n rolls coverage has been actually solid in the preseason. I know it’s only preseason! But he’s definitely showed a lot more than he did in the summer league

Do you think Jalen Brunson is scared seeing Ja'kobi Gillespie coming into the league ? With his very fast hands we could have a great rivalry between these two.

Those two guys were "meh" prospects but later on bloomed as the season went.

My canidates for potential All stars/ Franchise players are Jordan Smith Jr, Stefan Joksimovic,Motiejus Krivas.

All three players have swing abilities that can make them Franchise cornerstones.

I Studied some data over the past 20 years.

Landing the unicorns—players who are drafted under the age of 20 and become historically great and stay with your team, is really a matter of drafting in the top 5 plain and simple. In almost every case over the past 20 years the <20 y/o drafted in the top 5 was a fairly obvious pick that anyone with eyeballs could have done successfully.

Once you get out of the top 5 where other variables come into play, we still often find teams drafting "high upside" <20 y/o players. But what the data show is that this is a strategy that reliably fails.

A few things to consider. Players rarely stay with their drafting team for more than 8 years. In fact, outside of top 5 picks that ratio is 12:1. This alone, should end arguments about age concerns of older draftees. The metrics that suggest teams should draft extreme youth are so weighted by elite draftees that are obvious top 5 picks that it obscures the fact that teams are otherwise better off drafting upperclassmen.

Older players produce more over their first three seasons regardless of draft slot (even including those elite top 5 picks). Across all draft slots, players over 20 average 2.45 VORP and -0.45 BPM where players under 20 produce 1.15 and -1.85 respectively over their first three seasons. This shouldn't be a surprise, but it is often overlooked for teams hoping to draft the next Kobe.

So if older players produce more in their first three years and almost all players depart after 8 seasons or earlier, the aging argument is effectively negated.

The only reason to draft extreme youth is to get a franchise cornerstone you can build around but the reality is if you don't have a top 5 pick that's incredibly unlikely. But it's even less likely to happen if you try to draft a player under 20. or even the next Jokic (drafted 41st) Giannis (drafted 15th), Booker (13th) or Bam (14th) DeRozan (9th). This is the list of guys who have become franchise cornerstones with the team that drafted them under 20 and outside of the top 5 over the past 20 years. And two of them (Jokic and Giannis) have atypical paths to the NBA.

Here's a graph of notable players over the past 20 years drafted between 6 and 30—excluding career bench players and draft and stash players who don't pan out.

I chose to include Kawhi in the over 20 group since at 19 years 359 days he was much more 20 than 19. But even moving him to the other group it doesn't change the story in the data.

In light of the recent draft conversation, now’s the best time to drop the first official BYRHERIM 2027 Big Board.

Some players have already played and some intel has been released, so this is the first look we get this year.

As per usual, any questions can be asked and I’ll respond.