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2025 NBA Draft Thread
- Thread in 'Sports & Training' Thread starter Started by addict4sneakers,
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If Kuminga keeps looking like how he did today he might shoot up to 1 for me
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Not anything earth-shattering, but I thought this was good analysis of some of the Ignite fellas from yesterday's game (off The Athletic):
Scouting G League’s Ignite: Jonathan Kuminga stars, Daishen Nix impresses
By Sam Vecenie
NBA evaluators have waited anxiously to see the G League Ignite suit up for its first game of the season. Frankly, this scouting season has not been quite as exciting as normal due to the pandemic. The college basketball season has disappointed scouts. The play in the NCAA has looked terrible at times outside of Gonzaga’s and Baylor’s dominance. One college coach put it pretty succinctly to me:
“It’s almost as if you take a sport that thrives on fans and atmosphere and play it in empty buildings, then have a 4-5 month slog where teams aren’t able to go home for the holidays and are restricting 18-22-year-old college kids with what they can and can’t do, this is what you get.”
While standouts such as Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs exist, this 2021 NBA Draft class has struggled to emerge and been difficult to evaluate. The contextual factors of this season are as important as they’ve ever been. Not everyone is playing with the same deck of cards. For instance, at Stanford, Ziaire Williams has shown flashes of greatness but little consistency. The Cardinal, including Williams, were living out of hotels, without a weight room, without a gym to get in regular extra shots and without access to a real basketball facility for a large portion of their early season due to COVID restrictions. How do you contextualize him and his performances given those disadvantages?
What about guys who have struggled to establish their footing like Jalen Johnson? Or someone who has been just flat out not very good like B.J. Boston? Is this the draft cycle where you rely on what you’ve seen in prep settings when prospects had more normal routines, or do you make choices based on what they did against the better competition in college when things are probably as unsettled as they’ll ever be for many of these teenagers? This draft cycle has raised questions many draft evaluators haven’t had to answer before. It’s why you’re going to see some really polarizing opinions that run the gamut this year for prospects.
But with the G League Ignite, there is some semblance of normalcy. The teams are in a bubble and have been training for a while. Getting to see how kids such as Jonathan Kuminga, Jalen Green, Daishen Nix and Isaiah Todd perform against borderline NBA players in a bubble atmosphere should give us a good sense of where they are in their games and what kind of prospects they are overall. And indeed, there was much to take away from the G League Ignite’s first game Wednesday, a 109-104 win against the Santa Cruz Warriors. Let’s run through some of what we saw and what it means:
Jonathan Kuminga is the best prospect in the G League
With apologies to Green, all of the intel out of the Ignite team camp has been that Kuminga has looked like the best prospect. He looked the best in their scrimmages and in practices in Walnut Creek. And with legitimate NBA size at about 6-foot-8, with a 7-foot-plus wingspan and a terrific frame, he looks to have the most upside for what the NBA is looking for as a big wing initiator. This is why, if you listen to the Game Theory Podcast, he’s been the guy I’ve been most excited to talk about.
To top that off, all of the reports I’ve gotten about Kuminga’s work ethic have been stellar. One source told me Kuminga was doing three-a-day workouts to prepare for the G League bubble out in the Bay Area, working with personal trainers as well as the ones provided by the G League. He takes his career seriously and wants to be great.
Given that, I was unsurprised to see Kuminga was the most impressive prospect on the court in the opening game. He scored 19 points on 9-of-18 from the field, plus had four assists, two rebounds and two blocks. He was all over the place athletically, showcasing just how elite his projectability is from that standpoint. It’s hard to find guys who are this big and long, who have this level of quickness and who have this much body control. Early on, he showed some real mismatch nightmare tendencies. He had three possessions where he took a smaller guy onto the block and scored either by going around or shooting over the top. Coach Brian Shaw clearly tried to get him involved early by running sets for him there. He got to show off that combination of dexterity and quickness in the fast break on a couple of possessions. But the plays that excited scouts most were a pair of half-court drives late where Kuminga was able to set up his defender, self-create a driving lane and score.
Kuminga was terrific on the interior and did a great job of the advantages that were presented to him while taking advantage of a few of his own. I also thought his passing was a bit ahead of what I expected. He hit Jalen Green in stride on a streaking transition dunk through a tight window that will make the highlight reels. But he also hit Brandon Ashley for a tight window bounce pass off a baseline cut for a dunk, had a nice little mid-air adjustment pass to Ashley at the rim and had a really nice little lob to a roller that was almost muffed before a finish. His handle is a bit loose and also resulted in four turnovers, but the vision for looks was there in an important way.
The only thing that went missing from Kuminga’s game in the opener was the jumper. At lower levels, Kuminga’s jumper has long looked very mechanical and robotic. I wouldn’t quite say it was hitchy, but he wasn’t really fluid getting it off. The good news from Wednesday is that Kuminga’s shot looked much improved in terms of rhythm and process getting into it. He was willing to take it directly off movement such as off-ball screens or off his own ball-screens for guys like Jarrett Jack. Everything just looked much better. The downside is that he went 1-of-7 from 3, meaning the results weren’t there.
Still, at the very least, it’s a projectable shot now for an 18-year-old who is clearly a hard worker. Most evaluators I’ve spoken to have real confidence in Kuminga being a shooter at some point sooner rather than later. Overall, the feedback I received from scouts after the game was that Kuminga should probably be considered in the top tier of prospects along with Cunningham, Mobley and Suggs. One evaluator put him into context as a top-four pick.
“He’s clearly better than Patrick Williams, and Williams went No. 4,” one NBA scout said. “The NBA loves guys like this and tend to bet on them.”
As the G League bubble continues, I’d expect he’ll be discussed in such a manner. He’s going to be productive, and it’s clear he’s made real strides since we’ve last seen him.
Jalen Green struggles to find his way in the half court, but athleticism still shines
Whereas Kuminga has played off the ball and as an energy bucket-getter in the past, Green still hasn’t really done that a ton in his career. He’s mostly been an on-ball guard, for better and worse. And in his time in AAU, he had a propensity to get a bit inefficient as a gunner. His time in the G League off the ball is a new role to which Green is adjusting — one he’ll have to play more often in the NBA — and it’s clear there are going to be some growing pains. He was largely ineffective on his way to 11 points. He took three really bad contested jumpers, plus an early-shot-clock midrange jumper that no NBA team will ever want him to take.
His athleticism clearly translated, as he looks capable of getting by guys and getting into the paint. But his skill level and decision-making given his size and position were just not quite where they needed to be. He’ll have better days, and I’d expect he’s someone who will really be helped by getting a feel for the speed of the game at the G League level. It wouldn’t stun me if the Jalen Green we see offensively at the end of the bubble is much, much better than the one we see through the first couple of games.
He was also pretty rough on defense and didn’t have the engagement level that you hope to see from someone this talented and athletic. Overall, not Green’s best day, and evaluators will hope that as the bubble progresses, he gets better and learns. Green maintains athletic tools that few players can dream of. I don’t think it’s worth diving deeper than that following a game like this. Evaluators have seen better before, such as when he won MVP of the 2018 U17 World Cup. He’ll have better days, and it’ll be worth talking more about him either after those or after he sets a standard of poor performances if that happens. It wouldn’t be a stunner to see him enter that top tier of prospects by the end of the process. But the scouts I’ve talked to see him more as a mid-lottery guy in this class right now. I have him at No. 5 right now.
Daishen Nix impresses, but evaluators remain concerned with the shape he’s in
Nix was clearly the second-best prospect on the court Wednesday for the Ignite. His ability to shift gears and change his tempo as a ballhandler is pretty ridiculous. The type of herky-jerky handle he has with tightness (and also a real rhythm) was tough for the Warriors to manage. He scored 12 points, got to the basket a few times and generally did well making the right choices as a secondary handler who occasionally brought it up the court. He even added three assists. This was a legitimately good game for Nix, a player in whom a lot of evaluators had some concerns following the pair of scrimmages they got access to prior to this opener. He struggled in those games and really couldn’t get past anyone. In this one, he got by people with just sheer feel for the game and change of pace. He’s a super high IQ player who just really knows how to hoop when the lights come on.
And yet, despite this positive game, all of the messages I got after the game from scouts were about the shape he’s in. I mean this delicately, but Nix looks much heavier than he did when he was on the AAU circuit. He looked the same in the scrimmages the team played too. He’s listed at 224 pounds, which is about 20 pounds more than what he was listed at in high school. The concern is that he’s not getting the most out of the limited explosiveness tools he already has at his disposal. Throw in the fact that he’s also not a particularly willing shooter? Yeah, that’s a tough recipe for success at the highest level. He did make a late-shot-clock 3 but didn’t really show a willingness to take them off the bounce in the available shooting windows he had.
Nix’s feel for the game and basketball IQ gives him a real shot to be a first-round pick. If he plays going forward like he did in the opener, he almost assuredly will be. But scouts will be watching closely to see if these performances continue as teams start just going under screens and forcing Nix to beat them to the spot defensively or finish over the top. He’s an end-of-the-first-round guy for me right now, with real potential to help himself if he keeps playing like he did today.
Teams remain unenthused by Isaiah Todd
Todd didn’t bring much to the table in the opener. He had a couple of nice defensive possessions but overall didn’t look like he was at the same level of play as most of the other guys out there. He played 17 minutes but had two points and three rebounds on 1-for-4 from the field. The 6-foot-9 forward was considered one of the top-five players in his class when he was an underclassman in high school but steadily dropped down the composite rankings through his prep career as he started to float out on the perimeter while not particularly improving as a shooter or decision-maker.
“There’s no way I’d draft him right now,” one scout said. “I wish him the best, but he didn’t look ready for pro basketball.”
The G League is a tough, highly competitive league. There’s no shame in a teenager not being ready to play in such an atmosphere. But it also goes to show just how far off Todd is from contributing to an NBA situation if he can’t even contribute positively to this one. I have Todd outside the top 80 on my board.
By Sam Vecenie
NBA evaluators have waited anxiously to see the G League Ignite suit up for its first game of the season. Frankly, this scouting season has not been quite as exciting as normal due to the pandemic. The college basketball season has disappointed scouts. The play in the NCAA has looked terrible at times outside of Gonzaga’s and Baylor’s dominance. One college coach put it pretty succinctly to me:
“It’s almost as if you take a sport that thrives on fans and atmosphere and play it in empty buildings, then have a 4-5 month slog where teams aren’t able to go home for the holidays and are restricting 18-22-year-old college kids with what they can and can’t do, this is what you get.”
While standouts such as Cade Cunningham, Evan Mobley and Jalen Suggs exist, this 2021 NBA Draft class has struggled to emerge and been difficult to evaluate. The contextual factors of this season are as important as they’ve ever been. Not everyone is playing with the same deck of cards. For instance, at Stanford, Ziaire Williams has shown flashes of greatness but little consistency. The Cardinal, including Williams, were living out of hotels, without a weight room, without a gym to get in regular extra shots and without access to a real basketball facility for a large portion of their early season due to COVID restrictions. How do you contextualize him and his performances given those disadvantages?
What about guys who have struggled to establish their footing like Jalen Johnson? Or someone who has been just flat out not very good like B.J. Boston? Is this the draft cycle where you rely on what you’ve seen in prep settings when prospects had more normal routines, or do you make choices based on what they did against the better competition in college when things are probably as unsettled as they’ll ever be for many of these teenagers? This draft cycle has raised questions many draft evaluators haven’t had to answer before. It’s why you’re going to see some really polarizing opinions that run the gamut this year for prospects.
But with the G League Ignite, there is some semblance of normalcy. The teams are in a bubble and have been training for a while. Getting to see how kids such as Jonathan Kuminga, Jalen Green, Daishen Nix and Isaiah Todd perform against borderline NBA players in a bubble atmosphere should give us a good sense of where they are in their games and what kind of prospects they are overall. And indeed, there was much to take away from the G League Ignite’s first game Wednesday, a 109-104 win against the Santa Cruz Warriors. Let’s run through some of what we saw and what it means:
Jonathan Kuminga is the best prospect in the G League
With apologies to Green, all of the intel out of the Ignite team camp has been that Kuminga has looked like the best prospect. He looked the best in their scrimmages and in practices in Walnut Creek. And with legitimate NBA size at about 6-foot-8, with a 7-foot-plus wingspan and a terrific frame, he looks to have the most upside for what the NBA is looking for as a big wing initiator. This is why, if you listen to the Game Theory Podcast, he’s been the guy I’ve been most excited to talk about.
To top that off, all of the reports I’ve gotten about Kuminga’s work ethic have been stellar. One source told me Kuminga was doing three-a-day workouts to prepare for the G League bubble out in the Bay Area, working with personal trainers as well as the ones provided by the G League. He takes his career seriously and wants to be great.
Given that, I was unsurprised to see Kuminga was the most impressive prospect on the court in the opening game. He scored 19 points on 9-of-18 from the field, plus had four assists, two rebounds and two blocks. He was all over the place athletically, showcasing just how elite his projectability is from that standpoint. It’s hard to find guys who are this big and long, who have this level of quickness and who have this much body control. Early on, he showed some real mismatch nightmare tendencies. He had three possessions where he took a smaller guy onto the block and scored either by going around or shooting over the top. Coach Brian Shaw clearly tried to get him involved early by running sets for him there. He got to show off that combination of dexterity and quickness in the fast break on a couple of possessions. But the plays that excited scouts most were a pair of half-court drives late where Kuminga was able to set up his defender, self-create a driving lane and score.
Kuminga was terrific on the interior and did a great job of the advantages that were presented to him while taking advantage of a few of his own. I also thought his passing was a bit ahead of what I expected. He hit Jalen Green in stride on a streaking transition dunk through a tight window that will make the highlight reels. But he also hit Brandon Ashley for a tight window bounce pass off a baseline cut for a dunk, had a nice little mid-air adjustment pass to Ashley at the rim and had a really nice little lob to a roller that was almost muffed before a finish. His handle is a bit loose and also resulted in four turnovers, but the vision for looks was there in an important way.
The only thing that went missing from Kuminga’s game in the opener was the jumper. At lower levels, Kuminga’s jumper has long looked very mechanical and robotic. I wouldn’t quite say it was hitchy, but he wasn’t really fluid getting it off. The good news from Wednesday is that Kuminga’s shot looked much improved in terms of rhythm and process getting into it. He was willing to take it directly off movement such as off-ball screens or off his own ball-screens for guys like Jarrett Jack. Everything just looked much better. The downside is that he went 1-of-7 from 3, meaning the results weren’t there.
Still, at the very least, it’s a projectable shot now for an 18-year-old who is clearly a hard worker. Most evaluators I’ve spoken to have real confidence in Kuminga being a shooter at some point sooner rather than later. Overall, the feedback I received from scouts after the game was that Kuminga should probably be considered in the top tier of prospects along with Cunningham, Mobley and Suggs. One evaluator put him into context as a top-four pick.
“He’s clearly better than Patrick Williams, and Williams went No. 4,” one NBA scout said. “The NBA loves guys like this and tend to bet on them.”
As the G League bubble continues, I’d expect he’ll be discussed in such a manner. He’s going to be productive, and it’s clear he’s made real strides since we’ve last seen him.
Jalen Green struggles to find his way in the half court, but athleticism still shines
Whereas Kuminga has played off the ball and as an energy bucket-getter in the past, Green still hasn’t really done that a ton in his career. He’s mostly been an on-ball guard, for better and worse. And in his time in AAU, he had a propensity to get a bit inefficient as a gunner. His time in the G League off the ball is a new role to which Green is adjusting — one he’ll have to play more often in the NBA — and it’s clear there are going to be some growing pains. He was largely ineffective on his way to 11 points. He took three really bad contested jumpers, plus an early-shot-clock midrange jumper that no NBA team will ever want him to take.
His athleticism clearly translated, as he looks capable of getting by guys and getting into the paint. But his skill level and decision-making given his size and position were just not quite where they needed to be. He’ll have better days, and I’d expect he’s someone who will really be helped by getting a feel for the speed of the game at the G League level. It wouldn’t stun me if the Jalen Green we see offensively at the end of the bubble is much, much better than the one we see through the first couple of games.
He was also pretty rough on defense and didn’t have the engagement level that you hope to see from someone this talented and athletic. Overall, not Green’s best day, and evaluators will hope that as the bubble progresses, he gets better and learns. Green maintains athletic tools that few players can dream of. I don’t think it’s worth diving deeper than that following a game like this. Evaluators have seen better before, such as when he won MVP of the 2018 U17 World Cup. He’ll have better days, and it’ll be worth talking more about him either after those or after he sets a standard of poor performances if that happens. It wouldn’t be a stunner to see him enter that top tier of prospects by the end of the process. But the scouts I’ve talked to see him more as a mid-lottery guy in this class right now. I have him at No. 5 right now.
Daishen Nix impresses, but evaluators remain concerned with the shape he’s in
Nix was clearly the second-best prospect on the court Wednesday for the Ignite. His ability to shift gears and change his tempo as a ballhandler is pretty ridiculous. The type of herky-jerky handle he has with tightness (and also a real rhythm) was tough for the Warriors to manage. He scored 12 points, got to the basket a few times and generally did well making the right choices as a secondary handler who occasionally brought it up the court. He even added three assists. This was a legitimately good game for Nix, a player in whom a lot of evaluators had some concerns following the pair of scrimmages they got access to prior to this opener. He struggled in those games and really couldn’t get past anyone. In this one, he got by people with just sheer feel for the game and change of pace. He’s a super high IQ player who just really knows how to hoop when the lights come on.
And yet, despite this positive game, all of the messages I got after the game from scouts were about the shape he’s in. I mean this delicately, but Nix looks much heavier than he did when he was on the AAU circuit. He looked the same in the scrimmages the team played too. He’s listed at 224 pounds, which is about 20 pounds more than what he was listed at in high school. The concern is that he’s not getting the most out of the limited explosiveness tools he already has at his disposal. Throw in the fact that he’s also not a particularly willing shooter? Yeah, that’s a tough recipe for success at the highest level. He did make a late-shot-clock 3 but didn’t really show a willingness to take them off the bounce in the available shooting windows he had.
Nix’s feel for the game and basketball IQ gives him a real shot to be a first-round pick. If he plays going forward like he did in the opener, he almost assuredly will be. But scouts will be watching closely to see if these performances continue as teams start just going under screens and forcing Nix to beat them to the spot defensively or finish over the top. He’s an end-of-the-first-round guy for me right now, with real potential to help himself if he keeps playing like he did today.
Teams remain unenthused by Isaiah Todd
Todd didn’t bring much to the table in the opener. He had a couple of nice defensive possessions but overall didn’t look like he was at the same level of play as most of the other guys out there. He played 17 minutes but had two points and three rebounds on 1-for-4 from the field. The 6-foot-9 forward was considered one of the top-five players in his class when he was an underclassman in high school but steadily dropped down the composite rankings through his prep career as he started to float out on the perimeter while not particularly improving as a shooter or decision-maker.
“There’s no way I’d draft him right now,” one scout said. “I wish him the best, but he didn’t look ready for pro basketball.”
The G League is a tough, highly competitive league. There’s no shame in a teenager not being ready to play in such an atmosphere. But it also goes to show just how far off Todd is from contributing to an NBA situation if he can’t even contribute positively to this one. I have Todd outside the top 80 on my board.
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Shocker
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Most likely of the back end lottery kids to end up a star IMO. He's being held back a bit but he can shoot the **** out of the basketball.
Sonny Corinthos
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Cade is the safest , but probably 5th on potential
I need the Nets to get a late first round pick to get Culver from West Virginia or Robinson Earl from Nova
I need the Nets to get a late first round pick to get Culver from West Virginia or Robinson Earl from Nova
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Kuminga looks good.
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Shot starts falling and 
has some Cam Reddish syndrome(motor isn’t always on)
has some Cam Reddish syndrome(motor isn’t always on)
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Jalen hooping today.
Gotta tighten up that handle tho. If Bradley Beal did it...he can do it.
Poku stinks.
Gotta tighten up that handle tho. If Bradley Beal did it...he can do it.
Poku stinks.
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NBA prospect fridays. Gotta love it.
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The ignite team was originally not supposed to play against the real G league teams cuz they wouldn’t be “ready” , now they getting W’s 
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Mobley has 6 blocks and counting and 5-7 FT
God damb
God damb
jpzx
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Mamu on Seton Hall, 6’11” lefty with guard skills 
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Yeah I like him a lot, I’m just unsure how his defense is though, I admit I don’t watch much seton hall games but his offensive skill set is intriguing
but his offensive skill set is intriguing
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Good player, like a super size PG out there at times...Only problem with players like him is most NBA teams won’t let him play the way he does at Seton Hall so you gotta think what you really gon get from him at the next levelMamu on Seton Hall, 6’11” lefty with guard skills
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That is a problem, 77% at the line at that tall is unique (although that’s 10 points above his average). I feel like there’s gotta be a place for him but you’re right if you can’t play like that you have to figure out how to carve out a role.
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Sonny Corinthos
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I hope the Champagnie twins get drafted
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I hope Jalen Johnson built some great long time bonds over the last 6 months.
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Small sample size, but it seems that the G league select team is going to be the move for top prospects
If you can play, you can play, might as well get compensated for your work
If you can play, you can play, might as well get compensated for your work
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calling duck tales on the character issues cause coach K never recruits kids with character issues. Please make me aware if I’m wrong
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Requiring a One and Done from these kids is pretty ridiculous
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Can someone please tell me besides length (height) what Cade does better than Suggs
Suggs is the better athlete (not close)
Better handle
Shooting (wash)
Better on ball defender
Suggs is the better athlete (not close)
Better handle
Shooting (wash)
Better on ball defender
