2025 NBA Draft Thread

HOU$TON said:
Banchero is much more advanced and versatile offensively than Jabari. All Jabari does is jab step which no one bites on, and pulls up a contested jumper. He’s an elite shooter so it’s been working for him, but Banchero definitely is more versatile offensively.
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I agree. But I go back to the defensive side. Smith seems like he can defend all sorts of positions

Banchero seems like a very safe pick. Like, bigger Tobias Harris, more stable/polished Julius Randle type. Is he going to be a potential #1 option, idk, maybe? Defensively I think Smith got him beat by a long shot
 
Vincent Van Goat said:
I agree. But I go back to the defensive side. Smith seems like he can defend all sorts of positions

Banchero seems like a very safe pick. Like, bigger Tobias Harris, more stable/polished Julius Randle type. Is he going to be a potential #1 option, idk, maybe? Defensively I think Smith got him beat by a long shot
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Banchero is definitely underwhelming defensively. I agree that Banchero is the safest choice. Jabari being the youngest of the 3 makes him even more appealing.
 
HOU$TON said:
Banchero is definitely underwhelming defensively. I agree that Banchero is the safest choice. Jabari being the youngest of the 3 makes him even more appealing.
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I just look at it kinda like: well Smith and Banchero kinda questionable to project as #1 options. Obviously Banchero has a better chance. I see both of them being like between 2ish and 3 options offensively

If that were actually the case and say Banchero was def closer to a #2 option than Smith, I would prob still roll the dice on Smith just because of the defensive potential

But we're also not really talking about Chet as much as these two
 
Vincent Van Goat said:
I just look at it kinda like: well Smith and Banchero kinda questionable to project as #1 options. Obviously Banchero has a better chance. I see both of them being like between 2ish and 3 options offensively

If that were actually the case and say Banchero was def closer to a #2 option than Smith, I would prob still roll the dice on Smith just because of the defensive potential

But we're also not really talking about Chet as much as these two
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I don’t see any of them as the #1 option offensively but Jabari is tantalizing defensively, especially when engaged. Banchero doesn’t seem to have that gear defensively.

It’s hard to evaluate chet because I know he can do much more than what he’s shown at Villanova. Chet isn’t as mobile as Evan Mobley defensively but he can still lock down the paint.
 
HOU$TON said:
I don’t see any of them as the #1 option offensively but Jabari is tantalizing defensively, especially when engaged. Banchero doesn’t seem to have that gear defensively.

It’s hard to evaluate chet because I know he can do much more than what he’s shown at Villanova. Chet isn’t as mobile as Evan Mobley defensively but he can still lock down the paint.
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Yeah Banchero is massive, 250 lbs. I didn't even realize he was that big. Kinda hard for those dudes to be flying around the perimeter and all that. And his athleticism/explosiveness is solid but nothing crazy
 
HOU$TON said:
I don’t see any of them as the #1 option offensively but Jabari is tantalizing defensively, especially when engaged. Banchero doesn’t seem to have that gear defensively.

It’s hard to evaluate chet because I know he can do much more than what he’s shown at Villanova. Chet isn’t as mobile as Evan Mobley defensively but he can still lock down the paint.
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*gonzaga :lol:
 


2023 NBA mock draft: Who is the No. 1 college prospect, how the international class stacks up and possible breakout sophomores

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

Victor Wembanyama | ASVEL | PF/C | Age: 18.0

2. Detroit Pistons

Scoot Henderson | G League Ignite | PG | Age: 17.9

3. Orlando Magic

Nick Smith | Arkansas* | PG/SG | Age: 17.7

4. Houston Rockets

Dereck Lively | Duke* | C | Age: 17.9

5. Sacramento Kings

Kyle Filipowski | Duke* | PF/C | Age: 18.2

6. San Antonio Spurs

Dariq Whitehead | Duke* | SG | Age: 17.4

7. Indiana Pacers

Keyonte George | Baylor | SG | Age: 18.2

8. Portland Trail Blazers

Ausar Thompson | Overtime Elite | SG/SF | Age: 18.9

9. Washington Wizards

Blake Wesley | Notre Dame | SG | Age: 18.8

10. New Orleans Pelicans

Amen Thompson | Overtime Elite | PG/SG | Age: 18.9

11. Minnesota Timberwolves

James Nnaji | Barcelona | C | Age: 17.4

12. Los Angeles Lakers

Cason Wallace | Kentucky | PG/SG | Age: 18.2

13. Boston Celtics

Jeremy Sochan | Baylor | PF | Age: 18.6

14. New York Knicks

Sidy Cissoko | Baskonia | SG | Age: 17.8

15. Toronto Raptors

Peyton Watson | UCLA | SF/PF | Age: 19.3

16. Atlanta Hawks

Amari Bailey | UCLA* | PG | Age: 17.9

17. Atlanta Hawks (from Charlotte)

Dillon Mitchell | Texas* | SF/PF | Age: 18.3

18. New York Knicks (from Dallas)

Caleb Houstan | Michigan | SF | Age: 19.0

19. Cleveland Cavaliers

Max Christie | Michigan State | SG | Age: 18.9

20. Oklahoma City Thunder (from Denver)

Emoni Bates | Memphis | SG/SF | Age: 17.9

21. Orlando Magic (via Chicago Bulls)

Brandon Miller | Alabama* | SF | Age: 19.1

22. Philadelphia 76ers

Jarace Walker | Houston* | PF | Age: 18.3

23. Oklahoma City Thunder (from Miami)

Ousmane N'diaye | Rhoendorf | PF/C | Age: 17.8

24. LA Clippers

Harrison Ingram | Stanford | SF/PF | Age: 19.1

25. Memphis Grizzlies

Chris Livingston | Kentucky* | SF/PF | Age: 18.2

26. Phoenix Suns

J.J. Starling | Notre Dame* | SG | Age: 17.8

27. Utah Jazz

Gradey **** | Kansas* | SG/SF | Age: 18.2

28. Houston Rockets (from Milwaukee)

Nikola Durisic | Mega Mozzart | SF | Age: 17.9

29. Brooklyn Nets

Alex Fudge | LSU | SF/PF | Age: 18.7

30. Golden State Warriors

Rayan Rupert | INSEP Academy | SG | Age: 17.6

31. Oklahoma City Thunder

Nolan Hickman | Gonzaga | PG | Age: 18.7

32. New York Knicks (from Detroit)

Malaki Branham | Ohio State | PG | Age: 19.6

33. Orlando Magic

Andre Jackson | Connecticut | SF | Age: 20.1

34. Boston Celtics (from Houston)

Adem Bona | UCLA* | C | Age: 18.8

35. Sacramento Kings

Taran Armstrong | Cal Baptist | PG | Age: 20.0

36. San Antonio Spurs

Justin Lewis | Marquette | SF/PF | Age: 19.7

37. Indiana Pacers

Daimion Collins | Kentucky | PF/C | Age: 19.2

38. Boston Celtics (from Portland)

Moussa Diabate | Michigan | PF/C | Age: 20.0

39. Oklahoma City Thunder (from Washington)

Josh Minott | Memphis | PF | Age: 19.1

40. New Orleans Pelicans

Jordan Hawkins | Connecticut | SG | Age: 19.7

41. Minnesota Timberwolves

Dereon Seabron | N.C. State | SG | Age: 21.6

42. Los Angeles Lakers

Julian Strawther | Gonzaga | SF | Age: 19.7

43. Charlotte Hornets (from Boston)

John Butler | Florida State | PF/C | Age: 19.1

44. New York Knicks

Jazian Gortman | Overtime Elite | PG/SG | Age: 18.7

45. Toronto Raptors

Roko Prkacin | Cibona Zagreb | PF | Age: 19.1

46. Philadelphia 76ers (from Atlanta)

Jaime Jaquez Jr. | UCLA | SG | Age: 20.9

47. Atlanta Hawks (from Charlotte)

Aminu Mohammed | Georgetown | SF | Age: 20.1

48. New York Knicks (from Dallas)

Jalen Williams | Santa Clara | SF | Age: 20.7

49. Cleveland Cavaliers

Caleb Love | North Carolina | SG | Age: 20.3

50. Chicago Bulls (from Denver)

This pick is forfeited

51. Los Angeles Lakers (from Chicago)

Boogie Ellis | USC | PG/SG | Age: 21.1

52. Philadelphia 76ers

Jamarion Sharp | Western Kentucky | C | Age: 20.4

53. Indiana Pacers (from Miami)

Mike Miles | TCU | PG | Age: 19.4

54. LA Clippers

Hakim Hart | Maryland | SF/PF | Age: 20.7

55. Memphis Grizzlies

Jordan Hall | Saint Joseph's | SF | Age: 20.0

56. Phoenix Suns

Gui Santos | Minas | SF | Age: 19.5

57. New York Knicks (from Utah)

Hyunjung Lee | Davidson | SG/SF | Age: 21.2

58. Milwaukee Bucks

Tristan Vukcevic | Real Madrid | PF | Age: 18.8

59. Brooklyn Nets

Karlo Matkovic | Mega Mozzart | C | Age: 20.9

60. Detroit Pistons (from Golden State)

Zsombor Maronka | Prat | SF | Age: 19.3

*Committed

Who is the No. 1 college prospect in 2023?

Seventeen months before the 2023 NBA draft, there's a clear top two in the class: 7-foot-3 French big Victor Wembanyama and G League Ignite guard Scoot Henderson. Pinpointing the top of the class isn't as challenging as you might expect. Two years ago in our first 2021 mock draft, we had Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley pegged as the top prospects, which ended up being the exact order. One year ago, we projected Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero and Jabari Smith to be the top three picks in the 2022 draft, which is exactly what our forecast today still says.

While plenty can still change, Wembanyama and Henderson are currently out in front as the top two prospects, with most of the mystery revolving around whom to slate behind them as the best incoming college freshmen in a high school senior class that is as wide open as we can remember at this stage. The high school all-star circuit, including the McDonald's All American Game, Jordan Brand Classic and Nike Hoop Summit, will also put other contenders at the forefront.

It doesn't help that ESPN's previous No. 1-ranked player in the class, Shaedon Sharpe, elected to graduate high school in May and enroll at Kentucky earlier this month. Most NBA teams are operating under the assumption that Sharpe, who turns 19 in May, did so in order to enter the 2022 NBA draft, something that he is eligible for now, sources told ESPN. Sharpe declaring for the draft might depend on whether or not he plays for Kentucky this season, which we should have more clarity on in the next week, but history says that the proposition of turning down the option of being a top-10 pick is unlikely, even if Sharpe is said to be adamant about prioritizing his long-term development and is very much interested in returning to play a full season in college.

Besides Sharpe, other candidates for consideration atop the 2023 board include Arkansas commit Nick Smith, Dereck Lively (Duke), Dariq Whitehead (Duke), Kyle Filipowski (Duke) and Keyonte George (Baylor). All would be strong secondary candidates in normal classes, a product of the mass reclassification we've seen from this group (Henderson, Emoni Bates, Jalen Duren, Sharpe, Caleb Houstan et al.). With none of the current players offering the type of guaranteed upside you expect up top, we've elected to go with Smith, arguably the most enticing long-term talent, as the best incoming college freshman prospect.

The 17-year-old offers a tantalizing combination of size, length, fluidity, shot-making, playmaking and competitiveness defensively, giving him an ideal package for a modern NBA guard prospect. A late bloomer who didn't solidify himself in the five-star conversation until the Nike EYBL last summer, he has plenty of work to do in the strength department, contributing to his lack of high-end explosiveness/power operating in the lane, and can be a little casual with his shot selection and decision-making.

Playing off the ball quite a bit in the past, Smith is only now starting to mold himself into a lead guard, the evolution of which will play a major role in how he's viewed as an NBA prospect, as well as how he progresses physically. He already looks like one of the most skilled guards in the class at using and rejecting ball screens with his outstanding ballhandling, vision and creativity passing off a live dribble and operating off hesitation moves, something that's only amplified by his impressive range on pull-up jumpers.

While Smith is not yet a unanimous top-five prospect by recruiting analysts, Lively looks like the early favorite to finish as the No. 1 player in the 2022 high school class, and for good reason. At 7-foot-1, with a 9-foot-2 standing reach, he offers exceptional mobility covering ground fluidly and getting off his feet with incredible ease for dunks and blocks, making him an absolute force defensively. He averaged 6.2 blocks per 40 minutes at the Nike EYBL last summer on the team that won the championship, the fifth-best rate in the competition's history. He's also highly skilled as a passer and already shows the ability to step out and hit 3-pointers with increasingly polished shooting mechanics, giving him a modern element to his game that all big-man prospects need, to go along with his rim-running, lob-catching, rim-protecting and pick-and-roll-switching prowess.

Also not considered a consensus five-star prospect until last summer, the main holdup for Lively to enter the No. 1 pick conversation, where his talent suggests he belongs, is his lack of productivity at the high school level. In a high-profile matchup with Gill St. Bernard's at the Hoophall Classic in Springfield, Massachusetts, last weekend, he didn't attempt a field goal until well into the second half, and finished the game with only five points (on 2-for-8 shooting) despite boasting at least a 6-inch height advantage on the next-tallest player on the floor at all times. He has been criticized for his lack of physicality and alpha mentality, mirroring some of the same things we heard about Mobley at the same stage but to an even more extreme degree. We've learned over the years not to be too much of a prisoner of the moment when it comes to evaluating late-blooming, 17-year-old 7-footers in Lively's mold, but how he evolves in the toughness and productivity departments as the season progresses at Duke will be important.

The Duke-bound Filipowski had the clear-cut most impressive individual showing of any player at the Hoophall Classic, posting 28 points, 10 rebounds, 5 blocks and 4 assists in 24 minutes. While the level of competition left much to be desired, these types of performances have become the norm for Filipowski, including in a high-profile matchup earlier this month against fellow Duke commit Lively. At 6-foot-11, with a physical frame that NBA teams favor and impressive explosiveness, Filipowski is a skilled big man who can handle, pass and shoot and looks to be making significant strides defensively. Don't be surprised if Duke uses him similarly to how Banchero is being deployed this season, giving him the freedom to push off the defensive glass and play pick-and-roll with the springy Lively. The consistency of Filipowski's perimeter shot and his ability to defend power forwards will be scrutinized closely next year, but he's improving rapidly and there's quite a bit to like about his long-term upside. Like Smith and Lively, he didn't cement himself as a surefire five-star prospect until the EYBL.



Wing prospects Whitehead and George have long been considered top-five-caliber recruits in this class but have been somewhat inconsistent with their performances this season. That makes sense considering they are at the top of opposing scouting reports playing in the deep, physical and well-coached National Interscholastic Basketball Conference (NIBC), which is preparing them for the rigors of college basketball.

Whitehead is the youngest American player in this mock draft, not turning 18 until August, but made his Hoophall Classic debut as a 13-year-old in 2018. A transition scorer and versatile defender who has made major strides with his pull-up jumper, Whitehead is trying to make the jump from consummate glue guy to more of a featured option on a weaker Montverde Academy team this season, something that's been a work in progress. While he undeniably has an extremely high floor as the type of two-way prospect every NBA team covets, we're still learning more about his ceiling.



George might be the most skilled scorer in the class, a thick-framed Eric Gordon type at 6-4 with a healthy ability to put the ball in the basket. He has gained some bad weight this season despite joining one of the most renowned strength and conditioning programs in the country at IMG, but he should be able to get in better shape at Baylor. George's ability to get downhill, finish around the basket, make shots from all over the floor, create for others in small doses and increasingly defend with energy (a relatively new development) gives him a great framework to build off. Being efficient with his shot selection and decision-making, bringing consistent intensity and playing more of a team game and winning style will be the things scouts want to see more of from him, as he's not blessed with elite physical tools in terms of size, length or explosiveness to compensate.

Two sleepers to keep in mind are the Thompson twins -- Ausar and Amen -- playing with Overtime Elite, both of whom are in our top 10 after showing a great deal of intrigue 13 games into their seasons. Both have everything the NBA is looking for as high-end lottery prospects from a physical standpoint, with incredible frames, length, fluidity and explosiveness. In terms of defensive versatility, intensity, court vision, transition scoring and ability to play anywhere on the floor, there is no one else like them in the class. The questions come on the offensive end, specifically in the half court. Ausar is faster and stronger, and he's the better shooter and overall scorer, but he leaves something to be desired, hitting just 27% of his 3-pointers (9-for-34) and 50% of his free throws. Amen is the superior passer and ball handler and is said to be more the alpha personality of the two, but he struggles to put the ball in the basket at times against better defenses. How much progress the two are able to make with their mechanics, touch and consistency from beyond the arc will play a major role in where they'll end up being picked, and perhaps how OTE as a venture is viewed.

Turning 19 next week, agewise the twins would have been eligible for the 2022 NBA draft if they were international prospects. Unlike Sharpe, they weren't close to graduating high school when the NBA season started (a requirement of the age limit rule), which will push them to the 2023 NBA draft with their original high school class, something their father, Troy Thompson, confirmed to ESPN and says they are completely comfortable with. -- Jonathan Givony

How does the 2023 international class stack up?

Projected No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama is a household name among draft die-hards by now. A prospect I've been evaluating closely since he was 13, the 7-3 phenom with a never-ending wingspan and rare skill level for his size does everything on both ends, and has already proved himself against this year's projected top pick, Holmgren, last summer on the FIBA circuit, going for 22 points, 8 boards and 8 blocks in a narrow loss to the United States. Likely the only thing that can hold him back from stardom are injuries, which he's battled this season with ASVEL given his height and thin frame.

But what about the rest of the 2023 international class behind Wembanyama?

I recently spent 10 days canvassing Europe to get a feel for the next crop of potential international stars beyond the 2022 draft class. Not including Wembanyama, the 2023 draft features five potential first-round picks currently playing in Europe, each one with a different path and skill set.

• French-Senegalese guard Sidy Cissoko is the most talented of the bunch, standing 6-6 with long arms, big hands, a strong 196-pound frame and the ability to create offense for both himself and his teammates. He's a powerful downhill driver who has already finished several poster dunks this season, while also showcasing impressive shot-making potential despite his 29% 3-point clip. Although he can make most pick-and-roll reads when he's going right, Cissoko -- who plays point guard full time for Iraurgi in Spain's second division -- needs to improve his decision-making and handle to play on the ball full time at the highest level. His defensive energy and body language also need major work, and making strides in those areas will be crucial for him to maximize his potential as a top-10 pick. The 17-year-old is under contract with Baskonia in the Basque Region and could earn minutes in the ACB next season.

• The best international big in this class (after Wembanyama) is Barcelona's James Nnaji, a Nigerian-born center who wasn't considered an NBA prospect less than two years ago playing in Hungary yet is now earning minutes for a club that rarely hands them out to young prospects. At 6-10, 245 pounds with a reported 7-7 wingspan, huge hands and impressive mobility, Nnaji sports one of the most impressive physical profiles you'll see from any big-man prospect, with dimensions comparable to Bismack Biyombo. He's already putting his tools to good use, recently scoring 10 points, grabbing 5 rebounds and swatting 5 shots in 19 minutes in his ACB debut. We saw him live against Efes in Euroleague action, where he more than held his own in a limited role for the first place Spanish powerhouse. Nnaji is a high-energy rebounder with the motor and physicality of Isaiah Stewart yet far more potential as a rim protector and pick-and-roll defender.

• One of the most intriguing prospects in this group is Senegalese forward Ousmane N'diaye, whom we first saw at a small tournament in Hungary in January 2020. N'diaye now stands 6-10 with a 7-2 wingspan and excellent touch from 3, projecting as a stretch-4 who sees the floor well and can protect the rim in a pinch. Developing with Rhoendorf in Germany, Ndiaye leads the German third division in rebounds and ranks in the top five in blocks while showing potential as a shooter, even tossing in the occasional step-back.

N'diaye, who came from Senegal to Germany two years ago, missed a year with knee injuries and still needs to improve his perimeter defense, flexibility and physicality at 205 pounds, so it might take him longer than others to maximize his potential. He's expected to play his draft-eligible season with Bonn in the German first League.

• The most proven of this crop is Nikola Durisic, a strong-framed, 6-8 Serbian wing who was first identified as a preteen, ultimately joining prospect-laden Mega Mozzart as a 13-year-old. The son of a professional soccer player (father) and volleyball player (mother), the 17-year-old Durisic is a physical, well-rounded player who brings defensive intensity to the floor and has shown the ability to create offense for both himself and his teammates, even earning some point guard reps through 13 games in the Adriatic League, averaging 5.4 assists per 40 minutes. Durisic is a streaky shooter who needs to improve as a finisher and address his emotional reactivity amidst adversity, but he has a relatively high floor and real first-round potential given his positional size, toughness, feel for the game and likely starting role with Mega during his draft-eligible season.

• Arguably the best long-term European prospect outside of Wembanyama is French guard Rayan Rupert, whom I watched go for 21 points, 10 rebounds and 4 steals in a win over Avignon in the French third division. As the leader of a U18 INSEP team competing against professionals, Rupert is incredibly impressive in his all-business approach at just 17 years old, which comes as little surprise as he's the brother of 2021 WNBA draft pick Iliana Rupert and the son of longtime French professional Thierry Rupert, who tragically died in 2013. Physically, Rupert is highly intriguing with Kawhi Leonard-like dimensions, standing 6-6 with a reported 7-3 wingspan, a projectable yet lean frame and the potential to sprout as tall as 6-9. Although he's a streaky shooter, an improving decision-maker and a finesse-reliant finisher lacking physicality, Rupert is a disruptive on-ball defender and has tremendous upside as a shot creator given his ability to rise over top of virtually any guard and get to his patented midrange jumper, even showing some range on pull-up 3s. More long than explosive, Rupert is at an early stage of physical development and shouldn't be expected to be overly productive in his first professional season next year (location still unknown), but he has as high of an upside as any international prospect in this class outside of the No. 1 pick. -- Mike Schmitz

Will 2022 repeat itself with breakout sophomores in 2023?

The 2021-22 NCAA season has been the year of the sophomore breakout, with second-year players such as Jaden Ivey, Keegan Murray, Bennedict Mathurin and Johnny Davis all projected in the top eight of the 2022 draft. While Davis was the least known of the bunch, Murray, Ivey and Mathurin would have all surely been drafted in 2021 if they had entered, some of them earning real consideration in the first round. But they all opted to return to school, each now in the midst of All-American-caliber season, and will enter the NBA with real clout and pressure from the coaching staff to play early minutes.

As we look forward to 2023, with NIL (name, image and likeness) making the NCAA even more attractive, which freshmen could follow the template laid by that quartet, developing from prospect to player and ultimately landing in the lottery?

• Notre Dame guard Blake Wesley has been a hot name in scouting circles over the past couple of months thanks to his dynamic scoring ability, positional length and glimpses of playmaking as Notre Dame's most talented shot creator. Averaging 17.6 points in 33.3 minutes over his past five games, the 6-foot-5 18-year-old has shown enough to garner real interest throughout the first round, but he is in no rush to simply be a late-first-round pick, according to sources we've spoken to, and likely has the most potential in the country to be next year's Ivey. Becoming a more consistent shooter, defender and full-time point guard could certainly make Wesley a top-10 selection in 2023 and one of the most exciting guards in the nation.

• 6-10 Baylor forward Jeremy Sochan is another name to watch, as he was gaining considerable momentum as a 2022 prospect with his play in December -- 10.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 54% from 3 off the bench -- before an ankle injury. Sochan has the size and feel for the game to evolve into one of the more productive sophomores in the country next season, similar to what we saw from Murray, albeit with a different style of play. Sochan should be able to boost his draft stock with a strong summer at the European Championships with the Polish Senior National Team, parlaying that into a breakout sophomore season alongside projected top-10 pick George, where he'd have plenty of chances to show more of the passing that made him unique at the FIBA youth level.

• If his 35-point effort in a win over Nebraska was any indication, Ohio State freshman Malaki Branham looks the part of a future standout sophomore given his combo of length, defense and shooting at a sturdy 6-5 with a 6-10 wingspan. Like Davis as a freshman, the 19-year-old fits the mold of a 3-and-D-style off-guard, yet can still prove there are more layers to his game -- particularly in pick-and-roll -- next season with additional volume and E.J. Liddell likely in the NBA. As he showed by helping limit Davis to 14 points on 18 shots earlier this month, there's a lot to like about Branham's two-way potential.

• While all three would surely hear their names called in the 2022 draft if they opted to enter, freshmen Caleb Houstan, Peyton Watson and Max Christie could vie for spots in the 2023 lottery with bounce-back sophomore seasons. For Watson, a full summer of physical development, film study and shooting reps could turn the 6-8 19-year-old into one of the best two-way wings in the 2023 draft class, especially with UCLA likely to lose multiple perimeter players, opening the door for him to show more of his shot creation.

Should Houstan regain the shooting stroke and polish that made him so effective for the Canadian U19 team and at Montverde, he'll easily earn looks throughout the top 20 picks next June. Christie, who has shown more signs of life over his past five games (44% from 3), could pull a Josh Primo and opt for this year's draft with a strong showing down the stretch, but he has another level to reach in terms of defense, finishing and playmaking ability. If he turns his smooth jumper into a consistent weapon and improves in those areas, I'd expect Christie to compete with Branham as one of the best guards in the Big Ten next season, should he opt to return.

• The prospect most in need of a strong close to the season and big summer to enter the 2023 lottery conversation is 6-9 Memphis wing Emoni Bates. Once considered a future top pick as a young teen, Bates is now slotted at 20th overall with questions looming about his decision-making, frame, defensive awareness and overall ability to play through contact given his lack of length, physicality, burst and vertical pop. It's been a tough adjustment for the 17-year-old coming from a non-powerhouse high school without any FIBA experience to the collegiate level, as he has committed twice as many turnovers as assists while shooting just 35% at the rim in the half court.



As I said on the Memphis-Alabama broadcast, the media (myself included) is also to blame for comparing a young teenager to future Hall of Famers. With that said, it's time for Bates to recalibrate expectations, simplify his game and start building on the things he does well while addressing his shortcomings. When I was in Memphis earlier this season, Bates had an excellent practice by running the floor hard, making catch-and-shoot 3s, creating offense as a cutter and bringing energy defensively, free of all the pressure to try to become the next Kevin Durant. That's the template for him moving forward -- more singles, less home runs. Bates is now up to 35% from 3 this season, and his shooting touch is his clear NBA skill.

LA Clippers rookie Brandon Boston Jr. is a nice archetype for him as a shot-making wing who can catch fire both with his feet set and on the move. Although Bates' focus off the ball defensively needs work, he has a competitive energy about him that could manifest in becoming a more impactful defender and plus rebounder. He'll also show glimpses as an open-court playmaker when he's not sped up. Where Bates spends his draft-eligible season will play a big role in his development and NBA outlook as being held accountable is imperative for future success. Whether he's at Memphis or at an alternative pathway like Overtime Elite or the G League Ignite -- where he'd benefit from playing off potential top pick Henderson -- scouts will have a close eye on Bates' development. -- Schmitz
 
Keegan Murray has seen quite the rise. The non-star/highly-touted freshman to superstar sophomore seems like a thing as of late.

He wasn't even top 200 in HS just a summer ago.
 
Are the Thompson brothers legit? I saw some highlights of Amen, looked pretty flashy with his handle. Not to mention he's 6'6

Have no clue about Overtime Elite credentials but yeah the 2023 class looks pretty good
 


The next Kevin Garnett? How Auburn’s Jabari Smith turned himself into a star

For Auburn students enrolled in COMM 1000 Public Speaking, the assignment was simple. Pick a superhero and give a speech about how you relate to the superhero you picked. Not exactly a challenge to match the great orators of our time, but that wasn’t the point. Making your case was the point. And it required some imagination, though at least one kid in the class had a head start in metahuman proportions and skills. Jabari Smith nevertheless opened a browser and began his research via Google and scanned through the various idiosyncrasies of comic book legends. He quickly settled on his choice. He would give his speech about how he was like Spider-Man.

Spider-Man, obviously, liked to help others. Smith felt a connection there, or at least felt his unselfish streak translated as an equivalent. Spider-Man also preferred to keep his circle tight, placing unqualified trust in only a select few people close to him. Smith definitely could relate to this part. But one element drew Smith in probably more than any other: Spider-Man keeps his identity secret. In most iterations, he hides his true self from the world. While his motivations don’t necessarily apply to teenagers in college who play basketball, in this case, for this speechwriter, the idea resonated. For most of his day, every day, Spider-Man is more than happy to be treated like everyone else. “I don’t really look at the lights and all of the cameras and all of that,” Smith says, “but I do like doing what I do.”

It’s a very nice thought. It’s also hilarious. Smith is talking through the particulars of this assignment and, in the background of the Zoom video, hangs a framed USA Basketball jersey. And a pennant and framed certificate from the McDonald’s All-American game. And a WELCOME TO THE FAMILY banner from the Jordan Brand Classic. All arranged neatly on the wall by Smith himself, all of it symbolic of a teenager who became one of the most coveted recruits in the nation, all of it hanging above the headboard of an unmade bed. The kid has done so much in so little time. And the kid is also still a kid, as reality encroaches by the minute. With great potential comes great and sweltering visibility.

Five years ago, Smith wasn’t the best player on his middle school team. He’s now a freshman star for an emerging national championship contender. He might be the first player to walk the stage during the next NBA Draft. He’s the real-life result of aggressive create-a-player decisions, a 6-foot-10 condor with an impeccable stroke and zero defensive limitations and a lifetime of built-in basketball instincts. He is not, at all, like everybody else.

“Everyone,” one NBA scout says, “has a huge, huge crush on him.”

For now, alas, it will have to do to be one of the most skilled players in college basketball, inch-for-inch, and the leading scorer for the nation’s new No. 1 team. Smith’s numbers (15.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists per game) are not deceivingly modest. They’re not intentionally modest. They’re both, actually. Auburn’s depth of talent produces results such as a 23-point rout of Georgia on Jan. 19 in which no Tiger scored more than 15 points but six of them finished in double-figures, or the poll-vaulting nine-point win over Kentucky on Saturday during which eight players recorded at least one bucket and no one took more than 10 shots. A ball-dominant volume-shooter would harsh the vibe in the room, and Auburn wouldn’t be what it is as a result. So no one produces All-America box scores night after night.

But … Jabari Smith probably could, if he wanted to.

His per-40 minute production suggests it (23.1 points, 9.3 boards, 3.0 assists and 2.0 steals). As does an effective field goal percentage of 55.2 while taking 44 percent of his shots from 3-point range. As do Smith’s points-per-possession rates of 1.347 in spot-up scenarios and 1.083 on post-ups, per Synergy Sports. A lot of digits and metrics to digest, yes. They add up to this: If a 6-10 guy with deft footwork and a high-end stroke forced it, the raw nightly results would look different. “When he wants the ball, he doesn’t want the ball because he cares about putting up 20 versus 13,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl says. “He wants the ball because he wants to win, and he knows he can make that shot. That’s a great quality. There’s a difference. He’s not selfish. He’s confident.”

In any case, no one should be unclear about what’s going on here. Various levels of All-American and freshman or player of the year arguments can be made. It’s all residue of Jabari Smith’s seemingly endless growth spurt. He’s emerged as one of college basketball’s best and most intriguing players for the same reasons people can’t help but imagine what happens after the next two and a half months.

Jabari Smith Sr. was a 6-11, 250-pound leviathan for two seasons at LSU as the century turned, the second-leading scorer for a 28-win Sweet 16 team as a senior. “A badass,” as Pearl puts it. Smith Sr. appeared in 108 NBA games over parts of four seasons before extending his pro career with overseas stints in Turkey, Iran, Puerto Rico and Mexico. At personal and professional crossroads in the late aughts, Smith Sr. effectively chose the former over the latter, intent on being present in his sons’ lives in a way his own father was not. Jabari Smith Sr. got his broad shoulders and a body that allowed him to pursue his dreams from his Dad, but little else. “Hell, I still struggle with it some days now,” Smith Sr. says. “I love a man who didn’t take care of me or make an imprint on my life.” So with one son in middle school and another in grade school, and an imminent split with his wife Tanisha, he had choices to make. He could take a job at a hospital or a group home or even a full-time coaching spot that might have him working afternoon-to-evening shifts, which would wipe out his ability to see his children after they left school for the day. Or he could move in with his mother, back in east Atlanta, and scrape out a living as a rideshare driver and a DoorDash deliverer and a former star player who could train aspiring young players here and there.

It wasn’t a close call. His time, as he saw it, was his kids’ time. Even if it meant a 35-minute drive to see his younger son in the suburb of Fayetteville, Ga., and to chauffeur Jabari Jr. to the P3 peak performance project facility near Emory University or a gym for an AAU practice or wherever else he needed to be. Any other choice, to Jabari Smith Sr., meant he was signing up to not be in his sons’ lives. “So you end up dropping money off and not seeing your kid? That’s B.S.,” he says now. “So I made those sacrifices. I had to. The pain that I went through, and the mental blockage that I had coming up over the years, I just knew that I couldn’t let him feel that pain.”

These, essentially, are the opening panels to Jabari Smith Jr.’s origin story. “I don’t know where I would be without him,” Jabari Jr. says of his father.

Smith likewise added 25 pounds through offseason strength training and diet changes, and is that odd specimen who shows up for more weight room work on scheduled off-days for the team. “Most kids on off-days are like, ‘Hell yeah, I’m chilling today, playing video games, I’m going to go get something good to eat,’” Steven Pearl says. “Jabari understands he’s got to train like a pro.” Indeed, the early morning shooting may not be as logistically feasible in-season, but the tone-setting approach hasn’t waned. For Auburn’s coaches and players, there’s a competitiveness to Smith that stands out because it contains a willingness to be vulnerable, to be exposed as even infinitesimally deficient in a given area, because recognizing and addressing a weakness is the only way to eradicate it.

Auburn’s pool table is but one example. “He wants to be the best in the locker room,” Kessler says. “I’m not gonna lie — I’m better than him. But he always wants to play and get better.” The approach evidently extends to any drill or skill in which Smith is not, by a wide margin, the best; he’ll specifically ask to be paired with whomever the superior player might be, to create competition where there might not actually be any, really. “Most people that are quote-unquote five stars, they want to hide their deficiencies,” Bowman says. “They don’t want to come across as weak. He’ll jump in and say, ‘OK, you’re a little better than me at that. But in two weeks, I’m going to be as good or better than you, because I’m going to work on it.’”

So that’s the underpinning to all this, from the touch-the-sky nights like a 25-point effort in a riveting Jan. 11 win at Alabama to the less glitzy but equally telling streak of 17 straight games with double-digit points to his name. What Jabari Smith has done was never guaranteed. But neither is it surprising, all facts considered.

Smith’s approach eliminates the concept of accidents. One thing leads to another. The growth doesn’t stop.

And if we assume the people in his orbit didn’t huddle just to get their stories straight, he appears to be happy to be like everyone else while everyone else totally knows he’s something entirely different, which makes everyone happy to make way when necessary. “I feel like I’ll be doing a disservice to just be looking at the next level and just to be worried about that when I’m here, when I really have a good shot to win, a good shot to make history,” Smith says. “I feel like when you’re having fun and you enjoy what you’re doing, it’s easy to be patient. It’s easy to wait on the results and just live in the moment.”

All the moments connect, though. They get Jabari Smith to where he wants to be.

In the spirit of COMM 1000, allow us to make the following presentation:

How Jabari Smith is like a No. 1 NBA Draft pick.

The arsenal. Ask the people who see him every day one question — What makes Jabari Smith so difficult to deal with? — and the variety of replies is itself the tell.

“Well, I mean, he’s a 6-10 shooter, you know?” Kessler says. “How do you block that? And it’s not like he’s shooting at a low clip, either.”

“His motor is always running, he takes smart shots, and what I really noticed was how he catches the ball — he catches the ball in attack position,” Flanigan says. “He plays off of your body movement. When he catches it, he’s going to hit you with a jab and check to see if he can get his shot up first, and then he plays from there.”

“His patience with the ball,” Green says. “When he catches the ball in the post, they foul him probably 90 percent of the time. But he’s taking his time, looking over the floor, and he has so many moves you don’t really know which one he’s going to do.”

The foundation is as Kessler notes: Smith’s height and release point enable him to shoot over pretty much anyone, in any scenario. He’s averaging 1.109 PPP on all jump shots through the Kentucky game, good for the 82nd percentile nationally, and he’s a little more lethal specifically as a catch-and-shoot guy at 1.236 PPP. (And forget about it if you lose him in a defensive rotation; he’s 10 of 13 on unguarded jump shots this season.) But this also leaves some pretty significant room for expansion. If there’s been a notable advance in Smith’s repertoire during the college season, it’s in what Auburn’s head coach calls the “rip game,” wherein Smith attacks a defense and embraces the idea of trying to finish through contact. And “drives to the basket” still only account for 11 of his 75 spot-up possessions in the half-court.

“In high school, he’d turn around, fade away, be able to shoot over you,” Bruce Pearl says. “When he got here, he realized that people are going to hit you on the elbow, and it’s going to (knock) that shot off, and they’re not going to call it. So taking it and scoring through people’s chest, getting it downhill, ripping it, getting to the foul line a little bit more — those were things that he’s really grown and developed.”

Meanwhile, Smith is efficient in the post, yes, but heavily reliant on turnaround or face-up jumpers; he’s not once attempted a hook shot from the block, at least according to Synergy Sports’ definition of a hook shot. His former and current coaches view this as a potentially transformative add. “I’d like him to develop that baby hook like K.G. had,” Nickerson says, bringing Hall of Famer and 15-time All-Star Kevin Garnett into the chat. “I just see a lot of K.G. in him. Everybody says Kevin Durant. I don’t see that. I see more like K.G., Chris Bosh. I think if he could develop a really good, back-to-the-basket baby hook, man, it’d take him to another level.”

The switchability. A strange thing happened during summer workouts. Flanigan ran through a standard ball-screen action on offense and the defense switched, and he wound up guarded by a 6-10 freshman … and the coaches didn’t sound alarms. They encouraged the freshman to stay in front. Which Jabari Smith did. “You get the switch and it’s like, yeah, I got a big,” Flanigan says. “You think you’re going to take him off the bounce or whatever. It’s like, nah, he’s going to sit there and guard for real.”

He is, and he’s kind of unfathomably good at it.

Witness Smith switching on to Alabama’s JD Davison in the second half on Jan. 11, matched up against a point guard capable of nitrous-fueled drives, getting in a stance and staying in front of another five-star freshman and finishing the play by pinning Davison’s shot attempt against the glass. “He’s not trying, man — that’s what he does all the time,” Nickerson says. “When we were doing shell drill for 10 minutes at the beginning of practice, it’s the exact same stance you see when he’s guarding JD Davison. That’s a habit. That’s not him ‘trying.’ That’s literally all he knows.”

In a league where exploiting the switch might be the most fundamental playoff basketball concept of all, the guy who can’t be exploited — badly, anyway — is all but invaluable. But it’s not just Smith’s physical capacity to guard at least three or four positions that’s alluring. It’s not just that he’s even OK with trying. It’s that he already can absorb a scouting report at 18 years old and apply it on the floor, which supercharges his odds of being a defensive nuisance he logically shouldn’t be. Auburn’s book on Davison? Decrease his space from the 3-point line to the charge circle, because he’s trying to get downhill and into the paint to create, but don’t let him get into your body early. Smith followed the plan and, in Bowman’s mind, it’s the reason he blocked the shot at the end of the aforementioned sequence. The scout for Jahvon Quinerly was trickier, because it involved Smith changing his feet to keep Quinerly’s first dribble in his left hand pocket. “A lot of kids don’t get that,” Bowman says. “He understood it. Kept him in front. Kept his left foot up to make his first dribble be with his left hand. Decreased the space, took away the catch-and-shoot. Once he got inside the 3-point line, (Smith) was not close enough to him where (Quinerly) could blow by him — there was enough distance where he could use his length and athleticism to keep him in front.”

Which brings us, in conclusion, to …

The processor. On New Year’s Day of 2020, Sandy Creek’s boys’ basketball team battled Newton High School from Covington, Ga., into the final minute. Newton had the lead, but not an insurmountable one. Then, in a moment of emotion and frustration, birthed from the competitiveness of someone who was 17 at the time, Jabari Smith picked up a technical foul.

Smith, a year removed, doesn’t perfectly recall the particulars. He thinks he pounded the ball against a wall at a timeout. Regardless, he didn’t mean to show anyone up. He nevertheless drew the attention of the officials and the whistle. Sandy Creek’s chances went from slim to none. In a follow-up film session, Nickerson took his star player to task. Called him out in front of his teammates. “Lit him up,” as the Sandy Creek coach puts it. And Smith maintained eye contact with his coach the entire time, a can’t-miss star not only taking the shots but also absorbing the message. “There wasn’t any slow blink,” Nickerson says. “When kids slowly blink, that’s like a non-verbal cue — like, shut up, you don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. He was locked in. Then for the rest of the season you saw a grown man out there, going about his business. No whining about calls. No emotional outbursts toward teammates for not seeing him running the floor. Just being mature. Being a great teammate.”

Jabari Smith has acted like a kid and, probably, will continue to do so sometimes. Because that is what kids do. His ability to distill and apply efficiently, though, belies his age. His high school coach ripped him in front of a live audience, and the most important player in the room, the one with the gilded future, computed it as a teaching point rather than an embarrassment. He can identify critical, arcane tendencies in Alabama guards, with the help of the coaches, and execute accordingly a couple days later. His pregame warmup routine involves taking only the shots he’ll take in a game, at game-speed, because screwing around and ad libbing won’t help beat Division I opposition. He’s a regular in the cold tub and a consistent user of the NormaTech devices, because he’s grasped the concept of recovery earlier than most. Hell, Smith had a set time to eat before games and put on his shoes, and so forth, by the time he was a sophomore in high school.

No one has to teach him what a professional approach looks like. He’s understood what that looks like ever since the wakeup calls came at 5:45 a.m. and a pair of beams from the family car flickered on a few minutes later, shining a light on what was coming next.

“It’s always been a lifestyle to me,” Jabari Smith says.
After one of the most consequential victories in the history of Auburn men’s basketball, after an intoxicating afternoon spent in a red-hot cauldron of an arena featuring local fire codes pushed to the absolute limit, Jabari Smith met with his entourage of loved ones, smiling ear to ear. And, pretty much, thus ended the Smith family celebration of a victory over Kentucky that helped the program shoot up to its first No. 1 ranking. Grandma went to bed early. Dad watched the 49ers-Packers playoff game, reveling in the result — he’s still sore about Wisconsin eliminating LSU from the NCAA Tournament in his senior year — and then sought out some evening fun. Mom did her own thing.

Jabari Smith, meanwhile, did whatever 18-year-old college kids do after a big win, and that very much did not include hanging out with his family. “Man, my son don’t want to spend no time with me after winning no game,” Jabari Smith Sr. says with a deep baritone laugh. “He said, ‘Hello.’ That’s about as far as he went. He didn’t go no further than that.”

And this was fine. This was exactly what everyone wanted. Jabari Smith Jr. was exactly where he was supposed to be, once again. He was supposed to be a teenager, having fun.

That’s the whole idea behind this, believe it or not. The opportunity to pursue the professional route was there after high school, but he didn’t take it, in part because the professional route couldn’t offer Saturdays like the one Jabari Smith enjoyed against Kentucky. It didn’t offer him the chance to go to SEC football games and take his shirt off and yell like every other nutty student in the stadium. It didn’t offer him a chance to bask in big-man-on-campus worship, if only for a few months. The fun might be a little more mitigated by the stakes now, and the smile might be more of what his father calls a “business smile.” Auburn still can do more things that Auburn has never done before, and no small part of that burden falls on a 6-10 freshman with a gilded future. But Jabari Smith is still having fun nevertheless.

We know this, because he doesn’t talk to the old man as much anymore. They used to chat every day. Twice a day, usually. On game days, around three hours before tipoff, Dad would call. His younger son would pick up. Dad would throw his two cents at his son and say I love you, and that was that.

But that was always that. Every game, without fail. And now it’s early January in the year 2022, and Auburn is a few hours away from a rivalry clash at Alabama, and the phone isn’t ringing. Jabari Smith Sr. is a little in his feelings. He’s sore about his son not connecting with him as much, even though he understands that means everything is going precisely according to plan, so this time he’s waiting for the boy to reach out. He’s waiting to be there, like always.

The call never comes. That night, Jabari Smith Jr. drops those 25 points on Alabama, a full and proper introduction to the world, a case made for everyone who didn’t realize what they were seeing already.

After the game, the two finally connect. Dad is happy, but still a little put off by being put off. The Smiths, after all, aren’t supposed to skip steps.

You don’t think you have to call Pops no more? he asks. You got this thing figured out?

“Looks like it,” Jabari Smith replies.
 


The remarkable rise of Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin: ‘Believe is a big word for me’

The car slowed down as it passed, which was usually not a good sign. In the borough of Montreal-Nord, Quebec, one wrong look, one wrong word, could send a person’s life on a different, darker path. Bennedict Mathurin was only 11 years old, and he knew this all too well. He looked straight at the driver anyway. Maybe even glared a little. He was trying to come off tough because he was certain he was safe. “I was with my brother,” Mathurin says. “I figured nothing bad could happen to me.”

Dominique and Benn, the name he goes by to family and friends, had always been close, but they had become even tighter since their older sister, Jennifer, left in 2013 to play basketball for NC State. Basketball was the brothers’ bond, as well as the lodestar they hoped would lead them toward a brighter future. On the day they encountered that car, Benn and Dominique had spent several hours in fullcourt pickup games at Parc Le Carignan, playing on opposite teams as usual. “I always wanted to play against him,” Benn says. “He was the only player who was stronger than me.” Though the driver passed without incident, Dominique reproached his brother for being so dumb. “I don’t want you to ever look at a car like that again,” he said. “You never know who it could be.”

Nothing bad happened that day, but a couple of months later, something very bad did. It was the kind of pivotal moment that could have — should have, really — sent Bennedict Mathurin on a different, darker path. Yet here he stands eight years later, a remarkably gifted 6-7 sophomore guard at Arizona, the leading scorer on the nation’s No. 3-ranked team, an All-America candidate and projected NBA lottery pick about to play in the Wildcats’ biggest game of the season Tuesday night at No. 7 UCLA. Looking back on the road Mathurin has traveled, it’s a wonder he ever found his way, but he speaks as if he always knew where he would end up. “I would say I’m not surprised,” he says in his soft, baritone voice, seasoned with a French accent. “Believe is a big word for me. You can do everything you want, if you really believe.”

Believe is a big word indeed, but it only begins to explain how all this happened. Each time Mathurin arrived at a pivotal moment, he somehow managed to turn in the right direction. How did someone who came from nothing and lost everything end up with the whole world in his hands?

The first pivotal moment came in 2000, when 6-year-old Jenn Mathurin discovered basketball. It wasn’t a typical pursuit for a young girl of Haitian descent in an underprivileged Canadian community, but she was good at it and wanted to keep playing. When her brothers got old enough, they would follow her to the gym, grab a ball, and imitate her every move.

The Mathurin children never met their dad and to this day know very little about him. He emigrated from Haiti, met their mom in Canada, and died in 2013 of an unspecified illness. Asked for more details about who their father was, Jenn replies, “This is a conversation I haven’t had with my mom.”

Her mom, Elvie Jeune, struggled with the burdens of working long hours at a local hospital and raising three children as a single mom in a neighborhood that Jenn and Bennedict say was rife with drugs and gang violence. So it was left to Jenn to pick up Dominique and Benn from school, make sure they did their homework, fix them dinner, go to basketball practice, come home and complete her own schoolwork, and then do it all over again the next day. Benn didn’t think much about his father, but there were times he felt his absence. “To be honest, at first I was like, Damn, why don’t I have a dad to come to the game?” he says. “So my sister became my dad, basically.”

When Jenn got serious about basketball in high school, it created a lot of friction with her mother. “I had a dream to play basketball, but in the Haitian community the normal route is to get new opportunities through work and academics,” Jenn says. “There was a lot of tension because my mom couldn’t understand why I wanted to play this sport, which she thought was not going to lead me anywhere.” (Jeune declined through her daughter to be interviewed for this story.)

As a result, Jenn was spending less time at home and sleeping most nights at friends’ houses. When her grassroots coach, Michel Mettelus, learned of her situation, he offered to have her move in with him, his wife, and their two sons in the Montreal suburb of Sainte-Catherine. Jenn agreed and eventually earned a scholarship to NC State. Though she was excited for the opportunity, she was rightly concerned about what would happen to her brothers. She asked Mettelus if he would let Dominique and Benn live with him, too, but the boys and their mother resisted the idea.

Everything changed on Sept. 30, 2014, when Dominique was struck by a car while riding his bike. He suffered a major head injury and died the next morning. Jenn hurried home so she could help the family bury Dominique and figure out what was next. She knew she had to finish her education, but she was terrified about what would happen to Benn. Those fears were validated when she heard from friends back home that Benn was falling in with a bad crowd. Mettelus shared her concern, and the two of them convinced Benn and his mother to allow him to move in with Mettelus.

It was an uneasy situation. Benn was used to living on his own and doing what he wanted. Mettelus had a lot of rules. Mettelus got Benn admitted to the private school where he coached. Benn was a great player, but he would disappear on weekends and refuse to heed Mettelus’ curfews or keep him informed as to his whereabouts. After a couple of months, Mettelus told Benn to move out.

“He was a rebel,” Mettelus says. “He only trusted himself. I told him, I’m not telling you what to do, but when you leave home, I have to have an eye on you. Because if something happens to you, it is my responsibility.”

By this time, Jenn was playing professionally in Finland. It took a couple of months, but she convinced Benn to move back in with Mettelus. He adapted to the domestic structure but resisted Mettelus’ coaching, believing that he was so much better than everyone else that he didn’t need teammates. “I had to bench him in one of the most important games of the season,” Mettelus says. “He needed to learn that no one can win by themselves.”

Still, Mathurin’s talent was overwhelming. Mettelus wanted to find an environment that could challenge Benn and, more importantly, get him away from his neighborhood. The director of the Quebec basketball federation invited Hernan Olaya, a player development coach at the new NBA Academy in Mexico City, to come to Montreal to give the promising young prospect a workout. When the session was over, Olaya told Mathurin, “You’re coming with me to Mexico.” Mathurin laughed and told him no way.

The more Mettelus learned about the NBA Academy, the more convinced he became that it was exactly what Mathurin needed. Unlike a lot of international clubs, the NBA Academy offered a highly structured program with very little down time. Mathurin didn’t know a word of Spanish (he spoke only French and Creole) and didn’t like the idea of going so far away, but he warmed to the notion when Olaya told him that he would have 24-hour access to the Academy’s first-class training facilities. Mettelus became Benn’s legal guardian so he could handle all the paperwork and visa issues. Barely a week after telling Olaya no way, Mathurin was with Olaya on a plane bound for Mexico and, he hoped, a brighter future.

Mathurin was just 16 when he alighted in Mexico City in the fall of 2018. He was so quiet that the staff wondered if he might have a speech impediment. Olaya noticed that when the team broke their huddles, Mathurin didn’t say “Family!” along with his teammates. Mathurin also had very specific ideas of how he wanted to play, and when a coach tried to tell him otherwise, his rebellious side came out. “He had issues with trusting people,” Olaya says. It took some time, as well as many conversations with members of the academy’s staff, including a psychologist, but Mathurin learned to open up.

The NBA Academy also exposed Mathurin to a much higher level of play. For the first time in his life, Benn couldn’t just rely on his athleticism. He had to learn how to work harder. “The thing that really separates Benn is his mentality when he competes,” Olaya says. “You can put the best player in front of him, and he will have no fear. He always wants that challenge.”

Over time, Mathurin got stronger, better, more confident, and most important, more trusting. He became a dependable teammate and vocal leader. He was also starting to get noticed by Division I colleges. The interest ticked up in February 2020 when he shined at Basketball Without Borders, an international showcase hosted by the NBA during All-Star weekend. Baylor recruited Mathurin early and hard, and he almost committed during a visit to Waco. Mettelus, however, encouraged Benn to see at least one other school before making such a pivotal decision.

Mathurin was on track to graduate from the NBA Academy in the spring of 2021, but he was far ahead enough academically that he was able to reclassify into the Class of 2020. Jenn wasn’t crazy about the idea — “I thought staying another year would have helped him gain maturity,” she says — but he went for it. Arizona assistant coach Jack Murphy, who specializes in international recruiting, acted on an early tip and went to see Mathurin work out in Mexico. He was instantly sold and invited Mathurin to Tucson. Mettelus and Jenn accompanied Benn on his visit. Benn clicked with the head coach, Sean Miller, and he liked the school’s location and the program’s history. He also liked that, unlike Baylor, Arizona had a young, unproven roster that offered a chance to play right away.

Mathurin had just turned 18 when he arrived in Tucson late that summer. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, all classes were being taught online, and he was unable to socialize much with his teammates. That added to his feeling of isolation. “He was very guarded and very, very quiet,” Miller says. “He was so young, and we knew he came from some tough circumstances. Everything was just so new to him.”

Mathurin had the will to work hard, but he did not yet know how to work efficiently. Still, Arizona was young and struggling, so over his first seven games, Mathurin averaged 19.0 minutes, 9.9 points and 4.6 rebounds. Then, during a Dec. 28 game at Colorado, Mathurin played just 12 minutes and failed to score. “You could tell the next day in practice that he was searching for some answers,” Murphy says. Five days later, Mathurin had 24 points and 11 rebounds in a win at Washington State. Two weeks after that, he moved into the starting lineup for a game at Oregon State and scored 31 points on 6-of-7 3-point shooting. He remained in the starting lineup the rest of the season. “He got better week by week,” Miller says. “Then he took off unlike any player that I’ve coached.”

Mathurin was voted to the Pac-12’s all-freshman team after finishing the season averaging 10.8 points (on 41.8 percent 3-point shooting), 4.8 rebounds and 1.2 assists in 25.0 minutes. He faced a decision whether to put his name into the NBA draft. He was projected to be a second-round pick, but he might have improved his stock at the NBA’s Draft Combine or through team workouts. In the end, he decided not to test the waters. “I didn’t want to show any weakness,” he says.

As he prepared over the summer for his sophomore season at Arizona, Mathurin returned to Mexico City to spend a week at the NBA Academy. When the coaches asked him to meet with the players, Mathurin spoke confidently and eloquently about his experiences. Olaya could hardly believe it was the same shy, suspicious youngster who rode that plane with him just four years before. “I was super proud of the way he talked to the guys and how well-spoken he was,” Olaya says. “It showed how far he has come.”

Mathurin’s backcourt mate at Arizona, Kerr Kriisa, a 6-3 sophomore point guard from Estonia, says Mathurin “is not the most talkative guy on the team for sure, but he’s a fun guy.” Both those traits become less evident when he steps between the lines. Sophomore guard Pelle Larsson found that out after he transferred from Utah last summer and started working out with Mathurin. “We would play one-one-one, and he tried to kill me every time,” Larsson says. “I was like, Benn, I’m coming off vacation, let me get back in my rhythm. But he never backed off.”

There was no starting slow as a sophomore. In the Wildcats’ fourth game, Mathurin had 25 points and 10 rebounds in a win over Wichita State. He had 30 and seven in a road win at Illinois, and 28 points, eight rebounds and five assists in Arizona’s only loss at Tennessee. He is averaging a team-best 17.5 points to go along with 6.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists. Mathurin has a penchant for making spectacular plays, but Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, who was hired after Miller got fired last April, has talked to him about getting better in what Lloyd calls the “in-between moments” that require concentration and consistency. “Sometimes he has a mental lapse, or his effort is not where it should be,” Lloyd says. “He knows I’m trying to give him habits so that he’s not just in the NBA, but that he has an NBA career. The good thing is, he’s asked me to coach him hard.”

That is one of the many ways in which Mathurin has matured since those long ago days in Montreal. “He listens now,” Mettelus says. “He thinks there are good people around him who can help him get to where he wants to go.” Jenn, too, has been amazed at her little brother’s progress, which she monitors while performing her duties as associate women’s basketball coach at Bishop’s University in Quebec. “Sometimes I get super emotional when I watch him play,” she says. “He’s always going to be my little brother, but I see him now in this huge body, and he carries himself so maturely. I know how he grew up and how hard it was for him. It really could have gone either way.”

It is sad that Mathurin’s brother is not here to share that joy, but Benn often feels like he is. He tattooed Dominique’s name on his arm, writes it on every one of his shoes, and always keeps Dominique in his thoughts. “He gives me juice every day,” Mathurin says. “My brother was always my motivation. He’s the reason why I wake up every day and try to be the best.”

All those painful moments, pivotal moments and in-between moments have taught Mathurin a lot about what it means to be part of a team. Believe is a big word, but he didn’t find the right path just because he believed in himself. He also needed the right people to believe in him.
 


Vecenie’s 2022 NBA Draft Big Board 2.0: Top tier stays intact; Wisconsin’s Johnny Davis rises into top 5

For the first time this year, I’ve updated my 2022 NBA Draft Big Board with in-season movement. Unsurprisingly, there is a significant amount of movement from where we started this year. But there is not much movement is at the top. Three of the top-four players on the preseason board — Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero — have consolidated their positions at the top, with most teams considering them the group from which the team that selects No. 1 overall will choose. And indeed, 10 of the 14 players initially slotted in the lottery in the preseason remain in those positions.

In general, the sentiment surrounding this class remains the same. Unlike last year, when the consensus from teams was that at least three players — Cade Cunningham, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley — would have been reasonable No. 1 picks in most classes, this season, Smith, Holmgren and Banchero are all seen as the typical quality of player found in the No. 3 to No. 5 range of a typical NBA Draft class. That’s not to say they aren’t exciting prospects; they are, and could all make All-Star Games if things continue to go right with their development. Rather, it’s just that this class is still seen as one lacking a true franchise-altering talent. On top of that, the middle to latter portion of the lottery is seen as a group that is wide open right now, as fewer players than normal have stepped up to become what evaluators would qualify as consistent contributors. A lot of players in this class have the upside to be a lottery pick; precious few players have truly shown it game after game over the course of the season.

This is why the addition of Kentucky freshman wing Shaedon Sharpe to the class has proven to be such a tantalizing idea for NBA teams. Kyle Tucker and I wrote about the Sharpe situation last week following a report that Sharpe can apply for the 2022 NBA Draft. For now, I will not be ranking Sharpe on this board, as discussed in that piece. I want more clarity on his eligibility for the 2022 draft, especially in light of the fact that Sharpe and his family have been very clear that the plan is for him to return to Kentucky next season. If more information comes to light there, I’ll adjust.

https://tinyurl.com/ybm6ezla <<< Link to top 100

How I shape my draft board

This board does not take team fit into account. What it tries to do is take the general direction of the NBA and slot in players who I think will play a role at the next level in the largest variety of situations. With the way the NBA is going, wings tend to end up marginally higher on my board than bigs, as every team needs more perimeter players who are multi-positional defenders. Versatile players are valued.

I get input and information from NBA executives, college coaches and other evaluators during the process. It’s critical to have conversations with folks around the basketball community to get a well-rounded picture of a player’s future. Sometimes it’s about his background and off-court habits. Sometimes it’s about his work ethic. Other times, it’s just a conversation about whether we think a guy can play. But at the end of the day, this is my ranking, and while it is reflective of the general tenor of NBA teams, it’s not necessarily what the consensus would be.

Notes and observations

• As mentioned previously, many consider the top tier in this draft to be Jabari Smith Jr., Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero. Smith slots in at No. 1 because I think if the entirety of his game comes together over the next five years, his ceiling is a bit higher than that of the other two. He’s coming from such a special place as a shooter, particularly in pull-up situations, at 6-foot-10. It is uncommon to find guys who are this smooth on one- and- two-dribble pull-up situations. He is fluid enough to grab and go on the break after corralling rebounds and create offense out in transition. He’s elite out of spot-up situations, using his high release point to shoot over the top of defenders. Defensively, he’s a bit more mobile than Holmgren and Banchero and should have no issues playing the four due to his wherewithal in help situations as well as his lateral agility.

• Johnny Davis skies up the board to No. 5 in large part due to that aforementioned consistency that the rest of the class has been lacking. He’s the clear riser in this class and the favorite for the National Player of the Year award. Wisconsin counts on him to be its central figure every single night, and he delivers. Davis is a monster shot creator from all three levels, making 36.5 percent of his 3s. He’s scored 55 points on pull-up jumpers from the midrange and made 55.4 percent at the basket. There’s just so much skill here. On top of that, he defends well on the perimeter against guards and constantly is willing to fight through screens.

• The defense could be a real differentiator for him for some teams when compared to the guard ahead of him on this board, Jaden Ivey. Ivey has not been all that great this year on defense, although it’s worth noting that, contextually, he’s given a lot to do on that end when placed in ball-screen scenarios. Because Purdue’s bigs, Trevion Williams and Zach Edey, are so immobile, Purdue’s guards are asked to do so much fighting through screens to get contests. It can result, at times, in Purdue’s perimeter defense as a whole looking a bit rough. Personally, I think Ivey’s upside as an athletic lead guard is just so high now that he’s improved a bit as a live-dribble passer that I’m willing to deal with him learning on the job defensively in the NBA. That’s why I rank him a spot higher. But it’ll be a part of the conversation as Purdue’s season continues.

• The most difficult scout near the top of the draft class this year is, undeniably, Jalen Duren. He’s playing for a Memphis team that could be charitably described as an unmitigated disaster, and Duren is likely the player who is held back most by that mess. Offensively, Duren is best utilized right now as a rim-running five man. Two things stop that from being a possibility. First, Memphis’ offensive spacing is poor because the Tigers don’t really have shooters. Their team 3-point percentage of 35.5 percent isn’t that bad, but they don’t take a ton of them, and teams don’t really respect the guys who are supposed to be spacing the floor, such as Earl Timberlake, Deandre Williams and Josh Minott. Tyler Harris is the only player shooting over 34 percent from 3 who has played in at least 25 percent of the team’s minutes this season. And that’s not exactly a small group of players, either, as Memphis has played 10 guys at least 25 percent of its minutes on the court. On top of that, Memphis doesn’t really have a reliable point guard situation. The Emoni Bates experiment at this point has been a failure, and then neither Alex Lomax nor Harris can handle the duties at the level required. All of this results in a team that is a walking turnover and gives the ball to the opposition on over 23 percent of its offensive possessions, a number that is in the bottom 10 nationally.

That means Duren, who should be able to score six points per game just by rolling hard to the rim in the American Athletic Conference, has made only 10 shots out of ball screens in 15 games this season. That’s outside of the top 250 players nationally, despite Duren being 6-foot-11 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan and having all sorts of bounce and good hands. Duren has shown a lot of upside as a shot blocker, has finished just about everything at the rim when he’s gotten his chances and has thrown in some interesting passes throughout the year, but this season is almost a throwaway for him because the situation doesn’t even really allow him to show what he’s capable of. I’m still a believer and have him ranked in the top 10, but don’t be surprised if he’s a pretty polarizing prospect for teams. While the flashes of his skill set are there, the consistent positive tape isn’t.

• This is probably the highest you’ll see Kansas wing Ochai Agbaji on a public draft board, which is a pretty real reversal from where I was a season ago. I did not love Agbaji during his first three years at Kansas because I didn’t think he showcased high-level feel for the game regularly. He couldn’t really handle the ball well enough, and the gears in his head seemed to be turning a bit too much. I believe I had him ranked somewhere in the 60s or 70s by the time he pulled out of the draft. This year, though, he’s been one of the five best players in the country and would unquestionably be on my first-team All-American ballot right now. Why? Because his skill-development has really come along. He’s much more comfortable putting the ball on the deck. He plays much more often at his own pace. He looks so much more comfortable out there and has morphed into one of the five best scorers in the country because of it.

Throw those in with the skills we already know he has — high-level shooting acumen and positive defensive contribution — and it’s really hard for me to understand what public evaluators are missing. He’s a young senior who doesn’t turn 22 until after this collegiate season ends, and he’s 6-foot-5 with a 6-foot-10 wingspan, great physical strength and a frame that looks like that of an NBA player. He hits 45 percent from 3 on seven 3-point attempts per game while averaging over 21 points and five rebounds per game. On top of that, he’s a plus on-ball defender who isn’t quite elite but does a good job on his man and has real switchable attributes one through four at the NBA level. Those guys stick in the NBA for a long, long time. And those guys tend to be lottery picks. Most NBA teams I’ve talked to have Agbaji somewhere in the 10 to 18 range right now because he’s one of the few players in a draft full of question marks who ticks a lot of boxes that suggest he’ll be able to play a role early on in his career.

• Right now, I would say I feel truly confident in 17 players as first-round picks (the top 17 on this board). The rest are real, significant questions. Some are more likely than others to go in the first round, but I don’t feel like it’s anywhere near a certainty. Again, that’s not to say the bottom 83 guys are bad players or anything; there are just many more wide-variance players once you get past that group than you typically see at this point in the season. More players will establish themselves up the board as the season progresses. But evaluators truly have their work cut out for them.

• There also is another really interesting aspect of this draft cycle with those players outside the top 17. It’s not a certainty that many of the players currently ranked in the 20 to 50 range on my board end up declaring for the draft. Many are extremely raw at this point, plus very young. There is a real case that the best thing many players could do in terms of both basketball and emotional development is return to college. Additionally, will some of them decide to take the extra year of development and try to climb the draft board again next year? This season has some real success stories from players doing that, including Ivey and Bennedict Mathurin. Will someone like Max Christie, who is by all accounts very happy at Michigan State and hasn’t had a one-and-done type season despite NBA scouts’ interest in him, decide to come out to be a pick somewhere between No. 21 and No. 40?

The same can be said about Baylor forward Jeremy Sochan, Duke guard Trevor Keels, Alabama guard JD Davison, Memphis forward Josh Minott and UCLA forward Peyton Watson. That’s before even getting to Florida State forward John Butler, a skilled 7-foot forward whom scouts have legitimate interest in but who is in no way, shape or form physically ready to play pro basketball at 190 pounds, which is somehow 25 pounds less than what Evan Mobley entered the NBA at last year. Ranking the players like this right now is kind of a fool’s errand.

• And yet, a few other upperclassmen have really stood out and put themselves on the map. Mississippi State guard Iverson Molinar had his fans last year due to his mix of creative handle and tough shot-making. He has all sorts of burst mixed with change of pace and is a walking bucket at the college level due to his polish. Last season, he was one of only six high-major players to average at least 16 points while shooting 47 percent from the field and 40 percent from 3 while taking at least 100 3-point attempts — and was the only one to return to college basketball. This year, the 3-point shooting is down, but that’s likely a matter of small samples, as he’s been a consistent 37 to 40 percent guy through his first two years and is hitting over 88 percent from the foul line so far in his junior year. But while the shooting efficiency hasn’t quite been as consistent, he’s more than made up for it by improving as a distributor who can play as a credible point guard in college. He’s making better reads and looks much more comfortable getting his teammates involved while also getting his own offense. I’ve moved him into my top 30. That’s probably higher than most people have him, but most NBA evaluators I’ve talked to see him as at least a mid-second-round type — with some agreeing with me that he could sneak into that first-round mix.

• Coming in right below Molinar at No. 31 is Auburn center Walker Kessler, who in my opinion has been the most impactful player on the best team in college basketball so far. Even more than Smith, I think Kessler is the key to Auburn’s success over the past month during its climb up the rankings to No. 1. With all due respect to Kentucky big man Oscar Tshiebwe — and plenty of respect should be afforded him — no player has been better in SEC play when accounting for both offense and defense than Kessler. Since Dec. 14, Kessler has averaged about 14 points, eight rebounds and five blocks per game while shooting 73 percent from the field. That’s just a ridiculous amount of production. After a slow start getting acclimated to Auburn over the first month, Kessler has been entirely dominant.

He’s just absolutely enormous inside at 7-foot-1 with a 7-foot-5 wingspan. The Tigers block more shots than any team in college basketball and have allowed teams to shoot just 43.6 percent from inside the arc. Auburn’s defense is 9.1 points per 100 possessions better when Kessler is on the court versus when he’s off the court. In SEC play, the Tigers allow teams to take five percent fewer of their shot attempts at the basket when Kessler is on the court, and teams within the league are shooting just 47 percent at the rim in the half court. He and Arizona center Christian Koloko are the two best defensive players in college basketball so far this season. Any list of the best defenders in the country without them is not a list worth looking at.

• One final guy I want to note: Michigan State wing Gabe Brown is one of the more interesting upperclass prospects this year, in that everything about his game profiles as something NBA teams would be interested in. Over four years with the Spartans, he has hit about 38 percent of his 321 3-point attempts. On top of that, he’s 6-foot-8 with high-level wing athleticism and on-ball defensive ability. He’s having his best season thus far as he’s stepped into the biggest role of his career, leading the top-10 Spartans in scoring at nearly 14 points per game. Every time you watch him, there definitely seems to be something missing, in that he makes the loud weakside rotations for blocks but gets beat a bit more away from the ball than you’d typically like to see. And frankly, the next difficult passing read he makes might be his first during his four years in East Lansing. But you know what: 6-foot-8 with legit on-ball wing athleticism while shooting 38 percent from 3 plays at the next level. He has some growing to do, but his skill set is an easy sell for NBA teams. I have him as a borderline top-50 guy right now, and it wouldn’t stun me if we start to hear his name more if Michigan State continues its success.
 


2022 NBA mock draft: Which teams might land Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero and Jabari Smith

Will Gonzaga's Chet Holmgren, Duke's Paolo Banchero or Auburn's Jabari Smith hear their name called first when commissioner Adam Silver takes to the podium for June's 2022 NBA draft? Or will it be someone else entirely?

Plenty of time and much debate are still to come as those questions are considered. Which NBA team is on the clock at No. 1 -- a question we won't have answered until the night of the NBA draft lottery on May 17 -- could have much to say about the makeup of the top of the draft. But before that event occurs, there is still a great deal of basketball left to play, with the final two months of the 2021-22 college basketball season likely to elicit major movement, and the concurrent exploits of draft-eligible players from the NBA G League Ignite, Overtime Elite and overseas leagues all part of the tapestry that will shape the eventual selection order.

ESPN's NBA draft experts Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz are tasked with keeping it all straight. Givony's latest 2022 NBA mock draft is below, and Givony and Schmitz also weigh in on a handful of players who have seen their stock rise in recent weeks.

Note: The projected 2022 draft order is based on ESPN BPI draft projections as of Monday. The full 1-58 order also reflects picks owed and owned.

Jonathan Givony's NBA mock draft

1. Orlando Magic

Chet Holmgren | Gonzaga | PF | Age: 19.7

2. Detroit Pistons

Paolo Banchero | Duke | PF/C | Age: 19.2

3. Houston Rockets

Jabari Smith | Auburn | SF/PF | Age: 18.7

4. Oklahoma City Thunder

Jalen Duren | Memphis | C | Age: 18.1

5. Sacramento Kings

Jaden Ivey | Purdue | PG/SG | Age: 19.9

6. San Antonio Spurs

Keegan Murray | Iowa | PF/C | Age: 21.4

7. New Orleans Pelicans

Shaedon Sharpe | Kentucky | SG | Age: 18.6

8. Indiana Pacers

Johnny Davis | Wisconsin | PG/SG | Age: 19.9

9. Washington Wizards

TyTy Washington Jr. | Kentucky | PG/SG | Age: 20.1

10. Atlanta Hawks

Bennedict Mathurin | Arizona | SF | Age: 19.6

11. New York Knicks

A.J. Griffin | Duke | SF/PF | Age: 18.4

12. Portland Trail Blazers

Ochai Agbaji | Kansas | SF | Age: 21.7

13. Memphis Grizzlies (from Lakers)

Jean Montero | Overtime Elite | PG/SG | Age: 18.5

14. Toronto Raptors

MarJon Beauchamp | G League Ignite | SG/SF | Age: 21.2

15. Oklahoma City Thunder (from Clippers)

Patrick Baldwin Jr. | Milwaukee | SF/PF | Age: 19.1

16. Minnesota Timberwolves

Dyson Daniels | G League Ignite | PG/SG | Age: 18.8

17. Boston Celtics

Jaden Hardy | G League Ignite | SG | Age: 19.5

18. Chicago Bulls

Trevor Keels | Duke | PG/SG | Age: 18.4

19. Denver Nuggets

Kendall Brown | Baylor | SF | Age: 18.7

20. Charlotte Hornets

JD Davison | Alabama | PG | Age: 19.3

21. Houston Rockets (from Brooklyn)

Blake Wesley | Notre Dame | SG | Age: 18.8

22. Dallas Mavericks

Nikola Jovic | Mega Mozzart | SF | Age: 18.6

23. Philadelphia 76ers

Mark Williams | Duke | C | Age: 20.1

24. Cleveland Cavaliers

E.J. Liddell | Ohio State | PF | Age: 21.1

25. Milwaukee Bucks

Kennedy Chandler | Tennessee | PG | Age: 19.3

26. Memphis Grizzlies

Ousmane Dieng | NZ Breakers | SF/PF | Age: 18.6

27. Memphis Grizzlies (from Utah)

Hugo Besson | NZ Breakers | PG/SG | Age: 20.7

28. Miami Heat

Wendell Moore Jr. | Duke | SF | Age: 20.3

29. Golden State Warriors

Christian Braun | Kansas | SG/SF | Age: 20.7

30. Oklahoma City Thunder (from Phoenix)

Walker Kessler | Auburn | C | Age: 20.5

31. Orlando Magic

Bryce McGowens | Nebraska | SG | Age: 19.2

32. San Antonio Spurs (from Detroit)

Ismael Kamagate | Paris | C | Age: 21.0

33. Cleveland Cavaliers (from Houston)

Jeremy Sochan | Baylor | PF | Age: 18.6

34. Oklahoma City Thunder

Tari Eason | LSU | PF | Age: 20.7

35. Sacramento Kings

Christian Koloko | Arizona | C | Age: 21.5

36. Cleveland Cavaliers (from San Antonio)

Khalifa Diop | Gran Canaria | C | Age: 20.0

37. New Orleans Pelicans

Justin Lewis | Marquette | SF/PF | Age: 19.7

38. Orlando Magic (from Indiana)

Yannick Nzosa | Unicaja Malaga | C | Age: 18.1

39. Minnesota Timberwolves (from Cleveland via Washington)

Harrison Ingram | Stanford | SF/PF | Age: 19.1

40. Atlanta Hawks

Max Christie | Michigan State | SG | Age: 18.9

41. New York Knicks

Caleb Houstan | Michigan | SF | Age: 19.0

42. Portland Trail Blazers

Peyton Watson | UCLA | SF/PF | Age: 19.3

43. San Antonio Spurs (from Lakers)

Matteo Spagnolo | Cremona | PG | Age: 19.0

44. Golden State Warriors (from Toronto)

Allen Flanigan | Auburn | SF | Age: 20.7

45. LA Clippers

Trevion Williams | Purdue | C | Age: 21.3

46. Minnesota Timberwolves

Zach Edey | Purdue | C | Age: 19.7

47. Boston Celtics

Michael Foster | G League Ignite | PF | Age: 19.0

48. Sacramento Kings (from Chicago)

Trayce Jackson-Davis | Indiana | PF/C | Age: 21.9

49. Minnesota Timberwolves (from Denver)

Keon Ellis | Alabama | SG/SF | Age: 22.0

50. Charlotte Hornets

Drew Timme | Gonzaga | PF/C | Age: 21.3

51. Detroit Pistons (from Brooklyn)

Gabriele Procida | Fortitudo Bologna | SG | Age: 19.6

52. Dallas Mavericks

Andrew Nembhard | Gonzaga | PG | Age: 22.0

53. New Orleans Pelicans (from Cleveland)

Roko Prkacin | Cibona Zagreb | PF | Age: 19.1

54. Utah Jazz (from Memphis)

Julian Champagnie | St. John's | SF/PF | Age: 20.5

55. New Orleans Pelicans (from Utah)

Dominick Barlow | Overtime Elite | PF/C | Age: 18.6

56. Indiana Pacers (from Miami)

Orlando Robinson | Fresno State | C | Age: 21.5

57. Golden State Warriors

Johnny Juzang | UCLA | SF | Age: 20.8

58. Phoenix Suns

Matthew Mayer | Baylor | SF/PF | Age: 22.3

*The Bucks and Heat forfeited their 2022 second-round picks for violating rules governing the timing of free-agency discussions.

TyTy Washington Jr. | 6-3 | PG | Age: 20.1 | Kentucky | No. 9

Washington has hit his stride in a major way after a slow start, making a case for not only SEC freshman of the year consideration, but also potentially conference player of the year honors. He broke John Wall's single-game assist record at Kentucky by dishing out 17 assists against Georgia on Jan. 8, and had his best game of the season in a blowout win over Tennessee last week, posting 28 points on just 13 shots to go along with 5 assists and 3 steals.

An unfortunately timed sprained ankle caused him to exit midway through the first half of Kentucky's eventual loss at Auburn, but is not expected to keep Washington out of the lineup for long.

Coming off a disappointing year in which Kentucky registered the worst offensive efficiency of John Calipari's head coaching career, the Wildcats have rebounded in a major way to rank among the very best offenses in college basketball. Washington has quite a bit to do with that, not only due to how efficiently he scores but also the poise he shows running a team and creating easy looks for teammates.

A 40% 3-point shooter, Washington has one of the best in-between games in the country, ranking No. 1 among high-major players in accuracy for runners and floaters (59%) according to Synergy Sports Technology, and top-five in pull-up jumpers (46%). While not possessing blow-by speed, Washington gets to his spots thanks to strong ball-handling skills and an ability to change pace skillfully, decelerate in the lane and use his size and strong frame to create space, while never looking sped-up.

Washington's passing has equally stood out, particularly operating out of pick-and-roll, where he again ranks as the most efficient player in college basketball, per Synergy. He uses both sides of the floor, finds secondary cutters along the baseline and is just as adept at throwing lobs over the top as he is hitting the roller in stride with well-timed pocket passes, or the pop-man over the shoulder for an open jumper. Few players in the college game play with the pace he does, and the way he simplifies the game and takes what defenders give him is rare for a freshman and gives him a high floor as an NBA guard.

Washington's defense, once considered a major weakness, is starting to come around too. What makes him special offensively -- how relaxed and calm he is -- tended to work against him on the other end, where his intensity level often left something to be desired, particularly off the ball. He is increasingly showing terrific instincts digging down for steals, is doing a better job getting over screens and recovering to get back in plays and is learning to use his size and frame more effectively to make things difficult on opponents, something that will likely continue to evolve moving forward.

Washington's outstanding play has moved him firmly into our top 10 and gives him a chance to be the first guard picked on draft night after Jaden Ivey. NBA scouts say they still have some question marks about just how much star power he has to offer and what the extent of his long-term upside is due to his age (20, older than sophomores Ivey and Johnny Davis) and average explosiveness, but his game and especially his size and versatility as a passer and scorer who can play either guard spot is undoubtedly tailor-made for the modern NBA.

-- Givony

Ochai Agbaji | 6-6 | SF | Age: 21.7 | Kansas | No. 12

Following in the footsteps of upperclassmen such as Chris Duarte, Corey Kispert and Davion Mitchell last year, Agbaji is using his senior season to propel himself into lottery conversations with a first-team All-America-caliber campaign.

Agbaji initially entered the 2021 draft but elected to return to Kansas after an underwhelming showing at the NBA Combine that left him no guarantees he'd hear his name called.

He's since developed into a national player of the year candidate, establishing himself as arguably the best shooter in college basketball (62-for-132, 47% from 3) while leading Kansas to a top-5 ranking and 16-2 record.

While Agbaji started previous seasons hot, then cooled off significantly once Big 12 play rolled around, he only seems to be getting better as the 2021-22 season moves on. He comes off a career-high 37-point effort in a double-overtime win over Texas Tech, a top-five defense per KenPom. He's been just as efficient against top-tier competition as he has against low-level opponents, a great sign for the Jayhawks as they prepare for a huge week that includes two top-10 opponents in Kentucky (Saturday, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN) and Baylor.

Agbaji is physically ideal for an NBA wing, measuring 6-foot-6, 215 pounds with a 6-foot-10 wingspan and a 42-inch vertical leap. He's turned himself into one of the most dynamic shooters in the draft, regularly pulling up off the dribble in transition, setting his feet quickly while ducking behind handoffs and showing deep range and zero hesitation stepping into open 3s with his feet set, either on the hop or the 1-2 step. Agbaji's inconsistent free-throw shooting (69% this season and for his college career) leave some question marks about how sustainable his scorching shooting is, but the confidence he's exuding at the moment, especially in clutch situations, and the level of difficulty of attempts is hard to argue with.

While not an advanced ball-handler or passer, Agbaji has been highly efficient operating inside the arc as well, converting 58% of his 2-pointers and turning the ball over on a miniscule 8.5% of his possessions. He makes just enough plays handling in transition, attacking closeouts with his head up and using his strong frame to draw fouls and play above the rim to not be labeled strictly a shooter. He still has work to do on his skill level, but the progress Agbaji has made over the past few years has been remarkable.

The defensive end is where Agbaji initially established himself as an NBA prospect, which makes sense considering his build and ability to slide between checking guards, wings and big men in undersized Kansas' switch-heavy system. He's been inconsistent in that area this season, which is partially explained by the heavy minutes and usage he's asked to shoulder offensively. Agbaji is very effective defensively in 1-on-1 situations and makes spectacular plays at times when rotating from the weakside to protect the rim, but does lack a degree of awareness and reaction speed in processing things happening off the ball at times. He's prone to biting on shot-fakes and getting back-cut and is not the rebounder you might expect considering his tools.

Agbaji has positioned himself to be the first upperclassman hearing his name called on draft night and fits a mold NBA teams are looking for as a prolific shooting wing who guards multiple positions and can do a little more than just make open shots offensively. How he finishes will be important, but it's increasingly difficult to overlook the spectacular season Agbaji is having.

-- Givony

Kennedy Chandler | 6-1 | PG | Age: 19.3 | Tennessee | No. 25

Chandler has had a roller coaster of a freshman year, coming up flat in some of Tennessee's biggest games this season while showing significant potential in others. Opinions on how to view him as an NBA prospect vary drastically from team to team and scout to scout, which may be partially due to the Vols' extremely difficult schedule. No team has played tougher defenses thus far according to KenPom, which has surely provided for a difficult learning curve for the skinny 19-year=old point guard.

At his best, Chandler is clearly one of the most talented point guards in the college game, blessed with incredible speed and burst, shifty ball-handling ability, terrific creativity as a finisher and passer and flashes of real shot-making ability. His quickness, basketball instincts and length are evidenced by the way he gets in passing lanes, averaging more steals than any player in the final ESPN 100 for 2021.

With that said, he's looked surprisingly tentative for big parts of the season, passing up open looks regularly, appearing reluctant to use his speed to his advantage, struggling from the free-throw line and looking too often to the sidelines for guidance instead of playing off his outstanding instincts. Some of that may be due to the rigid system he plays in, where he's mostly surrounded by non-shooters in traditional lineups with multiple big men. That doesn't explain why Chandler, a career 80% free-throw shooter entering college (on a healthy sample size) is making just 60% of his attempts at the stripe this season, though.

Scouts will hope to see Chandler's confidence grow as the year moves on and he hopefully finds a little more swagger and on-court personality to match his terrific talent -- sometimes it takes longer for freshman guards to find their footing. Questions already exist about Chandler's size (measured 5-foot-11 barefoot), thin frame and his struggles shooting off the dribble, leaving teams to ponder whether he projects as a solid backup or if he can evolve into more than that as his NBA career progresses.

With 11 SEC games still left to play, along with the SEC and NCAA tournaments, there's quite a bit of time left for Chandler to show growth, especially with many of the team's toughest games already in the rearview.

-- Givony

Christian Braun | 6-6 | SG/SF | Age: 20.7 | Kansas | No. 29

Like his Kansas teammate Agbaji, Braun has also taken a major step forward as an upperclassman, becoming one of the most versatile wing players in college basketball and a bona fide first-round candidate.

It's easy to envision Braun on an NBA floor when looking at his strong size, build and explosiveness. He's had several memorable dunks this season and ranks as the No. 1 shot-blocker in this draft class among guards and wing prospects. He's also tasked with considerable playmaking responsibility for a team that lacks great shot creation, serving as the Jayhawks' best post-entry passer and lob-thrower and showing quite a bit of creativity attacking closeouts with his head up and whipping passes off a live dribble with either hand.

Defensively, Braun shows real toughness holding his ground in the paint, crashing the glass and locking up guards and wings on the perimeter in 1-on-1 situations. He's always in the right spots off the ball, fights over screens aggressively, gets in passing lanes frequently and just forced potential draft pick Terrence Shannon Jr., (Texas Tech) to one of the worst games of his college career.

While fairly efficient as a scorer (61% true shooting percentage on the season), Braun's offensive struggles in Big 12 play (50% TS%) have been a bit concerning after his red-hot start. It appears he's nowhere near the 3-point shooter his freshman season (46% from 3) suggested, making just 33% of his attempts from beyond the arc in the past season-and-a-half, something that is clearly his swing skill at the NBA level. Braun's excellent free throw percentage (81% this season, 79% for career) and the general touch he shows around the basket is encouraging, but he passes up more open looks than you'd expect and doesn't have as quick a release or ability to make pullup jumpers as you might hope.

Finding more consistency in this area would make Braun the type of plug-and-play all-around wing every NBA team is looking for, and how he finishes the year and performs in the pre-draft process (if he elects to declare) will be important. His competitiveness, swagger and fiery demeanor has earned him a lot of fans in NBA circles regardless, and it's likely a matter of when he'll find himself in an NBA uniform, not if.

-- Givony

Mike Schmitz spent 10 days in Europe evaluating some of the top international prospects both for this draft and the future, as we outlined in the latest 2023 mock draft. What did he learn about the international prospects eligible for the 2022 NBA draft?

Nikola Jovic: The top international prospect?

Although this international class doesn't have an elite passer (Josh Giddey) or a low-post savant (Alperen Sengun), there are still several prospects bound to develop into productive NBA players. None of them intrigue me quite like Serbian forward Nikola Jovic (No. 22 in Givony's latest mock), who has as good a chance as any to be the first international prospect to hear his name called on draft night. Due to COVID-19 cancellations in the Adriatic League, we weren't able to see Jovic play in a game like originally planned for Mega Mozzart in Serbia. But we did see him practice with the team and conducted a 30-minute film session with the 18-year-old after diving deep into his game tape, continuing to build our scouting file on him that began in 2019.

Of all the international prospects in this draft, Jovic has the most seamless NBA fit as a modern forward who can shoot, handle and pass. Every bit of 6-10 with an improved 215-pound frame and a 7-0 wingspan, Jovic's measurements are similar to forwards ranging from Michael Porter Jr. to Kevin Knox to Sam Dekker to Darius Bazley. With the size to function as a four once his body matures, the late-blooming Jovic looks the part of a legitimate NBA floor-spacer with the shooting stroke to back it up, as he's now up to 40% from the international line through 14 games, often earning comparisons to Nemanja Bjelica (drafted No. 35 in 2010) in the process.

But what makes Jovic a bit more intriguing than your typical catch-and-shoot forward is the potential he shows off the dribble, regularly bringing the ball up the floor for Mega Mozzart, displaying sharp pick-and-roll vision going to his right while also knocking down several deep hesitation pull-up 3s with bigs switched onto him. His high center of gravity with the ball and finishing struggles in traffic (46% at the rim) limit him as a primary shot creator. And teams have also found quite a bit of success just defending him with small guards and daring him to punish that mismatch on the low block, which he hasn't done with much success. But because Jovic can make hesitation and step-back 3s, find his teammates on the move when willing and occasionally drop in Dirk-like fallaways from inside the arc, it's not out of the question that, in time, he can eventually evolve into a Danilo Gallinari-style second or third creator who can function as a big wing or a mismatch four.

To earn those reps, Jovic will have to improve drastically on defense, as he's a bit too upright to consistently stay with perimeter players yet not quite physical enough to bang with true bigs on the interior. Evolving his off-ball defense and stabilizing his often-fluctuating motor will really help him win the margins, as he's likely never going to quite have the range or flexibility to be a 1-on-1 stopper. He has shown signs of growth lately, bodying up forwards like Rodions Kurucs on penetration and using his positional length to change shots in the paint. After a slow start to the season, Jovic has turned into a valuable player for Mega, scoring 14 points and dishing out 4 assists in just 22 minutes in a huge upset win over Partizan, showcasing character and fight in the road win with a much younger, undermanned team. Although he was off for a month due to COVID and an ankle injury, Jovic has now reached double figures scoring in each of his last six games. He's made at least two 3s in eight consecutive contests, shooting 18-for-42 from 3 (43%) during that stretch.



Displaying outright horrible body language at times during the U19 World Championships last summer and not always managing his emotions in the best way in other events, the 18-year-old Jovic is starting to show more signs of maturity both in his game and demeanor, which will play a big role in the type of NBA player he can become.

"I want to be consistent through the second half of the season," Jovic said of his goals for the season, and five years down the line. "The thing I'm trying to accomplish is go to the NBA ... stretch-4 with a lot of dribbling. I don't know, we'll see, I hope All-Star." -- Mike Schmitz

Ismael Kamagate: The most talented international big man

French center Ismael Kamagate (No. 32) has quickly emerged as the top international big man prospect in this 2022 class, opening eyes with his Jarrett Allen-like poster dunks and flashes of skill. After seeing Kamagate practice and conducting a film session with him our last time abroad in October, we were able to watch the 6-11, 21-year-old play a France Pro A (first division) game against the top team in the league, Levallois, which also competes in the EuroCup.



Watching Kamagate go through an individual workout pre-game, it's easy to see the long-term intrigue given his huge hands, massive reach, ability to handle the ball and natural touch, splashing step-back mid-range jumpers with ease. He looks like he's dunking on a Nerf hoop in warmups, which he also translated to live action with a poster dunk in the second half. Kamagate has dunked on several players over several victims this season, and is one of the draft's best finishers, converting 72.4% of his shots at the rim. He's a jet in the open court when he decides to run hard, and in addition to the rim runs and hard rolls, he's also comfortable using touch shots or creating off the bounce in short roll situations.



As has been the case at times throughout his career, however, Kamagate struggled with early foul trouble against Levallois. He's still very much learning how to defend pick-and-roll effectively and isn't the forceful rim protector that his reach and bounce suggest. Too often lost off the ball and not the most physical defensive rebounder, Kamagate is a couple years away from being able to consistently impact a game defensively at the NBA level, even though he's blocking 2.4 shots per 40 minutes and is relatively quick off the floor for his size.

With that said, the fact that Kamagate shows more flashes of skill than the majority of run-and-jump style bigs is what makes him the most intriguing international big man in this class. Despite often playing without a true point guard and alongside more traditional bigs, Kamagate has made a handful of eye-opening passes this season, firing overhead skips to the corner out of the short roll, hitting cutters with one-handed passes, or locating weakside shooters off a live dribble out of the post. He's starting to take more mid-range jumpers also, and, although flat, his stroke has potential (70% from the free-throw line). A true late-bloomer who wasn't even considered for youth national teams not too long ago, Kamagate's growth rate is staggering, and his capacity to learn is noteworthy, despite being older than several of the bigs ranked behind him.

Kamagate might not be a carbon copy of Allen or Clint Capela like his go-go-gadget dunks suggest, but there's a clear archetype for some of the things he does well (see Daniel Gafford, Richaun Holmes) and because he can handle, pass and maybe shoot down the line, it's hard to get a perfect gauge on what exactly his upside might be. I'd expect Kamagate to start picking up more steam among scouting circles, getting real looks toward the end of the first round come June. -- Schmitz

Matteo Spagnolo: The best international playmaker

Few international prospects have improved their respective draft stock more than 19-year-old Italian Matteo Spagnolo (No. 43), who is in the midst of a breakout season with Cremona in the Italian first division and is in the running for the best European lead guard in this class. On loan from Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid, Spagnolo is one of only five teenagers in all of high-level Europe playing at least 25 minutes per game, leading that group in scoring (12.0 PPG) and 3-point percentage (48.6%). We evaluated Spagnolo during a home game against Sassari and conducted an hour-long film session with him after, getting a better feel for how he sees the game and his approach, which coaches and evaluators have long raved about.



In his first real professional season, Spagnolo has dazzled with his off-the-dribble shooting, creativity in pick-and-roll and flashes of ball screen brilliance. More comfortable with his patented crossover, mid-range pull-up than long-range 3s coming into this season, Spagnolo is starting to knock down step-back triples with more regularity, even pulling from NBA range with teams darting under screens. Calm and even keel on the floor, he's able to use his 6-5, 198-pound frame to keep his defender on his hip before making an off-the-dribble pass to an open teammate or re-accelerating to the rim into a finesse finish. Although more wired to score than facilitate, he snakes ball screens like a veteran, crediting hours studying guards such as Luka Doncic, Milos Teodosic and Trae Young, while picking up little things from practicing with Facundo Campazzo during his time in Madrid. Like many of the aforementioned guards, he's not afraid to try and fit passes into tight windows or take big shots down the stretch of important games, which have been key traits for successful international guards before him.

Italy isn't known as the most athletic league, however, and Spagnolo's finishing struggles (46% at the rim) and lack of blow-by speed figure to be even more pronounced as the level of competition rises. Cremona is also toward the bottom of the Italian League standings, fighting to avoid relegation to the second division, so his production does come with a caveat. Spagnolo has a long way to go on the defensive end of the floor, as he doesn't always play with the necessary energy and discipline to overcome his average foot speed and limited overall range, both on and off the ball.

But, like we saw with Lithuanian guard Rokas Jokubaitis last draft (No. 34 to the New York Knicks), there's clear draft-and-stash value in an international guard with positional size, shooting touch, creativity, feel and confidence. With Spagnolo under contract with Real Madrid for two additional seasons, whoever drafts him wouldn't have to use a roster spot on the Brindisi native until he's almost 22 years old, giving him the time and in-game reps to continue improving as a defender, finisher, and spot-up shooter (he's made only three catch-and-shoot jumpers all season). Should Spagnolo make a run at the NBA as a 21-year-old, there's a better chance he'd be able to have an Austin Reaves type of impact as a rookie.

Spagnolo -- an Italian national team mainstay -- has firmly planted himself on the NBA radar this season, and will remain a player team executives study closely as he continues to produce in Italy. -- Schmitz
 
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