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> Gregg Popovich politely declined to talk about closing in on Don Nelson for the most career regular season NBA coaching wins. > > Reporter shifts to asking Pop what his key to success has been. > > Pop's reply: "Key to success? Draft Tim Duncan. After that, stay alive."

Nikola Jovic is a 18-year-old, 6' 10" forward from (you guessed it) Serbia projected to be selected in the first round of the 2022 NBA Draft.

"Nikola Jovic" is very similar to "Nikola Jokic," the name of a famous basketball player for the Nuggets of Denver, Colorado.

Similar sounding names can often be a source of confusion, but sometimes these coincidences can also be amusing, such as in this example of "Nikola Jovic" and "Nikola Jokic."

Wish this was the sort of thing that could get discussed on /r/nba, but apparently not lol. Anyway, curious what people's thoughts are on their list and what y'alls nominations would be

Bill Simmons went all out this year for his Worst *"Most Regrettable" Contracts Draft, bringing on Wozny Lambre and Joe House to go through a multi-round snake draft of the worst contracts in the NBA. I thought it was pretty interesting and decided to tabulate the results. Pod is here and the draft explanation begins around 55:30.

Below is their draft order and some of their comments, and below that are their picks and the contract figures.

1. Davis Bertans - Classic good stats on a bad team guy who stole money. He's not 1 dimensional, he's half dimensional and cannot guard anyone.
2. Michael Porter Jr. - This contract is a nightmare. They didn't have to do it. It's the kind of contract that can kill half a decade. He's played 125 games in his career.
3. John Wall - he aint playing.
4. De'Aaron Fox - the numbers, especially in the clutch, are awful. He's being paid to be the guy but he's being outplayed by his teammate. You go in big at the deepest position in the league and now he's hard to trade.
5. Westbrook - If I'm the clippers, I wouldn't trade him for Morris and Reggie Jackson. That makes me worse. I wouldn't trade him for wall if I'm the rockets. I've done that.
6. Ben Simmons - he's getting paid like a number 1 offensive dude and he's a number 4. But the diva act, the lack of improvement and season sabotage... and you're paying this dude 33 million?
7. Klay Thompson - He's going to make 50 million (based on trade kicker) dollars a year. You talk about injury? He's coming off an ACL AND an Achilles, and he's getting paid like he does what Jokic does.
8. Tobias Harris - I saw him in person 9 days ago and I can't tell you a single thing he did.
9. Markelle Fultz - He got a 50M for 1 season for the Magic where he averaged 12 ppg on 46% shooting. What's going on in Orlando? They thought he was the next MCW
10. Kevin Love - He's the OG of bad contracts. Poster child of demanding a trade when nobody wants you. He's playing well but overpaid.
11. Talen Horton-Tucker - I've been watching basketball my entire life - what does this guy do? I can't understand the excitement around him for the life of

With the recent talk of the NBA adding expansion teams in Seattle and Vegas, the likelihood of a looming expansion draft brings up some interesting questions.

The NBA's last expansion draft was in 2004, and saw players like Jason Kapono and Gerald Wallace stripped from their respective teams to form the rosters for the new expansion teams.

Pre-existing teams could "protect" 8 players, which lead to some tough choices on teams with good depth and youth. Impending unrestricted free agents are essentially ignored in an expansion draft.

So, which 8 players would your favourite team protect? And who would be the toughest player/s to potentially let go?

For the Suns, I'd say: Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Mikal Bridges, Jae Crowder, DeAndre Ayton, Cam Johnson, Cam Payne, and Landry Shamet.

It would suck to lose Jalen Smith or Javale (for different reasons) but I feel big men are more replaceable than wings, hence the decision to keep Shamet.

Article

Couple Things to Note from Vecenie:

Draft Order Most Likely Will be the Biggest Factor for Who will Go 1st:

> Right now, the team that gets the No. 1 overall pick will have an immense influence on who goes No. 1. This is not a draft that currently has a no-doubter guy at the top, a la Zion Williamson, Cade Cunningham or Anthony Davis. Rather, I would say there is a good group of four players at the top in Jabari Smith Jr., Paolo Banchero, Chet Holmgren and Jaden Ivey. Team needs will play a role, given the preponderance of big men in that group. And simply put, it’ll be an eye-of-the-beholder situation.

Why You Might See Some Players You Know/Like In This Mock Draft:

> I tried my best to realistically project who will declare and who won’t, but we obviously have nothing in the way of answers there yet. In that vein, if you don’t see a player here, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I think said player is bad. Rather, I may have just decided not to push said underclassman through to the draft.

Draft Order:

> The draft order is based on league-wide rankings as of Jan. 3. Team needs are not accounted for, although if there was something of an interesting fit, I did make sure to note that. There are 58 picks in the 2022 NBA Draft, as the Miami Heat and Milwaukee Bucks have forfeited their second-round picks this year due to free-agency tomfoolery and shenanigans.

Mock Draft:

Only including excerpts for the Top 15 + Jaden Hardey at 21st (Since both Jovic & Hardey were mentioned in the Top 13 of the Mid-season Consensus Board on this sub)

1. Detroit Pistons - Jabari Smith Jr

> I have Smith at No. 1 entering the new year, but it’s a razor-thin margin between him, Banchero and Holmgren. Why Smith? I think his upside is juuuuust a bit higher than the other two if everything breaks right with his game...Smith profiles well as a good team’s second-best scoring option who can also be a strong defensive player. That’s a scalable player to winning situations, and he fits exceedingly well in Detroit given the Pistons’ disastrous shooting this year.

2. Orlando Magic - Paolo Banchero

> He’s still very strongly in the mix to go No. 1. He’s as polished a mismatch

Picking Killian Hayes over Tyrese Haliburton may have been the worst decision of the 2020 NBA draft. I see a lot of people shitting in the Warriors for choosing Wiseman over Lamelo. But I argue the Hayes over Haliburton decision was worse. It was complete dereliction from the Pistons FO and there were easy signs that Haliburton was the better prospect. Also Hayes had his only good game of the season against us and i’m butthurt.

Hayes only had one thing over Haliburton. Age. Haliburton is about a year and 4 months older than Hayes. As for size, Hayes is 6’5 and skinny with a 6’8 wingspan. Haliburton is also 6’5, skinny, with a 6’8 wingspan. That’s where the similarities stop however. Hayes only played 10 games for Ratiopharm Ulm in the EuroCup. He averaged 12.3/2.8/6.2 on 45/39/90 with 1.5 steals and 3.3 turnovers. On the other hand, Haliburton played 22 games, averaging 15.2/5.9/6.5 on 50/41/82. The argument was that Hayes was playing against better competition, but it doesn’t really help him since his team was the worst team in the Eurocup that season. The stats were empty. Haliburton led his team for big wins against Alabama, Seton Hall, and both Oklahoma and Oklahoma St.

Hayes did not stand out in one particular basketball skill either. He was an okay shooter on low attempts, an average defender (he has shown defensive capabilities in the NBA), and didn’t have great basketball IQ, which is the stereotype for Europeans. He forced risky passes and missed open looks often. As for Haliburton, he was an extremely smart guard with great defensive positioning and awareness. Not to mention his shot selection being great and his shooting being just as good. People didn’t want him because they said his funky shooting form wouldn’t work in the league. It has worked damn well so far. Haliburton has for his career has averaged 12.6 points so far on 57% TS. As for Hayes… 6.6 points on 43%. There is only a one year difference between the two. Imagine Hali next to Cade instead of Hayes. One of the most promising backcourts in the league. They would bounce off each other perfectly, with the Haliburton being the secondary playmaker to the extremely talented Cade.

The college basketball season hits its mid-point soon and the Celtics have clear needs to improve this roster, so I wanted to review some of my favorite prospects in the 2022 class. Not to say the Cs' season is already over, but this class, despite its "top-heavy" label, includes some really interesting fits.

Teams should draft for BPA rather than for need, but as luck would have it, this draft class runs pretty deep in players that address the Cs' deficiencies.

The Celtics Need Playmaking

It's painfully obvious the Celtics need offense. They rank 7th in dRTG, per NBA.com, yet are 22nd in oRTG. Any lack of a system is compounded by players who cannot generate offense. We can break that general "offense" term into two even more general categories: playmaking and shooting.

Playmaking

The stats could seem promising. The C's are 10th in passing and 6th in drives, after all. However, the fact they are below average in assists and transition while remaining 3rd in ISOs tells me their passes are not directly generating easy buckets.

This team doesn't have the ball flying around the court to create an open man like Golden State or Phoenix, and doesn't have a central hub like Jokic manipulating 5 defenders at once. The eye test shows they're moving the ball on the perimeter until someone ISOs, shoots, or drives. It clearly isn't working.

Shooting

Despite taking more 3s than average, the C's are straight bad in nearly every facet of shooting (except handoffs, where they're mediocre. yay?). Good shooting is more than just 3P% and it's clear the C's don't have enough. The Jays are theoretically dynamic shooters, but it's hard to tell amid harassed looks. Teams like Golden State, Phoenix, and Utah move the ball constantly, run side actions like pindowns and double screens to open shooters, and get their stars moving off-ball/off screen

On January 4th 2022 the Spurs visited the Toronto Raptors. That game featured 3 picks from the 2016 draft by Toronto (yes I'm counting Fred). The number 1 pick in the draft was Ben Simmons.

Some notable players that were picked above Pascal Siakam.

4th pick - Dragan Bender

5th pick - Kris Dunn

8th pick - Marquise Chriss

10th pick - Thon Maker

12th pick - Taureen Prince

13th pick - Georgios Papagiannis

14th pick - Denzel Valentine

15th pick - Juan Hernangomez

16th pick - Guerschon Yabusele

17th pick - Wade Baldwin

18th pick - Henry Ellenson

19th pick - Malik Beasly

21st pick - Deandre Bembry

22nd pick - Malachi Richardson

23rd pick - Ante Zizic

24th pick - Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot

25th pick - Brice Johnson

26th pick - Furkan Korkmaz

Top players in this draft

1st pick - Ben Simmons

2nd pick - Brandon Ingrim

3rd pick - Jaylen Brown

6th pick - Buddy Hield

7th pick - Jamal Murray

9th pick - Jakob Poeltl

11th pick - Domantis Sabonis

20th - Caris Levert

27th pick - Pascal Siakam

29th pick - Dejounte Murray

36th pick - Malcolm Brogdon

Undrafted - Fred VanVleet

Its crazy to think that the 2016 draft changed our trajectory the way it did. Jakob Poeltl was a huge piece in getting Kawhi Leonard. Pascal Siakam was the number 2 option on a championship team. Fred VanVleet even got a finals MVP vote. Looking back at the Raptors selections in retrospective, that was likely our best draft haul in franchise history. In case you wanted a reminder, 2016 was the year the Raptors made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, and took Lebron and the Cavs to 6 games. The Raptors then went into the draft and selected 3 gems like that, 2 of which are likely All Stars is a highway robbery. That 2016 draft was one of the reasons why the Raptors won the championship. They were our young guns during the 2019 championship run. Fast forward to today and these guys are among the best players in the league at their respective positions. We never tanked we built while competing. More then anything this is an appreciation post to the best front office in basketball. We are in good hands now and for the future

FULL STUDY: https://imgur.com/a/9HGzZv2

Some random facts I got from this research.

Both the Suns and the Kings have picked the most (11) in the lottery since the 2011 draft

Brooklyn Nets is the only team to never pick in the draft lottery since the 2011 draft, even though they have the 4th worst W/L% since 2011

The number 2 selection has never been traded at draft night, since 2011

The number 10 selection has been traded the most times (5) at draft night, since 2011

Both the Kings and the Timberwolves have traded the most amount of players (3) at draft night

The Cavs are the champions with the most amount of lottery picks since the 2011 draft

The Suns are the team with a finals appeareances with the most amount of lottery picks since the 2011 draft

The Cavs are the team with the most amount of number 1 overall picks (3) since the 2011 draft, the runner-ups in this category are the Timberwolves who actually received one of those number 1 overall picks the Cavs drafted (Wiggins)

The Lakers have drafted the most amount of All-Stars (3), but none of them become an All-Star with the Lakers Jersey

Anthony Davis has the most amount of All-Star appeareances (8) for a player drafted since 2011

The Cavs have drafted the most amount of champions (3), all of them become champions with LBJ as teammate

Klay Thompson is the only player with more than 1 ring (3) to be drafted since the 2011 draft

Kyrie Irving has been an All-Star with 3 different teams, Kemba Walker and Anthony Davis have been All-Stars with 2 different teams

There are no players drafted since 2011 to be an All-Star for the 2 different conferences

Anthony Davis is the only player (drafted since 2011) to be an All-Star for the West (NOP) and be traded

The number 1 position in the draft has produced the most amount of All-Stars (5) since 2011

Enes Kanter Freedom is the player (734) with the most amount of games played drafted since the 2011 draft

Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson average the most amount of PPG (25,7) of players drafted since the 2011 draft

Georgios Papagiannis has played the least amount of games (39) of all players since the 2011 draft (considering players that could have played more than 39 only)

Anthony Bennett is the only number 1 overall pick to average under 10PPG through out his career (4,4)

There have been 10 All-Stars drafted since the 2011 draft that came from outside the lottery, 4 of them came from the 2nd round

The one where Chuck selected allen iverson as the #1 because he tought it was an all star game team. The game is played in 2010, so not as much threes as today but still a decent number.

Chuck: The Rebounders
PG: Iverson / DWill
SG: Miller
SF: Durant / Worthy
PF: Duncan / Lucas
C: Moses / Cowens / Lanier

McHale: Big Green Machine
PG: Archibald / Cousy
SG: Havlicek / Sam Jones
SF: Bird / Pierce
PF: Garnett / Heinsohn
C: Shaq / Parish

Reggie: Boom Baby Daggers
PG: Kidd / Stockton / Kerr
SG: Wade / Allen
SF: Jordan
PF: Robinson / Barkley
C: Hakeem / Mourning

Webber: Super Friends
PG: Isiah
SG: Oscar / Gervin
SF: Wilkins / English / Mullin
PF: Webber / McHale
C: Wilt / Ewing

Kerr: Luc Longley Express
PG: Nash / Dennis Johnson
SG: Kobe / Grant Hill
SF: LeBron / Pippen
PF: Malone / Dirk
C: Russell / Howard

Kenny: Aim High
PG: Magic / Payton / Kenny Smith
SG: West / Drexler
SF: Erving
PF: Baylor / Hawkins
C: Kareem / Hayes

Do not share pick spoiling tweets in this thread.

For at least the duration of the lottery picks, only self posts will be allowed and all submissions will be restricted to manual approval.

Or if you work for one hit me up. I’m willing to write for anyone, so just general information on how to go about it would be greatly appreciated.

I swear to god, every draft when it comes to wings who can’t shoot, every optimist on a prospect will point to the development of Kawhi’s jump shot and say that it’s possible for them to be just as good. I don’t think enough credit is given for how special Kawhi’s development is and that it’s not something that can be attained by most, if any, wing players that can’t shoot. Do you think scouts, analysts, and front offices will ever catch on to how unlikely it is that wings can develop like Kawhi??

Source:

> Earlier this week former NBA star Tracy McGrady appeared to throw shade at the Melbourne-born youngster when he took issue with the behaviour of someone “they say might be the No. 1 pick” in the suite he was in at Game Six of the NBA Finals in Cleveland.

> “There was one guy that just walked in there and acted like he didn’t know nobody,” McGrady told The Jump host Rachel Nichols.

> McGrady — who watched the game with NBA legend Bill Russell and his cousin and fellow former star Vince Carter — didn’t mention Simmons by name but left little doubt regarding who he was talking about.

>On Tuesday, former NBA coach and general manager turned analyst Stu Jackson also took shots at Simmons’ character.

>“There’s just something about the way Simmons has handled himself, or been handled by his camp, that gives me a little bit cause for pause. Just in terms of whether mentally and personally he’s ready to make this jump to the NBA level,” Jackson told SI.com.

>“I can’t get into a guy’s mind. You can only speculate and evaluate based on what you see. What I saw is a player in college, who was at LSU, that didn’t have a very good season. I saw a player that didn’t necessarily persevere as well as I would have liked through not having a very good season ... his body language at times bothered me.

> “There's just some personal characteristics with the way he portrayed himself and performed that just gave me a reason to be a little bit hesitant about taking him number one.”

I vaguely remember people talking about how Ben seemingly “phoned it in” during his time at LSU, but it’s interesting to see there were prominent voices around the NBA that saw smoke where we now know there is a fire, and commented on the record about it. Tracy’s seemed more like a bad one-time interaction, but Stu’s assessment was very pointed and on the nose.

Bill Simmons went all out this year for his Worst *"Most Regrettable" Contracts Draft, bringing on Wozny Lambre and Joe House to go through a multi-round snake draft of the worst contracts in the NBA. I thought it was pretty interesting and decided to tabulate the results. Pod is here and the draft explanation begins around 55:30.

Below is their draft order and some of their comments, and below that are their picks and the contract figures.

1. Davis Bertans - Classic good stats on a bad team guy who stole money. He's not 1 dimensional, he's half dimensional and cannot guard anyone.
2. Michael Porter Jr. - This contract is a nightmare. They didn't have to do it. It's the kind of contract that can kill half a decade. He's played 125 games in his career.
3. John Wall - he aint playing.
4. De'Aaron Fox - the numbers, especially in the clutch, are awful. He's being paid to be the guy but he's being outplayed by his teammate. You go in big at the deepest position in the league and now he's hard to trade.
5. Westbrook - If I'm the clippers, I wouldn't trade him for Morris and Reggie Jackson. That makes me worse. I wouldn't trade him for wall if I'm the rockets. I've done that.
6. Ben Simmons - he's getting paid like a number 1 offensive dude and he's a number 4. But the diva act, the lack of improvement and season sabotage... and you're paying this dude 33 million?
7. Klay Thompson - He's going to make 50 million (based on trade kicker) dollars a year. You talk about injury? He's coming off an ACL AND an Achilles, and he's getting paid like he does what Jokic does.
8. Tobias Harris - I saw him in person 9 days ago and I can't tell you a single thing he did.
9. Markelle Fultz - He got a 50M for 1 season for the Magic where he averaged 12 ppg on 46% shooting. What's going on in Orlando? They thought he was the next MCW
10. Kevin Love - He's the OG of bad contracts. Poster child of demanding a trade when nobody wants you. He's playing well but overpaid.
11. Talen Horton-Tucker - I've been watching basketball my entire life - what does this guy do? I can't understand the excitement around him for the life of me.
12. Jimmy Butler - It's a crazy contract. Goes into 25-26. He's missed a shit ton of games and it's not going to get better. I love Jimmy but this contract is crazy.
13. Clint Capela

FULL STUDY: https://imgur.com/a/9HGzZv2

Some random facts I got from this research.

Both the Suns and the Kings have picked the most (11) in the lottery since the 2011 draft

Brooklyn Nets is the only team to never pick in the draft lottery since the 2011 draft, even though they have the 4th worst W/L% since 2011

The number 2 selection has never been traded at draft night, since 2011

The number 10 selection has been traded the most times (5) at draft night, since 2011

Both the Kings and the Timberwolves have traded the most amount of players (3) at draft night

The Cavs are the champions with the most amount of lottery picks since the 2011 draft

The Suns are the team with a finals appeareances with the most amount of lottery picks since the 2011 draft

The Cavs are the team with the most amount of number 1 overall picks (3) since the 2011 draft, the runner-ups in this category are the Timberwolves who actually received one of those number 1 overall picks the Cavs drafted (Wiggins)

The Lakers have drafted the most amount of All-Stars (3), but none of them become an All-Star with the Lakers Jersey

Anthony Davis has the most amount of All-Star appeareances (8) for a player drafted since 2011

The Cavs have drafted the most amount of champions (3), all of them become champions with LBJ as teammate

Klay Thompson is the only player with more than 1 ring (3) to be drafted since the 2011 draft

Kyrie Irving has been an All-Star with 3 different teams, Kemba Walker and Anthony Davis have been All-Stars with 2 different teams

There are no players drafted since 2011 to be an All-Star for the 2 different conferences

Anthony Davis is the only player (drafted since 2011) to be an All-Star for the West (NOP) and be traded

The number 1 position in the draft has produced the most amount of All-Stars (5) since 2011

Enes Kanter Freedom is the player (734) with the most amount of games played drafted since the 2011 draft

Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson average the most amount of PPG (25,7) of players drafted since the 2011 draft

Georgios Papagiannis has played the least amount of games (39) of all players since the 2011 draft (considering players that could have played more than 39 only)

Anthony Bennett is the only number 1 overall pick to average under 10PPG through out his career (4,4)

There have been 10 All-Stars drafted since the 2011 draft that came from outside the lottery, 4 of them came from the 2nd round

Knowing what we know now how would you redraft the first round of the 2019 nba draft. Or at least a new top 5.

Original order:

ROUND 1

1. Pelicans draft Zion Williamson

2. Grizzlies draft Ja Morant

3. Knicks draft RJ Barrett

4. Lakers draft De’Andre Hunter >> officially traded to the Hawks, after first being dealt to the Pelicans

5. Cavaliers draft Darius Garland

6. Suns draft Jarrett Culver >> officially traded to the Timberwolves

7. Bulls draft Coby White

8. Hawks draft Jaxson Hayes >> officially traded to the Pelicans

9. Wizards draft Rui Hachimura

10. Hawks draft Cam Reddish

11. Timberwolves draft Cameron Johnson >> officially traded to the Suns

12. Hornets draft PJ Washington

13. Heat draft Tyler Herro

14. Celtics draft Romeo Langford

15. Pistons draft Sekou Doumbouya

16. Magic draft Chuma Okeke

17. Nets draft Nickeil Alexander-Walker >> officially traded to the Pelicans, after first being dealt to the Hawks

18. Pacers draft Goga Bitadze

19. Spurs draft Luka Samanic

20. Celtics draft Matisse Thybulle >> officially traded to the 76ers

21. Thunder draft Brandon Clarke >> officially traded to the Grizzlies

22. Celtics draft Grant Williams

23. Jazz draft Darius Bazley >> officially traded to the Thunder after first being dealt to the Grizzlies

24. 76ers draft Ty Jerome >> officially traded to the Suns after first being dealt to the Celtics

25. Trail Blazers draft Nassir Little

26. Cavaliers draft Dylan Windler

27. Nets draft Mfiondu Kabengele >> officially traded to the Clippers

28. Warriors draft Jordan Poole

29. Spurs draft Keldon Johnson

30. Bucks draft Kevin Porter Jr. >> officially traded to the Cavaliers after first being dealt to the Pistons

The mid-season board is now over, thanks to all those who helped it along the way.

2022 Board:

1. Paolo Banchero - F - Duke - (POLL)
2. Jabari Smith Jr - F - Auburn - (POLL)
3. Chet Holmgren - F/C - Gonzaga - (POLL)
4. Jaden Ivey - G - Purdue - (POLL)
5. Jalen Duren - C - Memphis - (POLL)
6. Patrick Baldwin Jr - F - Wisconsin-Milwaukee - (POLL)
7. Jaden Hardy - G - G-League Ignite - (POLL)
8. Kendall Brown - F - Baylor - (POLL)
9. AJ Griffin - G/F - Duke - (POLL)
10. Bennedict Mathurin - G/F - Arizona - (POLL)
11. Nikola Jovic - F - KK Mega Basket - (POLL)
12. Keegan Murray - F - Iowa - (POLL)
13. Johnny Davis - G - Wisconsin - (POLL)
14. TyTy Washington - G - Kentucky - (POLL)

I asked this question 2 months ago and I wanted to see how/if the answers change. The Bulls could potentially have two first-round picks in next year's draft (Blazers top 14 protected). Which position should the front office target if we assume that everyone is healthy by the beginning of next year?

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