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2020 NBA Draft thread

Post Defense: For someone who is not particularly strong, Diakite is a very good post defender. He does a really nice job using his lower body as leverage (and playing physically and low to the ground) to help keep him from being moved in the post – he does a nice job planting his quads underneath the post up player’s hamstrings/glutes, making him difficult to move from behind. In addition, when the ball is entered, he is able to move his feet quickly and does a fantastic job using his length to contest shots. That said, he can get beat by early and physical position before the ball goes into the paint…and by bigs who simply have a massive strength edge on him. Adding strength will be big for him going forward.

PnR Defense: Has the potential to be a very versatile PnR defender due to his combination of quickness and length. Diakite can succeed in drop coverage due to his quick vertical pop and standing reach and ability to play a bit higher up (due to quickness), unlike most drop bigs. UVA blitzed/hedged a lot of screens with him this year due to his quickness. He does a nice job getting high on the hedge and displacing the ballhandler’s driving lane forcing him higher than he wants to go, but he’s inconsistent getting back to his man quickly in the paint – improving his recovery speed downhill is something he should be able to do given his overall athleticism. Another thing he should work on here is making sure his arms are always out on the recovery – he does a nice job keeping his hands out when he’s playing off ball, but he can get a bit lazy sometimes when getting back to his man after hedging. Lastly, Diakite can be a switch option because of his quickness. Though he’ll have to clean up his footwork a bit and will have to make sure he stays in an active stance (does not lift his hips/stand upright) when defending in space, he should have potential to switch because of his quickness and how well he uses his length to contest/recover. Can sometimes be a bit slow closing out on the PnP big because he stays a bit too long with the ballhandler. When recovering downhill off a hedge, he does not always put his arms out giving up a potential passing lane.

Shot Contests / Closeouts: Solid job closing out and can cover a lot of space very quickly due to speed, length, and pop – he’s blocked at least 6 threes over the last two years (not every game was logged) and shooters shot only 59/194 from 3 in logged games (30%). With UVA’s defensive system, you’re supposed to close with the hand that would force the guy middle – not necessarily the “correct contest hand” depending on if the shooter is a righty or lefty. Diakite pretty much exclusively closes with his right hand, so this is something he’ll have to work on going forward. For the most part, he does a nice job closing under control and ready to move on the catch (but can close too hot on closeouts, giving up driving lanes without any time for him to recovery). He has shown the ability to close and immediately move, forcing turnovers / cutting off the initial drive and forcing the ballhandler to reverse. When he does close a bit too hot, he changes directions well with his quick hips and closes back on his assignment quickly/well. However, he can also close a bit slow and/or not go fully out to the shooter, which should be something he can fix pretty easily. Diakite is prone to getting too high in his stance on the close, allowing his assignment to get a step on him off the bounce. He can recover well when he does do this, but it will be more difficult to do this in the NBA against better players…so he should work on staying in his stance on the close and not bringing his hips up/getting too upright. He is also prone to biting on pump fakes, but again this is an area that has improved over the last few years.

www.thestepien.com

Mamadi Diakite Scouting Report - The Stepien

Net Rating (+/- in parentheses): +5 (+3.7) Athleticism / Frame Overview: Very quick – quick hips and feet; quick reflexes. Solid vertical athlete. Average wingspan for C and below average...
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Off Ball (Screen) Defense: He’s not someone I would want chasing players off screens, but he can actually stick pretty well for his size. He does a nice job closing with his hand ready to contest and has also shown flashes of solid technique actually getting through screens (shoulder dip, minimize space, etc), but it’s difficult for someone his size to really get down low and stay with assignments through screens. However, as mentioned in the beginning of the defensive section, he can lose his man off ball when he zones too much in on the action…which can be fixed, but is something to note.

Man (ISO) Defense: Very good isolation defender for his size. Diakite has very quick feet and hips, that aid in defending smaller players. Quick reaction time and recoverability (especially with how he uses his length) allows him to make up ground if he is taken off the bounce – does a nice job getting back to his assignment and contesting shots at the rim. The key for him will to stay off of his heels and stay in his stance – when he relaxes out of an active stance, ballhandlers can get the better of him. In addition, he should look to make his stance a bit closer together – he is prone to crossing his feet while defending in space when his feet start too far apart…and sometimes after flipping his hips as well. When he crosses his feet, it is difficult for him to recover his balance going downhill and defenders can pull up on him or dislodge…which brings up another point: he has to get stronger. Though he has the ability to defend down in space (and defend bigs as well, obviously), if they are heading downhill and bump into him, they can move him. In general, however, he does a really nice job defending in isolation – just has a few things to clean up.

Footwork: Needs to work on this a bit, but when he’s locked in, he moves quickly – very light on his feet and covers a lot of ground fast. For the most part, he actually does a nice job actually sliding his feet (quickly) also in space…which is impressive for anyone, but even more so for him considering size. However, there are still instances where he is prone to crossing his legs – his base is too wide to start or he just flipped his hips, so instead of sliding seamlessly, he has to bring his back foot over to react.

Potential Switchability: Has switchability due to his quick hips and quick feet, but has to hone in on footwork. As mentioned above, he has to stop crossing his feet (not something that happens too often, but it happens on occasion) …but it’s really his stance that he should be focusing on here. He is prone to rising / relaxing out of his stance and getting too upright, allowing the ballhandler to get a step on him – he’s not active and ready to move in these scenarios. However, when he is in his stance and ready to move, he does a nice job sliding and covering ground in general. Again, his quick feet and hips go a long way here and his ability to jump quickly after sliding / covering ground is impressive.

www.thestepien.com

Mamadi Diakite Scouting Report - The Stepien

Net Rating (+/- in parentheses): +5 (+3.7) Athleticism / Frame Overview: Very quick – quick hips and feet; quick reflexes. Solid vertical athlete. Average wingspan for C and below average...
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LaMelo Ball is an 18-year-old guard from Chino Hills, California, who averaged 17 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 6.8 assists for Illawarra in the National Basketball League in Australia. He is expected to be selected among the top-five picks in the upcoming NBA Draft. NBADraft.net currently has him projected at No. 3.
NBA-Specific Skills
If there is one thing the Ball brothers have in common, it’s that they really know how to pass.
For all of the out-of-their-control narcissism and boasting that happens as a result of their father’s P.T. Barnum-inspired public relations efforts, Lonzo and LaMelo both play a fabulous, free-flowing style where dynamic hit-aheads and extra passes are keys to their basketball aesthetic.
Ball’s game is ideally suited for today’s pace-and-space era. At 6-7 (and still growing), he is big enough to snatch rebounds in traffic and whirl ahead as his own one-man fast break or sling frozen-rope outlet passes to opportunistic teammates. The comparisons with his brother are inevitable, but perhaps an even more accurate comparison would be with a pre-injury Shaun Livingston, whose rangy physical dimensions and pass-first approach led to him being selected No. 4 overall in 2004.
Ball has also shown an advanced ability to create his own offense. He is equally adept with either hand and he keeps defenders off balance with an array of herky-jerky shoulder fakes and in-and-out dribbles. For a player who had to carry the load on nearly every offensive possession for a lousy team, Ball posted a tremendous assist-to-turnover ratio (6.8/2.5).
His anticipatory instincts on offense also translate to the other side of the ball, where he uses his length and intellect to disrupt passing lanes and switch across multiple positions.
Ball is the rare kind of player who can impact games in a variety of ways, even when his shot isn’t falling. He doesn’t need to lead his team in scoring in order to have a positive impact.
On a scale from 1-10, Ball’s passing and versatility rate at a 9.

Fatal Flaws
When LaVar was training his kids for NBA superstardom, one has to wonder why he didn’t at least consult a shooting coach.
The “If It Ain’t Broke” unorthodox school of shooting is fine and good when we’re discussing all-time marksmen such as Reggie Miller, but the Ball brothers have built-in offensive ceilings due to their inconsistent, off-kilter perimeter shooting.
LaMelo connected on only a quarter of his 3-point attempts in Australia on 6.7 attempts per contest, and his 72% mark at the line isn’t exactly Korver-esque. In order to keep NBA defenses honest, Ball will need to find a way to connect on more 3-pointers. First order of business? Ball needs to raise his release point above his chest and allow his length to be an asset.
He likely won’t step in as any team’s lead ball handler, so he needs to find ways to play off the ball alongside more talented and mature teammates.
Like most teenage NBA prospects, he lacks physical bulk and upper-body strength. But Ball is scrawny even compared with his draft class, which negatively impacts his top-end speed and athleticism.
On a scale from 1 (not a concern) to 10 (serious hindrance), Ball’s shooting form rates at a 7.5.
Pre-NBA Setting
Let’s take a trip back to 2017. Hurricane LaVar took the pre-draft world by storm prior to Lonzo being selected No. 2 overall. If there was a live microphone within 500 feet of his face, LaVar could be counted on to say something – anything – to generate headlines.
LaVar’s antics won’t take anyone by surprise anymore, but certain media outlets can’t help themselves. And it unfairly, but inevitably, impacts how people feel about LaMelo.
If LaMelo Ball was named LaMelo Jones, how would scouts and fans feel about his NBA potential? Would it matter?
Think of it this way – Ball will not be overwhelmed or starstruck by anything he encounters. Although he is only 18, he has treated basketball as a profession for a very long time. From his stellar high school career to his journey to Australia, Ball has been about his business. How many teenagers can say the same?
On a scale from 1-10, Ball’s NBA preparedness rates at an 8.5.
Ideal NBA Ecosystem
This is not a top-heavy draft, but there is one sleeping giant lurking in the lottery who can take an imperfect prospect and develop him into multi-positional wrecker of worlds: The Golden State Warriors.

Imagine how much fun Ball would be in Steve Kerr’s free-wheeling, share-the-ball philosophy. Imagine Ball snatching a rebound and whipping the ball ahead to Steph Curry or Klay Thompson on the break. Imagine Ball filling those Livingston-esque gaps in the half court and giving the high-IQ Warriors another creative passer.
The possibilities are endless.
Plus, the Warriors are the kind of stable franchise that can shrug off whatever quote-bombs LaVar tries to detonate.
Some of the NBA’s perennial cellar-dwellers could definitely benefit from Ball’s all-around skill level and unselfish mentality, but he could also develop some bad habits if he’s thrust into carrying the stat load for a team that consistently loses 50-plus games. Ball could flourish if he is surrounded by talented finishers, or he could bounce around the league like Evan Turner in search of highly specific circumstances that cater to his strengths (and hide his weaknesses).
On a scale from 1-10, Ball’s ability to fit in with any NBA team’s style is a 6, but his ability to contribute right away to a winner is an 8.5


www.nbadraft.net

Situational Analysis: LaMelo Ball - NBADraft.net

“Situational Analysis” is a series of articles that seeks to examine the circumstances that most often influence an NBA prospect’s success. Each player will be scored on a scale from 1-10 in four different categories: NBA-specific skill(s), fatal flaw(s), collegiate/overseas/pre-NBA environment...
www.nbadraft.net
 
Okongwu has the tools to play a very specific, and very valuable, role at the next level: A ball-screen switching, shot-blocking, lob-catching center. Put another way, he has all the warning signs of being the next Bam Adebayo.

The thing that immediately stands out when watching Okongwu’s tape is his explosiveness. He has what I like to call Go Get It ability. No matter where the lob is thrown, no matter how much arc is put on that floater, Okongwu can Go Get It. He stands 6-foot-9 with a wingspan that is reportedly in the 7-foot-2 range and a vertical that is … let’s just say high.

This gets to the core of what will make him a valuable piece on an NBA roster. On the defensive side of the ball, Okongwu averaged 3.5 blocks per 40 minutes as a freshman, showing an impressive ability to protect the rim from the weakside of the floor. It’s not just the blocks, however. He understands how to be a presence around the basket. In this clip, you’ll see Okongwu shed a seal, scare the driver off going up to the rim and stay on his feet until the shot is taken. He can go vertical and contest at the rim, and he also blocked a surprising number of jumpers for a player that didn’t spend much time on the perimeter


That, however, is only half of what makes him so intriguing as a defender, because Okongwu has been proven to be quite adept at moving his feet out on the perimeter. It will be different defending NBA point guards, but locking up good college guards on switches is impressive for a 245 pound freshman that turned 19 in December. USC used a number of different ball-screen coverages throughout the year, but it’s not hard to find examples of Okongwu executing drop coverage, which is prevalent in the modern NBA.

Offensively, more than 44% of Okongwu’s usage came on post-ups and offensive rebounds, which also happened to be where he was the most effective and efficient. Those are two things that are slowly being phased out of the modern NBA, but that’s not necessarily a huge concern for Okongwu. For starters, he’s more of a finesse post player than he is straight-up bruiser. He can finish with jump-hooks over both shoulders, and he has a habit of spinning back to his left hand, where he’s developed a nice little floater. Put another way, he has touch around the basket, which, when combined with his 72 percent free throw shooting and a handful of made 17-footers, makes the possibility of Okongwu one day becoming something of a floor-spacer feasible. He shot just 1-for-4 from three as a freshman.

As a vertical spacer, he’s going to be awesome. He has bounce, he has great hands and he didn’t even get a chance to play with a good pick-and-roll point guard in college to prove it.

When putting all of that together, Okongwu’s floor is high. As long as he stays healthy, I think the likelihood that he ends up being something in the neighborhood of Clint Capela is significant. But the difference between a guy like Capela and Bam Adebayo, or even Draymond Green before him, is the passing.

What makes Green so effective with the Warriors is his ability to pick apart a defense in 4-on-3 scenarios when teams send two defenders with Steph Curry or Klay Thompson. Adebayo made the leap from being a talented young big man to an All-Star when he turned into a guy that averages 5.1 assists. Both Green and Adebayo thrive as playmakers in short-roll actions, and that, to me, is the key to Okongwu reaching his ceiling.

He didn’t get too many chances in these actions last season, and when he did, it wasn’t always pretty. He finished the year with 30 assists and 56 turnovers, and ball-handling is clearly not yet one of his strong suits as it is with Green and Adebayo. But I do think the potential is there. Okongwu showed the ability to pass out of the post and hit drivers or weakside shooters, and there are more than a few examples of him making quick reads to create open shots for his teammates. Now, passing with your back to the basket and playmaking as a roller in ball-screens are two different things, but both require the cognitive ability to read and react to what a defense is giving you.

If Okongwu can do the former then it stands to reason that, with some coaching, he can do the latter.

Now, let’s put this into context. Adebayo averaged 16-10-5-1-1 in 2019-20. That line has only happened 11 other times in the 46 seasons since blocks were kept as an official stat, putting Adebayo in the same sentence as Kevin Garnett (3), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (2), Giannis Antetokounmpo (2), Larry Bird, Bill Walton, Chris Webber and DeMarcus Cousins.

That’s it.

So when I say that becoming the next Bam Adebayo is within Onyeka Okongwu’s range of outcomes, understand that that’s a massive compliment

College Basketball

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First and foremost, it needs to be said that LaMelo is no longer that 6-foot-nothin’ kid with braces and a blonde mohawk jacking up 45-footers and cherry-picking to try and score 100 points so he can go viral. He’s now 6-foot-7, and while he has a frame that could clearly use some time in an NBA strength and conditioning program, he is a late-bloomer. He won’t turn 19 until August 22nd. He’s throwing down tip-dunks now, and there’s still plenty of room for him to develop physically.
I think it’s also important to note that LaMelo has never really been coached all that hard. Before he got to Australia, every team LaMelo played for was either controlled by his father or coached by his now-manager. And while he was only with the Illawarra Hawks for a little more than two months, you could see him starting to figure things out. In the first six games LaMelo played in the NBL, he averaged 12.0 points, 5.7 boards and 5.3 assists while shooting 34 percent from the floor, 15 percent from three and 68 percent from the line. Over the last six games, however, he averaged 22.0 points, 9.2 boards and 8.2 assists with shooting splits of 40/31/75. He closed out the season with back-to-back triples-doubles — including 25 points, 12 boards and 10 assists in his final game, which came against R.J. Hampton’s team — before an ankle injury led to him shutting things down.

Offensively, LaMelo has the potential to be special. He is, simply put, an unbelievable passer, able to make any and all reads out of ball-screens while also being capable of throwing every pass in the book with either hand at whatever angle is necessary to get the ball where it needs to be. He knows how to move a defense with his eyes, creating angles and space to get his teammates dunks, layups and open threes. He’s just as adept at hitting rollers — with both pocket passes and pinpoint lobs even when dribbling at full speed — as he is at reading what a tagger is doing on the weakside of the floor. He’s terrific at firing full-court passes to bigs that get out and run the floor, both in transition and off made baskets. He’s exceptional at anticipating when and where a player is going to come open in transition.

He is a basketball savant, and I don’t think that it’s a stretch to say that he will be one of the 10-15 best passers in the league by the end of his rookie season. In recent years, we’ve seen other lead guards with elite passing ability — Trae Young, Ja Morant, Luka Doncic, etc. — have a major impact early in their career.
Now, it’s also important to note that LaMelo really is not anything like any of those players. Young is an elite shooter, LaMelo is not. (More on this in a second.) Morant is an elite athlete, LaMelo is not. Doncic was 19 years old when he won MVP of the Euroleague, the second-best league on the planet, and MVP of the Spanish ACB while LaMelo’s Illawarra team was just 3-9 with him on the roster in the NBL, a much less competitive league. Some of that was not his fault — Aaron Brooks was injured early in the season, and his teammates shot just 32 percent from three in the games LaMelo played in — but LaMelo should not be mentioned in the same breath as any of those three just yet.There are essentially two reasons for that.

The first is the shooting.
LaMelo shot just 20-for-80 from three during his 12 games in the NBL. Like his brother Lonzo, LaMelo has a weird shooting stroke. His release has seemingly not changed since he was young. It’s a push shot, one where his left hand remains on the ball for far too long. His lower body is never consistent, and he relies on floaters from as far out as 20-feet because, it appears, he cannot actually shoot mid-range jumpers. The fact that he has a bad habit of settling for deep, deep threes way too early in the shot clock certainly contributed to those numbers, but shot selection is why he’s a 25 percent three-point shooter instead of 30 percent. Either way, it’s a concern.

LaMelo is also a mess defensively, and that’s putting it kindly.
He consistently finds himself out of position, failing to rotate from the weakside of the floor and and unaware of when he is supposed to be tagging rollers. He really struggled to keep drivers from getting right to the front of the rim. He’s a gambler, preferring to try and jump a passing lane than to play solid defense even if it leaves his teammates out to try, and while he does have the anticipation and IQ to pick off a few passes, overall it was a net-negative.
But to be frank, all of that is, theoretically, fixable. He can be taught to shoot. He can be taught how to better position himself defensively. If he’s held accountable on the defensive end — like, for example, if he has a coach that will park him on the bench if he gets caught wiping his shoes instead of rotating defensively — I think he has a chance to at least be an average defender. He has the tools. And that, to me, is what makes LaMelo so intriguing. The basketball IQ is there. The passing ability is there. The athleticism to get to the rim, the size, the physical tools, it’s all there. For the most part, the things that he struggles with can all be coached up. I hesitate to compare him to Lonzo because they are very different players, but we’ve seen the oldest Ball brother develop into an excellent defender and a 38 percent three-point shooter after getting to the NBA. LaMelo should be able to follow a similar developmental path. The risks are always going to be there. If he ends up in an organization that is too close to home or doesn’t have veterans that will hold him accountable if he doesn’t put in the work, it may not end well for him. You have to know that when you draft him. But you cannot teach his basketball IQ, his passing savvy, his understanding of the game. And in a draft where there is no one that is a clear-cut NBA superstar, I think that makes him worth the risk at No. 1.

College Basketball

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One reason Bob Myers isn’t saying who the Warriors will select with their first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft is that he doesn’t yet know the draft order. Another is that he wouldn’t tell even if he did. A third reason is because the Warriors may not draft at all. The thought of trading the pick is as intriguing an option as it was 10 weeks ago, when the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic brought the NBA season to an abrupt halt. “Yeah, we’re going to consider all that,” the Warriors president of basketball operations told NBC Sports Bay Area over the phone, before pausing for a moment. “Now, I don’t know if the headline is going to be that we’re trading our pick. So, be clear that I said ‘consider

www.nbcsports.com

Bob Myers, Warriors will ‘consider' trading top 2020 NBA draft pick

One reason Bob Myers isn’t saying who the Warriors will select with their first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft is that he doesn’t yet know the draft order. Another is that he wouldn’t tell even if he did. A third reason is because the Warriors may not draft at all. The thought of trading the...
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Though the Warriors are higher on USC big man Onyeka Okongwu than Wiseman, a league source told The Chronicle that they are unlikely to use a top-5 pick on Okongwu — especially when they’re not sure he’d be ahead of Chriss on the depth chart. Odds are that, if Golden State traded down into the mid- to late-lottery, Okongwu wouldn’t be available

www.sfchronicle.com

How Marquese Chriss’ emergence affects Warriors’ draft decisions

The Warriors’ front office is so optimistic about Marquese Chriss’ future, according...
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Basically, I worry he might not be skilled enough or a good enough decision-maker right now to play the four on offense in today’s NBA, and he also isn’t big enough to play the five. I’ve also heard from a few NBA teams that have interviewed him that the role he sees himself in long term isn’t quite commensurate with where they see him. He’s just a very weird fit in a lot of ways, despite the immense production. I hope he ends up in a place like Toronto, which I trust would get the most out of him due to its internal development intelligence. He has some real upside. But he could go a lot of ways as a prospect, and I worry a bit that the team that has him first might not be the one that reaps the rewards.

theathletic.com

Draft prep: Discussing the Raptors’ landscape at Nos. 28 and 58 with Sam Vecenie

For the first time since 2014, the Raptors enter the draft holding a first- and second-round pick. It's time to weigh their options.
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In an anonymous poll of 35 NBA executives conducted by Stadium, James Wiseman has emerged as the frontrunner for the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA Draft. The 7-foot-1 center, who played just three games at Memphis this past season prior to withdrawing from school amidst an NCAA suspension, received 20 of the 35 votes (57 percent). “I wouldn’t even want the No. 1 pick,” one NBA general manager told me. “If I have it, I’m trying like hell to trade it.”

But the issue will be whether the pick commands enough value to trade out of the top spot. “It’s not an easy decision,” another NBA GM added. “And even though the NBA doesn’t value bigs like it used to, there just aren’t a lot of 7-footers who can run and jump like Wiseman can out there.”

– via Jeff Goodman @ watchstadium.com

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League sources believe a good chance exists that a downsized combine complete with live interviews for the elite prospects will occur sometime in August or September once the draft is officially postponed from June 25. Prohm said he is hopeful that happens for Haliburton, an Oshkosh, Wisc., native who is training in Milwaukee. “He’s off-the-charts mature, invested in the university, all about winning and the team,’’ Prohm said. “His character and maturity is very high.”

– via Marc Berman @ New York Post
 
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