NBA Draft
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I am starting to think that Will Riley might be drafted ahead of KJ.
I'm not sure where to put this but Vecenie has Riley at 39 in his latest mock. Seems low given Riley's last month or so.
www.nytimes.com
NBA mock draft 2025: Cooper Flagg and the March Madness stars who could boost their stock
As the NCAA Tournament gets underway, several top prospects will be in the spotlight. And scouts have varying opinions on many of them.
www.nytimes.com
Riley is going to get effed over by his short wingspan.
A good couple games in the tournament though and he's a first round pick imo.
A good couple games in the tournament though and he's a first round pick imo.
I think that's actually higher than where Vecenie has previously had Riley slotted. Vecenie seems lower than most on Riley but he's probably as high on KJ as anyone.I'm not sure where to put this but Vecenie has Riley at 39 in his latest mock. Seems low given Riley's last month or so.
NBA mock draft 2025: Cooper Flagg and the March Madness stars who could boost their stock
As the NCAA Tournament gets underway, several top prospects will be in the spotlight. And scouts have varying opinions on many of them.
Assuming this is directed toward the "no way KJ is a lottery pick" crowd.
But as the article even points out, the kid is slumping right now. We need him to snap out of it if we want to string games together. Doesn't mean he's a lesser player or anything, but that's just the situation.
Related note - this is why I don't buy the "most talented Illinois team ever" stuff. Yes, we have tons of talent but most of it is still unrealized. Probably a dumb analogy, but no one ever talks about Robert Parish as being one of the best Bulls players ever even though he is a Hall of Famer. That's because by the time he played with the Bulls, he was well past his prime. Likewise, we have guys who could be NBA all stars one day but we're getting them before their prime.
Zorak
- Naperville
I haven't seen anybody say definitively that they are. If they did it would be insane.
By recruiting rankings it is and that's the context most are referring to when they say "most talented team Illinois has ever had".
It was more common toward the start of the season, but some version of that was popular at one point - even repeated in the media a little bit, I think.
Then when the Brad hot seat chatter was at a fever pitch, you would hear things like, "This is one of the most talented teams we've ever had and Brad is wasting it." Yada yada.
It's possible I'm being dramatic but I feel like I remember that general idea coming up more than a few times over the year.
Most people think of talent as potential, so I don't think it's insane. There have been multiple players projected as NBA level, with Will and KJ being on most every draft board. Tomi gets mentioned, and Morez is a beast even if he's not enough of a shooter for today's NBA.
Underwood was good at hyping up the team early, which I think is a good thing. You want your fans excited, tickets sold, and a vision that hopefully develops. But I think a lot of us would say they're not there yet, and the FF dreams look pretty shaky going into the tournament. The draw looks good, and a few days from now we could be celebrating a S16. Would really change the narrative to get to the second weekend.
NBA.com projects KJ #11 and Will #21 in nba draft. Will needs one more year with fletch which we know isn’t happening. But his upside is so massive that I see him going lottery (top 14). Especially with another game like that.
Don't recall that...
Well I won't share the posts, but I did take a quick scan through some previous threads and there were comments like 'one of the most talented teams in our history', 'most talented team since 1989', 'most talent Brad has ever had', comparisons to the Fab Five, then a bunch of posts about how the staff is wasting this Uber talented roster.
Has Illinois had two first round draft picks on the same team since 2005? We can nit pick over definitions of talent. And I get the NBA is all about potential. But Brad felt for most of the season he had enough talent on the floor that he was bringing a consensus 1st round draft pick off the bench.
Edit: I would not even compare this team to 2005 or 1989 unless they put together a deep tournament run. Those were special teams. But raw talent wise, that is a different metric. And we won't know the answer for a number of years.
Edit: I would not even compare this team to 2005 or 1989 unless they put together a deep tournament run. Those were special teams. But raw talent wise, that is a different metric. And we won't know the answer for a number of years.
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Will actually needs a few more years in the weight room. Fans tend to get hung up on this but scouts/execs dont care. See: Brandon Ingram, Chet Holmgren, Kevin Durant, Giannis, etc
Fans need to understand that the whole one and done rule was to save the NBA money on paying most draftees to spend the first of several years in the weight room. If the worst you can say about a potential first round pick is "more time in the weight room needed" that kid's getting drafted.
band camp
- STL City
Giannis?
Do people really think NBA teams spend less on strength and conditioning than NCAA teams? Do you think a player is going to spend less time in the gym when they're in the NBA than when they're on a college campus, with classes and all the other collegiate distractions?
band camp
- STL City
Wow, I had no idea. Thank you.
Ben? Do you mean Wil?
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