nba prospects

ive flagg mania mate

COOPER FLAGG AT THE BUZZER 🚨

HE SENDS IT TO OT 🤯

Watch NOW in the NBA App: https://t.co/rrdQfp9U4z pic.twitter.com/VV5lVo3LvU

— NBA (@NBA) August 20, 2023

he just reclassified and so will be in the nba in one more year

the defense is obvs insane hes a very big wing with elite shot blocking and stealing ability but the creative finishing/nose for the basket stand out too he has the scorers mindtype

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px9DwSGq8QE

he just reclassified and so will be in the nba in one more year

― lag∞n, Sunday, August 20, 2023 10:51 AM (six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

*two more years, on track for 2025 draft

just in time for when the spurs have 3 first rounders

flagg update

Cooper Flagg’s mom and Donovan Clingan’s mom were teammates at the University of Maine.

On Flagg’s official visit to UConn this weekend, they pair were able to do this photo shoot while each wearing their mom’s jersey.

▪️Stacey (Porrini) Clingan ranks 17th on Maine's all-time… pic.twitter.com/4SjDHdJxKg

— Jamie Shaw (@JamieShaw5) September 27, 2023

watching a video of cooper flaggs team montverde academy layup line and they were all dunking i was like whats going on here not even all nba players can dunk i looked and they have six players in espns top 50 prospects lol

copper flag

https://i.imgur.com/YnPfHLR.png

USC freshman Bronny James is declaring for the 2024 NBA Draft. James, 19, also is entering NCAA transfer portal to maintain flexibility. The combo guard will work out for and visit NBA teams and make a draft decision based on evaluation. pic.twitter.com/azJgWNNqmQ

— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) April 5, 2024

congratulations to future laker lebron james jr

I can't see which team drafts him and then ransom-offers him to the Lakers

+"wait to" lol

would lebron really turn down $50m next season and leave the lakers to go play with his son, im dubious, would the lakers take bronny in the second round to please lebron yeah i think they would, doesnt seem like theres a deal in place tho considering he kept his college options open

seems like lebron could make bronny about as much money by making some endorsement deals in partnership with bronny under NIL provisions as bronny could make in guaranteed money as a mid-2nd round pick.

he wants to play on the same team as him tho, we dont know what bonny wants

imagine having GM lebron being the manager of your basketball career forever

GM durant vs GM bron: a hoops poll

our friend cooper wrecking the olympic team

Duke commit Cooper Flagg has taken over USA Basketball scrimmage: hits a three and then finishes a tough putback pic.twitter.com/SB3Y4fDpYt

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) July 8, 2024

the beautiful genius cooper flagg

Reporter: “Best NBA player of all time?”

Cooper Flagg: “Michael Jordan.”

Reporter: “Best NBA team of all time?”

CF: “1985-86 Celtics.”

Reporter: “Best defender of all time?”

CF: “Kawhi Leonard.”

(via @SLAMonline / TT)pic.twitter.com/GCxRIroCtB

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) July 9, 2024

pre game hype song: faneto
best jordans: 4s

this kid just gets it

NBA teams better be careful trading those unprotected 2026 draft picks 😬

( via @ADybantsa ) pic.twitter.com/HsYtQX5Yle

— ENJ🏀Y (@EnjoyBBall) September 26, 2024

i have heard this guy is the next next big thing

cant wait for that atl pick swap to cash in

that draft also has boozer jr

it's rare for a draft to lack a top pick or two that feel especially attractive and valuable. what's rare is a kareem, lebron, or wembanyama that feels like a generational talent.

just reading up on the draft

https://i.imgur.com/R3c4boG.png

boogie fland is nice

boogie fland is nice

so nice it posted twice

heard todd bonzalez is really impressing the scouts

lol

thinking dylan harper might go #1 obvs a ways to go but whoever has the pick has an interesting decision to make between the natural baller elite scorer big guard in harper and the all around game big wing cooper flagg

i’m still not used to the name “furphy”

makes more sense if you say it in an aus accent

me, an early 20th century immigrant coming to america with nothing but my fursuit and dropkick murphy collection: i wonder what i should put for my last name

America is the land of the Fursuit of Happ6.

Happiness. Thanks autocorrect.

COOPER FLAGG JUST WENT COAST-TO-COAST AND POSTERIZED THE DEFENDER 😱🔥

ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS 🤯 pic.twitter.com/Z5jcZ756ew

— ESPN (@espn) January 8, 2025

idk i think this guy might be good

Look at where Cooper Flagg just dunked from WITH NO DRIBBLE 🤯 pic.twitter.com/TIWOtH1Jr4

— Mark Jackson’s Burner (@casualtakeking) January 11, 2025

hooper flagg

dece

‪KeithSmithNBA‬ ‪keithsmithnba.bsky.social‬

Cooper Flagg in ACC conference play:

16 games
27.1 PPG
53.2% FG%
44.4% 3P% on 4.9 3PA/game
84.6% FT% on 8.1 FTA/game
8.9 RPG
5.0 APG
1.9 SPG
1.3 BPG
2.9 TOPG

consensus on him has been very good but not super elite prospect, those numbers however, hes one of the youngest players in college ball too

acc is pretty weak this year, but it is very clear that he is a super high iq guy, super athletic with no real weaknesses to his game on the college level. his handle and shot are not yet nba elite, but he's gonna be gooood

banannas

bandannas

high motor too physical huge frame scrappy gotta love it

seems like the only thing keeping him from the uppermost echelon of prospects is not being a super freak athlete, but perhaps that is slightly overrated anyway

his vertical is reported as 40", physically i think hes freak, all things considered he might be a super freak

id say the only thing maybe holding him back is that he tends more towards relying on hustle and physicality rather than being a super high level skill guy, maybe a little more siakam than tatum, but his ceiling is prob a more active athletic physical tatum which needless to say would be a perennial top guy

his vertical is reported as 40", physically i think hes freak, all things considered he might be a super freak

― lag∞n, Tuesday, February 18, 2025 12:06 PM (five minutes ago)

i could be wrong but he doesn't quite seem to be at the wemby, anthony davis, zion, blake griffin level of prospect hype bcuz his size/athleticism combo is not at that height? maybe this gets reevaluated after the season and combine and stuff in conjunction w/ his production. it seems like flagg is more in the tier of no doubt 1 no picks but not generationally hyped talents so players like cade, KAT, ben simmons, kyrie lol

again this is just my perception of how ppl are talking about him as opposed to a personal evaluation. i haven't watched basically any college bb this year

the wemby, anthony davis, zion, blake griffin level of prospect hype

also it turns out that anthony edwards should have been in this group of prospect but everyone just misevaluated his basketball skill

flagg has def been in the lower than generational talent prospect tier but with these numbers hes putting up maybe hell get there, not that it matters none of those guys you mentioned fully panned out tho webmy almost certainly will, instead the mvps are underrated guys from overseas

tho i actually left out the end of that keith smith post

As the competition has improved, so has Flagg. In almost every facet of the game too. He's a generational prospect.

https://bsky.app/profile/keithsmithnba.bsky.social/post/3lihivretus2g

uh oh guess those numbers were a little too good

‪KeithSmithNBA‬ ‪keithsmithnba.bsky.social‬

These are per-40 stats! Not per game. That's my bad for not calling that out previously.

rough game for jakucionis today gotta be some serious questions about his ability to beat nba defenders off the dribble

watched a good bit of cooper flagg yesterday. there's just very few guys in college basketball at that size who can move like that, however he doesn't pop off the screen athletically either. i wonder if this is a luka type situation where you have to put aside what the eye test wants to tell you about elite nba prospects and just go w/ the elite production and obvious overall ball skill at a young age. flagg is not not going no 1 so it's less of a real debate and more just a theoretical question. because athletically i see more of like a pascal siakam/khris middleton kinda fringe all NBA, 2 time all star type player. but he's obviously a lot better than either of those guys were at any age so

rough game for jakucionis today gotta be some serious questions about his ability to beat nba defenders off the dribble

― lag∞n, Sunday, March 23, 2025 8:09 PM (yesterday)

real 6th man vibes about his game. i like him but he isn't a top 5 pick. drafting a guard who can't play defense high also starts to box you in in terms of how you build out your team

flagg kinda reminds me of a younger and better version of sd st. kahwi leonard, if that means anything

kahwi was more skillful with more offensive tools back then (he was a couple years older), including a back to basket game, and he def was quicker off the bounce, but they both could get to the rim at will, defend anyone on the floor, and facilitate the offense whether on ball or after receiving a pass

flagg has a 40 inch vertical and he plays quite athletically gets lots of dunks 2.7 stocks a games moves really well i dont understand comparing him to a notably unathletic player like kris middleton

kasparas is a good player, noticeably less good after coming back from an injury, and after defenses realized nobody else on his team could shoot (didn't stop them from launching anyway)

just the first five plays here hes taking off in traffic a step behind the restricted circle for a dunk and getting a block with his head by the rim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edzezIWDCUs

i only watched the first half of that game but jakucionis wasnt even attempting to drive on kentucky and it wasnt like they were doubling him he just wasnt beating his man idk

I was kinda shocked to see that Baylor wing in the top 5 of a couple mock drafts. Seemed really passive

past the first two picks this draft seems very uh fluid

i do wonder if flaggs vertical is really 40" he seems more like a plus nba athlete rather than an elite one like hes more athletic than jayson tatum but less than jaylen brown

if he winds up going to spurs they will win many championships

he simply cannot go to the spurs it wouldnt be right

i do wonder if flaggs vertical is really 40" he seems more like a plus nba athlete rather than an elite one like hes more athletic than jayson tatum but less than jaylen brown

― lag∞n, Monday, March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (eight minutes ago)bookmarkflaglink

it feels like this to me

Paul George College Throwback | Drops 24 points on Seattle U!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERcmFdlrrXY

PG was skinnier and has that wiry fluidity, he's taking some twisting jumpers in this video that look like t mac. cooper is more filled out at this stage and plays w/ more physicality. they both can get well above the rim but you're not seeing their dunks in your sleep

I was kinda shocked to see that Baylor wing in the top 5 of a couple mock drafts. Seemed really passive

― Heez, Monday, March 24, 2025 11:49 AM (twenty-seven minutes ago)

i think you have a really high bar to clear as a combo guard to be a top 5 pick talking ppl like d wade and james harden. i don't see that w/ edgecomb however jonathan givony was talking on the hoop collective pod last week about how baylor is kinda bad this year and in particular have horrible spacing (shot 8-22 from three in this game) so he'll prob look a lot better in the pros when he can beat his man off the dribble and have room to get to the rim. he can jump out of the gym and puts that to use in his rebounding and stock stats so he's not just an empty calorie scorer. but like w/ a lot of these players it's mostly a question of whether his overall offensive game can develop beyond just being a scorer. if he can shoot off the catch and learn to distribute he'll be like a jalen suggs level elite role player. or he could be a 7th man

you're not seeing their dunks in your sleep

― slob wizard (J0rdan S.), Monday, March 24, 2025 12:16 PM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

id agree with this but its plenty of athleticism to be a superstar in the league, add to that flagg plays with high physicality and motor he could be generally physically dominant as a pro especially once he puts on some weight and he looks like a guy who could get a lot stronger wide shoulders big frame etc

for sure. overall i circle back to my OP about him feeling like an eye test lie

i dont really get thinking he doesnt pass the eye test seems like hes pretty much balling out to me but i guess everyones got their own eye

i do wonder if flaggs vertical is really 40" he seems more like a plus nba athlete rather than an elite one like hes more athletic than jayson tatum but less than jaylen brown

― lag∞n, Monday, March 24, 2025 11:55 AM (eight minutes ago)bookmarkflaglink

i think we're seeing the same thing

derik queen feels like a guy who will average 24 ppg for a 25-win team

interesting all the top foreign born prospects edgecombe jakucionis maluach demin are playing in the ncaa this year highest ranked guy playing in europe is traore in the middle of the first tho edgecombe went to hs in the us so he mightve been on the college track even without the nil money but hey gotta love that nil money

scouts must like it too

my less than expert assessment of what I'm seeing in flagg is that he already has a very complete package of nba-level skills, the right body type, a high motor and competitive drive, good court sense and vision. no apparent weaknesses. he should be able to excel quickly and be ROY. his current completeness as a player does make it hard to peg how close he is to his theoretical ceiling, but at his age you know there's more coming. I'm not sure he needs to have a single identifiable elite-level skill to be a future all-star.

going into this season his elite skill was seen to be defense but seems like the defense while excellent hasnt been quite as a good as expected def really good off ball but he maybe doesnt have quite the flexibility and mobility to get low and be a true on ball demon, but the offense has been better than expected his playmaking particularly i think has surprised people, but prob ultimately the reason people are so stoked on him is hes just a beast and a baller super high motor competitive intensity and also a real good feel for the game, like his handle looks a little loose his jumper slightly weird but he just gets buckets anyway, and needless to say hes an athletic dynamic physical big wing which is what everyone wants the player type that fits in everywhere

the ringer's main player comparison for him was scottie pippen, who is not a player who inspires a lot of comps from scouts

i dont really see it pippen was a big wing who moved like a guard, i think hes more of a tatum if the smooth–beast slider was considerably further to the beast side than tatums settings

kon knueppel…is good

very skilled player for sure

his name is weird tho

his summer hoops clinic should be called kon academy

flagg flexibility test

https://i.imgur.com/xkEq4Fi.png

from this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk-HImlaUYU

pull up game was sick last night. his decisions as a distributor were really impressive. the alley oop pass he threw near the end that the other guy wasn't able to finish (knueppel was fouled on the rebound) was so jokic-esque that you can easily picture aaron gordon on the other end of it

he really likes to meet bigs in the air -- like jump directly into their bodies -- and he's good, at this level, at using that contact to his advantage while in the air. as he gets into his mid 20s he should get to the line a ton. i think at least earlier in his career he may have to get more flexible/creative around the rim -- the way tatum can really slither around bigs -- bcuz it's a different thing to be throwing yourself off guys like zubac. but that's footwork stuff that is prob teachable. and he has good touch from floater range

his name is weird tho

― lag∞n, Thursday, March 27, 2025 10:31 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

konka nipple

this is what you want when youre playing scrubs make em look like scrubs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTCXQX48QwY

cam boozer 33pts in his first game or glorified scrimmage or w/e it was

2nd stacked draft in a row?

kids are just getting really good at hoops is out i break it down

feel like aj dybantsa and cam boozer have gotten more press but seems like a lot of the draft nerds are treating darryn peterson as a lock for #1 which is wild considering those other two gusy have top tier talent and play more sought after positions where peterson is a guard, he must be really good

positionally actually im not sure about boozer dybantsa is a big wing so we know everyone loves that if boozer is a pure 4 tho then positionally its not that special but if he can play some center too with his skills he becomes really valuable

he is roughly carols boozer sized and he played center, tho not sure how good of a defender he was which is the thing that really matters

lol carols boozer

from what i've seen from peterson he basically looks like everything you'd want in a number 1 pick, minus about 2-3 inches. someone like tatum came to mind, maybe it's more of a cade cunningham big combo guard kinda thing, not sure where peterson is at as a passer/distributor but he can definitely handle the ball for himself and is a super smooth scorer

seems like peterson has way more sauce than tatum or cade who are more large hard workers, peterson is just a baller and a half from what i can tell crazy touch getting wherever he wants great defender too apparently

must be some sort of freak athlete too

Yeah I got really bummed that the two top prospects play Jalen Johnson’s position so I was checking out the mocks and was happy to see a guard at the top. If Trae sucks this year, the hawks will have a nice replacement

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IWewxPpEgw

cameron boozer is gonna be a fascinating case. he may end up as the most famous prospect in this class but i watch this and think, ok what i am seeing is georges niang if he was in better shape…. so, am i just completely insane or ???

that is completely insane lol, guys who can put up numbers like that as a freshman against top level college competition are basically guaranteed nba stars, and the particularities of his game would lead you to the same conclusion hes just very skilled in all areas has great feel gets buckets and is a beast smashing into everyone and so forth plus you have to give him the second generation bump, if you wanted to deduct points itd prob be for physical stuff hes not an elite nba athlete and his hulk smash routine maybe wont work quite as well in the pros where guys are bigger and stronger, which is why hell prob go third tho in many years hed be going one

watching those clips something that stands out is how well he moves, underrated physical attribute, big contrast to the minivan, hes also processing super quickly, which is a nice combo puts him a half a step ahead

hes slick too that lil post pivot move at 1:35, taking it coast to coast through contact on another play

24-23 vs a ranked team!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uDw2UHWFOU

23 rebounds in a college game shouldnt be possible, it was an exhibition game but still

i just can’t think of an NBA player with this body type who plays almost entirely under the rim and isn’t a shooter but is still a great player — julius randle is probably the closest i can come up with? michael beasley? if he was an insane athlete he could be blake griffin, if he was 2-3 inches taller he could be paolo banchero. if he played in the 80s he could be charles barkley? alas

collin murray boyles is basically this body type & had a similar post centric game playing the 5 in college, but he was also considered a borderline elite defensive prospect at that size who could give you draymond style play as his offensive game came along. i haven’t watched a full duke game so idk about boozer’s defense but i haven’t heard anything like that mentioned with him

going back to okafor teams have fallen for this specific kinda duke post player before, marvin bagley would be the other. vernon carey jr was a player the NBA didn’t fall for but is very similar and had the exact same role at duke. they have the ability to make groundbound post players look good

boozer is a skilled player, he will prob find a role in the league, if he falls somewhere between julius randle and collin murray boyles he’ll prob play for a long time. but i have trouble squaring his size + attributes w/ the idea that he should be anywhere near the top of the draft in what is allegedly a historically loaded class

i guess we never got to see “michael beasley but not clinically insane” so maybe that’s what this is? is that a top 3 pick? maybe?

the one three he makes in that tennessee game looks good, if a team can get him shooting at some level of volume from out there then it becomes a different story. he is a decent passer. i also see tons of clips of him scoring at the rim in a way that just isn’t gonna happen at the NBA level, some angel reese esque possessions in those highlights. idk. he’s gonna have to completely change the way he scores imo, maybe the underlying skills are so good that he can do that, it just feels like a lot of projection for an undersized player for me, to be talking about top 3 or 5 in the draft

georges niang, michael beasley, angel reese, those are some wild comps did cam boozer kill your dog or something, anyway hes not undersized he is a shooter and he can score in all the ways, not sure where youre getting this stuff from

the thing we should be asking ourselves is can he play center in the nba, he has the size and skills to be a perfect 4 but if he can at least some of the time slide over to center and hold up on defense my god maybe he should go 1, hes super strong and has long arms so maybe

i don’t think michael beasley is an insulting comp, he was a historically dominant college player especially on the glass and a top 2 pick in a great draft. he didn’t work out prob mostly bcuz of mental/character stuff but i think that one is pretty fair. julius randle is good! (so people say)

sam vecenie wrote recently that to compensate for being short for his position boozer started working on his outside game, that’s the right impulse ofc and maybe that part of his game continues to grow and he becomes some super unique special player, his shot looks good. however the way he scores at the rim in college just isn’t gonna fly around NBA athletes idk what to say, he’s gonna have to become more creative in how he finishes or keep morphing from a center into like a big point forward. but idk if he can dribble like that

like a scenario where boozer is trying to work the post like this against idk bam, duren, jarrett allen etc real nba centers i’m not sure i think he’d score a single point? so the rest of his game really needs to flourish. if he can become a stretch 5 who can pump fake and then drive to the rim with the other team’s center out of the way then i can see the path for a good player but it still seems like a role player to me, even if he’s a good one. late lottery, sure

these will be interesting posts to look back to in a few years

i see what you're saying j0rd in so far as his low post moves are taking advantage of the far inferior man defense skills of the competition, but he's getting the buckets so he doesn't really have strong motivation to change his approach now. doesn't mean he won't be able to shift in the pros

is he big enough to play the 5 on defense? I’m seeing him listed at 6-9

the nba community will never know peace as long as there are tweener bigs with questionable outside shooting

hes shooting 38% from 3 on 4 attempts a game, obvs small sample could just be on a heater but the shot looks good and hes launching without hesitation

is he big enough to play the 5 on defense? I’m seeing him listed at 6-9

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Friday, November 28, 2025 12:09 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

hes def short but hes really strong and i cant find a wingspan measurement but his arms look long, could be a draymond type center, obvs you cant ask him to have draymond defensive talent but a just super strong mobile low center of gravity long arms making up for lack of height guy is a thing that could work, even if its only part time having that positional flexibility would be huge and having a guy with his offensive skills playing center would be very sick

i doubt boozer will be as low post focused in the league but hes got the rest of the game working too kinda doubt itll be too difficult for him to swap out some of those low post possessions for like elbow touches dribble hand offs and whatnot, could also see his post game being viable in the league if he can pass well from there but dont really have a sense if hes got that in his bag, he also just seems like a really opportunistic quick reader of the game so i suspect hell be able to find all sorts of shots

i think a favorable comp of a current player would be sengun, not hugely physically gifted but just amazing feel for the game and skill as a big. you see boozer make some nice functional cross court passes, sengun i think has more like savant level feel but boozer seems to be closer to the higher end of that spectrum than a lot of bigs. but the key thing w/ sengun is that he grew a few inches after being drafted which made him a much cleaner fit at the 5 than it looked like he’d be as a rookie

and even then the rockets basically have decided to play him with another 5, if the league’s trending back towards bigness is more than a momentary blip than perhaps boozer already has enough feel and shooting to play as a 4 next to another big without compromising the offense. have to imagine teams that really like him as a prospect have something like that in mind

thing about sengun that prevents him from being a 5 is hes not a good defender, he has the size but just doesnt have the stuff, if he could protect the rim hed be insanely good, still pretty good tho, id agree that teams are prob looking at boozer as a 4 where i think hes a pretty clean fit, but if he can play some 5 even if its just small ball looks that raises his ceiling a lot

Peterson played his first game for Kansas.

darryn peterson is a fascinating guy to watch. very unique athlete, aesthetically, he plays like he teleported here from 1987

jamal crawford coaching his son, and tyran stokes the #1 player in the country

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LSyeGk9hjV4

getting kawhi-ish vibes from darryn peterson this season (complimentary and derogatory)

just as long as he doesnt have any uncles

Was watching some clips of Peja's Stojakovic's kid Andrej who is playing for Illinois. Seems like pretty solid all-arounder

top four draft order already locked in??

probably not but also could be

dybantsa could still go 1 if he goes nuts and peterson keeps being injured but idk peterson is so good at everything to me he seems like the no brainer, caleb wilson prob not at all locked in at 4 either since hes just a straight athletic freak who doesnt really have basketball skills per se, but i think we can all agree that cam boozer is locked in at 3

indy would maybe take dybantsa 1 if they got the pick but dont think any of the other real bad teams have an on ball guard good enough to cause them to pass on peterson, guess if the hornets snuck into 1 theyd prob take dybantsa too not necessarily because theyre married to melo long term they just generally have a lot of backcourt guys

otoh peterson could just end up the consensus 1 too

think I might be “a peterson guy”

hes insanely good

was watching some tape of the major prospects last night. peterson looks like a version of shai with an even better outside shot. guy’s trigger is just insane and his shot looks smooth as hell. also has good positional size and in the limited stuff I’ve seen will prob be a good defender

boozer…I don’t know man. I’m sort of with jordan up thread. “angel reese type possessions” is a bit harsh considering he actually makes his shots but he seems to have some condition that prevents him from extending his arms fully around the rim. his shooting form in the paint is bizarre and needs to be fixed at the next level I think. also have some concerns about his defensive ability and lateral movement etc particularly since it doesn’t seem like he’s going to be a true 5. sort of reminds me of paolo a little tbh

dybantsa is really fun. athletic freak wings who can attack the rim and profile as good defenders are generally a good bet. you probably want to see more of an outside shot but that’s something that can be worked on. he’s not an awful FT shooter. he’ll probably add a few pounds over the years too

btw did you know this is the third CBB player in the last 30 years to be named cameron boozer kind of random

thing about boozer is theres never been a freshman whos putting up the numbers he is who didnt end up having all star level nba talent, i think he has some other stuff going for him too particularly hes just a very high feel player so i think he has a way better than average chance at navigating whatever obstacles may present themselves in the league, i must say it did give me pause when a scouting video i was watching described his defense as "a little KATish", but i think he ends up good nba player, tho being strong #1 option might be a stretch for him might be more of an all around guy, which i one reason i think hes clearly behind peterson and dybantsa, you gotta try to get a bigtime #1 guy if you can

could also be really bad tho. those big tweeners with bad defense can be incredible in college and suck in the nba

hes been so good in college these guys who are competing for player of the year as freshman just dont miss in the pros

and its def not any forgone conclusion that he grades out as a bad defender either

hes been so good in college these guys who are competing for player of the year as freshman just dont miss in the pros

― lag∞n, Sunday, 18 January 2026

i dont follow ncaa ball at all but i feel like this is not reliable

ok

lagoon is right that if you look at any sort of recent historical ranking of efficiency by college players especially true freshmen it’s going to tell you that boozer is an elite player and elite prospect, grouped together with players who were can’t miss prospects. at this point he would end up as a legendary statistical outlier if he flops

because of that i’ve come around to the idea that he’s definitely going to be good to really good. however, i still think he has physical limitations that are going to prevent him from being the best player on a great team. i don’t think he has top 10 player in the league ceiling, but if you had him as a number two with some size protection elsewhere in the line up paired with another star then i def see how his basketball skill could really play up in the way his biggest fans see

the thing that has me warming up to him is that his shot from NBA three distance has looked good, and if he can actually shoot the three for real then you have the kinda shooting + skill combo where im not sure the limitations come into play as much. it gets into i.e. kon knueppel territory

spurs move up in the lottery again and he becomes our starting 4, best place possible

omg greedy

what if boozer is kind of a cross between paolo and sabonis

omg greedy

― lag∞n, Saturday, January 17, 2026 9:57 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

getting my mf gordon gekko on, this is healthy for my spirit

lol

what if boozer is kind of a cross between paolo and sabonis

― comrade jhøsh (k3vin k.), Saturday, January 17, 2026 11:00 PM (three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

feel like hes more of a dynamic in flow player than those guys but yeah he could def end up in that range, still pretty good tho

yes imo it hinges on his outside shot. if he can shoot threes he will be good. if he cant he will be bad.

i mean everyone in the nba has to be able to shoot, unless theyre a center and even then its nice

boozer is definitely a better shooter than sabonis. i think he has the feel to play off the ball in a way that paolo maybe does not. i.e. — paolo shot 33% from three and had 3.2 APG to 2.4 TOV at duke; boozer is at 36% and 4.1 to 2.4, respectively

if a team drafts him and expects more of a super role player in the way that, like, evan mobley and chet are sorta the second or third or fourth best players on their teams depending on the night then that makes sense to me. idk if he’s quite as good as those guys cuz he’s shorter but i could see it being not too far off

cray thing about peterson is hes been dominating while injured hes a really good athlete who can get to the rim at will but hes been relying more on the jumper and playing a reserved game while his hammy heals and hes wrecking shit anyway

he’s crazy smooth, love watching him

his game is extremely easy on the eye

Dybantsa dropped 43. NCAA record for a freshman

Dang on the same day Kingston Flemings drops 42

Sorry should have said Dybantsa broke a BYU freshman record

aj can really put that ball in the basket

ha it was danny ainges record he broke

flemings very nice too seems like hes the consensus fifth best prospect if such a person can be said to exist could see him passing wilson since wilson doesnt really have basketball skills

freshman from illinois keaton wagler scored 46 — on 17 shots — yesterday in a road win over no 4 purdue

what is going on in college basketball

sam v was saying he’s gonna be a top 10 pick but this was the first time i’ve heard of him

we’re supposed to get dybantsa vs peterson next saturday provided peterson can play

keaton wagler is an incredible gen z name btw

just looked at a mock draft that had him in the middle of the first but its not hard to see him moving up since hes tall and can shoot very good

18 point first half on 6-7 shooting, 3-4 from three for peterson in the dybantsa showdown

montage of nba gms at this game most of whom have no shot at a top pick theyre just there to see a cool game while pretending to scout

so when one of them is pursuing him in free agency 8 years from now it can be used as the anecdotal lede of an espn story

hollinger had a line in a recent column that this game was going to set the record for NBA logo quarter-zips in a single building

boozer discourse heating up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW4K6X9kijQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zi__PZoCzw

pretty brutal look for boozer on the final possession of the UNC game, looking totally lost how to guard a ball handler in space and from what i understand this went on for much of the game

Dybantsa dropped 43. NCAA record for a freshman

I hate to be that guy, but when Pete Maravich was a freshman the rules didn't allow him to play for the 'varsity' team. If he'd been permitted to play you have to figure the freshmen record would be higher than 43, because for his next three seasons he averaged 43.8, 44.2, and 44.5 points per game.

it was just a byu record anyway

That makes more sense.

is julius randle good enough now that saying that boozer seems like a better version of julius randle isn't really an insult

i think so, randle's had some good play in minny that makes the kat trade seem neutral at worst

def some similarities big difference is maybe boozer is a high bb iq guy where randle has a long history of fucking up, could lead to some pretty divergent careers, boozer could end up a really good second banana all around connector type etc where randle has struggled with main character syndrome, tho tbf he does seem to have found the zone better in minny

yeah that’s a good point about IQ/play style

btw last year around this time i was saying the same thing about cooper flagg maybe grading out to a high level second banana, whoops

another comp for boozer that i like that accounts a bit more for his playmaking is blake griffin the year he made all NBA on the pistons. he wasn’t much of an above the rim player anymore and had shifted more into a true point forward role, he put up 24-7-6 on 58% TS that year

I would pick Caleb Wilson (having seen half a dozen UNC games) no lower than 3rd

Boozer is a way worse athlete than Julius Randle; anybody in the pros he'll be guarding will be significantly bigger or significantly quicker than him

boozer is big strong man, hes actually freakishly strong, hes not going to have any size issues in the nba

now guarding the jayson tatums of the league could be an issue for him, luckily for him there arent that many jayson tatums, but he will have to switch onto your jaylen browns regularly, his ability to learn how to defend guys like that will def be a big deal in his career, dont want to be a kat out there

it looks like he might get smoked by guards who can penetrate b

right now his perimeter d is not good but guys with his physical profile can learn to be good or at least passible perimeter defenders, gotta play sound positionally use yr strength hopefully the trainers and sports science guys can get you moving laterally a lil better improve flexibility, not impossible but def requires some work

he is a smart player so that helps

hopefully he goes to a team thats good at helping with all that stuff

caleb wilson is an interesting player hes just an absolute beast and freak seems guaranteed to be an elite defender at the next level but somehow even with all the physical gifts in the world has very little offensive creation basketball skills are pretty weak hes like a rim running center except hes not big enough to play center will be interesting to see how that plays in nba

people are comparing him to blake griffin but idk blake had a big nose for the basket he was a baller

possible choice between him and kinston flemmings at 4 is a classic style contrast

think i like flemmings but who knows wilson could just be blocking every shot and dunking every ball on day one

boozer seems to have pulled ahead of dybantsa in the internet draft consensus wonder whats driving that, theyre both having crazy seasons but dybantsa seems like he has a better shot at becoming a legit #1 option which should push him ahead, maybe some people arent really believing in that potential idk

i think it’s bcuz boozer basically never has a bad or inefficient game (offensively) and AJ has had some stinkers mixed in lately, especially against some better teams. internet draft discourse tends to be driven by guys doing lots of data work, efficiency models etc and boozer is just cleaning up in those metrics

yeah that makes sense, bad games are bad tbf

man the ease with which dybantsa creates advantages and scores is well its what youre looking for looks good

peterson not wanting to play basketball situation somewhat concerning

what’s his problem?

unclear lot of speculation could just be he/his people are being super careful about injuries in order to protect his imminent nba windfall could be hes just actually injured could something else idk but it does seem like kanas is getting sick of his shit, youd def rather a guy who you have to fight to get him off the court rather than one who decides to sit out second halves because of "cramping"

meanwhile dybantsa seems like he wants to fight the damn basketball rim

he might be a kawhi level all time enigma but i do think in his defense it has to be noted that he started the season with a hamstring injury which is like the no 1 injury that lingers a long time, can only be healed via rest, guys are constantly coming back too early etc — jalen green this year hurt his hammy before the season and i believe had two separate occasions where he came back and played 1-2 games before having to stop playing for weeks/months. so i don’t think petersen’s caution is necessarily unfounded — especially given the context that he’s in college to bide his time before the NBA — tho obviously his teammates are getting tired of it and i’m sure there is some legitimacy in that. but it’s not like he’s conjuring injury concerns out of thin air and i think the idea that a top prospect might choose his own future over that of the team’s… idk i think these guys are incentivized to think that way and when college athletes push themselves to prove to everyone that they want to be out there, are real ballers etc it makes me uncomfortable on their behalf because i think that’s a trick game. maybe there is signal in that noise for pro teams idk but i don’t think the calculations for petersen are very black and white at all

sure it could all could be some very understandable stuff but at the same time it does make you wonder

we prob need to figure out if there are any uncles in the mix

when yr coach is publicly saying things like this its at the very least a sign that communication is not going well

“We've had this happen more than a couple of times. I thought he was good to go. We only got 18 minutes out of him. That's disappointing, because he could've had a really big night.”

for sure and bill self of all coaches. it seems like there are obviously people on petersen’s side telling him
things that are different than what kansas is telling him, and that petersen is telling kansas what they want to hear before listening to the people on his end. if you’re an NBA team i think this dynamic would be of particular interest to you. however i do think tho that misaligned incentives are baked into this specific kind of player/team relationship in college that is going to bring a situation like this to a head

could see this dropping his draft stock... to #2 lol

the more interesting red flag to me is the fact that he apparently doesn't pass the ball, is so good as a scorer that he might be really underbaked as a playmaker etc

just seems like his people should communicate to the coaches youve got him for 20 mpg use it how you will.

apparently his passing was good in hs/aau, thats the other weird part about this is his style of play this year seems like hes not trying that hard, hes not really passing or driving things which he was doing against the best competition last year but now hes just taking a bunch of jumpers which tbf hes amazing at, all that could just track with having a fucked up hammy would be harder to drive and if you cant drive youre not creating the advantages that make passing possible, on the other hand he could just be coasting

hr doesnt look like he laboring with an injury tho

cam boozer effortlessly reading double teams like a ten year nba vet out there

college double teams might be a tad easier to read than nba doubles

well yeah, it's mostly undergrads out there

i was thinking that college and pro basketball was the same but now im rethinking that

its the 2026 nba draft baby

https://i.postimg.cc/Vstg5TJ5/Screenshot-2026-03-11-at-10-31-19-AM.png

baby of the year ass names

lmao

who will be the zuby of the year??

look at their toes like so many curled detlef schrempfs

if my last name were bidunga you better believe i'd always follow it with a dynamite emoji