2022 NBA Draft

[Phall]

Two of the last three draft picks are Luke Travers of Australia and Hugo Besson of France. This gives the league 10 white players out of 58 drafted overall. Oddly, all six non-American whites were drafted after the Americans. Again, 2 of the top 5 players in the league are white Euros, but NBA franchises would rather sift through the hot garbage pile of American blacks than risk facing embarrassment at their dinner parties for having drafted the next Darko Milicic.

A decent tally of Big Ten players were drafted, but none of them white - must be a fairly unusual footnote.

Good luck in the summer league to Manek, Boeheim, Green, Gillespie, Barcello, and others.

 

[Bucky]

Went about as expected! Good landing spot for Braun.

 

[Booth]

I'm happy to see Chet Holmgren go to Oklahoma City at #2. He and Josh Giddey, health-permitting, are guaranteed starters for the next several years. I expect that they are each a few years away from all-star status, but they both have the potential to be superstars. There may be a few teams that end up giving more minutes to whites next season, but no team is going to have two key white players penciled in automatically as un-tradeable building blocks.

Banchero is a surprise at #1. I might have slightly preferred Holmgren to Orlando, but the selection of a PF rather than a C allows the Magic to retain backup center Mo Wagner,. His brother Franz will not be competing with Banchero for minutes.

Phall, I am just throwing this out there in case people don't know it but Banchero is half white. His father is white and played football for the Washington Huskies and his mother played softball at Washington.

 

[Phall]

Collin Gillespie has signed a 2-way deal with the Nuggets. He has a chance to stick, as they've phased backup PG Facundo Campazzo out of the rotation this past season.

Former Villanova/Syracuse F Cole Swider signed a 2-way deal with the Lakers.

Northern Iowa's AJ Green signed a 2-way deal with the Bucks. Buddy Boeheim signs a 2-way deal with the Pistons. The Magic added Tommy Kuhse from Saint Mary's. Alex Barcello joins the Raptors.

 

[grandmaster]

Two of the last three draft picks are Luke Travers of Australia and Hugo Besson of France. This gives the league 10 white players out of 58 drafted overall. Oddly, all six non-American whites were drafted after the Americans. Again, 2 of the top 5 players in the league are white Euros, but NBA franchises would rather sift through the hot garbage pile of American blacks than risk facing embarrassment at their dinner parties for having drafted the next Darko Milicic.

A decent tally of Big Ten players were drafted, but none of them white - must be a fairly unusual footnote.

Good luck in the summer league to Manek, Boeheim, Green, Gillespie, Barcello, and others.

Of the top 2 picks from every NBA draft going back to 2000, I count only 10 players out of 46 who actually became great players...

1. LeBron
2. Durant
3. Aldridge
4. Blake Griffin
5. Dwight Howard
   
6. Oladipo
7. Kyrie
8. Anthony Davis
9. Towns
10. Yao Ming

...obviously the more recent draftees could still become elite. But as it stands, that's a hit rate of ~22%, or ~1/5.
NBA talent recruitment absolutely SUCKS!!

 

[Phall]

Brady Manek signs a Summer League contract with the Charlotte Hornets. Disappointing that no team would take him on an ‘Elite 10’ deal (which is a step below a two-way contract). I’m hopeful that his talent will shine through in this limited audition. While he will play with Charlotte’s summer roster, any team can still immediately sign him.

 

[white lightning]

Christian Braun to the nuggets to join Jokic!

I’ve seen Nikola Jovic linked to the nuggets too. Would love to see them snag him with their 30th pick

This kid has some of the best hops of any player in the draft. He can guard anyone on defense and put the ball in the hole all night long.
Great draft pick and Nikola Jokic is gonna just love playing along side Christan Braun!

 

[white lightning]

The Miami Heat draft Nikola Jovic. The Mavs could have had him but I guess with the trade for Christian Wood from the Rockets they passed. I do think the Mavs would have taken Braun but he ended up in Denver which is a good spot for him.

So the Miami Heat will now have Herro, Struss, Jovic and several others. Florida is a great state to live with Ron Desantis who I hope runs for president in 2024. The Miami Heat will continue to be one of the best teams to root for in the NBA!

This kid just turned 19 recently. Nikola Jovic is going to be amazing in the next 4 or 5 years. a 6'10 forward with point guard skills and he can shoot the lights out.

 

[white lightning]

The 22nd Pick of the NBA Draft was Walker Kessler. In a fair world he is a top 10 pick without any doubt in my mind. The Minnesota Timberwolves got a steal.

 

[Bucky]

Appreciate the updates. AJ Green has a great shot at sticking with Milwaukee. Backup PG has been a bit of a mess last few seasons.