Former North Carolina guard Cole Anthony has long been considered a probable lottery pick in the 2020 draft, ranking 14th on ESPN’s top-100 list even after an underwhelming freshman season. However, Jonathan Wasserman of Bleacher Report (Twitter link) says he recently spoke to one executive who has Anthony at No. 35 on his big board.
Different teams having differing opinions on certain draft prospects is hardly breaking news, but the lack of a consensus among clubs in their assessments of this year’s class seems more extreme than usual. Replying to Wasserman’s initial tweet, Kevin O’Connor of The Ringer observed that it’s amazing how “all over the place” people around the NBA are on this year’s draft.
“It’s all over the map, this draft,” one team executive told Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link). “Seems everyone is thinking different and everyone is in trade mode.”
The circumstances surrounding this year’s pre-draft and scouting process have almost certainly contributed to the divided views on many of this year’s prospects.
Because the NCAA season was shut down in March due to the coronavirus pandemic, teams didn’t get a chance to evaluate players during the NCAA tournament and haven’t been able to bring them in for in-person workouts and meetings. The combine had to be significantly revamped as well. As a result, clubs have had to base many of their scouting reports off of virtual interviews and game film from at least seven months ago.
It’s hard to say yet how exactly the draft will be affected, but it sounds like it’ll be more challenging than ever to put together an accurate mock in 2020. And if everyone is indeed in “trade mode,” as Wolfson’s source suggests, it could make for an eventful evening on November 18.
It’s also worth noting that teams will have much more time to talk trades leading up to the draft — typically, there’s only about a week between the end of the NBA Finals and draft day, but that gap will be longer than a month in 2020, giving clubs plenty of time to explore all of their possible options.
The Lakers will have an influence too, given that they go 10 deep on defense, thus never giving an opponent someone to pick on in the playoffs. So GMs will look at D, something that could hold Toppin or Cole Anthony back.
On the other hand… the Lakers do have LJ & AD for their offense so do not have to expend assets for that.
Also, Denver originally drafted for offense and they did well after hanging on to them like GSW did.
So no point here lol
Nobody is drafting or team building based on the Lakers.
This draft stinks and will be worse than 2013.
I think 2013 would be generous for a draft to compare it to. That class has Giannis and then some other allstar caliber players in Steven Adams, Victor Oladipo, CJ McCollum, and Rudy Gobert. I think it will be more like 2006 where no MVP or even superstar level player was drafted.
LaMarcus Aldridge has had a superstar level career and Kyle Lowry, Paul Millsap, and Rajon Rondo plus a couple of others have all had very good careers. So 2006 had something. Not the best draft ever by any means, but some very good players.
But the 2000 draft was much worse. When Hedo Turkoglu is arguably the best player in a draft class, that draft class is the worst ever.
As far as 2010s drafts go, I don’t think 2013 is really all that bad overall. It was only bad at the top. I think the 2014 draft was overall much worse than 2013. As of right now, the best player in that class was 2nd rounder Nikola Jokic. Embiid is very good, albeit overrated. After that you pretty much just have a collection of role players.
Questioning your basketball knowledge. Aldridge was never a super star. All Star or Star sure. Super Star NEVER! Also Hedo really? Jamaal Crawford? Michael Redd?
He was near superstar level, but he was stuck on under the radar teams. He is a 7 time All Star and a 5 time All NBA selection. He is half a season away from 20,000 career points. His career similarities are Elvin Hayes and Chris Bosh. He is likely to go into the Hall of Fame one day. Exactly what are your expectations for a superstar anyway?
As far as Hedo goes, I said arguably. He has the highest amount of win shares in the 2000 class, but he, Crawford, Redd, and Mike Miller are all closely bunched. Although if your argument is that either Jamal Crawford or Michael Redd is the best player in the draft class, that is not much better. Crawford is a journeyman. Redd did have a strong 5 year peak, but he just wasn’t good long enough.
Cole at 35th pick and RJ Hampton at 25th mean the deepest draft in the nba history
Deeper than 1996
Either that or everyone else is right and you are not.
James Wiseman will be a bust. I hope the Warriors take him.
All this speculation about ‘who’ the Warriors draft has gone way past being stupid…the no.2 pick will equate to a min contract of two years and no less than $18m…too a team that is hard capped and a certainty to be paying the luxury tax…that $18mil could balloon to literally double that figure in actual cost for a guy to ‘develop’…not going to happen my friend…maybe in Houston but not in any other city.
I think you should be a little more concerned about your Rockets…still trying to convince someone to coach them…that is a clear indication that Morey’s plan going forward is not a very good…I guess he is just following his past history though.
Do rockets fans even watch the draft? Do they even have a player they drafted on their roster?
Give them a break. Rockets fans are still hurting that the team couldn’t convince Royce White to get on a plane for millions of dollars.
That cracked me up ty
You’re welcome. I have been trying to find a way to get a Royce White joke in here for a long time. It really is a sad situation, but it is fairly comical as well.
At 35th pick
Some teams compare Cole to Kemba Walker
Other teams project him as franchise player
35th pick = franchise player
NBA draft room
Cole Anthony might be a G League franchise player, but any team that has him as their franchise player will soon get a new one at the top of the lottery.
I think not having the NCAA Tournament or combine and workouts hurts things, but I don’t know how much it’s that vs the talent. I know comparing both leagues’ drafts are hard to do for a multitude of reasons, but look at what happened in baseball. College baseball only got a few weeks into their season and almost all high school ball was completely cancelled from the start even before you consider the lack of a College World Series or workouts.
College basketball on the other hand played pretty much their full regular season. Comparing to other years even if things aren’t finalized and things can move over the course of the tournament and workouts most of the top college guys are pretty well scouted giving teams a good look. And when talking about the combine it’s been discussed for years how many of the top dozen or so players opt out. This is just a draft class that didn’t have anyone strongly stand out.
Smart teams will find players in the draft. The Knicks will probably blow it again like every year. They’ve drafted one good guy the entire last decade and shipped him out in 3 years so they can overpay Julius Randle.
Wolves should probably trade down and target okoro for his defense and his fit w/ this team.
Maybe they keep the pick and trade for okoro after the draft? They need defense, so either take Wiseman #1 and protect the rim better, or go for another draftee that could become a primary defender for MIN.