In a Draft Confidential column for The Athletic, Hall-of-Fame reporter David Aldridge interviews anonymous team executives and college coaches to get their inside scoop on the 2021 draft’s burning questions.
Some of the topics discussed: the Jalen Green versus Jalen Suggs debate, who will be the fourth guard taken after Suggs, Green, and Cade Cunningham are off the board (James Bouknight, Moses Moody, Davion Mitchell, and Keon Johnson are the top candidates), draft promises, some of the late risers (Joshua Primo, Nah’Shon Hyland, Miles McBride, and others), and a whole lot more.
We have more news from the draft:
- Former Oregon guard Chris Duarte worked out for the Wizards on Thursday, tweets Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington. The 24-year-old sharpshooting guard also had workouts scheduled with the Thunder and Pelicans.
- Ruot Monyyong had a workout with the Kings on Thursday, writes Jason Anderson of The Sacramento Bee. Monyyong isn’t expected to be drafted, but could be a candidate for a two-way contract or Summer League invitation.
- The Lakers worked out six players today, tweets Kyle Goon of The Orange County Register: Nah’Shon Hyland, Austin Reaves, Trey Murphy III, Oscar Da Silva, DJ Funderburk, and Chaundee Brown Jr. Hyland and Murphy are projected to be first-round picks, and could be in play for the Lakers with the No. 22 selection.
- 11 players participated in a mini-combine in Minneapolis, in front of 25 teams, tweets Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic. The participants were: McKinley Wright IV, Jalen Crutcher, Denzel Mahoney, Moses Wright, Nikita Mikhailovskii, Matt Coleman III, Colbey Ross, Jordan Schakel, Matt Mitchell, Brandon Rachal, and M.J. Walker.
Is Green vs. Suggs really a debate? Unless the Cavs pass on Mobley, Suggs should still be there at #4.
Suggs is still a very good player, but with 4 or 5 elite prospects this year it’s a tough choice at the top.
I saw this storm coming 2 weeks ago when it was a Suggs v Green debate …then the debate turned to Mobs v Green….now it’s entering Cade v Green territory
For better or worse Green was always going to be the hype man this draft….these things always build hardly ever burn out once they get a little oxygen
GSW is going to be so interesting here on the 29th –
I think one of the best things Green can do for GSW is help mold the next Green…Lets get him some raw materials …Scottie Barnes (trade up from 7 to 5/6) or Garuba at 14 seems like they would be perfect players for Draymond to take under his wing
Trades are fun, stars are great, but man there’s no shame keeping Wiseman 7 and 14 from this draft whatsoever IMO . Id almost prefer this route I think if I was GSW fan…hard to say Im not, so odd too see a team in this win now mode have 3 lottery picks basically in 12 months
If GSW nails 7 and 14 they can be good for a long time. Hopefully Oubre will come back too. Poole should also grow a lot this summer.