Where Are the Devils Right Now?
We’ll start with Carl’s roster reports and thoughts, since he got his homework in first.
With the addition of Cedric Coward committing through the portal it would seem that next year’s Duke roster is mostly set, although there are still a few moving pieces in play. One of those pieces is that you can expect Duke to fill out a couple of roster spots with some complementary players who would be expected to be modest contributors this season, and be long term developmental guys providing roster stability over the following seasons. That assumes roster stability is something that’s even possible in the portal era.
The primary targets for those players right now are Braydon Hawthorne and Sebastian Wilkins. Hawthorne is a 6-8 wing who decommitted from West Virginia after the Mountaineers’ head coach Darian DeVries left for the Indiana job. At 175 lbs. he’s the kind of guy that Isaiah Evans could intimidate in the weight room, but he has a freakish wingspan and is attracting attention from several major program. [Eric note: Hawthorne is 81 in the ESPN 100 for 2025.] Wilkins is a 6-8 PF who is currently in the 2026 class but would likely shift to the current class if he comes to Duke. He’s supposedly the top player in the state of New Hampshire which - how much could that mean, really? It’s like saying someone is the best player from Maine. Wait… disregard that. [Eric note: Wilkins has jumped to 17 in the recently updated 2026 ESPN rankings, from 31—whether that’s an effect of Duke interest, or a reflection of why Duke is interested, hard to know.]
I’d also expect to see Duke land a “break glass in case of emergency” type of big who could push Ngongba and Brown in practice. [Eric note: since Carl wrote this Duke added 6’11” physical specimen Ifeanyi Ufochokwu from Rice, who redshirted last year, and guard Jack Scott from Princeton. Neither figure to be real rotation pieces although Ifeanyi probably has more of a fighting chance, especially if Maliq has injury problems again.]
The other moving pieces in play are that both Cedric Coward and Isaiah Evans are currently on the NBA draft early entrants list. Coward comes as no surprise as he had publicly declared for the draft before committing to Duke. But when Evans’ name showed up on the list earlier this week it was greeted as enthusiastically by Duke fans as someone learning about their significant other’s active profile on a dating site. The expectation at Duke is that both guys will be in Durham next season and are going through the draft process to garner feedback and experience for next year. However, it’s worth noting that Coward is starting to show up in the first round of some mock drafts. [Eric note: since Carl wrote, Isaiah has just withdrawn the draft—yay!!; meanwhile Coward is looking more and more like a flight risk, before he ever landed.]
Should the unexpected happen and Duke lose either player to the NBA, there’s a chance they could turn back to Dame Sarr, the 6-7 wing who previously played on FC Barcelona with Jabari Parker and a few other former NBA players.
With all that understood, in looking at Duke’s prospects for next season with the roster as currently projected, there are 4 keys to the upcoming season:
Cameron Boozer needs to be excellent. Duke fans may need to reset their definition of excellent after Cooper Flagg and Boozer doesn’t have to be at that level, but for Duke to be a serious contender for a championship next season Duke will need a Paolo Banchero/Vernon Carey type of excellence out of him. (As an aside, Vernon Carey’s lack of success in the pros and a tournament lost to Covid overshadows one of the more remarkable seasons from a Dukie. 18 & 9 in only 25 mpg is Zionesque on a per 40 mpg level.) There aren’t a lot of holes in Boozer’s game – he scores at all three levels, a tenacious rebounder, constant effort, and above average defender. It’s a given that at some point this year you’ll see Boozer make a tremendous outlet pass and hear some announcer make a Kevin Love or Wes Unseld reference, depending on how old they are. Bilas will go with Love, Dickie V is definitely an Unseld guy… Bill Raftery is talking George Mikan.
What’s the point? Or more aptly, who is the point? There were a number of strong point or combo guards in this year’s portal. Guys like Bennett Stirtz, Donovan Dent, Silas Demary, and others who would fit what Jon Scheyer appears to like in his backcourt. Duke showed interest in exactly none of them and instead opted to bet on Caleb Foster and Cayden Boozer. Those bets come with equal parts promise and concern. For Foster, does Duke get the guy from his freshman year and the close of this year, or do they get the guy who struggled throughout the middle of the season? With Cayden, will his steady and physical play from HS translate into success at the next level where his average footspeed may be a liability? In either event, the responsibility of the point guard next year will differ substantially than this year without having an initiator/facilitator at the forward position like they had with Flagg.
Growth – lots of growth. Specifically, in addition to more consistency out of Foster, Duke’s going to need Evans, Harris and Ngongba to make significant strides.
Ngongba - If you’ve read more than one of these columns you’ll know I’m very high on Ngongba. I think the odds of him being in next year’s NBA draft are better than him being on the Duke roster as a junior. The primary concern here is his ability to defend without fouling as last year he was on a 6.5 fouls per 40 minute pace.
Evans – Last year he played a very specific role, coming off the bench and adding instant spark to the offense as a three-point shooter. That’s role is much different than being one of the top 2 or 3 options on offense. Last year he showed occasional glimpses of getting to the basket (about 1 attempt per game) but he needs to have a more balanced all-around game.
Harris – Earlier I mentioned Hawthorne and Watkins as being developmental guys to bring in this year who would bring program consistency and contribute more in subsequent seasons. Harris was the same type of recruit and we’re officially in one of those subsequent seasons. If you look at the wing positions on Duke’s roster you can expect Evans and Coward to eat up a lot of that time. But after that, where does the depth come from? Both Foster and Cayden Boozer can play minutes at the wing, but you’re also relying on them for all the minutes at the point. Freshman Nikolas Khamenia (see below) may be able to give you time at the 3, but isn’t a guy you want at the 2. That leaves Harris as the most likely candidate for wing depth, and he needs to be a lot more than the 22% three-point shooter he was last season if he’s going to be in the rotation.
The Wild Card – On the surface, a starting lineup with Boozer, Coward, Evans, Boozer, and Ngongba with a bench of Foster, Brown, and Harris is going to be formidable. But the play of Nikolas Khamenia could be a difference of one or two weekends in the NCAA Tournament. It’s impossible not to think about Kon Knueppel when looking at Khamenia - similar size, similar recruiting ranking, and similar skill set. Kon should be regarded as the better shooter, while Nikolas would be the better passer. If he can stay in front of opposing 3’s then Duke can use him as part of a extra-large lineup. If he’s strong enough to defend 4’s then Duke can use him in a 5-out offense with Cam at the 5.
That’s a lot of Duke talk without much mention of Cedric Coward who could be Duke’s second-best player next season… assuming he doesn’t enter the draft as mentioned above. Full confession… I was less than enamored with Coward based on his performance against KenPom top 100 teams over the course of his career where in a 14-game sample size he shot just 46% from the field and 20% from three. But per Evan Miyakawa, Coward is one of only 7 portal players to be in the top 15% for 3 pt., 2 pt., and FT shooting percentages. Also in looking this in-depth evaluation from Brian Geisinger and considering the NBA interest, I’m willing to concede that a guy who can handle the ball, shoot, initiate offense, and defend may be a useful fellow to have on the roster.
Duke’s not only bringing in new players, they’re also adding to the coaching staff, to fill the void left by the departure of Jai Lucas. One of the many items on the long list of things that Jon Scheyer has done right since being named head coach is assembling a coaching staff with a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. I’ve seen enough documentaries on rural Appalachia and European royal families to like the idea of a broader gene pool in the coaching offices. Scheyer continues that approach, replacing Lucas with Evan Bradds, currently an assistant with the Utah Jazz. He started his coaching career within the Celtics organization, first as an assistant with their G-League affiliate, then with the NBA club. He served under Brad Stevens who no doubt played some role in Bradds landing in Durham.
This bolded text communicates to the reader that you are now hearing from Eric.
Since our last edition, the 2025-26 roster has shaken out enough that we can speculate on what kind of team we have, although there are a couple of key uncertainties. As expected, the entire starting lineup has entered the draft. As unexpected, the entire bench other than Mason Gillis (out of eligibility) announced they are returning to Duke: Caleb Foster, Darren Harris, Pat Ngbongba, Maliq Brown, and Isaiah Evans. Also unexpected—top 15-30 in the nation wing forward Shelton Henderson decommitted, following Jai Lucas to Miami. And top 5 recruit Nate Ament—who at times was considered a Duke lean--chose Tennessee instead; this was rumored to be a mutual disengagement, perhaps over money, perhaps because both sides recognized that freshman Nick Khamenia and Isaiah (and since then, Cedric Coward) could fully occupy the available minutes at the 3. In any event, the freshman class is now comprised of top 3 in the nation Cam Boozer (and No. 1 in my personal rankings), and top 20 recruits Cayden Boozer and Khamenia.
Duke added probably (and hopefully) its last major rotation piece, 6’6” wing Cedric Coward—whose college journey has gone from Division III Willamette, to Eastern Washington, to Washington State, where he averaged 17 points, __ rebounds, 4 assists on 56/40/84 shooting splits in just six games against mostly weak competition, before tearing the labrum in one of his shoulders—same injury that the guy typing these words is rehabilitating from right now. While one might have some initial discomfort with Duke becoming his 4th school in 5 years, this doesn’t appear to be the case of a guy just chasing NIL dollars, without any loyalty, or regard for athletics. As you can hear in this interview with Jeff Goodman (start around the 39 minute mark), Coward started at Division III because, by his own admission, he wasn’t good enough to play Division I—once he established that quality at Willamette, he moved to EW, then followed his coach to Washington State, before seeking out the premier platform at Duke that just wasn’t available to him when he started this journey. As you can also hear from the interview, Coward sounds extremely intelligent, responsible, humble, and diligent—like Sion James deja vu. Also like Sion, he’s physically sturdy and versatile. I don’t think he’s going to fill the same PG role that Sion did, but likely as a function of being the best player everywhere he’s been thus far, the highlights I’ve watched and reports I have read suggest he has developed some legit playmaking skills, and he probably also has more scoring juice than Sion. He’s rated pretty consistently in the 8-15 range of portalers, way higher than Sion or any transfer into Duke in the portal era, and the pods I’ve been listening to have been very bullish. The draft buzz that’s building around him means that we stand a real chance to lose him—Sam Vecenie and others have him in the mid-first round; more ominous, Zach Lowe of the Ringer said on his pod that Coward is the guy that NBA front office types are whispering about, like they’ve got a secret no one else has discovered. J. Kyle Mann of the Ringer speculates: Coward committed to play next year at Duke, marking his fourth stop in a winding college career, but I wonder whether that was merely a PR move to keep the buzz about his draft stock building. I’m not that cynical, but I accept that Coward’s hearing things that will make it near impossible to turn back from the draft.
So now we have to wait until as late as the NCAA’s May 28 withdrawal deadline to find out whether we retain Coward. Bart Torvik’s statistical models said (while we were still waiting on Evans’ final decision), that we are the 4th best team with both, still 4th without Coward, 5th without Evans. Gary Parrish of CBS—who updates his “way too earlies” more frequently than most pundits had Duke ranked 13th after all the draft departures, the loss of Henderson, and not getting Ament—adding Coward pushed us back up to 8. ESPN’s Jeff Borzello has us 6th, with Coward in the fold.
I’m going to assume that Coward is going to ride his status as draft dark horse darling and stay in. If we don’t he could be a real difference maker—maybe the second best player on the team. I trust Coach Jon Scheyer gamed out the probabilities of losing him, and has backup plans in place, but any idea that we wouldn’t have signed Coward if he was a real flight threat, is more wishful than actual. Scheyer can’t control every contingency, and there’s a world where, for example, Darren Harris is a top 7 or 8 rotation player by necessity, not a 9th man luxury.
I am pleased as punch that for the second time in 3 years, we have not had anybody transfer out of the program—although to be fair, last year I rooted for the returns of Sean Stewart, Jeremy, etc. Had that happened, we probably don’t have Maliq and Sion and are the worse for it. So this time round, I’m not assuming that these returns will all work out how we want—I’m just invested in my guys, and want to see them fulfill their dreams, rather than completely yield to year by year roster tear downs for new mercenaries.
This sentiment applies especially to Caleb Foster. I’ve been a pretty persistent skeptic of his game—even in his more productive freshman season, I thought he was pretty vanilla, and never showed that he was a consistently able lead point guard. But look—if you can’t root for a guy refusing to take the easy way and easy money out of Duke, you’re in the wrong fan business. Especially, after he clawed his way back from outside the rotation to become such a scrappy contributor in our ACC championship and Final Four runs.
I would say that about 90% of the prognostications I see in the media, hear on podcasts, or observe on the DBR boards, assume Caleb will be the starting PG. I’m selling short on that—since I’m approximately 88% confident that Cayden Boozer, not Foster, will be the opening game starter at PG, with Foster competing with Evans, and Khamenia (and potentially Coward or some other high caliber back up plan) for the other two perimeter starting spots. This year’s team is going to need a traditional floor leader at the point more than last year’s, which had floor leaders and ball movers all over the court, especially Cooper and Kon at the forward positions. There are risks with starting a freshman PG, who has just average athleticism, and is mostly just an open 3 point shooter (like Sion), not a volume shooter, but what he does well—run the offense, and make the hard passes regularly—is what this team really needs, and something Caleb just hasn’t demonstrated. I think Caleb plays better when he isn’t allowed to pound the ball, and has to instinctively attack or give it up. Also, whatever Cayden lacks in experience in college, he gains in experience with the team’s centerpiece player, also known as his twin brother.
The uncertainty at PG is a big reason we aren’t in most rankers’ top 5. If you’re looking for a reason that we are being underranked—like last year—it’s Big Pat Ngongba. It’s not particularly surprising that the national media isn’t emphasizing a guy who averaged 4 points and three rebounds a game in 10 mpg. But look a little closer—he averaged 15 and 10 per 40 minutes, with 2.9 assists, 2.0 blocks, 1.4 steals, an amazing 0.9 turnovers for a center that’s actually trying to create with the ball in his hands (OK also 6.5 fouls). He easily led the team in offensive rating and was a solid third in defensive rating and box plus minus. Sometimes per minute and advanced stats can be misleading for low minute players—Sean Stewart averaged 13/15, plus almost 5 stocks, per 40 in his freshman season at Duke, playing 8 mpg. But in Stewart’s case, those minutes were disproportionately played in lower leverage situation (weak opponents and/or end of blowouts), whereas Pat earned most of his minutes, out of necessity, down the ACC stretch and in the tournaments—in other words, this was real production. And all of this production passed the eye test. I’m projecting Pat to play 25 mpg, average around 13 and 7 with good rim protection, if not the ability to switch at the level of Khaman. The sort of superficial profile of Pat as a burlier, interior center without either vertical (lobs) or horizontal (shooting range) gravity, nor elite defensive ability, suggests a longer college career. But like Carl, I think Pat will preform at first round pick level next year, with more defensive chops than might be expected, and some shooting range that I saw a little of when he came back from injury at the end of his senior year of high school. The elite quality that Pat has—that Khaman did not—is that top of the key hub ability that you see in a Domantas Sabonis or an Alperun Sengun (no, I am not going to Jokic with you here).
Overall, with reasonable health, I think we’re absolutely stacked at the 4 and 5 positions with Pat, Cam, and Maliq, with a little Khamenia at the 4 if we want to play Cam at the 5, or when he’s out. Whether Maliq is paired with Cam or Pat, I can see us using him even more as a stopper on wing or even guard scorers, while the other guy holds down the interior (we tended not to employ Cooper down low on any regular basis). On offense, all three are very good passers—lot of interesting high/low possibilities.
It’s really hard to forecast how the Isaiah Evans luxury sniper experience will translate to the Isaiah Evans rotation mainstay experience. He’s almost certainly a 25+ minutes player under any circumstance, but if Coward doesn’t matriculate, it’s likely more than 30, and as our second-leading scorer. Isaiah scored almost 20 per 40 minutes per game (second behind Cooper; third if you include Spencer Hubbard), almost entirely on the strength of shooting 5/12 on three pointers per 40 (42%), which is more than Jared McCain (3.1) last year, or JJ in his senior year (4.1), or the top gunner in a major conference Chaz Lanier (4.1). It took Caitlin Clark until her senior year to top Isaiah’s per 40 make rate with 5.6, but on over 15 attempts. On the other hand, Isaiah did almost nothing else on the court (3.3 rebounds, 1.5 assists, less than 3 two point attempts per 40)—and wasn’t asked to. Even his three point super power swung wildly from December (59%) to January (29%) to February (52%) to March (29%)—when he was hot, Jon rode him, but was pretty quick to pull him when he wasn’t draining his quick trigger shots. That’s all likely to change this year by necessity and for player development. Isaiah improved on defense over the course of the year—to the extent he was a question mark it was relative to his near spotless perimeter teammates. He’s also a sneaky cutter, a skill that will be rewarded by all of the big men he’s going to play with. The swing skill that could make him all conference is more ball handling, both as a participant in simply getting the ball up court and helping run sets, and to break down defenders off the dribble, especially against the hard closeouts that will come against his 3 point shooting.
Pre-summer last year, I was high on Darren Harris being a rotation piece—in large part because I’d seen him close out his high school season incredibly well and I’d never seen Kon play. Instead, Harris was injured part of the season, Kon went far beyond being a rotation piece to a minutes eater who will go in the top half of the lottery. Add in Isaiah’s emergence, and there just wasn’t a chance for another freshman shooter to work into a perimeter rotation that also had to serve Sion, Caleb, Tyrese, and Mason. He shot 23% on threes, but I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt that was a product of limited opportunities—he played only 128 minutes all season. This is the kind of profile that usually says portal, but Darren—like Caleb—is sticking it out to see if he can perform at the level he wanted to. If Coward stays in the draft and we don’t get a similarly top tier portaler, he will get plenty of opportunities. (As a side benefit, retaining Darren Harris and Big Pat may help preserve the Paul VI-Duke pipeline that also brought us Roach and Keels, right when that high school has a top 10 recruit guard Jordan Smith who played with Darren and Pat considering Duke: "The coaches always treated me like family when I went up to visit them. It was really fun. I saw my teammates, and it was a good vibe with them.")
Assuming Coward doesn’t come, I see the minutes breakdown (in competitive games, which I expect more of this year) as roughly: Pat 24, Maliq 16, Cam 35, Cayden 30, Isaiah 29, Caleb 26, Khamenia 25, Darren 15. It’s quite likely that we’ll still add someone who gets rotation minutes, even if it’s not a likely 30 mpg guy like Coward.
Other things Carl thinks are worth knowing:
For all the talk about hiring a GM and being active in the portal, it seems like the Tar Heels have gone backwards rather than forwards. Presently, the only returning player who logged minutes for them last year is Seth Trimble. They’ve definitely checked the “active in the portal” box bringing in 5 new players to go along with a freshman class featuring Top 10 player Caleb Wilson. But, all of those veteran players averaged between 8-12 ppg last season despite playing big minutes and Caleb Wilson, who while being highly ranked is not a guy who is considered an offensive threat. It’s a roster full of complementary players without anyone to actually complement.
The current concern for Carolina is Ven Allen Lubin, the team’s best interior player who averaged 14 & 8 over the team’s final eight games. He entered the portal with assurances that he needed to due to some changes in NIL and that he intended to return. Those changes apparently were that he wanted a bigger deal from UNC after seeing what they paid for incoming portal transfer Jarin Stevenson. The current expectations are that he won’t be back to Chapel Hill which would make for a painful season for the Heels as they would be screwed without Lubin.
The good side of NIL – there are officially 106 early entrants in this year’s draft – the smallest number in a decade. That’s very much a result of NIL money keeping players in college basketball.
The bad side of NIL – a disproportionately large share of that NIL money is going to agents who are not providing much NIL help. Many are taking 15% of the NIL money that a player would normally get without them. That number is significantly higher than what most agent fees are for NBA contracts.
The ugly side of NIL - Moustapha Thiam, a 7-2 freshman from Senegal transferred from UCF to Cincinnati after a strong rookie season where he averaged 10 ppg. A week later, UCF assistant coach Mamadou N'Diaye took a new job with… Cincinnati. Now, sources at UCF are alleging N’Diaye was shopping Thiam as a package deal all year, promising to deliver Thiam in exchange for a position on the coaching staff. N’Diaye is supposedly making $1.6M a year. For perspective, current Cincinnati Associate Head Coach Chad Dollar earned $234K when he was a Bearcat Assistant Coach back in 2021.
As the deadline for entering the portal was nearing there was a sudden rush of players entering who had no eligibility left. That’s in response to a pending lawsuit against the NCAA which could force the organization to change the existing rules to allow additional more years of eligibility. Somewhere Amando Bacot is screaming “Why now?” as he reads that news in a G-League motel. One of the guys with no remaining eligibility who entered the portal was Clemson’s Ian Schieffelin and reports indicate that he will in fact return to play next year at Clemson. It’s just that this time he’ll do it on the Greg Paulus plan, playing football after a 4-year basketball career.
Other things Eric thinks he thinks:
If Coward surprises us with a return, we merit a top 5 preseason ranking. Without him, probably still top 10, with the PG spot and Evans’ starter level reliability being the swing variables.
Teams deserving top 5 right now include Purdue and Connecticut for sure, with St. John’s and BYU also in the mix. Purdue returns three senior stars PG Braden Smith, SG Fletcher Loyer, and PF Trey Kaufman-Renn—the Stockton, Hornacek, and Malone of college. That’s the best core in college, but like those 1990s Jazz and every Purdue team ever, they may fall short for lack of elite athleticism. Braden really is a phenomenal college PG—very Stockton like in his passing efficiency and sturdiness. He picked apart Houston’s ferocious defense in what should have been a tournament upset, before Houston was rescued by its PG Milos Uzan’s game winner off an out of bounds play.
Uzan’s decision whether to stay in the draft—almost certainly as a second rounder—is another huge inflection point. With him I would probably jump Houston to No. 1. Even without they deserve top 5 consideration based on track record, big returners Tugler and Sharp, and a top 5 recruiting class.
Michigan probably also merits top 5 if top transfer and all-name first teamer Yaxel Landeberg doesn’t stay in the draft. Regardless, Duke-Michigan in February in DC is going to be a brutal ticket. You can’t walk two steps in this city without running into alums from one or the other—my 10 person workplace has 3 Dukes and two Michigans, and another Michigan on the way. Of course, that assumes that they all haven’t emptied out of the city by then.
Hard agree with Carl that UNC has a dreary roster of solid role players with no scoring or creation dynamism. Big hit that RJ Davis retired from college basketball after 13 year years, and they’ve missed on a bunch of portalers with scoring chops. Unless they have a major late addition, put me down for NIT for the Heels.
They really need to learn from UNC football how to land a flashy newcomer:
Please don’t begrudge me any delight over the Hudson-Belichik story. I know the media is piling on a 24 year old woman, but she’s affixed herself to UNC sports, so it’s fine. Also, according to Pablo Torre, one source who worked with Hudson on one of Belichick’s shows stated that “she is the worst person I’ve ever met — and I’ve worked with multiple sociopaths.”
If I can only buy two dolls for my (non-existent) grandchildren, they will be Jordon Hudson and Bill Belichik dolls. And I will do most of the playing—putting them in zany situations with the media, and having the Jordon doll call in plays in her role as Truly Offensive Coordinator.
Weird NBA playoffs, with regular season juggernauts and Cleveland and Boston on the brink of elimination, and THE regular season juggernaut OKC still at risk against Denver. Boston in particular has seen everything go sideways with Jayson Tatum—in the midst of a spectacular performance in a spectacular game—injuring his ankle in a way that might carry over deep into next season. The Celtics were already up against some real payroll challenges that insiders thought might cause them to move some of their core—now they confront that same problem with the possibility that their best and most expensive player will miss a large chunk or all of the season (it could also be the case that Tatum’s injury is not as serious as feared).
Also a weird NBA lottery with the top 3 picks all going to low odd teams, my 76ers represented by Jared McCain being one of them, giving me a short-lived fantasy that this cursed franchise could get Cooper Flagg. Instead, after the 76ers got 3d, and the antitrust gods intervened to put San Antonio second, so Cooper couldn’t get paired with Wemby, he went to play-in team Dallas, which had a 2% chance at the top pick—miraculously giving Dallas a new young centerpiece after the insane trade of Luka. The rationale for trading Luka is that he was not dedicated enough to his conditioning to warrant paying him 60M a year into his 30s. Cooper may not end out as dominant as Luka—it’s hard to be—but one thing he won’t do is let his team down in terms of effort and conditioning.
The Cooper fit is going to be interesting on lots of fronts. The stars of the team are Kyrie and AD, on a completely different timeline than Cooper. And Kyrie will likely be out at least until mid-year recovering from an ACL injury. But if Kyrie can return and be reasonably productive, Cooper should be good enough year 1 to really contribute to playoff success. In the meantime, Cooper is going to get a lot of lead initiator reps on a team that has no returning PGs until Kyrie gets back (Spencer Dinwiddie is an unrestricted free agent.) I could see this as a landing spot for someone like Chris Paul, who probably won’t re-up with SA, which has D’Aaron Fox, and possibly soon Dylan Harper with its No. 2 pick. Finally, a front court of AD, Lively, and Cooper is going to be sick defensively.
I don’t think I’ve seen draft candidates attend the lottery like Cooper. Surely intended as part of his promotion as the next NBA thing—Coop was pretty awkward and nervous in his interview. Terrific that Kon attended with Coop—really love seeing that friendship continue on to the next phase of life.
The way that the early picks fell has some weird matches. Dylan Harper is almost as universally considered the clear No. 2 pick as Cooper is No. 1, but SA just acquired a ball dominant lead guard in D’Aaron Fox; Harper was much more needed by teams that lost out in the lottery like Utah and Washington. Will be interesting whether these teams have trade discussions. Similarly, the highest upside as well as positional fit for the 76ers who have good small guards Maxey, McCain and Grimes, and a prayer that Joel will hold down the 5, is forward Ace Bailey from Rutgers. But he has a lot of holes in his game that may take longer to fill than Joel and PG’s timeline, if those timelines haven’t already fully run out.
This fantastic stuff
Thank you Eric!! This was great!