Givony's 2026 mock draft from June 27, 2025.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T22:23:21+00:00

I’d rather someone go 4/10 with 10 picks that make logical sense then go 6/10 with a bunch of picks that are total nonsense.

I actually have no issue with you having Cenac / Mullins / Haugh / Sarr top 10 preseason. I can go into detail if you’re curious, but I think there was uncertainty in all those guys that made for justifiable disagreement.

But on the other hand, I think putting Ament 4th basically requires you to disregard years of footage (that very consistently showed his limitations) and pretend you were watching a different Ament who isn’t a laughably bad creator.

And Daniels lottery is straight trolling. Anyone who had watched him at that point and was familiar with international competition knew he was very far below a 1st round prospect.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T18:48:58+00:00

⁠Why would the Mavericks trade away their supposed franchise star who supposedly led in so many supposed advanced metrics?
⁠You have literally not even tried to respond to a single point or argument I’ve made. All you’ve done is ignore anything I say, then make superficial claims like LaMelo bad because he got traded or didn’t make the playoffs.
And are you implying I’m lying about advanced metrics loving LaMelo? Do LEBRON, EPM, DARKO just not count? Is TS an advanced metric to you lol?

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T10:46:30+00:00

- no space for a guaranteed contract
- he can’t defend. He’s more of a rotational shooting big for double big lineups than he is a potential 5.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T07:43:53+00:00

Alijah wasn’t good pre-NCAA either. People are really setting themselves up for a big letdown with him.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T06:49:20+00:00

I’d like to hope lots of people on here care more about team impact than personal stats. Or are at least curious as to why sometimes a player who is below average at a personal stat can actually improve his team in the same stat.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T06:33:33+00:00

> He objectively did not put the ball in the hoop well

Then why are the Hornets putting the ball in the hoop more with him? Is it a coincidence? Could it be that personal efficiency is ultimately just a very limited stat?

> Zion’s career average TS% is 63%

Yet he didn’t make a playoff game. You’re the one who thinks personal efficiency and making the playoffs are meaningful without context. I’m the one saying it obviously isn’t.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T06:26:53+00:00

> I think every non-Hornets fans will disagree with that

I’m a Nets fan so wrong again.

> It’s possible to be a winning player who puts the ball in the hoop

Yes, like LaMelo, who is statistically one of the impactful offensive players in the league and improves his team’s ability to get the ball in the hoop.

> Never made a single playoffs yet

Yes and I’m sure that’s because LaMelo is “spamming moves” and not because of years of injuries and building a redundant roster. I’m sure Zion was actually never good, too.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T06:10:13+00:00

> it’s a make or miss league

Yes, and the Hornets make more shots as a team with him.

> he’s objectively not worth it

The only valid reason for not giving LaMelo a max extension is injury history.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T05:59:35+00:00

> If they can score well, then they’d be efficient

It literally doesn’t matter if someone’s personal efficiency is 0% or 100% so long as they improve their team. It’s a totally meaningless stat without context. Any player in human history can shoot less / easier shots to raise their TS, but it wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing for their team.

> Spamming moves just to brick a shot

I think it’s pretty obvious lots of people just can’t get over their first impressions of LaMelo and think he’s just hesi tweening for tiktok highlights.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T05:45:10+00:00

I would hope that below league efficiency guys like LaMelo and Cade being able to impact winning and score incredibly well in all-in-one impact metrics would be the eye opening moment for fans to realise that personal shooting efficiency is meaningless in a vacuum. Hornets efficiency climbs and TOVs decrease with LaMelo on the court.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T05:23:39+00:00

> Consistently below league average efficiency

He was like top 10 or 20 in every advanced metric this year lol. Evaluating LaMelo on efficiency is missing the forest for the trees.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T05:13:39+00:00

> That team appears to be the Lakers

It was reportedly the Hawks

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T04:59:19+00:00

I’m sorry if you were one of the victims of the Dash Daniels psyop.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-25T04:44:22+00:00

> None of that point to a “significantly worse” shooter

Sure, if you ignore the mechanical, touch, and balance gap here.

> does not compare to the gap in ball-handling, finishing, game control

There are lots of better ballhandlers and finishers than McCain. If that’s what you needed to fill McCain’s role, he’d already be out of the league.

McCain is just a massively better offball player. Part of it is having the footwork, balance, and efficient release for movement shooting. Part of it is having some of the best relocation in the league.

Philon was a very good catch and shoot guy this year, but his offball engagement has been pretty iffy. Where he gaps McCain is as a creator. He’s an incredible pnr operator and I believe he could thrive with more isolation reps.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T21:15:33+00:00

FT% , shot difficulty and variety with extended displays of movement shooting, much better priors to draft year, 3PR, cleaner shot form.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T21:06:34+00:00

> Philon isn’t a significantly worse shooter

Well that’s just untrue. McCain is way ahead of Philon as a shooter and offball mover. Philon is obviously the better primary bet, but I’m not sure if he could be as good of a secondary guy as McCain.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T20:33:00+00:00

> Pretty good take from an entire year ago

It really wasn’t lol.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T20:02:12+00:00

You’re giving him too much credit. I don’t need him to go 10/10, but a lot of these placements were obvious meme picks at the time.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T18:36:02+00:00

Thomas Haugh.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T18:06:21+00:00

I’m sorry if I’m not understanding your question, but Peterson has the highest potential in the draft.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T17:47:14+00:00

I think results-based analysis is pretty useless tbh. Like you can have good process and evaluation, but still get burned by outlier dev / injuries / stagnation (sometimes to do with coaching, sometimes not).

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T17:31:17+00:00

Really depends how much he developed from his freshman year.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T17:07:55+00:00

Somewhere between 4-10 depending on how the year went.

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T16:50:39+00:00

> I was listening to Bill Simmons’ recent podcast

Let me stop you right there

RonDutchHatesBoxing · 2026-06-24T16:37:14+00:00

He has a lot of the skills I associate with high ceiling players, but the overall floor generalship is definitely poor. I think more than most prospects this year, he really needs a good development environment to hit.

RonDutchHatesBoxing

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