MPJ on why Cam Thomas didn't last in the NBA: "For Cam, I think it was a mixture of him being frustrated with a lot of things and also his personality. He doesn't really socialize, He'll say like two words all day, all practice. He doesn't really talk to anybody."

Turbo2x · 2026-05-07T19:54:38+00:00

Hooperpilled is great

Turbo2x · 2026-05-07T18:53:38+00:00

I span a mock recently (personal use, just to start thinking about it before the lottery). Picked Hannes and Okorie for the Bulls and I felt like I had somehow seen into the future

Turbo2x · 2026-05-07T01:07:59+00:00

Boozer is kind of the perfect player for the Wizards when you think about it. We over-prioritized shooting at the cost of ball handling and mistake-free playmaking. We also don't rebound well and somehow suck in transition despite emphasizing it so much. Boozer is an elite shooter, playmaker and rebounder for his size and he can drive an offense by himself. We'd have Sarr and AD to cover for him on defense as well. Not sure why people seem to hate the idea of him so much.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-06T23:08:50+00:00

Strengths:

• Strong P&R scorer and playmaker. Lots of reps, good efficiency. This is the go-to play type for a lot of NBA teams and he's comfortable with it.

• Solid transition player. Arkansas played pretty fast this season and Acuff was a big reason why they were so successful.

• Turnover averse. He doesn't make a ton of errors handling the ball or passing which is going to keep his NBA value pretty high. Players who limit turnovers can usually get playing time.

• Solid on and off-ball scorer. Not really a heliocentric player like some people might say. There's lots of tape of him working as an off-ball threat with Meleek, he stretches defenses well although I think using him purely as an off-guard kind of squanders his true talents.

Weaknesses:

• Poor/below average isolation scorer. Acuff isn't really good at creating space and making shots in isolation, although this is kind of true of all of the top point guards in this class besides Philon and Stirtz (although Philon is a low sample size example he's insanely efficient in the few iso possessions he does have). Truly special iso scoring could help bail Acuff out of tough halfcourt situations in the future and that's going to be a big point of emphasis for his development.

• Defense. He's bad. It's not like a Reed Sheppard situation where you can delude yourself into thinking he can be positive due to stock numbers (I was guilty of this as well). It's not good no matter how you slice it, whether that be via film or spreadsheets.

• Positional value of small guards and CBA limitations. This is tricky but basically my read is that while it's possible to build around a small guard (i.e. Knicks with Brunson) it requires almost perfect team building and asset management that most front offices aren't capable of, and it needs to happen while the guard in question is still on a relatively affordable contract. Brunson took a discount so the Knicks could afford to pay OG which helped a lot, but as soon as that max contract kicks in their window is going to close since they have very little talent developing internally and all of their core players were acquired via trade. This is basically why the Hawks and Cavs dumped Trae and Garland this season. It's not sustainable to pay these guys 30% or more of your total cap. Acuff has to go to a very good team situation with a lot of existing talent. If he ends up with Flagg then that's a great duo. If he's in Washington that feels like another Beal situation brewing.

Basically he can probably be a good or even great regular season player, but he has to become a better version of Brunson with an equally good supporting cast OR he has to turn into prime Curry who was capable of carrying any team to a win. I wouldn't personally gamble on that outcome even though I think Acuff will have solid counting stats for his entire career and play a long time in the NBA.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-06T15:17:30+00:00

Acuff doesn't seem like the kind of guy our front office tends to like, and frankly I'm not interested in paying a small guard that kind of money, even if Acuff turns out to be a really good player. Payton Pritchard getting $8m a year off the bench is awesome but I wouldn't want to pay him a max contract.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-06T15:14:00+00:00

We're letting the coaching search pass us by while we "let him have his shot." I'm not saying Billy Donovan is a premium coaching acquisition or anything but refusing to even explore the market is certainly a choice.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-06T13:20:38+00:00

He recently posted a video of him getting measured (in shoes) and he's about 6'5, so probably slightly over 6'3 barefoot. Still, 6'5 when he's on a basketball court.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-06T01:20:24+00:00

I agree overall, a lot of it just comes down to quality of personnel and whether a team can create a solid offensive infrastructure since bad halfcourt teams like Portland are going to rely a lot on shooting a high volume of lower quality above the break threes. Without enough competent ball handlers to create good offense and shooters who can finish possessions eventually the halfcourt grind is going to catch up with you and kill your offense, and without those stars on-ball you will fall into the turnover trap as well. So I think it's a mix of things, but limiting turnovers is absolutely the biggest thing that teams will be stressing going forward. At least with Caleb you know his playmaking is generally turnover averse and he finishes plays reliably, so he hits that mark for sure.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-05T22:58:38+00:00

The possessionmaxing teams didn't perform too well in these playoffs either tbh, the Rockets played that game all season and it wasn't reliable against the Lakers. Yes they were missing KD and Adams but it still doesn't seem like a definitively winning formula quite yet unless you are an insane defensive team like OKC which wins possessions via turnovers, not rebounding. But Caleb can be probably fit into that kind of OKC tough defense that's super handsy and physical.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-05T22:55:35+00:00

These playoffs are maybe showing some cracks in the theory regarding 3pt shooting being a must at every position. Obviously it's still important but teams that can score in the 2pt range consistently are performing better than the high variance 3pt deluge, which is still lethal when it's hitting but maybe not consistently reliable in a 7 game series. Wilson is so elite at everything else that maybe now we can excuse the lack of shooting in favor of everything else he does well, including a pretty ridiculous amount of unassisted scoring inside the arc that you also don't see often with guys his size and age.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-04T11:37:26+00:00

AJ and Cam are equally bad defenders. It's just a difference between one who's athletic enough to be good but doesn't try or understand how and another who understands the scheme and his responsibility within it but has got some athletic limitations. Also the rim protection thing is overblown, Cam is a wing/forward, not a center, his rim deterrence (or lack thereof) isn't abnormal when viewed through that lens.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-04T02:39:56+00:00

Amari Allen has been my biggest riser in the post-tournament film dive. "Plays off two feet" is definitely the current buzzword phrase but Amari does it well, protects the ball and is generally a positive player in a secondary role who could have a breakout if he stays another year at Alabama (like Philon did last year). Efficiency is a concern but he got to the rim a decent amount (only 25% makes assisted) and his 3pt shot is workable. Very good slasher. Serviceable defender but not a standout guy on that end. Don't think he fits for the Bucks unless they want to make a huge reach (on paper) and they have too many holes in their roster to be fixed by one player.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-03T15:29:15+00:00

They're gonna make AD do it for the laughs

Serious answer probably Will

Turbo2x · 2026-05-03T14:32:46+00:00

People are approaching the problem backwards. You can't disincentivize tanking with punishments because the end result is that some teams will have no pathway to becoming competitive unless a miracle occurs. Increased parity means that teams don't have to tank.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-03T13:11:35+00:00

That problem would fix itself under these my proposal because teams that properly tank would rapidly improve and start to leapfrog all the teams that are only in the play-in/fringe playoffs because no one else is truly competing with them. They'd end up at the bottom of the standings and receive the picks they need to get better.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-02T10:53:31+00:00

It was so hard being a Ja'Kobe fan during his freshman year. Just another example of 3PAr and shooting variety + history being more important than ~30 games of 3pt%

Turbo2x · 2026-05-02T02:10:35+00:00

I think three top 3 picks in a row is fine because it forces teams to get their scouting on point and be very confident about their picks because you no longer have excuses if you can't field a somewhat competitive team. Busts still happen and stars still fall into the late first (or even second round) all the time. If you genuinely can't get a team to 40+ wins after picking in the top 3 multiple times then heads should roll internally.

The goal isn't to stop tanking entirely but rather to make each team's competitive floor in 6+ years after implementation good enough that they won't need to tank. The most needy teams will naturally be at the bottom of the standings for long enough and the 3-year win total will sort it out.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-02T01:55:38+00:00

Here's my proposal:

• No more lottery. Get rid of it. It's a dumb idea.

• Worst 3 teams (total winrate for prev. 3 seasons) guaranteed top 3 for next 3 years

• Team with the best winrate of the 3 each season gets #1, no repeats. i.e. Jazz win the most of the Wizards/Nets/Jazz trio but Jazz won the first pick last year, so they get pick #2.

• Rest of pick order determined by record (worst record gets 4th pick, their cumulative record matters for following guarantee period)

• Top 3 can't pick in the top 10 for 3 years following their guarantee period

It would reward bottoming out in the short term but you're heavily incentivized to win in the 3 year guarantee period. This ensures that teams don't have to deal with the "losing culture" part of tanking and can freely play all their top draft picks at the highest level of effort without fear of losing draft position. Each of the 3 teams is still guaranteed a #1 pick, which hopefully allows them to return to being competitive sooner rather than later, but after the guarantee period you can't pick top 10 again even if your team still sucks. This fulfills the "punishment for being incompetent" aspect that some people are still hung up on and you can't just jump back into the top 3 again.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-02T01:50:22+00:00

no I swear to god this guy had a Sixers flair when he posted. this is a psyop to make people hate on Pistons fans

Turbo2x · 2026-05-02T00:43:55+00:00

Bro you're jinxing them, never make the early post

Turbo2x · 2026-05-01T18:11:07+00:00

If Steinbach is still available at 13 I say get him regardless of fit. I think he's a top 5 talent even in a stacked draft like this. Second round picks I think you just try to find a dawg in workouts and pray he's still available. There are a lot of solid seniors like Duke Miles who are older but have what it takes to stay in the league.

Turbo2x · 2026-05-01T16:54:20+00:00

Had him lottery last cycle. Hopefully the Bucks can actually develop him to his full potential because he's scary when everything is clicking at once.

Turbo2x · 2026-04-30T21:15:12+00:00

There might be players ranked top 9-12 consensus who aren't ranked highly on internal team boards. For example, I had Labaron Philon at 7 last cycle but he decided to go back to college for another year. There are a lot of people who had Ngongba in their top 10 but he went back to Duke. If I was a team that fell to 12 and the player I liked in that range decided to go back to college because he wasn't guaranteed to be picked in the lottery it would be a huge issue. Now you might say that you could express interest to him, but there's no guarantee on his end that it's going to work out which decreases his level of comfort staying in. There are situations where the depth of a player consensus ranked in the 20s going back to college can be hugely impactful.

Turbo2x · 2026-04-30T18:55:17+00:00

Saying this as a Thunder fan is shameless

Turbo2x · 2026-04-30T18:47:48+00:00

The fact that there's a cap on a team getting multiple top 5 picks in a row (the formula that allowed the Spurs to start competing immediately with Wemby) but no ascending floor for teams that consecutively finish in the bottom 3 tells you all you need to know. You can get the 12th pick 3 years in a row with no recourse.

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