At the end of draft night, I would just like to have a team (torn down or not) that has serious SIZE. Currently, this is what I see our future as pre-draft:
- Scoot ( 6’2.5 barefoot, what, a 6’11 wingspan and 220lb?, A grade athleticism): say whatever you want about his rookie season. He has the athleticism of a guy I want my franchise PG to be and isn’t too small. For all of the work he needs to put in on offense, I saw a guy who actually looks to set up his teammates and does not back down defending giants in the post.
- Shae (6’4.25 barefoot, 7’0 wingspan, A+ grade athleticism): he still needs to get better at everything but has shown a lot of promise. This year, I hope he instills some alpha mentality. I’m learning more and more that it’s the determining factor of a star.
- Camara (6’7 barefoot, 7’0.5 wingspan): he’s really what I would consider the most important glue piece to our future imo. A four year extension would take him to the end of his prime pretty much. He is a 3 point shot away from being one of those Shane Battier kind of guys.
- Walker (6’6.75 barefoot, 7’0 wingspan): another one of those guys who is a A+ bench piece that I want here for a long time. He’s going to be the first young guy to get an extension, which makes it a bit easier to stomach because Shae’s extension won’t kick in until two years into Bari’s extension.
- Rupert (6’7 barefoot now?, 7’3 wingspan): I still have no idea what he’ll be. He was projected to be this guy who could be a defensive ace, but he looks too slow to ever become an elite one to me, but maybe his height and wingspan will just be too overwhelming for even the best guards. Right now though, I see so much promise in his shot and being able to eventually push the ball down the court on the break off of a board.
- Murray (6’7.75 barefoot, 6’11.75 wingspan): I thought drafting him was a miscalculation on Cronin thinking Dame would stay despite us drafting Scoot. I’m coming around to thinking Schmitz saw something in him. I got to see him live a lot this season. I saw a guy who was never out of place defensively and moved fluid in-game. He just wasn’t confident in his shot yet. I really do think we have a guy who will be almost as good as Keegan.
I’m not going to list out the bigs’ measurements because I don’t know if Ayton will be here past ‘26, but neither Ayton nor Reath are little guys, both are better defensively than Nurk and Eubanks. That’s eight guys that I consider as part of the future—two may become stars, two are good stop-gap bigs (I still need we need to find a promising big in this draft and then eventually find an elite big prospect to truly contend), and four are good prospects with great size and intangibles to become valuable contributors at a premium position.
Terrible season, terrible lottery results. However, I still see this draft changing the trajectory of our future. Add two more wings with size (or one wing with size and Castle to create the best young guard trio with Shae and Scoot) and another big to this team? That would be a 11-man rotation that I would tune in to watch every night. I believe a team with that core of young guys will become a contention team for MANY years.
Grant, Ant, Brogdon, Thybulle, RobWill—I don’t particularly care how much we get for them at this point. We got okayish draft compensation in the the Dame deal (enough for me to not complain about at least) and Schmitz has found several possible long term contributors I can root for. We need the vets gone going into this season.
Let Scoot and Shae have a full season to be the guys. Shae needs to develop a killer instinct, let him him get his 25ppg. Scoot, I want to see average 10apg. Add an A+ prospect next summer, and I see us as the next up-and-coming team.
