With the #7 pick, the Portland Trail Blazers select....

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Called it.

But seriously, I would be ok with him too. My top 3 is pretty much duren, Daniels, and Sochan, in whatever order

I'm not for drafting Duren. Even if he's good, it'll take him years. Centers just take so long to develop. I'd rather spend a 2nd on a center like Koloko. I'm down for Murray or Sochan. Sochan has a skill set we could really use. Murray is the most polished and shouldn't be overlooked. He had a great season at Iowa. I'd be happy with the prospects of either.

Then again, if Daniels is a hit and they believe he'll be that much better than the 4s, go for it. What were his measurements?
 
I'm not for drafting Duren. Even if he's good, it'll take him years. Centers just take so long to develop. I'd rather spend a 2nd on a center like Koloko. I'm down for Murray or Sochan. Sochan has a skill set we could really use. Murray is the most polished and shouldn't be overlooked. He had a great season at Iowa. I'd be happy with the prospects of either.

Then again, if Daniels is a hit and they believe he'll be that much better than the 4s, go for it. What were his measurements?

6’7.5” with shoes
195 lbs
6’10.5” wingspan
8’9” standing reach
 
Could be a "Martell Webster" kind of workout.

I called Martell early. Great shooters who can't put the ball on the floor generally stay super medicore. The difference is Daniels seems to be known for his ability to handle the ball.
 



Well based on that Cronin Athletic article I think Sochan falls in that "raw, emerging, young talent who needed development but could turn out to be a star" category.
 
Now that the measurables are out I wanted to look at some comps. There is a premium for 2 way wings that can play multiple positions. I pulled up some of the top wings currently and compared them to some from this class.

I was a surprised to see how comparable Tari Eason is to a lot of the better 2 way wings. These are comparing final years so Sophomore for most, Butler was a Junior. Tari leads in most of the categories especially the advanced stuff where it’s almost a clean sweep. Competition levels are very different as well as Eason was in the SEC and the rest play in smaller conferences.

Stats are not everything but the other thing he has in common is he plays and works hard which bodes well for development.

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Now that the measurables are out I wanted to look at some comps. There is a premium for 2 way wings that can play multiple positions. I pulled up some of the top wings currently and compared them to some from this class.

I was a surprised to see how comparable Tari Eason is to a lot of the better 2 way wings. These are comparing final years so Sophomore for most, Butler was a Junior. Tari leads in most of the categories especially the advanced stuff where it’s almost a clean sweep. Competition levels are very different as well as Eason was in the SEC and the rest play in smaller conferences.

Stats are not everything but the other thing he has in common is he plays and works hard which bodes well for development.

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Dont forget his hand size!
 
Well based on that Cronin Athletic article I think Sochan falls in that "raw, emerging, young talent who needed development but could turn out to be a star" category.
Intersting that Portland reps were NOT at his proday with all the buzz. Also appears his shot was really off at the event according to David Aldridge.
 
Now that the measurables are out I wanted to look at some comps. There is a premium for 2 way wings that can play multiple positions. I pulled up some of the top wings currently and compared them to some from this class.

I was a surprised to see how comparable Tari Eason is to a lot of the better 2 way wings. These are comparing final years so Sophomore for most, Butler was a Junior. Tari leads in most of the categories especially the advanced stuff where it’s almost a clean sweep. Competition levels are very different as well as Eason was in the SEC and the rest play in smaller conferences.

Stats are not everything but the other thing he has in common is he plays and works hard which bodes well for development.

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Great work, appreciate that. My biggest concerns with Eason is that he is EXTREMELY right-handed, and his Assist-to-Turnover is terrible. Hopefully, those are things that can be improved, but when he faces tougher competition, defenders are going to have a fairly simple time shutting down his offensive go-to....which is bully ball going right.
 
Picking Sochan seems pretty obvious at this point.
Sochan looks like he could be a solid add, but so have others. I'm more in front of the 31 flavors then at the register with money in hand.

I found an interview/article of Sochan from 2020 that has good insights into him. It also sites an NBA event measuring him at (6'8 in shoes) with a 7' wingspan.

https://www.prospectiveinsight.com/post/jeremy-sochan

STOMP
 
CHICAGO — Jeremy Sochan’s mother, Aneta, left him with one phrase as he began his basketball sojourn a few years ago: “Be cheeky.”

“I’ve always had that little edge,” Sochan said Friday. “My mom, she was my first coach, and to this day, she tells me defense comes first. … She used to tell me to be cheeky, being able to see the play two steps ahead. So, I feel with that, being cheeky, maybe getting into people’s spaces, can separate their games, and they can play worse. There’s examples: Draymond (Green), Patrick (Beverley), Jrue (Holiday), so there’s so many. I feel like I can be one of those in the next step.”

The next step for Sochan, the forward from Baylor who turned 19 on Friday, was coming to the NBA Draft Combine at Wintrust Arena for interviews with teams that have witnessed his rapid rise into a potential lottery pick, as well as a pro-day workout put on by his agency, Tandem Sports + Entertainment. Headed by veteran agent and attorney Jim Tanner, Tandem represents multiple NBA players, including Ja Morant, Jarrett Allen and Desmond Bane, as well as Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, Grant Hill and Tamika Catchings.

At the end of January, our NBA draft guru Sam Vecenie had Sochan ranked 29th on his big board. But after Sochan’s strong second half for the then-defending national champion Bears, his stock has gone to Pluto. He was No. 9 on Vecenie’s latest board released earlier this month. It’s not yet guaranteed that Sochan will go top 10; some teams still have him ranked in the mid-teens. But he’s definitely a top-half-of-the-first-round guy now. He has what the NBA wants in modern-day wing defenders. Switchability. Length. Great feet.

There were 17 pro days scheduled during the combine. Some, like the workout for Shaedon Sharpe, the mystery man of this year’s draft, were solo performances. At the other end of the spectrum, the behemoth agency Excel had 24 players scheduled to work out together at its pro day Saturday.

Tandem is somewhere in the middle: It had eight players at Friday’s workout. Tandem’s other clients included Iowa State guard Izaiah Brockington, a C.J. Myles type with more springs; BYU guard Alex Barcello, who bears a striking resemblance to longtime NBA starter Kirk Hinrich; Murray State guard Tevin Brown; Georgetown forward Aminu Mohammed; Florida State big Malik Osborne; and multiple international players.

But Sochan was the main draw.

Sochan’s origin story is unusual, even for the NBA. Both his parents played basketball at Division II Panhandle State in Oklahoma, but Sochan grew up in England, where his late father, Ryan Williams, played for the Reading Rockets and Bristol Flyers. His mother emigrated from Poland to play at Panhandle, as she was a point guard for SKK Polonia Warszawa in Warsaw. Jeremy started playing as a kid in England. With his mother’s Polish citizenship, he was able to play for the Polish under-16 national team, then became the youngest member of Poland’s senior national team. He then came to the United States himself, playing high school in Indiana at La Lumiere before going to Baylor.

“I just say I’m a citizen of the world,” Sochan said. “I have a really unique background. … I’ve really experienced new people, new coaches. I feel like being a citizen of the world is the best way to describe that. Whenever people say, ‘Where are you from?’ it’s kind of a difficult question. I’m like, ‘Good question.’ It takes a lot of minutes to explain this.”

Representatives from the Grizzlies, Wizards, Magic, Pistons, Knicks, Bulls, Pelicans, Bucks and Spurs were among the many in attendance Friday. The Spurs and Knicks are among the teams that conducted interviews with him during the week; Sochan gushed about meeting Manu Ginóbili, part of San Antonio’s entourage in Chicago. The workout didn’t likely change many minds about the 6-9 Sochan, who was Big 12 Sixth Man of the Year, an All-Big 12 honorable mention selection and a member of the Big 12 All-Freshman team despite modest, terrestrial numbers (9.2 points, 6.4 rebounds, 1.8 assists). Sochan’s game evolved as his multicolored hairstyles did this season.

His ticket to the NBA’s green room on June 23 is his defense, being able to switch one through five and disrupt pretty offensive sets, play after play. He sees in himself “a younger Boris Diaw, bits of Jimmy Butler — just players with lots of versatility on both sides of the court, affect the game, not even on the box score, but doing little things, getting under people’s skin. Just being that irritating player, as well.”

Injuries at Baylor forced him to play small-ball five, and he took to it quickly.

“The stuff that he’s really good at — defending, running the floor, getting up on screen-and-rolls — he’s not going to do that here,” a veteran personnel man in attendance said. “But this shows us how much he’s worked on his shot.”

That work was, honestly, hit and miss Friday, even as Tandem’s director of performance, Gilbert Abraham, pushed positivity as Sochan flared to the wings or stood in the corner to pop 3s. Sochan and his cohorts run through Spain, pick-and-pops and many of the NBA’s other classic half-court sets.

“No rush, no rush — down, stick. It’s the wrist,” Abraham tells Sochan as he spots up for corner 3s. But the hit rate during much of his workout was a little lower than NBA teams will want from the easiest 3 spot on the court. Still, even though Sochan shot less than 30 percent on 3s at Baylor, his shot is far from broken. He was able to put the ball on the deck. And he definitely should be able to finish at the rim at the next level without much difficulty.

“He looked really good to me,” another team executive said Saturday.

Sochan later made 3 of 4 3-pointers from the top of the key, then muscled Abraham into the paint before shooting a running hook — the type of countermove that Sochan also will need to master in the NBA.

“I’m throwing that thing back to Britain next time,” Abraham said to Sochan after a drive. “I’m throwing it back to Poland next time.”

The NBA people sat quietly during the workout. They rarely talked to each other, even in whispers. But one yelled out, “Let’s go birthday boy!” as Sochan finished a drill where he had to dunk, over and over, from a standing start.

After an hour, Sochan’s day is done. He didn’t shoot it as well as he would have liked, but he did what he had to do. Tanner’s been doing this for decades; he knows who to ask to get the unvarnished truth. Sochan did fine. He’ll go back to Frisco, Texas, where he’s training, and keep working on his shooting before starting on the last leg of the journey: individual workouts for teams in June, just before the draft.

“We did a little bit (of defense) at the end, with the two-on-two, the screen work, but you can’t really show too much,” Sochan said after his showcase. I feel like they’re going to have that in mind, and when I go to team workouts, I’ll be able to show a little bit more of that. And whoever picks me, I’ll be able to show that in practices and games.”
 
Question for the cap masters. Is the following possible…

#7 and Ingles for Siakam

EB/Mil Pick/Nas for Grant

Resign Nurk and Ant

STARTERS -
Dame
Ant
Grant
Siakam
Nurk

6th MAN -
Hart
 
Great work, appreciate that. My biggest concerns with Eason is that he is EXTREMELY right-handed, and his Assist-to-Turnover is terrible. Hopefully, those are things that can be improved, but when he faces tougher competition, defenders are going to have a fairly simple time shutting down his offensive go-to....which is bully ball going right.
Who does D69 want?
 
Question for the cap masters. Is the following possible…

#7 and Ingles for Siakam

EB/Mil Pick/Nas for Grant

Resign Nurk and Ant

STARTERS -
Dame
Ant
Grant
Siakam
Nurk

6th MAN -
Hart
Probably not. But, I would absolutely love that team. Toronto will probably let one of their forwards go though, as they have 1 too many PF type that will need a paycheck. I imagine they decide to keep Siakam and Barnesz with OG hitting the market.
 
Well based on that Cronin Athletic article I think Sochan falls in that "raw, emerging, young talent who needed development but could turn out to be a star" category.

I don’t envision Sochan as an emerging star. I think he could be a glorified 3 and D player which are very valuable. DPOY type. Can guard every position on the floor.

Todays NBA you aren’t really a star unless you can create for yourself. But he could have great impact defensively no doubt
 
I don’t envision Sochan as an emerging star. I think he could be a glorified 3 and D player which are very valuable. DPOY type. Can guard every position on the floor.

Todays NBA you aren’t really a star unless you can create for yourself. But he could have great impact defensively no doubt

I would agree with this. Not a star, but a very good and a very valuable piece of the puzzle. I am not worried about his 3 point shot. As long as his form is good he will get better. I like how physical he plays and his ball-handling shows a lot of potential for a pF.
If he is the worst-case scenario at 7, we would come away with a pretty solid addition.
 
Who does D69 want?

Daniels
Sochan
Sharpe
....for starters. He completely hit last year's out of the park identifying Scottie Barnes when he was a late 1st round pick early in the year. That turned out well. I tease him that one of these years, he's due to miss. There are some 2nd round guys he thinks are being overlooked. That is as interesting as what might happen at #7 as I think it's 50/50 they trade that pick anyhow.
 
I'm not for drafting Duren. Even if he's good, it'll take him years.
Whoever is thought to be the BPA (that includes character & BBIQ) with the highest ceiling & a clean bill of health, thats who I'm for drafting pretty much always. People are kidding themselves if they think Portland is a piece away from contending, they've got the time.

That said, I would disagree that Duren looks years away from being a positive on the court. While his back to the basket game needs development, his D and finishing could have him making positive contributions right away. I see his agility/athleticism allowing him to stick with smaller guys much better then Nurk which would allow Portland to switch more. To my eyes, he's one of the top prospects in the draft.

STOMP
 
I would agree with this. Not a star, but a very good and a very valuable piece of the puzzle. I am not worried about his 3 point shot. As long as his form is good he will get better. I like how physical he plays and his ball-handling shows a lot of potential for a pF.
If he is the worst-case scenario at 7, we would come away with a pretty solid addition.
I relayed a link that contained a measurement of him when he was 17 that showed him to be 6'8 in shoes with a 7' wingspan. If that is so, he's got average size for a SF.

STOMP
 
I relayed a link that contained a measurement of him when he was 17 that showed him to be 6'8 in shoes with a 7' wingspan. If that is so, he's got average size for a SF.

STOMP

SF? I would say if he is 230 lbs he has average size for a PF these days.
 
Players can easily go up or down with their weight, where as their frame is what it is. 6' 7 with a 6'11.5 wingspan & 8'11" standing reach are most in line with SF dimensions. To maximize a versatile defender's ability, you'd play them in a lineup where they can switch up or down a position without continually being exposed to size mismatches... or, I'd rather have him switched off onto SGs & PFs then PGs or Centers. If he's thought to be the BPA when they select, I'm not worried about how he'd fit with whats in place. Get the BPA and figure it out.

https://eurospects.com/player/jeremy-sochan/

STOMP
 
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Daniels
Sochan
Sharpe
....for starters. He completely hit last year's out of the park identifying Scottie Barnes when he was a late 1st round pick early in the year. That turned out well. I tease him that one of these years, he's due to miss. There are some 2nd round guys he thinks are being overlooked. That is as interesting as what might happen at #7 as I think it's 50/50 they trade that pick anyhow.
Not trying to call anybody out but Scottie was never thought of as a late first guy...
 
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