Huge S/O to Eric Guilleminault of NBADraft.net, who twice hopped on our recent livestreams and gave us all the intel we probably need heading into today’s 2nd Round of the 2024 NBA Draft. Below are the main bullet points and then below that, a condensed version of the livestreams — one 17-minute video that covers all the bullet points below, in chronological order.
[UPDATE: The Warriors traded the No. 52 pick to OKC for Lindy Waters III — join us at 1:30PM PDT today for an interview with Doc Martin, former Portland Trail Blazers executive and Draft expert for Babcock Hoops. We will also do a post on this website after the livestream.]
If you’re wondering about the Pre-Draft presser with Mike Dunleavy, Jr., we’ll have that tomorrow because there was only one question towards the end, after a 23-minute podium visit, about this 52nd pick and it wasn’t very informative anyways.
If I may toot my own horn for the sake of this website, I think we’ve had a pretty strong track record of prognosticating on the Draft. In 2020, we correctly predicted James Wiseman and everyone was surprised by the Nico Mannion pick. In 2021, we also correctly predicted Jonathan Kuminga and then I personally wanted Trey Murphy III at 14, but Dunleavy chose Moses Moody and look how Murphy has blossomed, albeit having more opportunity, with New Orleans. 2022 was the Patrick Baldwin, Jr., Ryan Rollins and Gui Santos triumvirate — I don’t know that anyone came close to predicting those. And then last year nobody really predicted Brandin Podziemski, but with the help of Eric G., we did correctly recommend trading down to nab Trayce Jackson-Davis.
We are now on our fifth consecutive #NBADraft Watch Party, so be sure to join us on the YouTube channel livestreams. With each second-round pick lasting four minutes, expect the Warriors to make the 52nd pick at around 2:25PM PDT.
This year Eric tells us that, assuming Jaylen Wells, Pelle Larsson and Cam Spencer (Pat Spencer’s brother, btw) are gone by the 52nd pick, it will probably be Oso Ighodaro.
Or, if he’s already picked by then, then it’ll be Jalen Bridges or, if he’s gone, Adem Bona. The full video and transcript is below, listed after these summary bullet points which are, again, roughly the timestamps of the video.
I should mention (in writing, as I did say it on the videos below) that our previous guest, cap expert Keith Smith of SpoTrac, raved about Ighodaro’s passing ability as a big man and tabbed him as Smith’s favorite player in the Draft, even wishing that Boston would pick him at 30th, on one of the pre-Draft podcasts Smith did over the last few days — see 41:00 mark: https://x.com/noceilingsnba/status/1805032235759964217 (this tweet is literally the entire one-hour podcast)
Respected global basketball analyst Jordan Richard of Swish Cultures also gushed about Ighodaro’s high IQ in breaking down game film: https://x.com/JordanRichardSC/status/1804679646061240662 (4-minute video)
If the Warriors do select Ighodaro, with him having probably a similar role as TJD, does that mean Kevon Looney gets moved? Well, I would say that if Ighodaro pans out with a solid rookie campaign, Looney probably won’t be a Warrior at the latest by next summer, as Loon only has one year left on his deal.
And finally, if Dunleavy shocks everyone and picks the guy with “ridiculous upside” (reference to the old SB Nation blog), Ulrich Chomche, does that mean Kuminga will get traded in a package for Paul George?
I know, I know, that’s a stretch. I’ve already dove into that on the YouTube channel and I promise you we will cover that next, after the Draft, right here on the website. So, more getting our arms around the PG rumors, tomorrow.
Oh and btw, I call dibs on, “We want Ighodaro!”™️ (Max Kellerman voice and obvious reference to the “We want Iguodala” meme).
Here. We. Go…
• 52nd pick prediction by NBADraft.net: Ighodaro, more experienced like Jackson-Davis, fits a role.
• Bridges is more of a 3-4 (wing), whereas Ighodaro is a 4-5 (forward-center).
• Good news: Warriors have roster slots available whereby they can even offer a full NBA-level (i.e., not a two-way) contract a la what they did with TJD, which means they maybe don’t need to move up.
• Larsson is a Steve Kerr type of player, a connector type, plays hard, has similarities to Podziemski.
• Wells played Division II college ball in the Bay Area, is younger and more of a project, has moved up quickly and therefore has upside, a late-bloomer, a 3&D wing, and didn’t measure great with only a wingspan of 6’7.25”, which hurt him in moving up Draft.
• Chomche is a Rich Paul client, a long-term project player, very raw, only 18 and the youngest player in the Draft, has intangibles, a 7’4 wingspan, a 9’1.5” standing reach (anything at or above nine feet is considered great), a 38.5” vertical therefore he can jump too, can shoot the 3 a little, but is unlikely to help GSW which is why he’s not projected by NBADraft.net to be picked by Golden State — he’s a high-upside player, obviously.
• Side note on Bronny James: Eric saw him live in HS, is a connector type, projected as a defender, short at 6’1” and a 2-guard, maybe combo-guard but definitely not a point guard. Eric doubts that Bronny could run most NBA offenses, although he is athletic, shoots the 3 a little bit, is a great teammate, a great passer, has a long wingspan, but is just very undersized, that’s why they have him in the 50s. Eric actually has him ranked around 70 on his personal board.
• Isaac Jones is an improbable pick, but in any case, he’s older at 23 years of age, his WSU coach (now Stanford’s coach) recruits high bball IQ guys, he’s only 6’8” but has a 7’3” wingspan and 9′ standing reach, and played himself up at Portsmouth then NBA G League Combine then the NBA Combine. Over the last week, Jones has dropped out of NBADraft.net’s 2nd Round.
• Eric also talked to University of Arizona coaches at a recent AAU tournament in that state, about Keshad Johnson, who reminds him of Juan Toscano-Anderson. However, Aran Smith (founder of NBADraft.net) disagrees with that comp. The UofA coaches believe Larsson will be the only UofA player picked in the 2nd round, meaning Johnson will probably go undrafted.
• Eric’s favorite sleepers in this Draft: Pacome Dadiet, Wells, Ryan Dunn, and Jonathan Mogbo (all expected to be gone by the 52nd pick).
See the bottom of this post for the full transcript…
PREVIOUS LIVESTREAM APPEARANCES
See each video’s Comments for the timestamps and topics discussed with Eric — these are the original format of the above embedded compilation, which was also edited for fluidity.
FULL TRANSCRIPT OF ERIC G INTERVIEW
The following automatically generated transcript has only been lightly edited…
Who are we picking at 52? Because I just took a peek at NBADraft. net and it says Oso Iguodoro. So you want to start there? I guess. So what we look at is that it’s probably going to be similar to uh, TJD where it’s an older player. Probably this is going to be somebody that fits a role at that stage in the draft.
Like, yes, I’m sure the Warriors and their fans would love to have a secondary scorer. You’re unlikely to get that at 53 in any draft and in particular, this draft. So when you’re looking at the second round, especially if you’re not towards the top of the second round, you’re really looking for players that can fit a role on a team or what he can do.
He, for big, he can pass a little bit. He’s Really athletic around the rim. I think he had a 39 inch max vert at the combine. He’s long He the issues that he has and why he’s in the 50 for us is he doesn’t really shoot it great He’s roughly the same as TJD was last year in terms of free throw shooting.
So around 63-65 percent free throw shooter Not doesn’t really have much range from the outside and he’s on this he’s on the thinner side as a player. So what he probably does better than TJD at this stage is pass. I would definitely see him as a backup TJD at this point, and he’ll probably play some four as well.
Let me go look real quick at his measurements. As you know, I’m a big measurements guy. So just for the average person, he measured at 6’9 6’9 without shoes, 6’9. 5 6’11 wingspan. 885 standing reach. And for the best centers, ideally for a center possession, you want nine standing reach. But he did really well in terms of max vert at 39.
5. No vert at 35 inches. Had a good reaction shuffle time, had a good three quarter speed time. And as I said, he’s experienced, he’s older, he’s done well. I think he’s currently Roughly 22 years of age. So for this draft at that stage, 22 is actually relatively young. You’re going to see guys that are 23, 24 years old at that stage of the draft.
What if he gets taken earlier? Who else do you have that would maybe fit the bill at 52? Well, I know other mocs have, they’ve said Jalen Bridges, correct? Right. Yeah. Saw that. So Jalen Bridges is more of a 3 4 than a 4 5. He is a shooter. His measurements. Or six, seven ish. 6’10 wingspan, athletic as well.
What you get out of him is probably, like I said, a 3’4 more than a 4’5. And when I say 3 that means forward. So, swap forward, power forward. 4’5 is power forward, center. A lot of experience with Baylor. Was a transfer, went to a few schools. Little bit older, yeah, he’s 23 years old. So, again, a warrior’s a type that the Warriors have been leaning on towards the end of the second round last year.
Obviously going with more experienced people that have gone through to college and have, have seen some things and have, They don’t have quite the learning curve, and it seems like Warriors fans don’t really want too much of a, of a somebody that won’t contribute next year anyway. Just based on what I’ve heard, they want people, obviously, that can help Steph during his time.
Now, what they have to understand, at three, it’s really hard to find somebody that can make a major contribution to a team. It’s not impossible, but it is There are a few things that the Warriors do have a benefit of relative to other teams that might draft higher. They have roster spots available. So, for example, the reason the Warriors were able to pride TJ away from other teams that may have drafted him a little higher in the second round is that they promised his agent a roster spot.
Meaning not, not a two way contract, a contract, a standard NBA contract. That was not guaranteed. That turns out to be very beneficial to the warriors because he panned out, right? So they’re a little bit in difficulty salary cap wise but if you look at one of the most tradable assets they have is TJD’s contract because He’s proven that he’s An NBA player and his contract is really low.
It’s lower than the veteran minimum and for several years. So when super teams or teams that have established stars that are paying those guys, 60 million, 40 to 60 million, when you have a contract, somebody that’s in the rotation, top 10 guide, that’s a lucrative thing to have. And that’s really the first one that the Warriors have really been able to bank on where they’ve done.
the non guarantee route and have these salaries for a few, three or four years. So one thing to think about in this draft is that maybe the Warriors are drafting at 53, but it’s entirely possible that somebody that’s viewed by most At 43, 42 may end up with them because of the role and the ability to promise a roster spot.
Now, I’m not saying the Warriors are doing that. I have not heard that, but that is a selling point that they have relative to other teams that don’t have many roster spots available. Gotcha. Do we have the 53rd or the 52nd or how does that work? I think on our site, the pick that’s like forfeited is just as forfeited on it.
So if you grow up, yeah, see the 49th pick, I can name you a couple other players that I think the Warriors may be interested in. Uh, I would say that those two seem to be the most popular ones, but I think we’ve gone offline a little bit. We spoke, I said, I feel like Pelle Larsson is a Kerr type of player. And not only because he went to the University of Arizona, but also because, and he’s a guard, older player, originally from Sweden, and went to the University of Utah before he went to U of A, but he’s a connector type, and he’s the one that moves the ball around, and he plays hard all the time, and it seems like, I would say, he’s not as good as pods, but he has some connector similarities to pods, so that could be somebody that I still think, we, we really do think that.
Ighodaro is going to be a pick, but I could definitely see that’s a player that players with that current and the management would be interested in at some level. Yeah, I was just listening to you there. So I had it. I have to say we want Ighodaro. No, I’m just kidding. It’s the new we want Iguodala. Oh, man, that’d be funny.
If he was the pick, someone’s got to do that. Someone’s got to do that meme. You heard that here first. But anyways, why don’t we talk a little bit about Jaylen Wells? Cause he’s in that range. Uh, Jaylen Wells is an interesting story. He was in junior college in the Bay area and then played division two in the Bay area, and then played one year at Washington state.
And as many of you may or may not know, Washington state went pretty far in the NCAA tournament. And he was one of the main reasons why he’s a little bit younger than some of the other players that we’ve mentioned. He’s a little bit more of a project and more of a, like, development type player compared to the other, I would say the other guys there, but you can tell just the fact that how he’s moved up quickly that some people may see him as having some upside relative to the other ones because they see him as a late bloomer type of player.
He has potential as a three and D player. Some of the things that didn’t work out so well in his favor and why he’s lower in the mock, he didn’t measure great. And, like, a 3D wing, usually you want 7 foot, 7’2 wingspan, and he did not measure like that at all. He measured 6’7 which wasn’t bad, but his wingspan was nearly identical, 6’7 and a quarter.
His standing reach was 8 foot, 7 and a half, and that hurt him in terms of moving up in the draft, in our opinion. Obviously, we don’t know, right, if he’s going to end up, but he kind of lost some momentum that was going his way. Going into the combine because people thought he was maybe a little bit longer, maybe a longer standing reach.
He’s more of an upside play relative to the other players that we mentioned. Okay. All right, any anybody else? I guess we could talk about Chomche, Ulrich Chomche, because he decided to stay in the draft. He was at NBA. We may not have added him because we thought he was going to enter in 2025, but he’s with Rich Paul and Klutch.
He’s one of the youngest players in the draft. 6’11 He wouldn’t be eligible if he was born in 2006 and he was born December 30th. Has a big wingspan. The reason he’s not projected with the Warriors is because Is because he’s a long term project player. He played a Nike hoop summit. He looked very raw there, but his age and his intangibles in terms of power forward center being six, 10 and a quarter, seven foot, four wingspan relative to the other guys we talked about nine foot, one and a half standing reach.
And he had a 38 and a half vert. He can jump. He can, he can shoot the three a little bit, but he has some stiffness in the hips. So there is some lateral issue, even though he’s that athletic, but he’s a long term guy, he’s raw. He’s not going to help the Warriors out next season, unlikely. And that’s why he’s hasn’t been projected with the Warriors at all.
But if you’re looking for a high upside pick in that 50 range. That is a guy that, uh, I would consider and I also would think that Rich Paul knows what he’s doing and that he’s gonna somehow get drafted somewhere in the second round. And we can talk about Bronny if you want. I know Bronny James is a popular name.
Saw him live in high school. He’s a connector type of player, so that would, that’s something that the Warriors would like in terms of being able to pass it around and stuff. He’s projected as a defender. He did not defend that well on occasions when he played. He did not have a good, obviously a good season this year with USC, partially due to his slow start given his heart issue.
So he was out headed step away from basketball for a few months. He has a really long wingspan, even though he’s short. He’s only 6’1 and he’s not a point guard. He’s a two guard. If you want to call him a combo guard, you can call that as well. I doubt that he would be running that many offenses at the NBA level.
So that’s part of the reason why we don’t project them so high. He’s athletic. He can shoot it a little bit, although he didn’t show it in college this year. Great teammate, great passer. Long wingspan, pretty good athlete. He’s just very undersized for what position he should ideally play. So hence why we have him in the Feeds.
But I know that that’s a player that people want to talk about. So would I have him in my top 60? Probably not. Do I think that he deserved to go to the combine and that he has the talent for it? Yes, because I know some people say, well, he only scored, I think four points or five points per game. I just want to remember, remind everybody.
That Derek Lively only scored five points per game last year. His only year in college. So, and Lively seems to have been a good pick for the Dallas Mavericks. So, just want to remind people, it’s not just nepotism. He is an almost level player. For me, he’s probably in the 70s to 80 range. But that’s a difference of opinion.
And we could go over one more since it’s so important. I see his name. Isaac Jones is also a Washington State player, also a late bloomer. Unlike Jalen Wells, he’s older. He’s 23 years old. We have to remember that Washington State’s coach, who’s now Stanford’s coach, recruits guys that he feels like have, High basketball IQ.
So both Jalen Wells and Isaac Jones were viewed as high basketball IQ level players. Now, what’s interesting about Isaac Jones, and he may or may not get drafted, because as you know, once we’re going into 15 ranges, there’s a question mark there. If you look at his height, He’s only 6’8 but he has a 7’3 wingspan and a 9 standing reach, which is great for a power forward, which is manageable as a center.
He had a pretty good vert. He played himself up. So, the older, Lesser viewed guys go to the Portsmouth invitational. So he started there. He did so well He got invited to the NBA G League combine He did well there and he got invited all the way to the NBA combine So it tells you like in a few months he moved way up in terms of where he was ranked in NBA circles and on their boards and stuff, and it’s partially because he wasn’t always a Division One player either.
He was a transfer from the lower level of basketball. But is there a chance that the Warriors actually might trade up a little bit in terms of, I’m seeing some of the names that you’ve mentioned last time with us. Whether it’s, you mentioned Jalen Wells, Iguodaro seems to be gaining traction late. It’s like they’re all moving up in the second round still, so you can still get them on the Trace Jackson Davis contract type of deal.
But what do you think of the Warriors 52nd position? Based on the information that I got over the weekend at Section 7, which is a big, huge high school tournament where you interact with a lot of college coaches, I would say that Jalen Wells will not be available at 52. I think he goes top in the late 20s to late 30s.
So he’s 25 to 40 range. I saw Iguodaro get on somebody else’s mock, obviously, and everything varies, but why do you think Iguodaro doesn’t get picked until As we spoke about earlier, he’s a little bit on the thin side, big, he’s athletic, uh, as we mentioned last time, he’s a little bit older player, and that’s another reason why he gets a little bit lower in terms of why he’s not gonna be drafted as high.
And then in the second round, it’s a lot about fit on teams. So, they’re gonna not always draft maybe the top talent, but they’re They have players in tiers, I think you’ve heard very frequently. So they’ll put guys at like 1 tier, 2 tier, 3 tier, 4 tier. Let’s say he’s a 4 tier player. Then they’re going to look into fit a little bit more.
How he fits with the warriors. If they’re asking you why it won’t be Ulrich, it’s because He has very high upside and that height is wrong on the side. It should not be six, seven. I don’t know why they said he’s like six, 10, six, 11. I actually liked the projects. Well, everybody likes the high upside projects, except when Warriors fans say, Hey, how are we going to help step now?
He’s not going to be a player that’s going to help step in the next two, three years. What would be like your top five most likely? One probably is Iguodoro at 52, right? Yeah, and Jalen Bridges is high up there. Pelle Larson is high up there. Those would be three. Pelle, and who would be fourth, would you say?
If you had to rank them? For the Warriors Maybe Adam Bona. Right. I think Cam Spencer would have some interest, but I don’t think he’s gonna last to the 50s. I think he goes mid 40s. And Pat Spencer’s brother. Yes. Oh, real quick. Kashaw Johnson. Yeah, that’s a name that I’ve seen. I was talking to the U of A coaches this weekend, and they were more confident that Larson gets drafted at Johnson.
Okay. I’m not saying he’s not going to, I’m just saying they were more confident about it. Kashaw Johnson reminds me a little bit of JTA. Now, Aaron, who does the mock and stuff, disagrees with that comparison. I think there’s a little bit of JTA in him. He’s an undersized four. He hasn’t proved to be the defender that JTA is yet, and hasn’t developed his shot quite as much.
But, if you remember JTA when he was in college, he hadn’t developed those things yet. Just to reinforce our knowledge of Iguodoro. Not really a shooter, right? Can’t really shoot. He’s more of a, more of a five. He could pass a little bit, though. Yeah, Keith Smith actually was gushing about Iguodoro’s passing ability.
Like We haven’t seen a center pass like him, you know, it’s like one every seven drafts that you’d see a guy that could pass like that. What’s your feeling on that aspect? I don’t know about once every seven draft, but he is a very good passer and that would work well in the Warriors offense. I think What I’m concerned about is, is he going to be able to defend the bigs right away?
I’m not saying he’s not eventually going to. He’s athletic and he can pass. And then again, the other thing is, is he too much of a duplicate for TJD? Yes, he’s a little bit taller than TJD. But TJD is a little bit thicker. They are pretty athletic. For us, last year was projected. Remember, I was considering him.
We were really into TJD. We said it was a little high and that maybe they could trade down and get TJD. As I recall, that’s what was on the pod. I mean, obviously they did pretty well, both with pods and TJD. To answer that question is, is Looney going to be on the team before the season starts? So if they do draft Iguodoro, would you think that they’re going to move Looney in a trade?
Not necessarily, but it could be a possibility. A definite possibility.
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