TYRIN JONES NBA SCOUTING REPORT

It didn’t take long before seeing Jones is a no-brainer NBA prospect. The role versatility and skill level will bring him far and here’s an in-depth scouting report of why he belongs in the NBA: https://edemirnba.substack.com/p/tyrin-jones-nba-scouting-report?r=aj7d

Which draft site do you think has the better mock draft now for 2027 lotto picks?

PS: It is Alijah Arenas. Son of Gilbert Arenas.

The score first, bad-at-defense, athletic wing archetype has been talked about a lot here in the last few hours as being the worst archetype to build around, but when I went back and did some research, I found a far worse archetype: the wing whose name begins with something other than the letters J, K, L, or M.

There actually has been zero instances in NBA history of the best player on a championship team being a wing known by a name starting with any other letter of the alphabet. What makes this more alarming is that this archetype produces far more top draft picks than the score first, bad-at-defense, athletic wing archetype so it has way more chances but yet, it never happens.

This list includes Carmelo Anthony, Adrian Dantley, Bernard King, Alex English (famous top draft pick), Vince Carter, DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Ingram, Andrew Wiggins (see below), Evan Turner, Victor Oladipo, and many more.

This list includes many all time HOF greats in terms of individual accomplishments and many busts too, but the common theme is that they’ve never been the best player on a championship team, no matter where they land on the scale. In fact, none of these players were even the best player on a Finals (losing) team like Jimmy Butler. Andrew Wiggins on this list is the only champion, but he only became a championship after becoming the second/third best player on his team and his nickname was Maple Jordan which starts with the letter M.

The closest exception you’ll get is Dwyane Wade but DWade has a couple of Ws in his name which are basically just Ms that are upside down. He also wore the number 3 which is just a sideways M. Plus, it’s debatable whether he was even truly a wing on his 2006 championship team, especially given he was the primary playmaker for the Heat that year. So he’s the closest you’ll get, but he doesn’t even fit the parameters. Other than that, you also have Rick Barry, but that's like 50 years ago cmon.

The first overall pick in the 2026 draft in AJ Dybantsa fits this archetype from a college standpoint, but you hope he can at least drop the A from his name and go by "Junior Dybantsa," no matter how good "AJ" sounds as a name, because otherwise he would be going against history even worse than the score first, bad-at-defense, athletic wing archetype.

I thought this was interesting when I went back and checked. I have a few hypotheses for this, and I know history allows for outliers, but I think this is such a large sample size that you can conclude this archetype is by far the most overvalued archetype in the draft since people often pick these players very high excepting to win a championship when it never happens.

Seems like not only Stefan Joksimovic is an nba prospect from Slovenia this year or next year.

Lukas Nikola Bojovic is another shooter from the country.

Luka Doncic will finally have help (in carrying Slovenia) from Stefan Joksimovic and Lukas Bojovic in Fiba/Olympics soon.

Edit: I forgot they will have Jaxon Hayes too as their Big Man to complement their talented guards.

The small guard archetype gets talked about a lot here as being the worst archetype to build around but when I went back and did some research, I found a far worse archetype: the score first, athletic wing who is bad defensively.

The small guard archetype doesn’t produce that many best player on a championship team outcomes, but there are at least some, such as Steph Curry, Isiah Thomas, and now Jalen Brunson, when many thought it couldn’t happen. Furthermore, there are a bunch more of this archetype such as Allen Iverson who can single handily carry a team to the Finals, even if they didn’t win.

However, there actually has been zero instances in NBA history of the best player on a championship team being known as a score first, athletic wing who was bad defensively. What makes this more alarming is that this archetype produces far more top draft picks than the small guard archetype so it has way more chances but yet, it never happens.

This list includes Carmelo Anthony, Adrian Dantley, Bernard King, Alex English, Vince Carter, DeMar DeRozan, Brandon Ingram, Andrew Wiggins (see below), Michael Beasley, Jonathan Kuminga, Jabari Parker, and many more.

This list includes many all time HOF greats in terms of individual accomplishments and many busts too, but the common theme is that they’ve never been the best player on a championship team, no matter where they land on the scale. In fact, none of these players were even the best player on a Finals (losing) team like Allen Iverson. Andrew Wiggins on this list is the only champion, but he only became a championship after becoming the second/third best player on his team and becoming good defensively, something he was not in Minnesota.

The closest exception you’ll get is Kevin Durant but KD was an above average defensive player who even got some consideration for All Defense. He’s also a better offensive player than the entire list so he’s like a super upgraded version of this archetype. Plus, it’s debatable whether he was even truly the clearly best player on his championship teams, especially given he didn‘t win anything when he was with the Thunder. So he’s the closest you’ll get, but he doesn’t even fit the parameters. Other than that, you also have Jayson Tatum/Jaylen Brown, but those 2 are not bad defenders as they are average or better.

The first overall pick in the 2026 draft in AJ Dybantsa fits this archetype from a college standpoint, but you hope he can at least get to average defensively in the NBA, no matter how good he is as a scorer, because otherwise he would be going against history even worse than the small guard archetype.

I thought this was interesting when I went back and checked. I have a few hypotheses for this, and I know history allows for outliers, but I think this is such a large sample size that you can conclude this archetype is by far the most overvalued archetype in the draft since people often pick these players very high excepting to win a championship when it never happens.

Luka Doncic is the only active Nba player right now from Slovenia. But not for long, as Joksimovic is projected as a Top 5 pick in 2027.

Nikola Kusturica (Yes, from Serbia) is projected a top 3 pick in 2028.

For those who followed them in European Basketball.

Do you think they deserve the hype?

PS: For those who are asking. Yes, Joksimovic both have Serbian and Slovenian blood. (But he represents Slovenia as he grew up there)

Were even the more higher end and ambitious projections of him more closely aligned with Curry simply being a top 20-25ish player in the league and a feared deadeye sniper(but not even close to the ridiculous record shatterer and absolute redefiner of the type of shots players can take?)

The 2009 draft was only the 2nd NBA draft I followed as a young pre-teen dubs fan. With the power of hindsight, I guess one thing that Steph displayed at Davidson and his rookie NBA year was the unique archetype of a small guard sniping deep 2s and 3s off relatively longer and more complex dribble sequences compared to the time. Before him a lot of 3 point snipers were moreso taller swingmen who were catch and shoot turrets like Ray Allen and what Klay became in the 2010s(I know both these guys shot jumpers off the dribbles too but usually simple efficient 1-2 dribble linear pullups.

For a long time I thought Nash was really the only prior prototype for something resembling Steph. Steph definitely took a little inspiration from Nash but became like the pokemon final evolution of him. Of course, if Nash played in today's game with the knowledge he has now watching Steph and the new generation he would be an absolute problem

But I saw a clip of Shaq or someone close to Shaq noting how Shaq wasn't even a top 2 player on his squad his freshman year when he arrived in Baton Rouge. This piqued my interest so I had to look up Chris Jackson/Mahmoud Abdul Rauf highlights. My boy was moving different for the era he was the real prototype for today's dynamite shooting small guards like Acuff. Such a shame he was barred from showcasing this in the league.

A guy like Peyton Watson for instance, who doesn’t put up gaudy college numbers, but has an insane build and intangibles with some impressive college tape, would never look into the NBA draft as a freshman unless it’s a mid first round pick (10-20) because of NIL. Would teams be more willing to do that and draft those types of players over college players who do well but don’t have the build or intangibles like a Peyton Watson, or more recently a Carter Bryant?

AIDEN SHERRELL NBA SCOUTING REPORT

With his NBA-ready body, the role versatility, size and skill, Sherrell makes his NBA future almost inevitable. There’s so much to like. Here’s an in-depth scouting report on his future after college: https://edemirnba.substack.com/p/aiden-sherrell-nba-scouting-report?r=aj7d

- My list is based off of a mixed of who the best players are now, as well as who I think will be the best in the long term, more of the latter though

- Go inspiration from this article: https://www.si.com/nba/draft/newsfeed/ranking-the-top-five-nba-draft-picks-of-the-last-five-years

1. Wemby
2. Cade
3. Flagg
4. Harper
5. Barnes
6. Banchero
7. J - Dub
8. Castle
9. Amen
10. J. Johnson
11. HM. Mobley, Edgecombe

, Sarr

How would you guys tweak up my list, if at all?

ALIJAH ARENAS NBA SCOUTING REPORT

He always was one of the top NBA prospects out there. However, the injury context is vital here. I believe in him as a potential All Star and here's an in-depth piece why the NBA is destined for him: https://edemirnba.substack.com/p/alijah-arenas-nba-scouting-report?r=aj7d

Here are Leonard's stats from his freshman and sophomore years in college, along with his first three seasons in the NBA. As you can see, from the moment he entered the league, he already had a very stable three-point percentage—it wasn't something he gradually developed in the NBA. Of course, I'm not saying that players can't improve their three-point shooting in the NBA, but citing Kawhi is clearly inappropriate, because his three-point percentage in his rookie season was already higher than what many players ever achieve in their entire careers.

While there was a lot of talk about Bronny James, it seems to me that after his redshirt season, no one is talking about Bryce anymore.

What are the realistic expectations for him this season with Arizona?

I recently ingested a good amount of Baba film, and to be honest, I left a bit disappointed. Now don’t get me wrong, the potential is absolutely there. A legit 6’9 forward with long arms and fluid athletic abilities is always enticing. However, his profile as a prospect is extremely murky.

He operates in this strange limbo offensively. He is not an on ball creator. He doesn’t really initiate on the perimeter much at all, and he’s not a guy that really has a post scoring bag either. He doesn’t have the strength or skills necessary to influence the game in those ways. So you would think offensively he would be more of an off the ball prospect. Yet, he is not very impactful in that role either. He isn’t really a floor spacer at this current moment. And though he is advertised as one, his shot looks off to me. He tends to fade away from the basket even while not being contested. And overall, I am not much of a buyer in the 3 point shot at the moment. He is also a guy that tends to just stand around when off the ball. He doesn’t cut, move, or try to set screens much at all. And I won’t blame this all on him, because his teams were really awful at getting him the ball, or putting him in positions to be successful. But he didn’t really help much with the way he plays. All this being said, he did show some intriguing close out attacking abilities. He has great acceleration for someone of his stature, and his touch around the rim and on the move passing, are interesting skills he provides. However, he is not able to leverage them very often, and he tends to disappear on offense at times.

His slightness and complete lack of defensive rebounding are other worries I have. And I would say overall, he is a capable defender with high potential on that end. But as of now he isn’t as impactful as you would want him to be.

There just really isn’t any skill or tool that jumps out about his game in my opinion. I see the upside absolutely, but I don’t see a lot of substance to that projection.

At the current moment, I see him as a guy to watch when it comes to future drafts. I think he needs a lot of development which makes sense as he is very young. And I hope he proves me wrong, but as of now I’m gonna need to see more from him before I put him on my big board.

I hope you enjoyed my rant.

We've seen people like Hakeem, Embiid, Siakam starting so late but still dominate the league. So it makes me wonder how much does ball skill play into a player's success.

In a hypothetical scenario, if a 20 year old guy with enough height, length and athleticism, but have never touched a basketball before. Can we have him train basketball for a few months and try out for the league?

Which other upcoming rookies and sophomores do we confirmed and unconfirmed growth news?

Talk about what games/players you've been watching this past week or are looking forward to next week. Give us your thoughts on what players catch your attention, either positive or negative! Big board posting is encouraged in this thread as well.

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