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Anonymous's avatar

1. castle (roty), wells, risacher, sarr, edey

2. collier, knecht, edwards, ware, missi

3. carrington, george, buzelis, filipowski, clingan

honourable mentions:

mccain* ,post, dunn, mitchell, shead, holland, da silva, walter

*injury, number of games should matter in my opinion

What do you all think?

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Mike Shearer's avatar

I don't hate it!

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Trust Dust's avatar

Great intro explanation of your picks. But I strongly disagree with Buzelis not even making the third team! He'll be the best player in this draft. Along those lines, Ware will be significantly better than Edey as soon as next year and for a long time thereafter. There, my two opinions.

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Trust Dust's avatar

Oh, and delighted that you noticed Shead. His intense joy for the game is easy to like.

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Mike Shearer's avatar

No disagreement on Ware, but he just got too late of a start.

It's shameful, given I wrote 1,500 words on Buzelis like a month ago, but I may have made a mistake with that one.

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Rohit Shukla's avatar

Sarr is better than third team. Also, Philly should build around McCain, Grimes, and Maxey and dump Embiid and PG13

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Mike Shearer's avatar

he might have better careers than many of the guys above him, but in my opinion (and I definitely could be wrong), the other guys have been better this season.

I'm not sure that Embiid or PG has positive trade value at this point on those contracts, hard to fathom using assets to move on from them (if anyone would even want Embiid; I'm sure someone would talk themselves into a discounted PG).

It's the kind of hard decision that no executive would ever make haha

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Brian's avatar

Criminal to put Buzelis on Honorable Mention. He’s so exciting to watch and has been a big part of Chicago’s March success. Dumbfounded at the lack of respect for him, his growth, and the role he’s coming into in Chicago. That kid has a very bright NBA future.

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Mike Shearer's avatar

Definitely a top-five most exciting rookie this year, and maybe top 3. I did a long write-up on him recently: https://www.basketballpoetry.com/p/can-matas-buzelis-win-roy

You might be right, he's been so good for the last two months or so. Might have made a mistake there.

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WCoastD's avatar

Nice overview. But Filipowski over Post? The horror. And isn’t Toumani Camara a rookie?

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Mike Shearer's avatar

Thanks! Toumani is second-year, but still good enough to make one of my All-Defensive Teams.

I think Post is a little bit more of a one-trick pony than Filipowski. But I don't think any other outlets outside of the Bay Area have given him as much attention as I have ha, and I'm quite certain the Warriors wouldn't trade him for Filipowski straight-up (and the Jazz probably wouldn't do that, either). Post's shooting is the rug that really ties the room together for them!

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WCoastD's avatar

Appreciate the coverage of Post! He definitely would not be traded for Filipowski haha. (How often do you see Steve Kerr give this much PT to a rookie still learning that system?) It’s bizarre to us here in the Bay that QP is overlooked by nat’l sports media.

Post’s game is blossoming before our eyes. It’s so cool. His defense is at least existent, he’s incurring fewer fouls and the passing has gotten very sharp. His biggest strength, though, is his competitiveness, which can’t be taught.

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