How does every NBA team grade out with the 2020 draft in the books? Why Philadelphia, Dallas, Memphis, and Oklahoma City won big while Boston, Golden State, and Houston were losers…
JUST LIKE THAT, THE 2020 NBA DRAFT IS IN THE BOOKS. One of the wildest NBA weeks ever began with Chris Paul and Jrue Holiday trades before transitioning into a long overdue draft, and now we barely even had a chance to catch our breath before 2020 free agency kicks off Friday. Dallas, Philadelphia, Memphis, and Oklahoma City were among the biggest winners on draft night, while Golden State, Boston, Minnesota, and Houston were losers. Not every team made a pick on Wednesday night, but every team had opportunity and that means everyone gets a grade.
Unlike other draft graders, we’re not grading on a superficially inflated curve. Don’t you get tired of seeing 25 As and Bs? I promise, these teams did not all succeed. I’m also not grading solely on how I evaluated the prospects, or on how many better players I’d rather they selected. That plays a part obviously, but you can just look at my final Big Board if you want to see which players I liked best. Yeah, everyone should’ve taken Tyrese Maxey, you get it. …
Thanksgiving will be different this year, but we have so much to be thankful for. Here’s one thing for every NFL team, plus Week 12 Power Rankings and picks…
THANKSGIVING WILL BE A LITTLE DIFFERENT THIS YEAR, but we all have much to be thankful for, even in 2020. Our usual Thanksgiving traditions will be different this time around, but we can still appreciate memories and traditions past and future and give thanks for what we have.
Thanksgiving in the NFL evokes fond memories of soothing Pat Summerall and John Madden incantations, Barry Sanders and Emmitt Smith gnawing on oversized turducken legs, and endless bad Lions and Cowboys football. …
Team fit and situation matter, so how does a re-ranked big board shake up now that we know where every prospect landed? Maxey, Okongwu, and Green are big winners…
THE 2020 NBA DRAFT IS IN THE BOOKS NOW, and most fans have already moved on to NBA free agency and trades, with over 100 players on the move this past weekend alone. Normally, we’d be getting excited to watch these guys play in Summer League in a week or two. No such luck this year. Instead we’ll see them in real NBA action in only a month.
I already released full draft grades for every team, and you saw the final Big Board heading into the draft. But in the NBA, so much about value depends on team fit and opportunity. The best talents should rise to the top, but further down the draft board, it’s so important to find the right fit. …
The Ravens and Titans playoff rematch is finally here! Plus Power Rankings and picks for every game, with Miami, Washington & Kansas City best bets…
WEEK 11 IN THE NFL MEANS THINGS ARE GETTING SERIOUS. The playoff picture getting clearer, and games feel like they matter a little more as the air becomes brisk and the crisp autumn leaves fall slowly around the stadium. We’re a few days from Thanksgiving football now, which means Christmas is on the way and the playoffs are soon to follow.
Every other sport is out of the way now. Baseball and hockey are ancient history and the NBA had its week of draft and free agency glory, but football takes center stage the next couple months. We’re still hitting 55% of our picks like last season, but our best bets have been struggling and sit just 14–16 on the season. …
Final thoughts on the day of the draft, 10 bold predictions, who I’d take at every pick, upside and median rankings, the best and worst value plays & links to 50,000+ words of NBA Draft talk
FINALLY, WE MADE IT. NBA Draft Day 2020 is finally here. We’ve stared at this wonky draft class for far too long, and what was supposed to be a June draft now feels like approximately 17 years ago. At last, it’s time to find these rookies some new homes. The Minnesota Timberwolves, Golden State Warriors, and Charlotte Hornets still hold the top three picks. LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, and James Wiseman are still expected to go top three in some order. Beyond that, it’s anyone’s guess.
I already released my Final 2020 Big Board Rankings, along with 50,000+ words breaking down each prospect by position: point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward, and center. You’ll find everything you need to know about rankings, value, NBA role, and team fits for each key prospect there. This is meant to be a one-stop shop for everything you need to know on draft day, with links to all of the tools and articles in one place, plus some quick nuggets and final thoughts heading into draft night. …
LaMelo Ball and Anthony Edwards lead the way in a wonky draft class that doesn’t measure up to recent years. What players make up this year’s top 50 NBA draft prospects?
THE 2020 NBA DRAFT IS HERE AT LAST. It was an interminably long draft process, thanks to the pandemic delaying everything, leaving more time than ever to prepare for one of the weakest draft classes in recent memory. Couple that with precious little data for the names at the top thanks to international play, NCAA sanctions, and no March Madness, and it’ll feel really good to put this draft in the books and move forward.
For the first time in awhile, we have no idea what draft day will be bring. We don’t know who’ll go #1, or if Minnesota even plans on keeping the pick. LaMelo Ball, James Wiseman, and Anthony Edwards have long been the presumed top three, but there’s no consensus number one. The 2020 draft promises to be wild and unpredictable. That means huge reaches and wild trade ups on draft night, since no one really knows where any player will actually be drafted. …
The tools at Pivot Analysis show why Paul Reed, Malachi Flynn, Killian Tillie, and Desmond Bane are worth a late look…
THE NBA IS A STAR-DRIVEN LEAGUE, but even the best stars can’t win games on their own. NBA Draft hype focuses on the top of the draft, and rightfully so, but the draft is far more than just a few stars. The best teams in the NBA don’t typically pick at the top of the draft, after all. The league’s contenders are often drafting at the end of the first round or panning for gold in the second, looking for sleeper prospects to come in and fill a role.
Pivot Analysis is the premier provider of basketball analytical tools and data services on leagues other than the NBA. Using some of the tools there, we can shine a light on a quartet of late first- or second-round sleepers who look ready to step up and fill a role in the NBA. …
LaMelo Ball, Killian Hayes, and Tyrese Haliburton lead one of the deepest point guard classes in NBA Draft history…
WE FINALLY MADE IT TO NBA DRAFT WEEK. This draft season was intolerably long, especially considering we have so little to go on from so many of the names at the top of a notably weak draft class. Arguably no position in basketball is more important than point guard, the quarterback of the offense, and for years, we’ve been waiting for this 2020 class of guards. But we finally made it. We’re here.
LaMelo Ball is an enigma, mysterious and unknown as a prospect but already a celebrity human for half a decade. Cole Anthony is the pedigreed son of a former NBA player but has seen his stock plummet. No one knows much about international star Killian Hayes, and is Tyrese Haliburton even a point guard? Throw in veterans like Cassius Winston, Malachi Flynn, Devon Dotson, and Payton Pritchard plus some serious sleepers along the way and you have a huge, robust, deep class of point guard prospects. …
A Seahawks and Rams division showdown preview, plus picks for every game including Ravens, Panthers, Saints best bets…
SOMETIMES THE NFL JUST HAS ONE OF THOSE WEEKS. Last weekend looked the part. Everyone was excited for Green Bay and San Francisco on Thursday night, but the Packers blew the doors off the 49ers. Then the same thing happened Sunday night when the Saints lambasted the Bucs. The Cowboys almost beat the Steelers, Russell Wilson got blown out, the Chiefs nearly lost, and even the Jets almost got a win. Some weeks, nothing makes sense. That’s the beauty of NFL parity.
Things have a way of reverting back to form after those weeks, but the question is which form. Tampa rampaged through the first half of the season but hasn’t looked the same lately. Pittsburgh is 8–0 for the first time in franchise history but hasn’t found its offense all year. Russell Wilson is the first-half MVP but the Seahawks defense can’t stop anyone. …
Obi Toppin was the best player in college basketball in 2020. But is he the top power forward prospect in the NBA Draft?
IT’S THE WEEKEND BEFORE THE 2020 NBA DRAFT, and still we’re still finalizing big boards and scrambling to decide which players are good and who’s going where. Dayton’s Obi Toppin looks like he’ll go in the top five picks, while Florida State’s Patrick Williams is the hottest name in the draft, with rumors of a promise inside the top 10. And then there’s Aleksej Pokusevski, the draft’s great unknown. All three project as NBA power forwards, and the three could not be more different.
Power forward is an outdated term, but it helps to sort players into buckets for ranking and comparison. We’ll consider someone a four if they’re not quite quick enough to play or defend the perimeter full time like a wing, but not quite big enough to play full time center. That’s the case for Toppin, Williams, and Poku, and it doesn’t make them less valuable, but it does make their team fits more important. …
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