Drafting From Home Vol.1
Oh Hello, everyone!
So why are we posting on our Flagrant 2 publication after two years of being away?
It is very simple ….. the world sucks right now.
With the overwhelming shittiness of the world at this current point, my mental stress was at an all-time high. I didn’t really know what to do, I mean how much weed can you smoke in a given day before you stop finding the stories in your head entertaining? It is a lot, like a lot but it does eventually happen.
I decided that maybe getting back into writing about draft prospects would help, and it did.
So here is my first installment of the 2021 draft thoughts, I might do more or I might just continue to write stories in my head while watching reruns of The Mindy Project and listening to PUP’s Morbid Stuff. Who the hell really knows.
Also, Cade/Mobley are alone at the Top Tier indefinitely unless Garuba becomes a Klay Thompson level shooter or Suggs/Moody figure out a way to rapidly develop a new skill in a few months just like Jaylen Brown does each off-season.
Kadary Richmond is Lottery Prospect …. Right Now — If Kadary Richmond was playing for any team other than Syracuse, his coach would be smart enough to give him the ball and let him cook. Too bad for us, he plays for college basketball’s version of Dabo Swinney just with a worse offense and a defense that doesn’t send anyone pro. As a prospect, Kadary is dripping with upside. Standing 6’5 with long arms, he has flashed upside as a defensive playmaker that uses his length to play the passing lanes and his quick-twitch athleticism allows him to beat almost anyone off the dribble. There are roughly 2–3 people in all of college basketball that can stay in front of Richmond, he can just get to the rim at will and the ball is on a string when he is in the groove. The only issue with Kadary is his shooting. If he shoots then fuck but it is a big “IF”. I do think his ability to get to the line and hit at a decent rate should give people some semblance of hope that he can stretch it out as he matures.
Isaiah Jackson is the Best Prospect on Kentucky- It is pretty apparent that the biggest disappointment so far this season has been Kentucky. Certain prospects have played way below expectations but Jackson has been the lone bright spot. He is a wiry and lanky 6’10 who can run the floor like a guard, defend almost everyone on the floor and has flashed high-level passing instincts to the point where I am ready to call him the best passer on the Kentucky team. But does he have any offensive ability? ….. Well, i am not really sure but Rudy Gobert just signed a massive contract and if Jackson has that First-Team All Defense upside then he is most definitely worth a Top-10 pick. In reality, Jackson’s jumper is rough from all areas but I do like his ability to face-up and attack . When he is able to face-up on the wing and attack, this is where his passing can be seen. Other than that, he dunks and throws missed bullets at the rim.
The Upperclassman Fuck — Listen, watching the freshman and seeing what sophomores make the leap to NBA caliber talent is fun but my god, these upperclassman this year are totally fucking. Not sure if any go lottery, but you take a look at guys like Aaron Henry, Ron Harper Jr, Jared Butler or Aamir Simms and you just know that they are going to make some NBA franchise extremely happy. Aamir Simms is looking like the ACC Player of the Year, Aaron Henry is back to being a Jumbo Avery Bradley, Ron Harper Jr is about 3 months away from being labeled the next Draymond and Jared Butler is just the perfect lead guard off the bench. You can tell that a lot of these guys took the 8–9 months off of competitive basketball to truly work on their game and it has absolutely shown.
WFH Low Major Mid-Day Prospect Watch is the Best — it has been said far too much but 2020 sucked and 2021 seems a bit rude so far but a silver lining is Low-Major College Basketball on ESPN+/ESPN3 starting at like 2(ish) est. Having St. Peters v Monmouth on in the background while you participate on ZOOM calls or sifting through excel spreadsheets is an absolute GODSEND. You open up a shitty work email then see a really stupid tweet from Aubrey Huff and then you think to yourself, “fuck what a day” BUT then out of the corner of your eye, you catch Charles Pride of Bryant University out jumping bigs consistently in Smithfield, RI for the rebound to help make it a little easier. It is the little things that get you through the day.
The Big Boy Board as of 1/8/2021 (College Only)
