2026 NBA draft thread

[Winter]

I know. A couple of the top 8 will bust.  A handful of players taken lower will be excellent. It’s a crapshoot.  But the top 8 seem like the lowest risk. No team really ever drafts outside the tiers, so you have to hope for the best and do a good job with development. Work ethic and love of the game is what I think sets players in the same tier apart.  That doesn’t bode well for DP, but then again, I’d have him in a tier of 1 as far as talent and skill go.

I agree that's hard to imagine that ANY of the top 6-8 players just spending most of their time on the bench. A lot of these first rounders have had a lot more training and education about what it takes to be an NBA player that just a decade ago. They've been instructed on their weaknesses, lectured about their attitude, and trained to know what it takes. It's not hard for me to imagine the top 6-8 first-rounders in this draft won't get a shot at playing at least 20 mpg in their rookie season and none of them getting a whiff of G league. 

And yet, history says at least one or two will not make it even as a rotation player in this league. 

I can look at Braylin Mullins all day and think he was the next Ray Allen, and he still could fail miserably.