2026 NBA draft thread

[DanSchwartzgan]

I agree with a lot of this. BUT I've watched many full games on all of these guards throughout the season and one thing that I always come back to is "upside". Knowing that each of them has flaws and they aren't finished products yet, I tend to rank them based on upside, especially if we're talking pick 8 or so. I actually think Burries has the least upside of the group. Not that I don't like him, but of the 5 or so games I've watched, in all but one of them it was Bradley that was more impressive. I think Burries will be a good pro, I just think he's more of a high floor guy (safer) pick than the others. If I'm at 8, and I can pick between any of those guards listed or Burries, I'm picking the other guy. That's really what it comes down to for me.

I know we're splitting hairs, and all of these guards will be talked about at length, I think it's important to remember that none of them are without flaws.

It has been a while since I read this, but I believe the 8th pick has one of the worst history of success (not positive, but something in the 6-8 range).  The theory is that the very best guys are gone and it is too early to start picking role players (or single skill players you hope develop other things).  So, teams take the projects who “might” put it all together and become a star in this range and often come up empty handed.

So, the multi-tool high floor guy is actually appealing to me in this range.  At the very least he’s a better version of Max Christie with more POA D and on ball creation.  I do think the Booker/Kentucky thing might be instructive here.  I’m not saying Burries gets 25 a game on a different team.  But, there may be upside that we don’t see because Arizona is so deep they don’t need him to do more.