2026 NBA draft thread

[Scott41theMavs]

I'm not sure why other than Flemings and Brown are seasoned PGs. There's nothing in individual statistics that I can see would be better - the opposite is largely true. I suppose there are advanced projections that are beyond me, but in terms of just individual play as a guard it looks like Burries is the most well-rounded. 

I think you could argue for a true PG - assists and playmaking - but that doesn't feel like a huge hole to fill so much on this team - at least not so big that Burries couldn't fix it.

While I think KL overstates his case - for example, I'm 1,000% fine with Flagg as an offensive initiator, even as the ballhandler in a pick-and-roll - I think "true point guard" is pretty important. Burries has a strong floor but a far lower ceiling compared with the other four players.  

I believe that Acuff will (both in terms of his rookie year and career stats) be the best offensive player in this draft unless Peterson is - no question. It's just that we have seen how destructive Trae Young-level non-defense is to the possibility of a team having a prayer of being a contender. 

I was once the ultimate anti-Brown poster here, but I have come around on him in terms of size, potential, and presumed health. I didn't know (as was argued by mvossman) that Brown's defense was bad. That perhaps re-drops him a bit for me.

I find Wagler to be a complete enigma. I see the Haliburton-pauper's Luka case for him, but man, I have to really squint to look at a guy who is that tall and can't dunk, and that slow and deliberate in his game, and see an NBA player. That said, he probably has the highest BBIQ of the five.

Overall, I would say that Flemings is my guy. The bad physical measurements of the combine have the platinum lining that they're 1) likely to cause him to fall, when he was (rightly) seen for most of the season as a clear 5th pick, and 2) largely irrelevant to his game and who he is as a player in spite of #1.

 So, of the five, I would say
1) Flemings, by a mile,
2) Wagler 
3) Burries
4) Brown (#2 prior to mvossman's defense comment)
5) Acuff (but shoots to #2 at the very least if scouts believe that he can and will defend any better than Trae)

So, if Acuff can play *any* defense, and be a 20th percentile defender as opposed to an absolute zero, and if Brown is at least a 50th percentile defender among guards, the order would be
1)-1a) Flemings and Acuff
3) Brown
4) Wagler
5) Burries