2021 Mock Draft by Max Trueblood (P. 2)

I haven’t watched any highlights or college ball this year. I’m not sure about anyone in this draft but I would love to take a chance at Luka Garza in the second round. I just watched a video on him and he looks like a mini Jokic without the passing.

Still not sure I quite get it though. He's 23 and already a top 30 player who will be a top 15 player in the next two years and I'm fairly comfortable saying that. There's no guarantee that any of their draft picks even comes close to Shai. Before shutting him down for the season, they were hovering around .a playoff spot, albeit it with a 19-24 record. Let's say they hit on a couple of these picks, he'll be 26 or 27 entering his prime and a veteran on the team, who is not old enough to be falling off, but not young and inexperienced enough to make dumb mistakes. He plays hard, works on his game constantly, seems to like being in OKC, can D up, nice shot and improving, sneaky in the lanes, finishes, good teammate and has ice in his veins. I would understand a little more if he was 26 now, but 23? Some rookies are 22. I get not wanting to pay the guy, but I don't think OKC is so far off that they'll waste this contract.

Barnes was taken # 4 instead. Pretty darn close.

Clippers going to get a great pick at this rate

Great move for the clippers. We needed more explosive players. Just keep working on shot

The Clippers got him via trade!

https://twitter.com/joeylinn_/status/1420965181652299780

@TrueBlood, how about doing the 2nd round?

My bad. Things got so busy at work and what not that it just slipped my mind.

I must say, I didn't even know that some of those players existed. The last pick of the first round was a complete unknown to me. Whatever I would've come up with, it would've been blown to pieces by the 37th pick.

That being said, I'll make sure to have both rounds this time next year.

I wonder why the thunder soured on SGA.., he’s been rumored to be dangled for the number 1 pick or the number 3 pick

I don't think that they necessarily soured on him but rather just really liked Cade and Mobley to the point where they were willing to give up SGA.

I haven’t watched any highlights or college ball this year. I’m not sure about anyone in this draft but I would love to take a chance at Luka Garza in the second round. I just watched a video on him and he looks like a mini Jokic without the passing.

Amen. Detroit got a steal late in the 2nd round in Garza. I know that I was way off base by having him go #19 to NY in the first round but I was more so making a statement about how it's always good to have hustle guys that have a little talent as well. Good character individual on top of that. For the minimum salary, he's good value.

The Clippers got him via trade!

Beat me to it. Great call on that one. I hope he proves you right and the Clips wind up with a steal!

Barnes was taken # 4 instead. Pretty darn close.

I was really surprised when he went to Toronto. I wonder what they'll do. Do they go big and move OG to the 2 with Barnes at the 3 with Siakam staying at the 4?

Or do they go small with Siakam at the 5, Barnes at 4 and OG at 3?

Or maybe they trade Siakam altogether as that's been the rumor.

Cool, thanks.

Whatever you post, just reading your analysis is fun. I enjoy it.

If it ends up wrong, oh well, but still fun to read.

Amen. Detroit got a steal late in the 2nd round in Garza. I know that I was way off base by having him go #19 to NY in the first round but I was more so making a statement about how it's always good to have hustle guys that have a little talent as well. Good character individual on top of that. For the minimum salary, he's good value.

Thanks for making the mock draft. You’re the reason I watched the draft this year. Almost forgot about it. You got me excited to see what happens. Love reading others’ opinions on these guys as I have no idea about any of them other than what I see on YouTube.

And yeah, Detroit has a nice young core now with Cunningham, Garza, Bey, Stewart and a few others. They had a hell of a draft. Going to be fun to watch them grow.

Appreciate that. Thanks a ton. Some of the picks were way off but I can always say that at least I get it out there long before workouts happen and the rumor mill gets in full swing.

How involved were you during the 2007 draft, especially the 2nd round?

This has bugged me for years.

What did you think of Jared Jordan?

I was excited when the Clippers drafted him.

He started in summer league. But he's played 0 NBA minutes.

https://www.recordonline.com/article/20070630/SPORTS/706300338

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Jordan

Why do you think no team has ever given him a few minutes?

Out of many 2nd rounders the Clippers have drafted, he was someone I had really wanted to see play a bit in real games.

The 2007-2008 Clippers team also had opportunity, it's not like they had a stacked team.

They didn't even keep him through preseason, as they traded him to New York before the start of preseason.

New York played him a little bit, then waived him, in preseason.

It appears the Suns had him in summer league in 2008, then the Hornets in training camp that same year.

His stats looked good for the Rio Grand Valley Vipers, 8.8 assists per game, and a 3.29 assist per turnover ratio.

Why hasn't he done better than an overseas / G-league player?

I mean, at worst, why not a 10 day contract, so he could play in a real NBA game somewhere?

Bump TrueBlood, did you have any thoughts on Jared Jordan, either at the time he was drafted, or about how his career went?

I was pretty into the 2007 draft. Like most everyone else, I was fooled into thinking that Oden was a good pick at 1 as opposed to KD. How wrong we all were and it's not just because of Oden's injuries. Even without the injuries, I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have had an MVP career like KD.

I did nail some late mid to late first rounders. Nobody had Nick Young to the Wizards is one I can remember right off the bat.

I must confess, I didn't know much about Jordan. I wasn't watching much college ball then so I didn't have a good pulse for what he would provide on the next level.

I do remember the Clippers 2nd round pick in 2008 though. Another Jordan named Deandre. I mocked him to the Nets with the #10 pick. Not sure why his stock fell so much that year but the Nets wound up taking a different big man that year in Brooke Lopez. Glad to see him finally get a chip.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the draft, from those years.

I think Oden would have been good, if healthy. I agree he wouldn't have been a MVP candidate like Durant. But I think a multiple time All-Star was within reach, or a career like DeAndre Ayton, is valuable.

One more aspect of Oden, which didn't help: He was caught sending nude pics. While he's not the first person whose photos have gone public (Mark Jackson, etc.), it's not a good look when he's hurt all the time and can barely stay on the court.

Maybe maturity held him back?

Lastly, this commercial, and the line "I'm a chameleon", has always made me laugh.

Nice pick of Young.

Funny how we transitioned into DeAndre. Good call on that one. Why did you think DeAndre was going to be better than a lot of other bigs?

Few more quick thoughts on Durant.

Portland would not have won a title with Durant.

Durant didn't become a MVP contender until years after Brandon Roy would have declined, and probably retired.

Aldridge + Durant likely would not have been enough, they probably would have lost to a San Antonio or Miami team, if not another team like Memphis.

Durant likely would have also left Portland at some point, as he doesn't seem to stay with one franchise. So Portland likely would have had Durant, and not even won a title with him.

I am also one of those that thinks Durant would have joined Golden State, even if OKC would have won a title. I think the allure of changing things up, combined with Draymond's recruiting, would have still been enticing.

Whether a team wins or loses usually doesn't impact what a player wants to do. It's other factors (lifestyle, etc.) that come into it. Just like with Leonard, winning a title wasn't enough for him to come back to Toronto, or even try and repair his relationship with the Spurs.

He might have even joined Golden State, even if Golden State had won the title that year. I think he just wanted to do something else.

But, a lot of this is filtered thinking. Maybe if Portland would have seen that Roy was suddenly declining, they make a major draft day move for a Paul George or Kawhi Leonard or Antetokounmpo or Gobert, to try and still keep competitive with Durant.

I loved Deandre's explosiveness and ability to run the floor. Good timing on blocking shots for a freshman in college as well.

Hilarious youtube video. Yeah, maturity was a problem but ultimately, the injuries were too much. Ironically, he wasn't nearly as explosive as Deandre was. I'm guessing his career would've been around what Ayton has provided and probably not even on Deandre's level.

I agree that Durant most likely would've went to GS but one thing that most pundits forget is that Lillard was drafted with what I believe was a pick from Brooklyn and not their own. The line of thinking is that it was a blessing in disguise that they didn't get Durant because he just would've left them for GS and they never would've drafted Lillard due to being too good with KD on the roster. It was actually Meyers Leonard who they drafted with their own pick so they just would've missed out on a journeyman center but would've paired Lillard with KD.

Now would the Lillard and KD combo have been enough to keep KD? Not sure. I'm thinking Aldridge, Lillard and KD would've been a similar trio to Ibaka, Russ and KD so who knows.

One thing Portland had working for it is the availability of good weed. I think Clemenza or another poster brought that up one time. KD is a notorious weed smoker so that may have been enough to keep him in tow.

Another thing to consider is that the late Paul Allen had an unlimited budget. One thing that KD was upset about in OKC was that ownership wasn't willing to pay up for James Harden. They were and are quite limited in their willingness to spend whereas Allen would've backed up the Brinks truck for whoever they wanted.

Yes, Allen has an unlimited budget. One reason why I haven't treated Ballmer as one-of-a-kind, is because Allen and Cuban have have been similar owners, also with unlimited budgets. I'm glad Ballmer is a part of the Clippers, but the unlimited budget doesn't seem exclusive to me, when those other owners can also offer the same thing.

You are right, Lillard came from the Nets pick, as a part of the Gerald Wallace trade.

Lillard + Aldridge + Durant look a lot better. Probably still some issues on defense, but still a decent enough shot at a title.

Combine that with the weed theory, plus Portland's ownership, and maybe Durant sticks around.

Or maybe Draymond Green is still that good of a salesperson.

Maybe you're right in that Oden wasn't as explosive. Hard to tell, since he was in and out so much.

I do remember some game where Steve Blake had a game tying dish to Oden to force OT. It seemed like a sign of what he could have done.

What did you think of Lillard heading into the draft?

If Portland takes anyone else a available that was drafted in the first round, including possibly Drummond, the Gerald Wallace trade doesn't look as bad.

I wouldn't have given up a first rounder for an old Gerald Wallace, like New Jersey did, but also if Portland drafts anyone else available in the first round other than Lillard, they make a bad pick.

The best players available seemed to be 2nd rounders, like Draymond Green, Middleton, Crowder, and Satoransky.

Give or take, depending on how you view Drummond.

I liked Lillard a lot. The New Orleans plan was to draft AD and then take Lillard with the pick they got from the Clippers via Minnesota in the CP trade. Had he fell to New Orleans, they may very well have won a chip by now. The combo of Lillard and AD would be pretty damn tough to beat.

As it turned out, they drafted clippers.newsurge.com favorite Austin Rivers, AD eventually whined his way to the Lakers and the Pelicans are already reading the tea leaves on Zion eventually leaving.

Drafting Lillard was the best thing to happen to the Blazers. He's still there so anything's possible despite the dark clouds hanging overhead. If I had to look in hindsight, the Blazers probably take Drummond then go in a different direction with the 2nd pick in the hypothetical of him being off the board. Probably no to Meyers Leonard given that they would already have a big man in Drummond.

You think Zion Williamson will leave New Orleans?

Did you have much concern about Lillard coming from a lesser known school, that likely faced less competition?

You think Zion Williamson will leave New Orleans?

You can see all the buzzwords and what not. Talking about how much he loves New York and you hear family members squaking that he can't win in New Orleans and so on.

Did you have much concern about Lillard coming from a lesser known school, that likely faced less competition?

I think we've seen so many small college success stories that it didn't factor in too much at the time. The only issue is that we hardly got to see him play but when you did, you could see that he had NBA written all over him. Step back 3's, good crossover and didn't turn the ball over much.

That franchise has essentially become a farm system for large market teams. I hope they get an owner who cares about the team and keeps their superstars.

George Shinn was a lousy owner and Tom Benson was just doing the city a favor by buying the team to keep them from moving back in 2012.

I think Gayle cares about the team and keeping the stars but she's behind the 8 ball. Doesn't have the financial wherewithal to go far above the tax and doesn't rake in enough revenue to be profitable enough to pay the tax either.

Identifying who is best to run the team could pose to be a problem as well. It's one thing to care but completely another thing to actually find the best personnel to accomplish your goals. David Griffin was hailed in the media as this great hire to be team president but after 2 years, there isn't much to show. The SVG hire backfired in a big way and now they have Willie Green. Not sure if that will be a good hire or not.

Lastly, there is just the negative perception about the organization in general. When they do have a great player, that player is always starting his countdown as soon as he gets there. That makes things kind of tough. She can care all she wants about winning and what not but if the players are hell bent on New York or LA, there isn't much she can do. They really need to find a way to surround the star with a supporting cast or get that 2nd superstar via the draft. A Lillard and AD pairing really could've changed the direction of the franchise. Tough blow for them.

You can see all the buzzwords and what not. Talking about how much he loves New York and you hear family members squaking that he can't win in New Orleans and so on.

I had missed all of that. I see it now:

https://www.sbnation.com/nba/2021/4/18/22391072/zion-williamson-loves-new-york-knicks-madison-square-garden-quotes-video

Do you have some quotes from the family members?

I guess we will see if he signs an extension during the 2022 offseason, and if so, what the terms are.

I think we've seen so many small college success stories that it didn't factor in too much at the time. The only issue is that we hardly got to see him play but when you did, you could see that he had NBA written all over him. Step back 3's, good crossover and didn't turn the ball over much.

I think they've kept their star players. They kept Davis for his first extension.

They traded for Cousins, who made multiple years left. Injuries prevented that from being realized to its full potential, but I thought they were starting to find something before Cousins major injury in 2018.

They re-signed Gordon to a 4 year, $58M contract.

They made a great trade to get Jrue Holiday in 2013, then re-signed him to a 5 year, $126M contract 4 years later in 2017.

They just haven't built a consistent good team, they kept having some flaws. Plus, Anthony Davis himself stopped defending as well as he could, for a while.

I think I agree with this. Ownership has cared, but their front office and coaching desires have had a few missteps.

I don't think the SVG hire was bad, their front office move of trading away Holiday was a bigger issue. But the fact that they didn't want to stay with SVG for more than 1 year, shows that they weren't really convinced of him either.

Could the Pelicans have gotten both Davis and Lillard in 2012?

Yes, Griffin hadn't done much either.

I think we've seen so many small college success stories that it didn't factor in too much at the time. The only issue is that we hardly got to see him play but when you did, you could see that he had NBA written all over him. Step back 3's, good crossover and didn't turn the ball over much.

Other than Pippen and Rodman, who are some other players over the past 30 years, that come to mind?

(Those two just coincidentally came to mind).

I guess exclude Steve Nash too.

I'm trying to find players that spent their entire college career at a small school, not someone that later transferred to a more high profile program.

They couldn't. That was the plan but Lillard was gone at 6 so the Pelicans settled for clippers.newssurge favorite Austin Rivers instead. I'm just saying that the fact that he was off the board by the time they picked was tough luck. It was their plan to take him. That would've changed the course of the franchise or at least I think it would've. If they couldn't make it work with that pairing then there really wouldn't be much hope for them.

Bump?

Lol, I hadn't heard that part of it before! Thanks.

What were your reservations about Robinson, before the pundits influenced you to change your mind?

Both of these work:

Just a guy who got by on athleticism but really didn't know how to play the game. Shaky jumper, especially considering that the 4 spot is becoming a 3 point shooting position. No real post game either for when he wasn't shooting jumpers.

More than anything, just a lousy demeanor about him. I liked his story about taking care of his little sister after the death or their Mother but on the court at Kansas, he just seemed to always be complaining and had a negative vibe about him. Not surprised that he didn't last through his rookie deal.

Great stuff. Hadn't seen those before but they hit the spot. But hey, I'm not complaining. Just one less team in the division to worry about which is a breath of fresh air because the Pacific is by far the best division in the NBA. You can make an argument that 4 of the 6 best teams in the league are based in our division.

Great stuff. Hadn't seen those before but they hit the spot. But hey, I'm not complaining. Just one less team in the division to worry about which is a breath of fresh air because the Pacific is by far the best division in the NBA. You can make an argument that 4 of the 6 best teams in the league are based in our division.

A few years ago, I had the Pacific as possibly the worst, because the Suns, Lakers, and Kings were perennial lottery teams, and the Clippers would go 10-2 or 11-1 against that group. During that span, those 3 lottery teams were never close to the playoffs.

Now, with 4 of those teams likely to make the playoffs (and the 5th, the Kings, could always end their drought too), it's a lot stronger.

Do you recall any year when an entire division from any league made the playoffs? I feel like the Southwest might have done it one time, but not sure. (Mavs, Grizzlies, Pelicans, Rockets, Spurs).

Ok, yes, in 2015:

https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2015.html

Bump, who are some players that played and stayed at small schools, for their entire college career, that were successful NBA players?

Who are some notable players, other than the ones I listed?

Stephen Curry from Davidson, Gordon Hayward from Butler, Elgin Baylor from Seattle U, Vin Baker from Hartford, Purvis Short from Jackson State, Joe Dumars from McNeese State and Patty Mills from St. Mary's are some off the top of my head.

Great list, thanks.

We also have Scottie Pippen from that basketball powerhouse University of Central Arkansas.