Rank our draft, and give your reasoning!

[INFORMER]

I think you’re wrong about Bridges not being able to play PF. I think with Ayton there we can afford to go smaller at the other positions of Bridges or Jackson put on a little bit of weight. Booker-Jackson-Bridges-Ayton will be a great lineup IMO.

Maybe. If Jackson progresses as a rebounder, it may help.

Against Houston, we don't have to worry about Jackson/Bridges matching up against anyone, but I do worry about leaving the rebounding all up to Ayton. With the way Capela, Harden, and Tucker attack the boards, it is going to be difficult.

I wouldn't worry about Bridges/Jackson matching up against Gibson in Minnesota, but again, we might get really beat on the glass.

If New Orleans loses Cousins, then we'll be fine there. Bridges/Jackson can handle Mirotic.

I'm inclined to think Portland won't be an issue with Aminu and Harkless, but Aminu may be able to have his way with Bridges/Jackson on the boards.

Paul Millsap in Denver would likely take advantage of the Bridges/Jackson combo.

I'm not concerned with the matchup of Anthony/George in OKC.

Sacramento may be tough if they start Bagley at the 4 and Cauley-Stein at the 5; Bagley would destroy Bridges or Jackson.

[ShelC]

It's similar to when we had Shawn at the 4. We played small and fast but guys like Nick Collison would have 20 rebound games against us.

[INFORMER]

But Shawn Marion was one of the best rebounders in the league.

[SDC]

I think you’re wrong about Bridges not being able to play PF. I think with Ayton there we can afford to go smaller at the other positions of Bridges or Jackson put on a little bit of weight. Booker-Jackson-Bridges-Ayton will be a great lineup IMO. I’d much rather play Bridges at the 4 than bring in Aaron Gordon to play the 4.

suns are going to ruin mikal's career if they do that. i'd rather have josh jackson at the 4 since the guy cant shoot from outside.

[Ring_Wanted]

Overall, the Suns walked away with a tremendous amount of talent. But passing on Doncic and overpaying for Bridges are two huge misses for me. So I would probably give the draft a C+.

Basically I had the same reasoning, but I liked Doncic less, so that upped my grade to B-.

[AmareIsGod]

So I would probably give the draft a C+.

My man! Wouldn't have expected anything less from you. An Informer C+ is anyone else's A-.

[Wormwood]

My take:

Ayton: You have to go with him... but if he can't play defense you cannot keep him on the floor. That's a huge risk, and it's realistic. A defenseless big who can't stretch the floor would be a complete bust. If he develops a 3 point shot, but still can't defend, he has some value. The game has moved away from big men who cannot stretch the floor, except for a few guys who are defensive aces like Gobert. B-. Huge upside, but in a lot of ways he's much more likely to be a bust than most #1 picks. He'll put up numbers, but can you keep him on the floor? Gut says no.

Bridges: Gave up way too much for a guy where we're already paying people $25M to play the same position. JJ will get his minutes. Warren is our most efficient offense player inside the arc. Dudley actually has the best total real +/- of any of our small forwards. The whole "positionless NBA" is a BS excuse for playing guys out of position and getting crushed. Remember Hedo Turkoglu at the 4? And what we gave up for him was ridiculous. A lot of projections had Zhaire Smith being several tiers higher, and equal in value to Bridges. Speaking of whom, players who are 3 or 4 year players are much less likely to become all stars than one and done guys. I'm not expecting a lot out of the guy besides 3 pointers and adequate defense for so many reasons, not the least of which is that finding minutes for him is going to be tough, or we will be playing a SF against guys who are 50 lbs heavier. D. Paid way too much for a guy with "meh" upside who plays the same position as three other guys we're paying big money to.

Okobo: The Suns did as well as could be hoped for with a 2nd round pick here. Big upside, great shooter, iffy as a distributor. Probably an upgrade over our current back ups, but that's saying very little. A-, but the weight on this is pretty low.

King: It's the 59th pick. They could draft my dog and it would still be a C.

Overall: C+. Super high risk #1, paid too much for a meh #10 that doesn't fill a need position.

[Bruiser]

Overall, the Suns walked away with a tremendous amount of talent. But passing on Doncic and overpaying for Bridges are two huge misses for me. So I would probably give the draft a C+.

Basically I had the same reasoning, but I liked Doncic less, so that upped my grade to B-.

Giving grades this early is a little bit confusing but I have the exact same thoughts. I do hate to play Debbie Downer when everybody is having Coolaid but the Draft was a C for me.

Although I am well aware of the fact that I might sound bitter, the Okobo pick is the only thing I really liked about our draft. As I see it, drafting Doncic would have been the competent thing to do. Not overpaying for Bridges (let's say by using another pick or at least putting some protection on it) would have made things a little bit easier to swallow. Even though I love the player, that was a godfather offer and a desperation move in my book. Picking Doncic and then sacrificing this good of a pick to get into the top 6 to select let's say Mo Bamba or so would have been a different story. I am also upset about the reasoning for the picks and moves we made. This draft really made me change my perspective in terms of trusting our front office.

Please don't get me twisted, I really like the talent and players that we got (it is a lot of talent and they all seem very humble and good people) but I am not happy how the talent is structured / distributed and how much we paid for it considering that we are clearly not in all-in / win-now mode at the moment.

On the other hand, the Mavericks have always been a bit of a bandwagon team for me since Dirk started playing in the NBA, so I am happy that Sacramento was stupid enough to pass on Luka too.

[gosuns]

I prefered Doncic or trading down for Bamba over drafting Ayton. Ayton to me is a B+ at best. I think Bridges might disappear during games without a great distributing point guard. Like his general skill set and size, but see him as a 3. We have now 4 SF... I hope Coach can find a way to make it work but doubt it. I will judge the roster when the season starts an believe at least one of the 4 has to go. Okobo could be ok, but his handles seem iffy. King I don’t know nothing about. I give the Draft a B-.

[AmareIsGod]

Someone made a good point regarding the MIA pick in 2021 being part of the trade we made. You don't bank on the potential of that being a good pick, which would need a season or two anyways to develop while letting Booker age another 4-5 years. You need to take advantage of having him here, having him happy and having him on a winning team. We need to do what we need to do to get a competitive and good team rolling today, not focus on 2021.

[Uncle_Gene]

I prefered Doncic or trading down for Bamba over drafting Ayton. Ayton to me is a B+ at best.

So you prefer the next Clint Capela (Bamba) over the next Embiid (Ayton) ?

[Indy]

I prefered Doncic or trading down for Bamba over drafting Ayton. Ayton to me is a B+ at best.

So you prefer the next Clint Capela (Bamba) over the next Embiid (Ayton) ?

That is crazy Gene.

[Superbone]

I prefered Doncic or trading down for Bamba over drafting Ayton. Ayton to me is a B+ at best.

So you prefer the next Clint Capela (Bamba) over the next Embiid (Ayton) ?

That is crazy Gene.

Why?

[gosuns]

I prefered Doncic or trading down for Bamba over drafting Ayton. Ayton to me is a B+ at best.

So you prefer the next Clint Capela (Bamba) over the next Embiid (Ayton) ?

I actually think Ayton could be better and more stable than Embiid. Embiid looks flashy, but his contribution to winning is, in my opinion, overrated. I saw what the Sixers did without Embiid. I believe the Sixers offense was equal with him sitting. Also i value interior defense more than post offense. And Bamba would have been much cheaper than Capela. Plus Bamba has the potential to be much better than Capela. But as anyone else here I could be wrong. I’m not a basketball guru.

[Indy]

I prefered Doncic or trading down for Bamba over drafting Ayton. Ayton to me is a B+ at best.

So you prefer the next Clint Capela (Bamba) over the next Embiid (Ayton) ?

That is crazy Gene.

Why?

To matter of factly state Ayton is the next Embiid. Or the Bamba is the next Capela.

[Mori Chu]

Ayton is the next Amare, not the next Embiid.

[TOO]

Embiid > Amare

Just sayin...

[Indy]

Embiid > Amare

Just sayin...

At this point in their respective careers, absolutely. It isn't close.

[sose]

A - Because i say so.

[ShelC]

The Sose has spoken!

Ayton is already more fundamentally sound on offense than Amar'e. Unfortunately, he might be as bad defensively. I'm hoping he can at least become a solid interior defender, where he can learn to react quickly enough to defend the basket with his size. One of our best defensive seasons came when Kurt Thomas was our 5. He had no physical gifts but knew how defend the paint, so it's not all about measureables.