In 2023, perhaps this one already knows who the champion is from before the draft, and it can even be said that since the end of last year's 2022 draft, all the topics related to the draft have revolved around one person, that is, "Zebra" Viktor Venbanyama.
However, the situation of this draft is a bit similar to the 2019 draft, that is, in addition to the first three picks, the latter candidates are confusing.
So, this article will provide a subjective review of the top six picks!
First pick Spurs Viktor Venbanyama
It has to be said that the Spurs' luck is really good, and after winning the top sign, many fans are looking forward to Victor Venbanyama becoming the next Duncan who has led the Spurs to prosper for 20 years. However, can Viktor Vembanyama really exert the same influence as Duncan when he first enters the league?
First of all, let's take a look at the advantages of Viktor Venbanyama, his biggest advantage is undoubtedly his 7-foot-4 (about 223 cm) height and close to 8 feet (about 243 cm) arm span, such excellent static conditions make him a very rare existence even in the NBA.
What's more frightening is that Victor Venbanyama is not at all like a center player, he moves faster, his feet are more flexible, and his shots are more fluid, and it is no exaggeration to say that whether it is receiving or shooting, Victor Venbanyama is more like a striker or even a defender than a center.
Therefore, watching the game in Ligue 1, you can often see a player of center height, catching the ball outside the three-point line, followed by a smooth dry land plucking, such a height average guard player can not interfere at all, and when the opposing forward can barely match, Victor Venbanyama can use the tentative step to test the opponent's center of gravity, and then cut the ball, and when the second line center is pinched, use a turnover jump shot or a backward jump shot to end the attack.
In last year's draft, I said that last year's Chet Holmgren could be an extension of any team's No. 5 in height and coordination, but for Victor Vembanyama, his skill set can not only serve as a No. 5, but even serve as an offensive forward ball carrier.
Compared with the offensive end, defense is the most reverie of Viktor Venbanyama, height and arm span bring him a huge defensive range, in the past I used to think that in the Japanese manga "Kuroko's Basketball", the center's defensive range is within the entire three-point line, this setting is simply fantastic, although Victor Venbanyama is not so exaggerated, but his strong movement ability still gives him a very big advantage.
In today's basketball defense that emphasizes unlimited defensive changes, many defensive centers face a strong challenge, because they often have to change their defense to the outside to match those forwards with outside ability, which will create a vacuum in the box, and they must immediately move back to protect the paint area when the opponent chooses to enter the box, which will be a great test for the center's traversal, which is why Rudy Gobert, although he is a three-time best defensive player, is often named in the playoffs.
However, Victor Venbanyama who is taller and has better mobility can make up for this problem to a certain extent in talent, making him more threatening in changing defenses, and what is more valuable is that as the Ligue 1 tournament progresses, Victor Venbanyama also continues to learn from the defensive end, knowing how to use his long arm to interfere, becoming less easy to hit or be tricked into lifting the center of gravity and causing his own foul.
So to sum up, Viktor Venbanyama can be said to be the ultimate type of basketball player's talent, extraordinary height, monster-like coordination, and incredibly good shooting feel, it is no wonder that he is considered the hope of the Spurs to open the next two decades.
The editor here believes that it is indeed possible, but it may be a bit difficult for Victor Venbanyama to show Duncan's influence in the new year, and the reason is related to the shortcomings that Victor Venbanyama currently needs to overcome.
At present, although Victor Venbanyama has the ultimate talent, experience and judgment are still necessary for him to become a "great" player.
Offensively, although he has a supple shot and a single that has the advantage no matter how to change the defense, but at this stage, he is accustomed to facing the basket directly after receiving the ball, and the handling strategy when facing the defender's multi-person pinch is to rely on the hard hand, which leads to Victor Venbanyama having many shots that are poorly selected, which remains to be seen whether the NBA is feasible in the higher defensive intensity NBA.
In addition, although Victor Venbanyama has the ability to break through dribbles with the ball cut under the basket, but in the current game, he is not by observing the center of gravity of the defender to find out the direction he can break through, or the attack mode he can choose, but simply dribbling the ball and finishing the action he wants to do, even if he does not get rid of the defender, he will finish directly.
Perhaps you can say that forcing into this kind of matched basket is the courage that an ace player should have, but this does not mean that it can rationalize the inefficient offensive efficiency that is bound to be caused, especially at present, Victor Venbanyama's strong presence on the offensive end, which often attracts the attention of many defenders, but between passing and singles, Victor Venbanyama chooses a very high proportion of singles, not that he is a selfish player, but his ability to read the game needs to be strengthened.
If these bad habits are not corrected, then Viktor Venbanyama is likely to become a splitter who relies solely on touch and shooting to watch the sky, rather than become an all-round offensive player who can lead defense with offense, create opportunities for teammates, and even make himself more efficient.
This can also be extended to team cooperation, in the current hand hand and blocking cooperation has become the NBA's offensive obvious, but Victor Venbanyama, as a player who comes up to cover, often blocks inaccurately, so that teammates cannot effectively pass the defender, or the timing is not right, so that when he slides and pulls away, teammates are not good at passing the ball to him.
In defense, although Victor Venbanyama has excellent hard conditions, but at present his defensive footwork application is still very jerky, often pulled out by defenders, when turning back to the defense can not effectively make up for the box, in addition, although there is a basic sense of defense, but in the defensive position will often be blocked by the opponent to cause themselves to lose position, and even let the box show a big gap.
Whether it is offensive or defensive defects, in fact, it is due to the lack of experience and judgment, but with the process of Ligue 1, Victor Venbanyama has gradually corrected these shortcomings, and the championship series can be seen that his shooting choices are much better, and the timing of blocking and dismantling has also been greatly improved, showing that as long as there is a clear tactical positioning, and there is an explanation on the rotation, it can largely cover up the shortcomings of Victor Venbanyama at this stage, as for the suspicion that being too thin leads to easy injury, This depends on whether the Spurs' coaching team has developed a suitable weight gain plan for Victor Venbanyama's size.
Overall, I think that under the Spurs' disciplined system, Victor Venbanyama's shortcomings can be covered up, but compared to Duncan's completion, I think Victor Venbanyama is more of an untapped rough stone, and his talent at this stage may give him a chance to become an All-Star, but I think this is only 50% of his potential, holding the ball, passing, reading the game, defensive awareness, these skills can be practiced, and his ceiling is comparable to that of a Hall of Famer.
It's just that this is also where I'm a little worried about the Spurs, although the rigor of the coaching team gives Viktor Venbanyama the opportunity to hide, but their system has not been too good at developing players with high ceilings, but experience and judgment need to be honed, so players with high ceilings and low floors like Lonnie Walker and Luka Shamanic have struggled to play at the Spurs.
On the contrary, they are more suitable for players who already have a certain level of court understanding but the ceiling is not high, so players like Derrick White and Trey Jones who are not so talented, but have good brains, can play well in the Spurs.
However, it is not that the Spurs can't raise Viktor Venbanyama, compared to other teams in the top five picks, the Spurs are the most suitable for the development of Victor Venbanyama in terms of current formation and development experience, and I believe that in the face of this champion who has come to the Holy City again, the Spurs will definitely tailor a development plan for him, so the ceiling of Victor Venbanyama is definitely worth looking forward to.
Second pick Hornets Brandon Miller
Although Nikola Jokic led the Nuggets to the championship this season, the center seems to show signs of revival, but with the current atmosphere, the all-round wings are still the key to the team's competitiveness, so the striker with good hardware conditions and all-round potential in the skill set will inevitably be favored by many teams in the draft.
What's more, Brandon Miller also has a three-point ability that fits the trend.
First of all, starting from the physical conditions, Brandon Miller 6 feet 8 (about 203 cm) is a very standard forward body, his physical coordination is also quite good, his shooting posture is now the league's popular One motion, that is, the moment of the jump with the ball, rather than the past jump to the highest point and then project the ball, the advantage of such projection is extremely fast, with Brandon Miller's height, will be a very headache for the opponent's forward.
As mentioned earlier, high-post hand-over and blocking is now the obvious science of NBA offense, the purpose is to help shooters create comfortable shooting space, and these are exactly the offensive mode that Brandon Miller is good at, in Alabama University, the team did a lot of hand-to-hand tactics, and Brandon Miller himself has a long enough range, although the NCAA's three-point line is not as far as the NBA, but Brandon Miller's shot is often one step behind the three-point line, This made him considered capable of coping with the NBA's three-point line.
At the same time, because of the advantage of physical coordination, his dribbling is also very smooth, and when he receives the ball and finds that the opponent is not blocked, Brandon Miller can cut through with the ball, or take a step to find cover for his teammates again, and create shooting opportunities for himself, which greatly increases his ability to develop autonomous offense after entering the league.
In addition, Brandon Miller's current greatest value comes from his awareness of running without the ball, in order to maximize the weapons he projectes, Brandon Miller has the best off-ball ability in the first three picks, which means that he can immediately know what he should do without holding the ball, whether it is finding a gap to project, or opening up space for teammates to single, or following up on the passing of his teammates, which makes his immediate combat power greatly increased, after all, as a rookie, You don't necessarily get a lot of ball-carrying opportunities as soon as you get in the team. Especially in the Hornets squad, there are already LaMelo Ball and Terry Rozier such ball holding points, so Brandon Miller, who does not possess the ball, may be a good choice to help them open up their offensive space.
But Brandon Miller also has shortcomings, first of all, his lower body strength is relatively weak, which can be seen from his use of One motion that can drive the strength of the whole body, not that this is a defect that will make him a parallel product, but if you choose Brandon Miller's team, if you want him to go to the next level, you must face.
Because the next set is unstable, it is easy to make his lateral explosiveness insufficient in defense, resulting in a little difficulty in the face of changing defenses, in addition, it is difficult to do an effective card position on the basket, resulting in doubts about rebounding protection, and offensively, if you want to develop his cutting and finishing ability, then the strength of the lower limbs must be trained, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain the balance of the body when breaking through the confrontation, and then affect the feel of the basket finish.
Then there is Brandon Miller's low mid-range shooting percentage, although mid-range is considered to be a less efficient offensive means in modern basketball, but in the bloody playoffs, the star can determine the victory, often is the strong mid-range ability, such as Devin Booker, Jimmy Butler, although this is related to the university's tactical setting, but Brandon Miller if he wants to evolve from the team's scoring point to a second-in-command or even a big master, then this part needs to be strengthened.
But these shortcomings can actually be overcome by the team's proper development, so in summary, Brandon Miller is a player who already has a certain combat power, but still has a lot of potential to develop, from his tryout to surprise Michael Jordan, you can know that Brandon Miller's potential talent ceiling must be high.
Although many people complain about Michael Jordan's draft vision, but the recent results of the Hornets to P.J. Washington and Miles Bridges are indeed obvious to all, as long as he gradually designs a development plan for him, he can start with the receiving projection, put his best weapon into the NBA first, accumulate the confidence that the shooter needs most, and then develop his dribbling, increase confrontation, and gradually improve his ball holding time, which may take more than one or two seasons, and finally try to make him a LaMelo With his second singles spot outside of Ball, and developing his offensive footsteps, then he really could move towards his idol, Paul George, who he considers "the greatest player of all time."
In this regard, Hornets coach Steve Clifford has always been known for his ability to distribute tactical positioning, and perhaps as long as Brandon Miller is put in the right position, he really has a chance to touch the ceiling of the all-round striker. But on the contrary, if Steve Clifford is put into the position of a role player, then Brandon Miller may be a good flank shooter.
Third pick Blazers Scout Henderson
As a rookie to be drafted, Scout Henderson was once optimistic about the opportunity to surpass Victor Venbanyama because he has very good physical strength and explosiveness in this tournament, although 6 feet 2 (about 188 cm) is slightly short, but has a 6 foot 9 (about 205 cm) arm span, which makes him very oppressive in steals and interference.
And what he is really terrifying is his explosive physical talent, with a very fast and large stride to cut the first step, can instantly get rid of the first-line defenders, and at the same time, he can continue to observe the movements of the second-line defenders after starting, with the rhythm change of sudden stop and exaggerated change of direction step, so that he can completely tear the opponent's defensive formation through his breakthrough, create a gap for teammates, and his strong body also allows Scout Henderson to finish even if he chooses to be hard, This is also why many people think that Scout Henderson's template is so similar to Derek Ross before the injury.
And chose to skip the NCAA, in the ignite team for two years, the first year in the senior Jayden Hardy to divide a certain amount of the ball, Scout Henderson learned to run without the ball and block, which is quite rare among guards with the ball, after all, most of the physical offensive point guards like Scout Henderson are mostly the team's first ball point when they were in school, so when they enter the league, when the team has another ball point, they will become uncomfortable, and even take a while to adjust their role positioning. From the perspective of the roster, the Blazers who selected him already have Damian Lillard and Anfini Simmons two ball holding points, without considering the trade, Scout Henderson is bound to face the lifeblood of possession that will not dominate Portland from the beginning, so igniting the team's experience is equivalent to Scout Henderson repairing this pain that must be faced in advance to enter the league.
Another reason for optimistic that he can integrate into the Blazers system is that compared to Brandon Miller and Victor Venbanyama, Scout Henderson has arguably the best court observation and judgment of the first three picks, he can accurately judge the position of the team and pass the ball, and he is also good at highly concealed and not easy to steal passes, which gives him a chance to become an offensive tandem in the single-biased Blazers team.
However, this presupposes that Anfini Simmons must be put in the role of sixth man, or Scout Henderson must be allowed to start from the bench and let go of the possession of the second team, otherwise his shortcomings may be revealed in the three-back battle for the ball.
First of all, there is the outside capability. This seems to be a problem that many physical flow defenders will encounter when they first enter the league, because in the past, most of the problems could be solved by physical strength alone, so they would not put much effort into sculpting on the outside, which led to the dilemma of being released after entering the industry.
Scout Henderson is the same, although he has continued to correct this problem in the two seasons of the ignition team, and the three-point shooting rate has increased to 32.4%, but this is not a passing number for a short guard, if the three-point practice is not practiced, even if he has the awareness of moving without the ball, the offensive space will be greatly limited, after all, the opponent does not need to fear his long-range artillery fire, can concentrate on his cut.
Moreover, it is also the disadvantage brought by height, that is, defense, the current Blazers' backcourt double gun Damian Lillard and Anfini Simmons are only about 6 feet 2, which is often the object of misplaced singles in the modern era dominated by large guards, and the addition of Scout Henderson of the same 6 feet 2 will only make the original broken backcourt defense worse, although the arm span can interfere with the opponent to a certain extent, but the current Scout Henderson's defensive awareness is not excellent, and the passing route is not particularly good. So it will take a while to develop all these ideas.
To sum up, if the Blazers want to raise Scout Henderson without moving the existing lineup, they may have to adjust the existing two-gun mode at the beginning, after all, they also have an equally talented Sheldon Sharp waiting to cash in, and then slowly cultivate Scout Henderson's outside ability, and find players on the flanks and boxes who can fill his defensive holes, so that he can develop a position to assist the defense and defense, but these are not solved in one or two seasons, so the editor believes that although Scout H. Henderson can fit into the system, but at this stage he has a lot to fix, which is also contrary to Damian Lillard's idea that he doesn't want to rebuild and wants Win Now, it depends on what the team plans to do next!
Fourth pick Rockets Amen Thompson
The Thompson brothers are a bit like the Martin brothers, and when the twins have similar talents, the team prefers the one with better choice questions and more potential skill sets, and Amen Thompson is this one.
With a height of 6 feet 7 (about 200 cm), Amen Thompson is undoubtedly a high-standard figure among defenders, and the reason why he can have such a front pick is not only the advantage of high guard, but also that he has the explosive physical strength that the first three picks do not have.
As mentioned earlier, Scouter Henderson's physical advantage in breakthrough, but in terms of the destructive power of the first step and straight-line acceleration, Amen Thompson may be above Scout Henderson, even in the talented NBA, Amen Thompson's athleticism is still outstanding.
In addition, Amen Thompson's core strength also gives him more advantage in offensive finishing, and he can cut into the second line defender, use the lever in the air or stagnate and put the ball in. At the same time, what makes him ahead of Osar Thompson is that he has the skills to pass the ball.
When defenders choose to cover his breakthrough because they are afraid of his cut, Amen Thompson can quickly find teammates in the gap, much like Scout Henderson, who are adept at using their offensive threat to draw the attention of defenders and quickly guide the ball from the strong side to the weak side. At the same time, the nearly 7-foot arm span also gives Amen Thompson a defensive advantage, Amen Thompson is good at keeping close to the opponent's defensive style, his athleticism and arm reach can cause great pressure on players in the same position, giving him the potential to become a defensive lock.
But why did such a player with physical fitness, physical advantage, and skill set fall behind Scout Henderson? The reason is because of his shooting.
Unlike the Brandon Miller introduced earlier, Amen Thompson's shooting mechanism belongs to Two motion, that is, the type of jump to the highest point and then shoot, but his shot point is low, and the ball is from the face, which increases the risk of being blocked, after all, Two motion's original advantage is to shoot to the high point, reduce the chance of being covered, and over-rely on the jumping of the lower limbs also makes his jump shot a little stiff, from dribbling to jumping looks a lot like a three-beat action, Such shots may be difficult to replicate in the NBA.
And compared to Scout Henderson, Amen Thompson does not have any sense of running without the ball, basically pulling out the ball, he has almost no offensive threat, because his shooting stability is not enough to make him an ambush receiver shooter, which is also the point that his rockets must pay attention to, because this means that if you don't want to spend time fixing his off-ball runs and jump shots, then you must adjust the team's role positioning of Kevin Porter Jr., after all, he now has too much possession, but there are too many meaningless singles and excessive shots, If Amen Thompson is put between him and Jaylen Green, then Amen Thompson is likely to be reduced to a random player who does not take the ball to watch the play, and has the ball to do it hard, which is not a good thing for his future development.
At the same time, compared to Scout Henderson staying in the Ignition team, facing the intensity of the development league level, the OTE league in which Amen Thompson was in the past was weak defensively, which made him not too disturbed offensively, so there are doubts about whether his invincible cut can be replicated and pasted.
Defensively, although Amen Thompson has good single defense conditions, he often has gambling-style steals in team defense, which makes him often rush out and then can't come back, resulting in a situation where the opponent plays more and less.
To sum up, Amen Thompson's talent is undoubted, but he has many details to be corrected in shooting, off-ball cooperation and defensive awareness, which are actually very dependent on whether the team has a good positioning to let him play, and last season's Rockets were a disaster in this regard, almost all of them let the players play by themselves, resulting in last year's top Jabari Smith Jr. ushered in his most struggling rookie season, just see if the new coach Amy Yuduka, who led the Celtics to the championship last year, can make changes.
Fifth pick Pistons Osar Thompson
Perhaps because of the excellent performance of the trial, the value of the Thompson brothers has risen, if Amen Thompson's physical fitness is one hundred, then although Osar Thompson's conditions are not better than Amen Thompson, but at least ninety, and compared to Amen Thompson's guard, Osar Thompson is more like a striker, and the body conditions are almost identical, but compared to Amen Thompson who has a goal in hand, Osar Thompson does better off the ball.
Whether it's an offensive move or a defensive complement, Osar Thompson knows exactly what he should do when the ball is not in his hands, and with his physical fitness, he has the opportunity to become a big lock that can defend No. 1 to No. 4.
At the same time, Ossar Thompson is not as good as Amen Thompson in terms of smell of spatial insight, but it does not mean that he cannot pass the ball, in fact, in the observation of the game, in the open attack, Osar Thompson still shows his ability to observe teammates running and give the ball, so if there is a disciplined rotation position, I believe that Ossal Thompson's teamwork ability can also be developed to a certain extent, but if you want Osar Thompson to become a top green leaf who can help the team win the championship, The same problem that Amen Thompson faced had to face: shooting.
Perhaps knowing that his overall comprehensiveness is not as good as Amen Thompson, Osar Thompson began to adjust his shooting posture very early, so he currently encounters less hitting the wall at the projection end, or he has already hit it, his current shooting posture is much smoother than Amen Thompson, and the shooting rate is relatively stable, although because of the doubts of league intensity, whether the projection skill package can be moved to the NBA still needs to wait for time to be verified, but if he can be successfully converted, then he will have a chance to become Biamen · Thompson is the more popular all-around 3D player.
As for the piston selected for him, can it be done?
In fact, in terms of roster talent, the Pistons are currently full of talent in the front and back, with Cade Cunningham and Jayden Ivey in the backcourt, and Jaylen Durham and James Wiseman in the box, so in contrast, the talent on the flanks is relatively weak.
Last season, with the reimbursement of Cade Cunningham, the Pistons went from intending to cash in on their talent to having to wait another year, and also gave the Pistons the opportunity to get Osar Thompson to make up for the talent on the front line, and the team spent a sky-high price to sign new coach Monty Williams who is good at designing tactics for role players, in the past in the Suns, Cameron Payne, Bismarck Biyombo and other players who rolled on the edge of the league were all reborn under Monty Williams, as well as the development of all-round 3D player Mikal Bridges' experience, although his overly conservative employment also became the reason for his criticism later in the Sun's career, but perhaps Opsal Thompson may have a better chance of shining first than Amen Thompson.
Sixth pick by Magic Anthony Black
Transitioning from a forward to a guard generally takes a lot of time to transform, but for Anthony Black, it's more like playing and becoming a point guard.
With a height of 6 feet 7, Anthony Black has always been considered a forward, and when he was called up to the U18s, he was also selected as a striker, but in this event, he played the potential of a point guard.
First of all, height gives him a visual advantage, combined with an excellent sense of space, allowing him to observe the movements of his teammates and choose the most suitable offensive mode.
In addition, Anthony Black's confrontation and fitness are underestimated, although he is not like the previous few who can throw off the opponent with a perverted first step, but as long as he can help him create a gap into the box, he can often use excellent shifting and body advantages to create scoring opportunities for himself, even if he can't score, he can also help the defense shrink and create gaps for outside players.
Defensively, Anthony Black relies on space judgment, often able to predict the opponent's passing path and create his own steal opportunities, and the mixed body and style of the forward and guard allow him to directly launch a conversion attack after grabbing a rebound.
However, Anthony Black's projection is relatively poor, which may reduce his threat on the offensive end and affect his ability to create gaps for his teammates.
And the editor believes that perhaps because the previous pick was selected by the Pistons to take away the favorite Ossar Thompson, so the Magic chose Anthony Black based on talent considerations in this pick, but the current Magic's backcourt is already overcrowded, Markle Fultz, Cole Anthony, Jaylen Suggs are all defenders with the ability to hold the ball, even if Anthony Black plays back as a point forward, there is already Franz Wagner, Paul Banqueiro, Wendell Carter Jr. in the front court, How to arrange his playing time will be a headache for the coaching staff.
I think if they put it right, maybe the Magic will become a team with passing skills from No. 1 to No. 5, but it all depends on Jamal Mosley's skills.
All in all, this is a very subjective evaluation of the first six picks, and then there will be time to talk about the later picks, and then talk about some players in detail, hoping that these selected players can have better development after entering the league and take their performance to the next level.