A Quick Thought On The 2018 NBA Draft

The NBA Draft takes place in one week from today. As with any draft in the NFL or NBA or MLB, there has been a sort of consensus among media member and the various people that inhabit the twitter sphere.

That’s what has really confused me heading into next week’s draft. Especially given the results of the NBA playoffs the last couple of years, and more specifically, the Golden State Warriors-Houston Rockets and Cleveland Cavaliers-Boston Celtics series. In those series, rangy 3 and D players who have the ability to switch on defense were crucial for all involved.

Which is what makes me confused for the NBA draft. DeAndre Ayton, Mo Bamba, Marvin Bagley, Jaren Jackson. These four are all about as close to consensus top picks as you can get. What do they have in common though?

They are all big men that are “defensively challenged” according to many scouting reports. I just can’t understand what makes them consensus picks though.

Sure, offensively they are all extremely gifted. But we saw multiple big men get exposed and get played off of the court in playoffs.

Personally, my thoughts go a lot deeper and I’ll be exploring them more in depth over the next week, but for starters, the consensus NBA draft picks don’t seem like the ones most suited to what we saw in the NBA playoffs.