1) I’ve been thinking about doing a question and answer piece. I have several others to get to, probably first, but I wanted to create a drop box in the comments section where you can drop questions not directly related to pieces I’m writing, at least if I don’t get hired by an NBA team first. (That’s a joke.)

2) Watch out for NBA’s speed/agility portion of the draft. Compared to the NFL draft, the design of these tests is really poor, with results that regularly flumox, since stride length (in a way that’s not really functionally applied in the NBA) often ends up being more important than the quickness and agility that’s supposed to be tested. For tight quarters speed/agility testing, the NFL’s three cone drill blows away anything the NBA does.

NBA defensive traits one would need to be successful are largely similar to those a cornerback would need, but if the NBA wants to test a player’s lateral slide in both directions, they should have the player slide the entire lane agility drill. No backpeddling, no running. Pivot at the corners and slide. Make the player flip his hips as one must in the three cone drill. That’s the functional talent one really wants to test is if a player can cleanly open his hips and fluidly move.

3) There’s a lot of smoke about Cam Reddish going to Atlanta. A lot, from multiple different sources. If you remember last year, there was an equal amount of smoke about Trae Young going to Atlanta. More than that, Young was indeed Atlanta’s desired target.

Though a little more discrete, in an interview after the Huerter selection, it was clear that the organization had locked onto Huerter as well. If you remember, Schlenk said he had a deal in place to move up a couple of spots for Huerter before realizing he didn’t need to do so.

It’s risky if a team doesn’t love Reddish as a prospect, but if I’m a team drafting before Atlanta at 8, I think about using this information to try to extract value from the Hawks in a move down. It’s a strategy Sam Hinkie used to the tune of a future first round pick when the Magic telegraphed their interest in Elfrid Payton.

4) That being said, let’s talk about Cam Reddish on Atlanta. Reddish is clearly one of the most divisive prospects in the class. A prospect with excellent height and length, nice fluidity, decent speed, poor burst and explosion, above average but not elite defensive potential and highly diverse shooting arsenal that one might overlook because of distance percentages (silly) and his on the court red flags (how he lacks influence, his horrid 2-point percentage and percentage at the rim, and also lack of decision-making and awareness).

On most teams, it would be likely be right to do so. On Atlanta, if he ends up there, Reddish is going to have a very good opportunity to be excellent. It’s not because he’s McGrady. (He’s not.) It’s not because he’s the second coming of Klay Thompson. (He probably wouldn’t be so efficient with such attention given to him.) It’s because Trae Young, like Stephen Curry, can space the floor vertically in the way few players can, while being an even more dynamic passer.

5) Look at how close to mid-court Trae is at the outset of this play and the opponent’s attention on him.

Shooters in Atlanta’s offense are already getting wide open looks from 3 like this one. More than a few of those are going to go to Reddish, either on the direct pass or on ball movement against a rotating defense.

Then there’s the problem for opponents of how to guard both Huerter and Reddish. I’m not sure any team has ever had two players so tall who were so comfortable off of such an array of shooting actions. One of those two is likely to draw a weaker defender in regards to track-and-follow and off-ball switches on screens, and accounting for these two is going to be a nightmare.

Yes, I am not convinced about Reddish’s in-the-run-of-play decision-making, or his ability to score contested shots at the rim. That would usually be a big deal, but Atlanta has a player who is greatly going to simplify decision-making for Reddish. First decision: shoot the ball or not. Possible second decision: swing the ball to a wide open man or pump fake and then shoot the ball off of one dribble. That’s basically it.

If you believe in Cam Reddish’s stroke, and if Reddish gets his eye focus right (something that should be easily fixable with enough practice, though it’s possible he might need contacts, which is also easily fixable) there are a lot of reasons to believe in Reddish’s shot.

There’s the 89 makes from 3 as a freshman and the 267 total attempts. There’s the ten attempts per 40 minutes from 3. And there’s the eye test, where the shot looks fluid and bankable even when it misses.

I mean look at that. That’s a compact sweet stroke. Beyond that, Reddish is comfortable getting into shooting actions off the bounce (majorly underrated shooting element) and I’d bet he has good rotation on the ball.

Watch this shooter’s bounce. The ball rolls directly over the front of the rim.

6) There are situations and contexts that can mitigate a lot of the concerns we might have about a prospect’s future. Atlanta’s offense is one of them, with three players already that will draw loads of defensive attention (Trae, Collins, Huerter) and with Trae’s ability to see the floor and find whoever has the best opportunity.

We forget now but Otto Porter Jr. shot 23 percent from 3 as a freshman. Kyle Kuzma shot 30 percent for his college career and 63 percent from the free throw line. We can learn a lot from numbers, but it’s clear we can also pay too much attention to run-of-play percentages as a definitive indicator of future success. There are other reasons to bet on Reddish’s shot, especially on a team in which he’ll begin as the 4th player in the pecking order, and more importantly he’ll get tons of open looks just handed to him.

If the Hawks are Warriors East, then there are a lot of reasons to equate a possible Reddish selection back to the Warriors pick of Harrison Barnes.

7) Keeping on the Hawks, with their second first round pick, Brandon Clarke will be a popular selection on draft twitter and perhaps the right selection. However, I might think about trying to trade down in order to go after two out of these three: Grant Williams, Matisse Thybulle and Carsen Edwards. Williams, as a player who is built to play out of the short roll on offense is a no brainer, and Thybulle as a potential 3&D stud makes obvious sense. Carsen Edwards less so, especially given Trae’s inability to play defense.

Here’s the thing: Carsen Edwards presents the possibility of a player who might allow the team to somewhat replicate Trae’s play style when the team goes to the bench. And he’s a player, if he’s successful, who could eventually be tied to great trade value.

Even before that, it’s possible that minutes with Trae and Edwards might not be as damaging as one first imagines. On defense, opponents can only hunt one of them at a time, and it will be Trae. On offense, it’s possible that offensive sufficiency will outweigh defensive liability. And since the Hawks are making similar bets on both Trae and John Collins, at the very least, such an offense when the two share the floor could be a lot of fun.

Not every move a team makes is necessarily a direct one to a championship. As Shakespeare once wrote, at times we must by indirection find direction out. And if that’s true, that indirection may as well have at least a reasonably good chance to be entertaining.

8) Cody Martin was spectacular once he came on the floor in the first combine scrimmage. So many passes for potential assists. Steals using length and instincts. So many little things done that lead to winning.

If you want to know what college player he reminds me of, he’s not that far off from Royce O’Neale, though he’s also probably a superior passer.

9) Evan Turner at the four, a solution to post-peak Paul Millsap that had a lot to do with Portland winning the series vs Denver, has potential ramifications for Jarrett Culver. Notice how many of Turner’s weaknesses are mitigated by the move up in positions and how he can largely handle the defensive burdens of the position, while his strengths as a playmaker and aggressive rebounder also become a lot more live.

If I was drafting Culver, there are two roles I’d initially use him at almost exclusively: 3-&D like Butler, Kawhi or Middleton, and small ball four in a role very similar to the one in which we saw Turner. Culver did measure at roughly 6-foot-7, albeit with only a 6-foot-10 wingspan. Here’s the thing; he always seems to play bigger than even that size. My bet is that he can handle the four in the NBA and anything you might lose on defense (if the team loses anything at all), a team could get back by having another dribbler-passer-shooter on the floor, and also that looks at the four are likely to be a lot more open.

10) Goga as basically a sure thing center prospect still seems very underrated.

11) I have from a source I highly respect that Smallaigic is underrated as well.

12) I first wrote about Terence Davis during his sophomore season, which got a lot of scoffs since he wasn’t an RSCI guy and no one who didn’t watch the SEC had ever heard of him. But his athleticism and his frame popped in ways that few players do. This is not a player whose just athletic for college. This is a player who’d be a notable athlete even amidst the players in the NBA. On a basketball court, he just belongs.

Twenty years ago, I’d guess Davis would have easily been considered a lottery pick. 6-foot-4, sub nuclear speed with and without the ball in the full court, legit explosion, bordering on irrational confidence, some ability to dribble, pass and shoot, including the ability to shoot off the dribble, real strength and frame (even at 6-foot-4), the ability to find shot and real rebounding ability (and average at best defensive awareness right now, okay, sure). Put it together and there’s almost zero chance he wouldn’t have been considered an easy first round pick.

In 2018-19, before the combine, his consensus rank was as an undraftable player, though there are of course some who rank him higher.

Heuristically, one would guess that NBA athleticism + an NBA frame + some all-around offensive skill would be a highly valued profile. It used to be. Though it seems no longer to be the case. This is perhaps another example of a contemporary infatuation with stats and verifiability over intuition. Of trying to accredit one’s way to victories.

Of course, they need not be enemies. Intuition and numbers should ultimately inform each other. I’d argue the most useful way to merge the two is always through the lens of playing or having played the game. Not necessarily at the NBA level or the college level or even perhaps high school, but in a competitive manner and a lot.

So doing that, let’s ask this question: at any level that you played — let’s say there was a player who was more athletic than 75%-80% of the people that played, super strong for his size, reasonably big, and had a relatively average skill set in terms of dribbling, passing, shooting and decision-making — was that guy ever not a legitimate player of some kind? Maybe he wasn’t the best player, but he was a player. Always. So through what lens are we looking at Terence Davis?

13) It seems like handling ability in off ball players is the most overlooked skill of importance. A prospect has to be relatively exceptional to get away without it.

14) Only a little behind that is vastly overestimating the importance of tiny guys without big-time athleticism or strength playing good college defense. For the overwhelming majority of these players, this solid college defense won’t translate. It doesn’t translate for even some great ones.

15) John Konchar will likely get a lot of skin color comps. Tyler Johnson could be one. To me, his profile actually feels a little like that of a poor man’s Marcus Smart. Again, the handling ability of dependent offensive players is underrated.

Statistically, Jalen Pickett is another player of this ilk, though actually already far more accomplished from the mid-range than Smart was. On the flipside, he lacks the thickness of these players that gives them some positional versatility.

16) Jeremiah Martin might have the most impressive box score stats of any secondary creator prospect. Nearly a free throw attempt for every 2-point attempt. (Lillard-ish stat.) 8.6 free throw attempts per 40. (Stat reminiscent of Lillard, McCollum and Wade.) 5 rebounds, f5 assists and 2.5 steals per 40. Above 50 percent on 2-point shots. Over half a block per 40 and 77 percent free throw percentage the last two years.

On paper, he compares fairly well with both Sam Cassell, Jeremy Lin and Rodney Stuckey. I’d bet he ends up being more like the latter two than the former if he sticks. Still, he seems a player much more worthy of a draft pick than many who will be selected above him.

17) I’m still going to say Tres Tinkle is underrated.

18) Now that he’s been measured, I’m going to have to insist some team picks up Tacko Fall and tries him out in zone defense. Neemias Queta too. Especially a team that can play BIG like the Lakers, with giant players who can handle, pass, shoot and in general perform perimeter tasks.

19) Buried here, Coby White is a poor man’s D’Angelo Russell. Low hanging fruit, though I believe no one has made this comparison. The question is how poor, but even as is, Russell is player fairly likely to receive instant buyer’s remorse on Russell’s next contract, pending the aspirations of the team.

That’s not his fault. More the unreasonable expectations set up by immediate team incentives in relation to the CBA, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less likely to happen.

Please also note that DLo is a player who almost certainly has less trade value than the day he was drafted, which has been true since the day he stepped foot on an NBA court. Again, not his fault.

20) Uninformed guess #1: Anthony Davis is not traded. The Pelicans play him alongside Zion and Jrue, offer him the supermax, and see how well it works during the regular season.

21) Uninformed guess #2: The Lakers eventually end up trading the Anthony Davis package or something very near to it to Washington for Bradley Beal.

22) Seeing all of these prospects being interviewed, it’s difficult not to root for the success of virtually all of them. Those that are insecure, those that are confident, those that have charisma, and those that don’t.

23) That being said, let’s return to a non-rhetorical question I once asked in a piece I believe to which I never received an answer: speaking of non-bigs, has any player who exhibited low to basically no natural feel for the game before the NBA been good? Has any big of this type been better than JaVale McGee? This comes with noting that low feel for a point guard is quite a different standard than low feel for a player in general.

24) Just a reminder that this piece also doubles as a question and answer dropbox. You can ask questions directly related to this piece which I will try to answer, but if you want me to try to address a question in more detail (if I have time) please leave it below as well. I will try to get to it.