NEW WORDS: Zoom Diallo is one of the most intriguing young scorers in college basketball despite the fact that he only made 6 (yes, you read that right) three-pointers in his freshman season. Link to his scouting report in the next post.

2026 Draft Preview: Prospects to Watch in the Top Five and Beyond [link in first reply]

Never mind. I finished early.

new article tomorrow

Covid got hands but I'm back to writing

fighting covid, will write when that's over with

I don't think John Wall, Bradley Beal, or Gilbert Arenas should have their numbers retired

Turning Norm Powell into Beal and John Collins is incredible business. Clippers front office is cooking.

AJ Johnson is not a great pull-up shooter

@byvarunshankar.bsky.social if you have the opportunity I need you to ask why Tre only takes like 2-3 seconds on his free throws

The Wizards won a game? PLAY THE MUSIC.

Drew Timme scored almost 1/3 of the Nets' total points. Add Tyson Etienne and that's 46.8%. God, that team is going to be awful next year. Not exactly encouraged that we barely beat them, but at least they didn't lose.

This clip really demonstrates my issue with Tre as a defender. If his goal is to switch then it wasn't communicated to Jamir. Even if it was, there is no way for Jamir to cover Ryan Dunn. Their backs are parallel to each other. Phoenix blows the entire scheme open without even setting a screen.

A quick recap of what's to like and dislike about the Wizards in their Summer League debut! It's the good (Kyshawn), the bad (Bub), and the ugly (Dillon Jones).

Will Riley is gonna spend a lot of time with the Go-Go this year. And probably next year.

I never sold my McNeeley stock. Never.

lol

I cannot believe Hugo Gonzalez fell to the Celtics. It's like the league has a collective agreement to gift them freebies.

Smart cap management by WAS: Used the smaller TPE they had for J. Davis to take in M. Branham. They used the Bi-Annual Exception to acquire B. Wesley. That conserved the full $9.9M TPE they have from J. Valanciunas. WAS won't have the BAE next year, because they're very likely to be under the cap.

The Nets certainly won't have to unnecessarily bench anyone to tank this year. This is ugly.

This game so far is like all the things I disliked about Derik Queen condensed into 20 minutes. Bad. Very bad.

I don't put too much stock in summer league, but Carter Bryant is looking very far away from being NBA ready.

Wizards depth positional breakdown AKA House of Guards Part 2

Malaki Branham and Blake Wesley are terrible. I think the value for the Wizards is that they can be waived to open up roster space for Vukcevic (currently RFA) or someone else.

Vlad Goldin, Pelle Larsson, Alex Toohey, Kasparas Jakucionis... this summer league game is huge if you love international players.

Thanks, I hate it.

Look away, Jazz fans.

Dawkins liked Ace Bailey so much he went and found the Bailey prototype (like 1/4 of the talent and effort, but still). Whitmore is probably on notice to improve or he's out of the league. He needs to get better as a passer and stop being such a ball stopper.

Jaxson Hayes just got his third one-year contract in a row with the Lakers, thus gaining a no trade clause (lol). Big men who can't get 10 minutes in the playoffs keep getting paid.

2026 draft guard and wing talent is insane but I can barely think of a handful of big men I'm excited about

Dillon Jones was... hold on, let me check... #52 on my 2024 board. Eh. We got a pick out of it.

I am going to be getting Penda and Coward jerseys (especially that Grizzlies city edition for Coward). #93 with the Magic pinstripe is so sick

I know the Wizards are going to try to make Tre Johnson more of an on-ball threat, but I think they should tell him "you're allowed to take 20 dribbles per game, make 'em count" and hope he can become half as good as Klay Thompson as a pure shooter.

Kadary Richmond is #51 on my big board. Excellent downhill scorer and playmaker, solid defender. Can't shoot a lick but overall awesome teammate. Don't expect him to play many minutes in a Wizards jersey (if ever) but solid UDFA value to provide summer league structure, could be a G-League guy.

My comp for Alex Toohey was Gui Santos and now they're both on the Warriors

I think a lineup with Justin Champagnie, Marcus Smart, Kyshawn George and Jamir Watkins would be extremely funny. Keefe. Make it happen.

Jamir Watkins is #37 on my board. He's nice. A bit older but really awesome defender.

Thought I might feel better about the draft after sleeping on it. Somehow I feel worse.

I originally had Asa going to the Hawks with the 22nd pick in my first draft of the mock but then I thought "nah, there's no way he falls THAT far" but what do you know

I'm gonna be honest. I really hate this draft for Washington. Even the Tre Johnson pick.

WHOA

Whoa!

Best dressed at the draft: Carter Bryant (!!!), Egor Demin, Tre Johnson, Jeremiah Fears, Asa Newell Worst: Liam McNeeley, Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, Walter Clayton Jr.

ohhhhh noooooo what are those

COMPOSURE [Medium: Failure] — go ahead. Show them The Expression.

McNeeley and Maluach the only ones to dap up the driver. Also: double breasted suits are really coming back in style. Tailoring isn't bad from what I can see.

Sounding more and more like it's Ace to the Wizards. I'm not sure how to feel about this.

My mock draft is done! I can't wait to see how wrong all of these picks end up being, but it's a fun exercise.