Trail Blazers Draft Prospects: 11 Players To Watch in the NCAA Tournament

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Your team every day in today's show, we're talking NBA draft prospects that are going to

be playing in March, playing in the NCAA tournament later this week.

If you are going to be watching the NCAA tournament with as a sort of NBA fan at a college

basketball novice, this is sort of like a way to get your amateur scout on.

Or if you are someone who watches a ton of college basketball, you will get to see who

I think could be or you get to listen to or depending on how you are taking this in,

you get to find out who I think could be potential draft targets.

We'll talk some names of like 11 names I like or at least 11 names that I'm going to be

keeping an eye on throughout the tournament.

I think I like them to varying degrees.

Plus sort of, I want to close the show talking how the NCAA tournament does affect draft

stock and how the Blazers should approach it, considering that there are just a glut of

people who play point guard in this draft.

Let's get into it.

We got to start with the nuts and bolts.

Right now as the Blazers currently stand, they've got a 9.4% chance to pick in the top four

and just a 2% chance to pick in the top one.

I think they're probably going to end up passing Golden State, which would drop them to about

a 7% chance into picking in the top four and a 1.5% chance to pick the top overall pick,

top one, the top overall pick.

But we'll get to the numbers more specifically when it is appropriate.

But as of right now, as I'm recording this, and you're listening to Wednesday March 18th

program, I'm recording this on Tuesday, the 17th, Portland's got a 90% chance to pick

11 or 12, 77.5%, 11, 12.5%, 12.

The 12th spot, like the overwhelmingly most likely spot, as it stands today in the middle

of March, is that the Blazers will pick 11th or 12th.

So I'm kind of focusing on guys, when I'm thinking about this, who are going to be 11th

or 12th.

So let's get into four names that I like.

I don't know if these are my favorites, and I don't even think these names are necessarily

going to be there.

But if they are, these are players I really like.

I want to start with a guy who's just straight up not going to be on the board, but he's kind

of undeniable.

At the beginning of the year, Derry's Acuff Jr. at Arkansas was, you know, he's a 6-3

freshman guard.

He kind of projected right in this range, right?

He was like, oh, somewhere in the 9 and 12 range, pretty, you know, he's right there.

He's probably going to go, and he could go as high as 5.

He's maybe the most fun player in all of College Basketball.

Full disclosure, I have not watched as much College Basketball this year as I did the

previous two years.

The last two years, because I love y'all here at Lockdown Blazers, I've really watched

more College Basketball than I care to, I'm an NBA fan, I don't love it.

But I like wanted to, you know, do a good job at being offering my own opinion as a scout.

I have not done that this year at this level, but I have watched Acuff because he's on TV

and he's really fun.

He's maybe the most fun player I've seen in all of College Basketball.

He kind of started right in the Blazers range and played himself off that, like, higher

up.

There's probably some questions about what level of defender he can be, but he just

like does every, he's a smaller guard who does everything well on offense and can like

be an engine at that spot.

He's really interesting.

The next name that I think you should know is Nadement, a Tennessee.

Another small sidetrack here, we're going to take a quick, let me offer some credit where

credit is due.

Keith Smith of SpotTrack has a great document that he shares on his social media where he

tracks all of the potential NBA prospects when they play, who they play, so you can

just like set up your TV viewing.

So I really highly recommend that.

If you want to lock in Friday at 125 to see Nadement and Tennessee play, you can lock

in and do that.

You can follow Keith's info there.

Also, because I haven't watched a ton of college basketball this year, some of this

is my personal opinion, but it is reading the people who I really trust.

All the guys at NoSealings, they do a great job, as well as on the locked on NBA draft

podcast, shout out to the NoSealings crew, Sam Vassini at The Athletic.

I think Sam does as good a job as anyone of just like being firm and honest and reasoned

in his opinions, as well as plugged into what NBA teams are doing.

And Jeremy Woodies, I've also read some of his stuff in preparation for this.

So Terry's takeoff junior is not going to be there when the Blazers pick at, say, 11,

but if he was, he would be high on the list, because I just think he's electric.

Nadement at Tennessee, he might be my sort of of the guys in the Blazers range.

I don't know if he's my favorite player, but I think he's the player I'm most in

intrigued by.

He's like, you know, he's six, 10 interesting playmaker, like can pass a little bit at

his size.

He draws a ton of fouls, which I think is a high level skill, a particularly in college

basketball.

His shot looks really wonky.

In fact, like his numbers, his shooting numbers are better than I would think from a little

bit.

I've seen him shoot the ball, but like there is, there is a very large, highly skilled

player at 19 with some stuff to work out.

I think there's a reason of it isn't at the top of the draft, but he's really intriguing

in that in the Blazers range.

Michael Brown, Jr.

I don't think he's going to play at Lovall, he might, he might play.

He's been occasionally dominant, right?

He's been awesome.

He lit up the NC State Wolf Paco Woffees.

He had some awesome games in ACC play, and then he said some, he said some lesser games

against high level competition and like some lesser games against lower level competition.

Occasionally dominant, occasionally inefficient, a scoring guard, but he's dealing with his

back injury.

So might not play in the tournament.

Lovall plays early, they had 11, 30 AM Thursday game.

So you're either going to watch this really impressive six, five freshmen of Lovall or he's

not going to play and it'll be something different.

Sort of the last, the last player I want to talk about here in this, in this first segment

is Yaxel and Burke for Michigan, a six nine senior who was like going to come out of

the draft last year, going to come out for the draft last year and was like in the teens

or maybe the 20s if he had come out.

And then he decided to go back to college.

I think he got the bag from Michigan, frankly, as I understand it, I think they backed

up the Brings truck because college sports are weird now.

But like he's, he's a 23 year old forward, like he's, you know, he's, he's a super senior

in college, but six nine with a seven four wingspan, some real defensive versatility to guard

away from the rim and to be a help side rim protector.

Like, you know, you can move your feet away from the basket and guard at six nine.

You can be a help side defender with that seven four wingspan.

Like, you're talking like real defensive versatility.

He's probably doesn't profile like a star and probably is will end up getting drafted

lower than the blazers range if I had to guess based on reading the early mocks here

in the middle of March or a ways away from the June draft, but he's an intriguing player.

I don't, I don't love the upside here, but I, but I do love like that style of like defensive

versatility with a little bit of like enough different stuff on offense to make a work

and missions really good.

I've seen them play maybe one and a half times this year and each time, particularly on

defense, I am in triumph circling what, like all of the stuff this dude does at his size.

He might be in between positions in the pros.

Maybe not a good enough shooter to be a center, but may not big enough to guard NBA centers

with all the time shooting is such a swing skill for guys that aren't like really big or

really quick or like elite playmakers.

So I think that'll always be a question for him, but he's he's certainly he axles certainly

super duper interesting.

Okay, I got a bunch of other players.

I want to share with you.

Join me in that second segment and I'll share them right then.

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Okay, let's talk some more prospects.

Some guys I like watching.

These aren't ranked in any specific order, but I would say all left hand of these guys are

players that I will be keeping a closer eye on, either who I haven't seen a bunch this

year, or I've seen a couple times and been like, I gotta watch them again.

The next one is Liberian Philan from Alabama.

He was probably going to be a first round pick last year, went back to school as a sophomore,

and now it's going to be a lottery guy.

I don't know, maybe late lottery, but he's going to be in the first half of the first round

most likely.

He's averaging 21 and 5, and he can really freaking shoot it.

Alabama plays a very, like, spread him out, shoot three's NATO's math, analytics style

of basketball.

But like, they, you know, so maybe there's like, maybe you could score a lot in that offense

is what I'm trying to say.

I think Philan just, he's a bucket.

And he's, you know, if he was a little bit bigger, maybe he would be a different level

of prospect, but like, you know, he's pushing up above 38% from three and averaging 21 points

and 5 assists.

Like, this is, if this draft class wasn't so stinkin' point guard heavy, Philan would

be maybe like a, the top six or seven picks in the draft.

He just happens to be in a class, a draft class that is heavy on dudes that are like him.

I think Philan and Alabama are definitely worth checking out.

The next one, Braylon Mullins at Yukon.

I have barely watched Yukon this year, full disclosure.

There are teams that I usually have seen a bunch of in the past.

I got, I watched a ton of the Steph Castle and Don Van Kling and Yukon team probably watched

like, I don't know, maybe double digits of their games by the end.

But very many times, I've barely seen Yukon this year.

I've seen them in passing maybe on just like on on random evening, but from reading the

scoundrel report on Braylon Mullins, you know, six six freshman guard.

He's a movement shooter than he can, you know, he can fly off screens and really shoot

the ball.

He's a good athlete, but not this like overwhelming athlete.

He's, he's, and I think that is some of the knock against him is that like, maybe he can't

get off enough shots right now with his like strength even though he's got a, he's

even though it's big like an NBA size athlete, but he's just like not, it doesn't have the

wiggle right now and the sort of that explosiveness, but like he, he is a good enough shooter and

the right size to play in the NBA that he might like stay in school or he might shoot

so dang well that he ends up like the twelfth pick in the draft.

And I think that that he's he's won at least San Vassini flags him as one as like a guy

who could really rise like it really rise with it with a good march because he's, you know,

he's a highly touted recruits who's got like the looks like an NBA player and with, and

has the shooting that every team covets with his size, but it's like what, you know, is,

is you ready to sort of make that leap?

The next one, Chris Sennak, Jr. shout out to, to, uh, friend of the program, Seth Allen,

uh, hey, Seth Allen, all platforms, uh, who's, who's a, uh, a Sennak believer, uh, Seth's

only that Sennak is what people think co-peat at Arizona is, um, Sennak is a really good

athlete with a bunch of defensive tools, um, I think the, the worry from, from reading

about him is that he might be a center in the NBA, like a single position player, and

if you're a single position player and you're not as, he's just not overwhelmingly large

and, and physical, that, um, you know, you lose some of, sort of some of the value if

you're just kind of like, oh, a, a, a center who's not that gigantic, um, and like, you

know, he's, he's mostly played a lot, he plays a lot of power forward and like it works

on the perimeter, and it's in, in like, maybe the best version is he, if he's just a,

rim, rim running rolling center, and it's like, can he embrace that role and be that?

Um, both the guys at, uh, no ceilings and, and Sanvacini both sort of circled that as

like, hey, can you, can you be, can you do what you do best at the next level?

I think that, that's the real question for him, uh, Sennak is at Houston, a 6-11 freshman.

Uh, Thomas Haug at Florida is, um, a very interesting player.

He's really athletic, and he does a little bit everything.

He rebounds, he passes, he can handle a little bit, it's like, he can defend.

He probably doesn't have like that singular elite skill that you would say, like this

is the thing that he's like the best at, and that's how he's going to be a star.

So maybe he doesn't project as a star, but like a six six, do everything wing is like,

totally my type of player, um, maybe he doesn't have the on ball juice and maybe he doesn't

have the shooting to be like, you know, to take it from like the sort of, you know, what

everyone wants in a wing is like a, someone who can defend and move, you know, move

defenses with, with, uh, with their ability to, to attack the rim, move defenses because

they're scary as shooters, you know, that, that's sort of like, everything versatile offensive

engine of, of a wing, maybe he doesn't have that type of skill set, but I, I will kind

of bet on the do everything wings if they're the right size, and how does it do everything

wing who's the right size?

A little bit older, um, probably another reason why he'll be drafted in the teens.

So we below the blazers pick at 11 and 12, maybe how it would be a stretch, uh, picking

out 11, quite frankly, um, but he's like, he's, he's my type of player because the sort

of like the versatile, the right sized versatile forward is just like a really, um, I feel

like you can plug though those skill set guys into almost any, any system in the league

and it, and it, and it works.

It's just like, you're not drafting maybe a guy who has upside beyond like, hey, we found

a really useful role player, but I will say when you're picking at 11 and 12, nailing

a really useful role player is a great outcome, a great outcome.

Uh, okay, a couple of other guys, both, both guys from Arizona, I think are worth watching

co-peat, six eight freshman, um, he's, you know, he's a big physical rebounder.

I think, I think he has good passing skills, but he's like, he just can't shoot, and I

don't know if he's big enough to be a complete non shooter in the NBA, um, because he

complete non shooter, he not only doesn't really make threes, he doesn't take them in college,

but he like, you know, he's a good player on maybe the best team in college basketball

with no due respect to Duke, uh, like it, like, I sometimes the production is just undeniable

at a certain point, but I do worry a little bit about, I do worry about guys who are that

six, seven, six, eight, six, nine, like power forwards in college who have sensory skill sets.

I don't love power forward sized dudes with center skill sets moving up to the pros.

I always worry about that because you got to, if you're going to be a true big non shooter

in the league, you better be able to protect the rim, like that's your value there, um,

or you, you know, you have to have some other sort of, um, elite skill set and Pete doesn't

profile as like this great lateral mover to be the defender of the kind that would kind

of make up for it.

Um, he's an interesting talented, like probably long term pro, but I think, um, where his

offense comes from at the NBA level is, is a question, right?

Um, because he's, because he isn't an overwhelming athlete and he isn't a shooter and those

are sort of the two things that say, like, if you couldn't, he say, like, oh, that dude's

an overwhelming athlete will figure it out or though that guy can really shoot it will

figure it out and Pete doesn't check either of those boxes.

Um, his teammate does though, brainberries, um, who, uh, he was on a place, uh, a morning

game fried at 11.35 a.m., brainberries, six, four freshmen, he was, you know, very good

shooter. He's gotten better all season long.

I don't think he was up this high on draft boards to begin the season.

And now all of a sudden, everyone's like, yeah, he's going to go in that sort of nine

through 15 range, right?

Where the blazers are going to be good rebounder for his size at six, four, um, competitive

vendor.

He's maybe not like the typical NBA athletes, um, for, you know, what you would typically

sort of profile is like the run and jump type of athlete, but, um, strength, skills, good

hands can really shoot it.

I, I think that's a pro like that's a, that's what a pro looks like, um, you know, maybe

when you're draft, like, I think this is sort of this in the nature of where the blazers

range is, is that they're probably not talking about dudes who have a ton of like obvious

star level upside, those players go in the top 10, right, top six, seven picks.

Then it gets a little bit, uh, the little bit dice year.

So, um, but I think Arizona is definitely worth watching, um, if you are getting up early

on the west coast Friday, nine 40 a.m.

Texas Tech plays, Christianators in junior, um, is maybe the best shooter in his draft

class.

Um, the blazers need shooting, you know, six, three sophomore guard, um, talk about more

of the more of this in the third segment, but, uh, you know, I don't think you want to

draft for need specifically, but I, but I do think there is a like, there is a level

where you say the sort of your needs and the best player available intersect and there's

a chance that, um, that is it with Christian, Anderson, junior, I, I don't, I think eleven

or twelve is probably too high for him to go, um, but like, dude, who can really shoot it

with some NBA athleticism to get on the court, that'll help, that'll help.

Let's, let's talk about, um, sort of how the blazers should approach this draft, considering

their roster, other things that impact March and sort of the, um, the, the magic of amateur

scouting, uh, in the third segment, join me, uh, join me on the other side of won'tcha.

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Oh right, still the past first point guard, I'm still Mike Richmond.

You are still listening to locked on Blacers.

So I think one of the things that's fun about watching the NCAA tournament quite frankly

is that like you get to see some stars, you will get to see some stars become stars.

Well, you know, some players will be stars in the NCAA tournament.

Right.

There'll be some alley frequent ashes out there, right?

But but you also might see like Carmelo Anthony, you might see 2003 Carmelo Anthony.

I remember it well.

Just like, oh, that's the best player in college basketball.

They're going to win the championship, bummer for Kirk Heinrich and at all at and Nick

Carlson and others at Kansas, but like, sorry, her team work, sorry, Carmelo, Carmelo

Anthony, Eric Devendorf, they were too good.

But like, so I do encourage you to watch Ajita Bonsa at BYU and Darren Peterson at Kansas

and Cam Bouser at Duke.

I don't encourage you to watch Duke at all, but do what you got to do.

I encourage you to, I don't know, go back and watch highlights of Caleb Wilson at at

Carolina because he was really good before he broke his thumb.

It's a bummer that he's not going to be there because boy, is there a ton of lottery

level talent?

There's a ton of lottery level talent.

It is not, there's not a lot of foreign, you know, foreign players at the very top of

the draft this year or like, obviously, the death of the G league ignites has kind of

ended that.

And there's no overtime elite Thompson twins, like most of the best players in this draft

are in the NCAA tournaments.

So yeah, I encourage you to do that.

It's just like the Blazers are going to have somewhere between like a one and a half

and two percent chance of getting the number one overall pick and somewhere between a

seven to nine and a half percent chance of getting the top four pick.

And if they do, obviously, we'll sort of change aggressively how we approach this in real

time, but we won't find that out until May.

So for now, we'll play the odds.

And the odds are that the Blazers are going to be picking like 11 or 12.

That is, that is most likely.

And if they end up jumping into ninth, it'll probably be picking 12 or 13 those like,

so 11 through 13 is really the range that I am considering most prospects in as I sort

of prepare for my NCAA tournament viewing beginning, I guess it begins in, I don't

know, as I'm recording this almost immediately on Tuesday evening, but the actual tournament

starts Thursday, get your, get your brackets filled out.

Okay.

So one of the things, you know, as I, as I go through this, it's like, brain berries is

six four guard.

Uh, okay.

Labyrinth Island is like a six four point guard.

Okay.

Michael Brown Jr.'s like a six five guard.

I always hate cuff is a guard like there's even guys I didn't mention the higher up in

the draft that they're, they're guards, you know, it's like, this is a point guard heavy

draft.

And even like in the Blazers range, um, you start to hit like on like four or five dudes

in a row who are guards, right?

Who are just like, probably you hope they can play the one, uh, because of, you know, uh,

because of size reasons, like if there are twos, you're kind of in trouble because you

just like don't want to play that many six foot four, two, two guards in the NBA these

days.

Um, so granted, the Blazers do have a fairly full guard room right now.

They've got scootenders and they got, they, they got shade and sharp, right?

They've committed to give shade and sharp some money.

They have a very, um, curious summer coming up where they can decide whether they want

to extend, uh, scootenders in a contract.

I can't imagine that he signs one, but, um, they should offer him an extension that they

should, like quite frankly, as it from the franchise perspective, they should low ball them

on an extension and see if they'll sign it.

Um, but like then they still have, um, you know, for the next two years, they've got

under contract Jewelry and, and, and Damien Lillard, um, they do have a lot of guards and

they don't have a lot of guard minutes available.

So if you pick 11th and you pick a guy who's probably a point guard and you don't have

room for him, for him to play, it is a little bit weird.

But my belief here is that you have to be almost roster agnostic when you get to the

draft.

I don't think the blazer should draft a center, um, because, well, while they do need

a backup center pretty badly, I don't think you can go three straight drafts drafting

single position players.

I don't think you want to draft a point guard necessarily in, in addition, because it's

a single position player.

Um, I think I would worry about that.

But specifically center, I think they're a little bit, I think they're over indexed at

young center just because if like, I don't know, it, I think Donald Clinton's really good,

um, young Hansen is, is, is, it turns out to probably be more of a project than the

franchise anticipated and drafting another sort of young center that probably also needs

a little bit of time to, you know, uh, to bake is, is probably not the best use of your

resources at, at this stage in the draft.

But they could.

There's not a lot of like center sized dudes.

I guess like co-opete is a little bit, is a little bit sentery.

Uh, yeah, so Leninburg is a little bit sentery, uh, but those guys are more fours and I think

like you might be able to get away with them playing some of that, like as big wings at

the next level, maybe, and maybe not with Pete, he's kind of slow.

But we'll see, um, so I think what you have to be is roster agnostic.

I think you have to say like, sure, we think, uh, you know, we like, you know, speaking

from the Blazers, uh, front office perspective, like scoot Anderson, like, uh, Shane Sharp,

but if you get, if you're picking at 12 and there's just an undeniable NBA player there

that you think is just like way better than the other prospects.

I think you just have to take them if they're a guard regardless.

Um, you know, the Blazers have some forwards.

I think they could use some depth that forward, right?

I think that's, that's undeniable, um, with, with Jeremy Grants, um, at the age

he is and, and with like how much they're playing city Soko and Chris Murray and like having

to rely on them, they could use the depth of that position for sure.

Um, so I don't think you hesitate if you have a, you know, a small forward, power

forward type, uh, type wing type, type forward available to him.

I think you, I think you just, you make that move.

So I, I, I think, like I said, roster agnostic, I think you just best player bail available

and you move forward with that.

You, you have to be realistic when you are, when you are, um, trying to not be so

beholden to your roster about playing time and, and, and, you know, sort of, uh, the,

the developmental curve of these guys, but I, I think you, you kind of got to trust

the scout, right?

Cause most NBA teams have been scouting these guys since they were like 15.

And I want to, I want to mention that, uh, I've, I've heard this from a bunch of

people who work in the NBA in the past and John Ross who worked for the

Trebleasures for a bunch wrote about this, uh, on, on his blog get in the game 101

today or his newsletter about how like, you know, the, the, the blazers like scout

team, they're, they've, they've been making books on these guys since forever.

Since they were, you know, 15, they're now 19, um, some of them 23.

You're talking somewhere between five and eight years of, of tape and film

on these guys and you've built your, you know, you've built your scouting book.

You've got your, you've got your analytics miles.

You've got, you've got a, by the time you get to March for a guy who are like,

in their sophomore and junior years of, of college, like, you've got a deep,

you've got a deep, deep, deep, database to pull from, but, you know,

who doesn't is the owner of the team.

Uh, and I've heard this a bunch is that, like, someone will go off in either

the conference tournament, which is, you know, last week or the NCAA tournament

coming up this week and the owner will just call the GM and say, I love this dude.

I love Johnny Flynn.

Bring me, uh, Johnny Flynn.

I'm gonna meet a Johnny Flynn right now.

In fact, uh, I have a strongly held belief that if that classic Syracuse Georgetown

game hadn't gone to seven over times, that Steph Curry would, would definitely be

a Timberwolf, but because it went to seven over times, because Johnny Flynn was so

special they had to get Johnny Flynn because the grit, the grit, um, now,

don't draft, don't draft for grit, uh, don't draft based on one college basketball

game, but you're, like, as an amateur scout, it's so easy to fall in love with the

dude if he has a good shooting night or a good game.

And like, there's no stakes in me or you, uh, dear listener watching a game being

like, yeah, no, I like Braylon Mullins.

Like, you know, um, but I do think there is danger at the sort of highest level

of the NBA decision makers, um, the ownership group saying watching someone

have a really good tournament and, um, them rising and draft boards, like,

specifically because of ownership interest.

Like that is a real thing that happens.

So it's not that it means nothing.

And I also think the NCAA tournament in general in these high stakes competitive

games, they can show you like, you know, some dudes step up and, and they, they're,

they're pretty, right?

And you kind of get another, um, you get a sense of what, what they're like in these,

these moments.

I don't think it should be the only thing.

Um, and I think in general, if you're doing sort of amateur scout thing from the

couch is trying to balance how small of a sample size you get when you watch someone,

right?

If you, if you haven't seen very much of them in the, like, say you watch them for 40

minutes versus kind of what the experts say, you don't need to trust.

You don't need to say, like, well, San Vassini has them ranked 20 seconds.

So I don't think he's good.

Like you can, you can go off script, right?

But I think there is a balance in an art to saying, like, I've only seen a little

bit. They were really good or they were really bad.

What does everyone else think?

But you can trust your eyeballs.

Like you've, many of you watch a ton of basketball.

And I think there's a fun part of the NCAA tournament is that you could do,

if you view it through this lens of like, I'm going to scout about thinking about the

Blazers picking 12th on the draft, you know, you get to balance sort of like,

what are your own personal preferences?

What type of players do you like?

What type of performances do they have over this first weekend?

And then the ensuing weekends of the NCAA tournament.

And plus what the experts think.

And I think it is a fun, it makes it adds a little, you know, interest to at least

the way I watch the NCAA tournament because I don't watch a ton of college

basketball.

And even this year, I kind of dialed it back because it doesn't bring me as much joy

as watching the NBA.

And I'm already going to watch all the Carolina games.

So I'll get a fair amount of exposure as is that is going to do it for today's

program.

This is Wednesday's program.

This Wednesday show is the Lockdown Blazers program.

Blitzblade, the Pacers tonight in India, a third game of the road trip.

We will have you covered for everything that happens after that one.

Tell your friends about the podcast.

Tell them they can get it wherever they get podcasts and also on YouTube.

And then come back for more shows later this week.

I appreciate you listening.

I will talk to you soon.

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