How would you rank these five days on the NBA calendar?
NBA Draft
Trade deadline
First day of free agency
First day of the regular season
First day of the playoffs
It’s going to take some soul searching for me to come up with my personal order, but I can confidently say that draft day occupies the top spot. The weeks between the end of the regular season and draft day are some of my favorites, as evenings are spent watching high stakes playoff games and familiarizing myself with the incoming class of prospects.
A major part of that process involves putting together a big board of prospects, and with just under a month to go until the first day of the draft on June 23rd, it’s time to release version 1.0 of my personal board.
These rankings are made with the Hornets’ needs in mind. I’m going to list my top 30 prospects, but realistically anybody with a single-digit ranking is unlikely to find their way to Charlotte barring an unforeseen trade.
When ranking prospects: decision-making, positional size, role scalability, and physicality are among the traits I pay the closest attention to.
With that in mind, let’s dive into my big board.
All-NBA Caliber
1. Cameron Boozer – F – Duke
2. AJ Dybantsa – F – BYU
3. Darryn Peterson – G Kansas
It feels like Cam Boozer was made in a lab to be the long-term starting power forward alongside Charlotte’s current nucleus of talent. Unfortunately, that isn’t going to happen.
Boozer, Dybantsa, and Peterson, are three franchise-altering talents that will be headlining All-Star games for the next decade-plus.
Face of the Franchise
4. Caleb Wilson – F – UNC
I think Wilson is going to be an awesome professional basketball player, but there are just enough questions about his long-term strength, defense, and shooting touch for me to slot him in a tier below the big three.
Potential All-Stars
5. Kingston Flemings – G – Houston
6. Mikel Brown Jr. – G – Louisville
7. Yaxel Lendeborg – F Michigan
8. Keaton Wagler – G – Illinois
9. Darius Acuff – G – Arkansas
An evaluator can rank these four guards in any order and I’d listen to whatever argument they made. Each of Flemings, Brown, Wagler, and Acuff have a case to be considered PG1 in this class, and the best part about it is that they all bring different strengths to the table.
Lendeborg gets a boost on this big board because he is tailor-made to be exactly what Charlotte’s front court needs. He is the perfect package of size, touch, athleticism, and processing that would open up a world of possibilites for the Hornets on both ends of the floor.
If he was just a couple of years younger, he would be significantly higher on my board.
Solid Starters
10. Brayden Burries – G – Arizona
11. Aday Mara – C – Michigan
12. Morez Johnson Jr. – F – Michigan
13. Jayden Quaintance – F – Kentucky
14. Hannes Steinbach – C – Washington
This is where things begin to get interesting for the Hornets.
It feels unlikely to me that Burries or Mara would be available at 14, so we’ll move past them for now.
In my opinion, any of Morez Johnson, Jayden Quaintance, or Hannes Steinbach would be home run picks for Charlotte. All three of these prospects would bring a level of physicality to Charlotte’s front court that was missing in their high profile end-of-season losses to Detroit and Orlando. Johnson Jr. and Quaintance specifically would transform the Hornets’ defense on day one in the Queen City, pairing with Moussa Diabate in the front court to obliterate opposing actions with a CAT 5 twister of arms, IQ, and activity.
Steinbach on the other hand would be more of an offense-first player, and one that the Hornets could utilize. The German big man possesses exceptional touch that marries with slick footwork and a bruising style unlike anybody currently in Charles Lee’s stable of centers. Steinbach’s Dyson hands vacuum up rebounds at Hornets-like rate, and I won’t be surprised if Charlotte’s analytical models rate him higher than other team’s.
Rotation Pieces
15. Cameron Carr – G/F – Baylor
16. Dailyn Swain – G/F – Texas
17. Ebuka Okorie – G – Stanford
18. Bennett Stirtz – G – Iowa
19. Karim Lopez – F – New Zealand
20. Labaron Philon – G – Alabama
21. Christian Anderson – G – Texas Tech
22. Nate Ament – F Tennessee
23. Koa Peat – F – Arizona
24. Allen Graves – F – Santa Clara
25. Chris Cenac Jr. – F/C – Houston
Some quick thoughts on players in this tier:
Okorie, Stirtz, Philon, or Anderson would be awesome lead ball handlers off Charlotte’s bench as early as next year. Ball handling is necessary in high-leverage moments, and even though the Hornets project to have LaMelo Ball and Coby White running the show for the majority of a 48 minute game, any of these guard prospects could play alongside them for stretches in offense-first lineups.
I’m selling any Ament or Peat stock I have right now. Ament is a long-term project with more questions than answers at this stage, and Peat needs to completely re-tool his jump shot before he’s a viable NBA rotation player (and I believe he’s going to go back to school to do just that).
Karim Lopez is a bit of a mystery man to most, but he looked right at home playing professionally in Australia at just 19-years-old. He’ll be a physical play-finisher early in his career, one that is ready to contribute on day one. I’ll likely have him higher on my board come draft day.
Allen Graves is another intriguing prospect to me. His analytical profile is off the charts because he impacts the possession game via rebounding and turnover suppression better than just about anyone in this class. If Charlotte selects a guard of a wing at 14, Graves will assuredly be in play for the Hornets at 18.
Rotation Players if you Squint Hard Enough
26. Joshua Jefferson – F – Iowa
27. Isaiah Evans – G/F – Duke
28. Meleek Thomas – G – Arkansas
29. Zuby Ejiofor – F/C – St. John’s
30. Henri Veesar – C – North Carolina
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