Presented with little comment are the Top 5 prospects for tonight’s NBA Draft, in our order of preference.

1. Paolo Banchero – Duke

2. Keegan Murray – Iowa

3. Jaden Ivey – Purdue

4. Chet Holmgren – Gonzaga

5. Jabari Smith – Auburn

OK, here’s some comment:

Smith seems set to be the Number One pick by Orlando tonight, and I admit much of my anti-Smith bias comes from his two extremely forgettable performances against the teams I watch consistently. I was there in person on 12/18/2021 when the rumblings of his lottery pick status were beginning, and he posted a mediocre 13 points and 4 rebounds in a game Auburn struggled to win. Then a few weeks later 1/25/2022 he had only 5 points (added 10 rebounds) as Auburn struggled to shake pedestrian Mizzou. As the Auburn postseason ship was sinking, I was impressed with his increased rebounding — 9+ boards in five of their final seven games — but it was not enough to keep the ship afloat.

Paolo looks like the best player in this draft, leading a very-talented but oddly constructed Duke team to the Final Four with Coach K heading for the exit.

Keegan’s shot is a thing of beauty.

Ivey compares favorably to everybody’s favorite budding superstar Ja Morant.

Chet can do it all…but did not do it as well as one of our favorites — jackrabbit forward Brandon Clarke. And he’s probably the least consistent of these candidates. Many kinks to be worked out.

Data courtesy Basketball Reference
Game Score metric created by John Hollinger detailed here
Plot format by Aaron Baggett
Inspiration from Ken Pomeroy
Inspiration from Rock M Nation

Team colors courtesy:
Benjamin S. Baumer and Gregory J. Matthews (2020). teamcolors: Color Palettes for Pro Sports Teams. R package version 0.0.4