NBA Draft analysis makes for some funny discourse.<\/p>\n
Some basketball fans are obsessive about it. Once a player hits 25, they\u2019re like Leonardo DiCaprio – they lose interest.<\/p>\n
(My fingers typed that without my permission. It just, happened).<\/p>\n
There\u2019s nothing (in the case of basketball) wrong with that. Taking an interest in prospects is fun. There is a bit of a tendency to overrate young players. You\u2019ll hear draft acolytes suggest that a team can plug an immediate hole by drafting a particular player, neglecting to consider that even the best prospects are typically bad NBA players in their first season. Otherwise, it\u2019s fine.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the funny thing about draft discourse: It\u2019s a funk that can be readily faked. It is frustrating for fans who commit large swaths of their free time to watching obscure 17-and-under Balkin tournaments. You can cobble together highlight packages and other people\u2019s scouting reports, and honestly, make predictions that are comparable in accuracy to the zealots.<\/p>\n
All of which is to say: Take my draft takes with a grain of salt. I try to watch prospects, but I\u2019m not \u201cA Draft Guy\u201d. It\u2019s a tertiary interest. In 2021, I would have moved mountains for Jalen Johnson. In 2022, I would have done the same for Ousmane Dieng. It\u2019s possible that I \u201csimp\u201d for any ball-handling wing to hit the court.<\/p>\n
Still, I\u2019m pretty sure the Rockets should target Luigi Suigo in the 2026 NBA Draft.<\/p>\n
Perfect Rockets target could be available in draft<\/p>\n
Yes, it would be nice if the Rockets could target AJ Dybansta or Darryn Peterson. If you\u2019re beginning to relitigate the Nets-for-Suns picks trade, you\u2019re not alone. Sure, the Nets likely don\u2019t move Bridges if they\u2019re not getting their pick back. Are we sure the Nets aren\u2019t a lottery team with Bridges? Is it possible that Bridges demands a trade anyway?<\/p>\n
Such is life. The Rockets don\u2019t have the pick. For the first time in five years, they won\u2019t even have a first-round pick. Rockets fans watching 7\u20193\u201d behemoth Aday Mara in the March Madness tournament are even dreaming too big.<\/p>\n
Suigo is different. He\u2019s a projected second-round pick. To my semi-educated eye, he looks like he could exceed his projected value.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s a 7\u20192\u201d big man who plays for a club called Mega Superbet in Serbia. Side note: Does it feel like a lot of these European teams have the words Mega or Super in their name?<\/p>\n
Table that. Suigo is a real big man at 250 pounds. He\u2019s shooting 26.7% from three-point range this year. That\u2019s not great, but let it be said that it puts him ahead of, as a random example, Blazers big man Donovan Clingan. He didn\u2019t shoot threes in college, and he\u2019s a credible floor spacer at the NBA level. At the NBA level, trainers will emphasize shooting for any big man who\u2019s even hinted at floor spacing capacity. Suigo can likely flirt with 35% shooting in time.<\/p>\n
Defensively, he\u2019s mostly a rim protector. He seems to be, let\u2019s say, not entirely useless in space, but he\u2019s not a switch big. Still, at 7\u20192\u201d with good instincts, he should have considerable utility on that end of the floor.<\/p>\n
By now, I know my audience. I know what you\u2019re thinking: I\u2019m in your head, man. The Rockets already have a starting-caliber big:<\/p>\n
Is this guy really trying to replace Alperen Sengun again?<\/p>\n
Rockets need a long-term rotational solution<\/p>\n
Put it this way: If Suigo is good enough to replace Sengun, he\u2019ll be a top five-or-ten second-round pick in NBA history.<\/p>\n
More likely, he\u2019s a career backup. That\u2019s a value pick in the second round. In time, the hope is that he can replace Steven Adams and Clint Capela.<\/p>\n
His viability next to Sengun in situational double big lineups should be part of his appeal to Houston. If Suigo does continue to develop as a floor spacer, that could be more effective than any of the two non-shooting bigs looks Ime Udoka has gone with. If he\u2019s on the board when the Rockets are picking, they ought to give him some serious consideration:<\/p>\n
Unless I\u2019m missing something.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA Draft analysis makes for some funny discourse. Some basketball fans are obsessive about it. Once a player…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676743,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3794],"tags":[7,292,194,4066,6,211,22556],"class_list":{"0":"post-676742","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston-rockets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-houston","10":"tag-houston-rockets","11":"tag-houstonrockets","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-rockets","14":"tag-rockets-draft"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116285430020998135","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676742","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676742"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676742\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676743"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676742"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676742"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676742"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}