The 2025 NBA Draft is just around the corner with the prize at the top being Cooper Flagg. Es Baraheni and guest from the Game Theory Podcast Bryce Simon break down Cooper's game and who he would fit best with. After a break they discuss the tank race, who could be selected in the top 5, and how good the 2025 class is.Host: Es BaraheniWith: Bryce SimonExecutive Producer: Andrew SchlechtAudio Producer: Grayson MoodyJoin our Discord: https://discord.gg/Ua2qrEe7 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: What are the key highlights of Cooper Flagg's game?
Like you watch some of the shooting. It's like off movement. He is running into those shots. And that's, what's really intriguing as like an off ball player, you know, definitely off ball play.
I should have said that at the top, very much an off ball player for me.
Yeah, I think like one of the intriguing things about Ace and maybe this is a debate of like what you prefer when it comes to the NBA draft. But you talk about like college spacing, like Ace could really, really benefit from NBA spacing. Whereas the there's the other side of the argument where it's like length and the size and the speed of the NBA might actually hurt his ability.
So where do you land on that for Ace? What what do you think? Do you think he's actually going to benefit more from the space or will it be harder for him to create those shots?
I think he'll benefit in terms of the off-ball player, in terms of that space where somebody breaks down the defense and now he's getting good looks and all of those type of things. My biggest worry is, though, I don't know if he has the handle to take advantage of the space on the ball. And that's where I think I've come down just a little bit.
I thought Ace May would be—and he still could be, right? like hub of your offense, like the primary option. He can do it with the ball in his hands. He can do it without the ball in his hands. All of those things. I'm not saying you can't run zoom action for him or something like that.
I'm just not sure he has the wiggle and the tightness in his handle to like break you down in isolation and get something better than a mid range pull up over a two different types of players. Now, Can he tighten his handle? We've seen players do it. I'm not like, that's the crap shoot with all of this.
It's just not as far along as what I thought, but he makes NBA level shots when you watch him play. And again, he's a six, eight, six, nine wing who has real two way potential that can make shots. That's had big games that rebounds. Is this not what every single NBA team is looking for? Right? Like wings like that. You're always taking a chance when you draft somebody.
I think taking a chance on that archetype that has been productive makes a lot of sense.
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Chapter 2: Why is Cooper Flagg considered the number one pick?
He's at 17 points on 48, 42 from three and 88 from the free throw line. Um, I think he's a guy that people would like to see him do a little bit more with the ball in his hands, right? Like some of that stuff. But the fact he's knocking down shots along with the defensive potential and all of that has definitely put him back.
Yeah, I mean, I think if he showed some more on-ball stuff, some creation, whatever, I could see a team falling in love with Vijay over Ace and or Dylan. Like, I think... Right now, I would have Dylan 2, Ace 3, Kasperis 4, Vijay 5. But if you told me by the time we got to the draft that Vijay ends up the number two pick with the right team, I wouldn't be shocked. It wouldn't be crazy to me.
Right. That's interesting because I think... With Vijay, similar to Ace in the sense that maybe NBA spacing could really help him out. It's like the spacing opening things up. He's such a great athlete. We already saw it in international competition where that extra space allowed him to do some more. I don't know. He's very intriguing.
He's definitely one of my favorite guys to watch in this draft cycle. There are a couple of teams...
in the draft world right now that are hoping that their teams tank a little bit more to finish this season I'm thinking about the Brooklyn Nets think about the Portland Trailblazers think about the Toronto Raptors where everybody is like all right let's try to focus on losing for the rest of the season now you can agree or disagree with that approach but that's how people feel that's how strongly people feel about that draft is there a player though
in the back end of the lottery or top 10 that you think has that star potential to make these fan bases feel a little bit better about their situation.
So, so there's some interesting names. What I will say is I think this draft has gotten a little bit overstated because here's what I've learned the last two years. We only talk about drafts in terms of if it's a good draft or a bad draft or whatever, based on the top. That's the only that like, that's how it ends up getting, you know, labeled.
My least confident tier is the tier we're about to talk about in this range, where if I was drafting a lot of these guys, you know, maybe some of these guys would end up in the back end of the lottery, but like whoever I'm taking six through 10 in the next mock draft. I'm a little nervous about throwing out those names six through 10. Does that, does that make sense? Yeah. Yeah.
Um, some of those guys, we still got a month to evaluate them, all of that, where you get to the end of the first round and I'm like, okay, I really liked this guy into the first round, top of the second, stuff like that. So the rest of the lottery is, is a little all over the place for me. I will throw out a name.
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