Winners? Losers? Every NBA Draft has them.
Which Thompson twin will have the best career + Q2 Shohei Ohtani Greatness Report
Past: Three teams that won the draft and three teams that lost the draft. Yes, just three days later, we can already make these types of definitive claims.
The NBA Draft last Thursday was just like every other draft before it. Some teams had great drafts while others left us scratching our heads. Time will tell who the real winners and losers of the draft were, but there is no time like the present, so let’s pick who won the draft and who lost the draft before any draft selection even steps foot onto the floor. Also, if you are looking for more draft coverage, don’t miss this week’s podcast.
Winners:
Houston Rockets: Before the draft, the Rockets were one of the youngest and most athletic teams in the NBA. Following the draft, they got younger and now are in serious contention for the most athletic team in NBA history. Let me repeat, NBA history; this is not hyberbole. A Rockets team already stacked with multiple slam dunk competition alumni added Amen Thompson with their fourth overall draft pick (6'6”, 214 pound guard with a 7’0” wingspan and reported 44-inch vertical) and Cam Whitmore with their twentieth overall draft selection (6’6”, 235 pound wing with a reported 40.5-inch vertical) into the mix. Amen was not a surprise selection for the Rockets, but Whitmore was, as he was projected as a top ten pick throughout the buildup to the draft. Him falling to the Rockets was the steal of the draft and Houston has more weapons than your average Texas neighborhood. New Rockets head coach Ime Udoka has a lot of toys at his disposal as he comes in to right the ship and both Amen and Whitmore will be pillars in the continued rebuild of the Rockets.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Sam Presti is a men amongst boys. After overperforming last year, the Oklahoma City Thunder went from thinking they would be serious contenders in the Victory Wembanyama sweepstakes to almost falling out of the lottery altogether. Entering the night with the twelfth pick, the Thunder made a trade with the Dallas Mavericks to grab Kentucky Wildcats guard Cason Wallace, the 10th overall selection in the draft. As a I wrote in my mock draft last week, I love Cason Wallace. Anytime a guard has a 6’8” wingspan, you can sign me up. He can stroke the three, create on offense, and will immediately flirt with making the All-Defensive team. To me, he is the perfect backcourt partner for star point guard and fellow Kentucky Wildcat, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (6’11” wingspan), and will flourish in Oklahoma. The thought of Shai, Cason, Lou Dort (6’9” wingspan), and Chet Holmgren (7’6” wingspan) on defense is intoxicating. The Thunder are now not just a league pass must watch, but a serious playoff contender.
Portland Trail Blazers: Let’s open some old wounds. The Portland Trail Blazers drafted Sam Bowie second overall in the 1984 NBA draft, one pick before the Chicago Bulls drafted Michael Jordan. They drafted Greg Oden first overall in the 2007 NBA Draft, one pick before the Seattle Supersonics (remember them) drafted Kevin Durant. Both of those misses are enough for any Blazers fan to lose a lifetime of sleep over. However, no one will be losing any sleep over this draft. Scoot Henderson, by far the 2nd best player in the draft, fell to the Blazers at three after the Charlotte Hornets selected swingman Brandon Miller with the 2nd overall pick. In drafts not featuring 7’5” generational talents, Scoot is going first. Ridiculous athleticism paired with a competitiveness that rivals the truly psychotic greats like Kobe Bryant and Kevin Garnett, Scoot’s floor is an all-star point guard and his ceiling is racking up MVP trophies. I can’t imagine a scenario where Scoot fails. His competitiveness just won’t allow it. Saying goodbye to Damian Lillard should be much with the future franchise point guard now in Oregon and the Blazers can look toward a bright future with Scoot, Shaedon Sharpe, Anfernee Simons, and whatever ransom they can acquire for Lillard.
Losers:
Orlando Magic: After selecting rookie of the year Paolo Banchero in last year’s draft and Franz Wagner in the 2021 draft, the Orlando Magic front office has looked to be rolling as of late. The luck may have ran out though following the events that took place last Thursday. Lucky enough to have two draft picks in the top 11 (#6 and #11), the Magic selected Anthony Black out of Arkansas and Jett Howard out of Michigan. Both guards will be thrown into an already crowded Orlando backcourt featuring the 5th overall selection from the 2021 draft (Jalen Suggs), the 15th overall selection from the 2020 draft (Cole Anthony), and the former 1st overall selection of the 2017 draft (Markelle Fultz). Unfortunately, I don’t see either Black or Jett as much of an improvement over the resources the Magic already have. Black has great length and size, but similar to Suggs, Anthony, and Fultz, can’t buy a basket (30.1% from outside last season). Meanwhile, Howard can shoot, but I would label as a quite streaky shooter and unlike Black and Fultz, had trouble containing guards in the Big Ten last season. Defending in the NBA could pose a serious problem for the son of former NBA player Juwan Howard. I don’t see either Black or Howard as a key member of the young Magic core moving forward.
Washington Wizards: The funny thing about the draft is that the player you draft doesn’t always end up on your team by the end of the night and for the Washington Wizards this year, I think they are going to wish they never picked up the phone. The Wizards drafted Jarace Walker out of Houston with the eighth overall pick, a highly talented player who I thought would fit in very nicely to the brand new team the Wizards are assembling on the fly. Things looked great. I even jotted down a note that the Wizards would need to be considered in the winners column of this very Substack. Then things went horribly wrong. Washington traded Walker and two 2028 second-round draft picks to the Indiana Pacers for Bilal Coulibably, the highly unknown swingman out of France who was teammates with Wembanyama and was drafted just one pick before Walker. In my opinion, this trade was very Wizards (this means BAD). Haven’t they learned that they don’t know how to draft foreign talent yet? Rui Hachimura, Jan Vesely, Oleksiy Pecherov (yes that is a real player the Wizards drafted in the 1st round in 2006 and yes, he was BAD): all 1st round draft picks that did not find success in the nation’s capital. Coulibably’s wingspan (7’2”) is intriguing, but he is beyond raw and his stock got severely inflated by every scout who had Wemby fever (which was all of them. It was/is a pandemic). I have trouble envisioning a day when Coulibably signs an extension with Washington.
Dallas Mavericks: If you thought I was hard on the Wizards, Dallas made an even poorer decision and Luka Doncic can’t be pleased. The Mavericks drafted guard Cason Wallace out of Kentucky with the tenth overall selection, only to trade him (and Davis Bertans) that night for center Dereck Lively II out of Duke. This is a disaster. How do I put this nicely? Lively II is not an NBA player. Yes, he has great size and a very nice wingspan, and yes, he can block the occassional shot or two. But he has limited scoring ability (5.2 PPG as a freshman at Duke) and I didn’t like what I saw from him as a rebounder (5.4 RPG). The Mavericks needed a center, but this was not the way to go about it. It’s like eating play-doh because you are hungry. Sure it is edible and may fill you up, but your fridge is over there. Go eat something else; literally anything else. Adding insult to injury, as I mentioned in the winners section, Wallace is going to be one of the better players from this draft. Lively will be a name you forget about before Luka celebrates his 30th birthday.
Present: I am legally obligated to remind you once a quarter how great Shohei Ohtani is. Here is my Q2 report.
I know this is getting old for most, but we can’t let it get old. What Shohei Ohtani continues to do is not normal. It’s not natural. We may never see it again in our lifetimes, your children’s lifetimes, or your grandchildren’s lifetimes. We all need to pay attention to what Ohtani is doing so when those grandchildren visit you twice a year on the holidays, you can tell them all about the baseball player who was both one of the best hitters and pitchers in baseball. They will then proceed to ask you what baseball is and turn back to the XFL game on television.
For those that are not in the loop, Shohei Ohtanti is having his best MLB season of his career this summer, which is saying a lot. Through 76 games, he has 25 home runs, 60 RBIs, a .294 batting average, a 168 OPS+, and has swiped 10 pizza box bases. He also has racked up a 6-3 pitching record with a 3.13 ERA and 117 strikeouts. Here are his rankings in the AL (not the Los Angeles Angels, but the entire American League) through Sunday:
Batting:
WAR: 1st
Home Runs: 1st
RBIs: 1st
SLG: 1st
OPS: 1st
OPS+: 1st
Hits: 3rd
Runs: 4th
OBP: 6th
Walks: 7th
Triples: 7th
Pitching:
Strikeouts: 3rd
Adjusted ERA: 8th
ERA: 10th
I won’t even say this next part will blow your brain because a brain that is already blown up (your brain should have imploded seconds earlier when you read the list above), but if you look at just the Angels statistical records, Ohtanti leads the team in every statistical category for both pitchers and batters besides doubles. EVERY category for both pitchers and batters is led by Ohtanti besides doubles and walks. And yes, this is a team with Mike Trout.
The Angels sit at 42-36 as of today and are right in the mix for the final wild card spot. Ohtani’s back may have already given out, as he isthe only reason the Angels are within reach of the postseason at this point. I know there is no “I” in team, but there is an “I” in “Shohei” and “Ohtani” and honestly, that should be a common saying around the Angels ballpark these days.
That is all for the Q2 Ohtanti report. I will circle back at the end of Q3, where I will most likely discuss Ohtanti’s 2nd MVP trophy, his race to win his first Cy Young award, as well as the several perfect games and 4-homer performances he had over the rest of the summer. That is all he has left to do to wow me. I am numb to everything else at this point.
Future: Amen Thompson was drafted one pick ahead of his twin brother Ausar Thompson last Thursday. Which twin will have the better NBA career?
I have one sister that is four years younger than me and that is as far as my family extends. She is, for better words, not in the WNBA today. In saying that, I can’t imagine having a twin brother and I really can’t imagine having a twin brother who is drafted into the NBA. And if we really want to get into the scenario at play here, I really can’t imagine being drafted myself into the NBA with my hypothetical twin brother, To be frank, it is near impossible for me to comprehend the Thompson brothers, who went fourth overall (Amen) and 5th overall (Ausar) in last Thursday’s draft. God bless those genes. But, now the question is, who will be better?
There have been plenty of twins in NBA history: Tom and Dick Van Arsdale, Horace and Harvey Grant, Marcus and Markieff Morris, and Brooke and Robin Lopez come to mind as some of the better combos over the years. When I look at each set of twins, I may not be able to pick out who is who, but I can pick out who the better twin was. See, there is always a better twin and being drafted first seems to mean somethin throughout NBA history.
Dick Arsdale was drafted 13th overall in the 1965 NBA draft, one pick ahead of his twin brother Tom Arsdale. Dick had the better career. Horace (10th overall) was drafted before Harvey (12th overall), and Brooke (3rd overall) was drafted ahead of Robin (15th overall); both Horace and Brooke made all-star teams while their twin brothers were never really close to that level. The other outlier is the Morris twins, with Markieff going one spot ahead of Marcus in the 2011 NBA draft, despite Marcus having the better career. To be honest though, neither were that good, so I could be convinced it was a wash.
With this “twin trend” in mind, Amen should have the edge on Ausar. But could Ausar be the Marcus of the Thompson twins and actually have a better career than is brother Amen? I have a hunch he just might.
I like Ausar’s situation much better. He is heading to the Detroit Pistons where Monty Williams has just been given a king’s ransom to build a winning culture there. Ausar should fit in as a wing nicely next to a backcourt of Cade Cunningham and Jaden Ivey, who can both feed him the rock. Amen on the other hand is heading down to Houston, which has played out like a Mad Max film for the last few years. Ime Udoka has been hired to reset everything surrounding the organization, but that is a tall task and he comes with his own baggage. I see landing in Houston as less than ideal for a raw prospect like Amen, despite Amen’s off-the-charts potential.
Amen has more pure athletic ability than his brother (please note that Ausar is still a ridiculous athlete) and has more potential as a large point guard than Ausar. Meanwhile, Ausar looks to be a better shooter and defender than his brother. If we are talking ceilings, Amen’s is higher (think Tracy McGrady as the ultimate ceiling) while Ausar’s is more Andre Iguodala. Both great ceiling, but you see the difference in outcomes there.
However, I am riding with Ausar. He is the more sure thing who is heading to the more sure landing spot. If Amen makes me pay for it, I would be more than happy to eat my words. Regardless, I think these twins have a chance to become the best twins in NBA history. And that is something I think any of us can get behind.