2020 Tiered Draft Big Board

[CFAN38]

Below is my first attempt at a Tiered Big Board for 2020 with some thoughts on a few players


Tier 1
1   LaMelo Ball, he is close to being alone in a top tier. If he is even slightly better then his brother he warrants #1 pick

Tier 2
2   Anthony Edwards, great pysical tools and can really score the basketball. Needs to become more well rounded
3   Cole Anthony, nature scorer who is really more of a 6'3 wing then a PG
4   James Wiseman, higher IQ JaVale Mcgee? his ceiling really depends on team fit

Tier 3
5   Onyeka Okongwu, could develop into an anchor for an elite defense
6   Tyrese Haliburton, he could easily be the player teams regret passing on size and skill set makes him easy to fit into a team
7   RJ Hampton
8   Deni Avdija

Tier 4
9   Isiah Stewart, ceiling might be limited but as a Tristan Thompson like role player he will bring value to his team
10   Nico Mannion, he is a player who should thrive as a pass first PG in the spacing of NBA
11    Theo Maledon
12   Killian Hayes
13   Precious Achiuwa, his physical profile gives him a Siakam like ceiling while his floor could be Looney
14   Obi Toppin

Tier 5
15   Saddig Bey, great size for a wing and a knock down shooter, players from Villinova have translated well to nba lately
16   Isaac Okoro, physical 3-D prospect
17    Jaden McDaniels, high ceiling low floor guy, I'm not sold he has 1 clear skill to fall back on at this point
18    Aaron Nesmith, great shooter with solid wing size
19   Paul Reed
20   Jalen Smith, has been shooting better from outside lately, potential as stretch 4 greatly helps his stock

Tier 6
21   Josh Green
22   Jahmi'us Ramsey
23    Tyrese Maxey
24   Tyler Bey, potential to be great utility 3/4 defender
25   Matthew Hurt, fits classic mold of bench 3pt specialist

Tier 7
26   Cassius Stanley
27   Tre Jones
28   Jordan Nwora
29   Vern Carey Jr
30   Aleksej Pokusevski

[slamtheking]

TP for kicking off the draft board and the names to watch for.

with the way Memphis has played this year, I think that pick conveys somewhere between 12 and 17

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Man, I used run a draft website that had a whole system to rank tiers. Brings back memories.

Anywho, tier one should be reserved for superstars as a way to help compare draft classes.

I have Cole Anthony in Tier 3 or 4. I know what people say about him, but the lack of efficiency is alarming. There are a lot of small guards with poor efficiency in college that don't translate to the NBA.

I have Lamelo, Edwards, and Wiseman in Tier 2. Wiseman could be up in Tier 1 depending on interviews and how he presents himself professionally and responsibly.

I have Jamirus Ramsey ranked pretty high, maybe even in Tier 3 or 4, and depending on how he finished the year, he might get into tier 2. I need to do more research on the rest of the guys, but no one else has really popped to me so far.

Thanks for the listing!

[CFAN38]

Man, I used run a draft website that had a whole system to rank tiers. Brings back memories.

Anywho, tier one should be reserved for superstars as a way to help compare draft classes.

I have Cole Anthony in Tier 3 or 4. I know what people say about him, but the lack of efficiency is alarming. There are a lot of small guards with poor efficiency in college that don't translate to the NBA.

I have Lamelo, Edwards, and Wiseman in Tier 2. Wiseman could be up in Tier 1 depending on interviews and how he presents himself professionally and responsibly.

I have Jamirus Ramsey ranked pretty high, maybe even in Tier 3 or 4, and depending on how he finished the year, he might get into tier 2. I need to do more research on the rest of the guys, but no one else has really popped to me so far.

Thanks for the listing!

I agree that when comparing draft classes to each other the tiers take on different meanings.

Cole Anthony scares me as well. I still rank him highly because I like his ceiling if he can land on a team where he is the secondary facilitator. If he is forced to be the primary facilitator it could be a disaster.

I'm also intrigued by Ramsey but haven't seen enough of him to separate him from the other smaller wings in this class.

[CFAN38]

TP for kicking off the draft board and the names to watch for.

with the way Memphis has played this year, I think that pick conveys somewhere between 12 and 17

I agree Cs are looking at a late loto/early teen pick

It wont be a popular pick but I predict we see DA drafting a point guard with the Memphis pick. Haliburton would be an amazing fit but will likely be gone. Both french PGs bring great size to the position and Mannion would be a nice long term pick as a potential long term Kemba replacement.

Draft twitter wouldn't agree but I would be really happy if the Cs drafted Stewart or Achiuwa.   

[action781]

Doesn't look like as strong of a draft this year as has been recently in 2016-2019

[smokeablount]

Below is my first attempt at a Tiered Big Board for 2020 with some thoughts on a few players


Tier 1
1   LaMelo Ball, he is close to being alone in a top tier. If he is even slightly better then his brother he warrants #1 pick
2   Anthony Edwards, great pysical tools and can really score the basketball. Needs to become more well rounded
3   Cole Anthony, nature scorer who is really more of a 6'3 wing then a PG

Tier 2
4   James Wiseman, higher IQ JaVale Mcgee? his ceiling really depends on team fit
5   Onyeka Okongwu, could develop into an anchor for an elite defense
6   Tyrese Haliburton, he could easily be the player teams regret passing on size and skill set makes him easy to fit into a team
7   RJ Hampton
8   Deni Avdija

Tier 3
9   Isiah Stewart, ceiling might be limited but as a Tristan Thompson like role player he will bring value to his team
10   Nico Mannion, he is a player who should thrive as a pass first PG in the spacing of NBA
11    Theo Maledon
12   Killian Hayes
13   Precious Achiuwa, his physical profile gives him a Siakam like ceiling while his floor could be Looney
14   Obi Toppin

Tier 4
15   Saddig Bey, great size for a wing and a knock down shooter, players from Villinova have translated well to nba lately
16   Isaac Okoro, physical 3-D prospect
17    Jaden McDaniels, high ceiling low floor guy, I'm not sold he has 1 clear skill to fall back on at this point
18    Aaron Nesmith, great shooter with solid wing size
19   Paul Reed
20   Jalen Smith, has been shooting better from outside lately, potential as stretch 4 greatly helps his stock

Tier 5
21   Josh Green
22   Jahmi'us Ramsey
23    Tyrese Maxey
24   Tyler Bey, potential to be great utility 3/4 defender
25   Matthew Hurt, fits classic mold of bench 3pt specialist

Tier 6
26   Cassius Stanley
27   Tre Jones
28   Jordan Nwora
29   Vern Carey Jr
30   Aleksej Pokusevski

TP, good job putting this list together.  I haven't been following this crop of prospects this year. 

Any chance you can add each player's position 1-5 and their current age?

[nickagneta]

This is great, as long as you let everyone know this isn't like Chad Ford ESPN tiers and is more like tiers you would find in tiers in the 2013 draft and not like tiers in a 2003 or 2007 draft.

[gouki88]

I was thinking of doing a similar thing sometime next week (Tuesday / Wednesday), so TP for getting the ball rolling early. Will be fun to compare tiers

[CFAN38]

This is great, as long as you let everyone know this isn't like Chad Ford ESPN tiers and is more like tiers you would find in tiers in the 2013 draft and not like tiers in a 2003 or 2007 draft.

My tiers are tiers in that I believe tier based drafting is superior to drafting for need. This is reportedly how DA and the Celtics front office approaches the draft. The best example of this was the year they drafted Rozier. PG was not a priority but Rozier was a tier higher then the next prospect they had in their rank who filled their need for wing depth (  Justin Anderson).

[Who]

Why so down on James Wiseman?

[nickagneta]

This is great, as long as you let everyone know this isn't like Chad Ford ESPN tiers and is more like tiers you would find in tiers in the 2013 draft and not like tiers in a 2003 or 2007 draft.

My tiers are tiers in that I believe tier based drafting is superior to drafting for need. This is reportedly how DA and the Celtics front office approaches the draft. The best example of this was the year they drafted Rozier. PG was not a priority but Rozier was a tier higher then the next prospect they had in their rank who filled their need for wing depth (  Justin Anderson).

Yeah, I know how the Celtics draft. But I also know tons of NBA fans know Chad Ford's draft tiers where Tier 1 equals Superstar/Generational talent and Tier 2 equals All-Star to high level starter and Tier 3 equals  mid level starter to role playing starter, etc., etc. Just thought that might be nice to let people know you weren't doing that.

Also, tiers in one draft are quite different than tiers in other drafts. Letting others know the whereabouts the quality of the tiers in this draft is also important.

That's all I was saying.

[Csfan1984]

This is a rough draft to break down TP for your efforts. I'm take a week or two to dive in and I'll add my list pre tourney.

[CFAN38]

Why so down on James Wiseman?

The short answer is that I think it has to do with the level that his success is depended on the team that drafts him.

This has led me to actually already adjust my tiers. I feel Ball can and will succeed no matter what team he lands on. I have adjusted my tiers to put Ball alone at the top and Edwards, Anthony, and Wiseman together. This new “2nd tier” has 3 players who could be Allstars on the right teams but struggle to be rotational player if on the wrong teams.

Edwards, very well could be empty stat guy if he is allowed to dominate the ball on a team without a winning culture. A

Anthony, I’m not confident he can play PG but as an undersized wing playing next to a pass first PG he could thrive. His perfect fit “all be it unlikely” would be as the third guard in NO. He could play off Ball and Holiday then eventually thrive playing next to Lonzo.

Wiseman, on a team with a good pg and spacing he could be a monster. But him on the Knicks or magic and he could look like a mistake for a top 5 pick

[gouki88]

What makes you think Ball will be that good? He has the exact same concerns as Lonzo but with worse defence. Melo cannot shoot and has a terrible IQ when it comes to shooting.