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Russ gon haunt y'all from the graveCade will be in rockets red. Y’all can brainstorm the picks after though
just wait on it2024 NBA Draft Thread
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just wait on it
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I’ll slander Russ and harden for the rest of my life if we lose this pickRuss gon haunt y'all from the grave
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I’m howlingI’ll slander Russ and harden for the rest of my life if we lose this pick
#5 incoming
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Golden State has to take Scottie Barnes if they get the Minnesota pick, right?
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Unless they trade the pick seems like a no brainer
If they have two lotto picks it seems like that could be exceptional ammo for a trade package though. Not sure what to make of them caring about stephs prime
If they have two lotto picks it seems like that could be exceptional ammo for a trade package though. Not sure what to make of them caring about stephs prime
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Going to be a fascinating offseason for them. Clock is ticking.
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Why could Jalen Duren, not Emoni Bates, be the No. 1 prospect in 2022? Let us count the reasons
Jalen Duren didn’t need to be here.
The prestigious Pangos All-American Camp began Sunday night, with more than 100 of the top high school players competing before personnel from all 30 NBA teams.
Many of these prospects looked forward to getting exposure at one of the first big events fully open to media and scouts since the pandemic hit. Duren, though? Everybody knows about him. He led Montverde (Fla.) Academy to a national title in April. He plays on one of the most dominant teams on the Nike EYBL circuit. He has been a part of USA Basketball since he was an eighth-grader.
He didn’t need any kind of stock boost in Las Vegas. But he’s here anyway because there’s one thing Duren loves to do: match up against the best players.
“I came here because I just wanted to have fun,” he said. “This camp has a lot of history, and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to compete with the guys and get better.”
In the first round of camp games Sunday, with NBA folks circling the main court at Tarkanian Basketball Academy, the 6-foot-10, 230-pounder immediately showed why he’s the best big man prospect in the country. He finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, but it was how he got those numbers that was even more impressive. He had two ferocious one-handed slams, the first coming off an offensive rebound and the other on an alley-oop. He drilled both of his 3-point attempts. He brought the ball up the floor and initiated the offense.
It was the kind of performance that made you think Duren might not just be the best big in the Class of 2022 but the best player in the prep ranks, period. Yes, even over wunderkind Emoni Bates, who is now Duren’s grassroots teammate on the Philadelphia-based Team Final. Rivals.com made the switch this spring, ranking Duren ahead of Bates at No. 1. While some wonder if Bates’ game has plateaued, Duren has continued to refine his skill set. And a big reason why is his work ethic and willingness to test himself.
“He really wants to be the best player he can be,” said Rob Brown, Team Final’s program director.
Brown first spotted Duren during a middle-school tournament in Reading, Pa. Duren was in seventh grade but was already about 6-4, gracefully running the floor and passing the ball to open teammates. “He looked like was 7-foot compared to all the other kids,” Brown said. “I said to myself, ‘My God, this guy is perfect. He’s exactly what we need.’”
Brown soon met with Duren’s parents and convinced them to bring their son to his well-known program. This was right around the same time that Duren decided to focus on basketball after playing a lot of football. “I was one of those kids who didn’t really know the game,” he said of his football career. “I just liked to be aggressive and run around. And I liked to hit.”
His embrace of physicality never left. He grew up in New Castle, Del., but made the nearly one-hour trek to Philly’s Roman Catholic High School to begin his prep career. Duren’s mom, Aneisea Hudgins, worked for a nonprofit in the city, so she’d drive Jalen and his younger brother to school early in the morning before going to her job. Jalen still credits her for his willingness to put in long hours. By the time he was a sophomore, he was already ranked in the top five of his class by the big recruiting services. In 2019, while playing at USA Basketball camp as a 15-year-old against players who were two years older in some cases, he controlled the paint with his toughness and rebounding.
He wasn’t content to just be a powerful, glass-cleaning center, and with good reason. Those aren’t the types of players the NBA wants in this era of spaced-out offenses and 3-point barrages. So Duren has steadily expanded his game to other areas, working to become more of a playmaker, shooter and distributor.
“I think my passing is something that’s very underrated, my ability to see the court,” he said. “Something I definitely think I can do is run the offense from the elbow or from anywhere. I’m not a player who needs 100 dribbles to get where I need to go. I like to set up my guys and find a scorer.”
Duren drew comparisons early in his career to Dwight Howard because of his broad shoulders and strength. More recently he has been viewed as another Bam Adebayo, a more modern NBA five-man who can operate on different areas of the court. If everything comes together and he hits his ceiling, you could see a version of Chris Webber. That’s a pitch Michigan coach Juwan Howard, Webber’s former Fab Five teammate, has made to Duren.
“You can run offense through Jalen now, and it’s seamless,” Brown said. “He still needs to improve his jump shooting a little bit. His shot at times gets a little flat. It’s hard when you have big hands to be a great shooter. But when he gets good arc coming out of his hand, there’s a very good chance it’s going in.”
Last summer, Duren made his biggest move yet by transferring from Roman Catholic to powerhouse Montverde. He went from being indisputably The Man at his high school to another five-star for coach Kevin Boyle. Montverde’s roster this past season included Caleb Houstan (Michigan), Langston Love (Baylor), Ryan Nembhard (Creighton) and Dariq Whitehead, a top 10 player in the Class of 2022. One thing Boyle has stressed to Duren is that, no matter how good he is now, Duren could find himself on an NBA team where he’s the fourth option on offense, especially in the modern game. Duren wanted to learn how to fit in, not just stand out.
“I wanted to have the opportunity to show that I can play with great players and still do me,” Duren said. I feel like a lot of guys don’t get that chance. They just kind of dominate their own situation.
“It’s fun for me, because who doesn’t want to play with great players? The reality of basketball is, you’re not going to be the guy all the way through your whole career. You might get to that point someday. But I feel like if you’re being honest with yourself, you know that’s not always going to be the case. I feel like that’s what (being at Montverde) doses for me. It keeps me honest.”
It also taught him how to bring it every day. Duren has always been a worker, but he could get away with coasting in some games just because he was so much better physically than other high schoolers. Boyle said that when he first got to Montverde, Duren was playing with great effort maybe 50-55 percent of the time. That wasn’t unusual for stars who came to his program; Boyle said even R.J. Barrett was like that when he arrived at Montverde. Practicing against other blue-chippers on a daily basis and angling for minutes on a loaded roster can change that mindset in a hurry.
“He’s made great strides in that area and now is probably around 80 percent of the time with great effort and energy,” Boyle said. “I think he still has to get to that next step. I’ve told him that there will be a lot of guys with his athleticism and size when he gets to the next level, and what’s going to start to separate people is skill and effort. You hope that being around good players with good work ethics that they will raise each other up.”
Montverde lost one game this season and won the Geico High School Nationals title with Duren serving as the force in the middle. He had one of the plays of the year when he caught a floater in midair against IMG Academy, making “SportsCenter’s” Top 10 that day. Boyle remembers the big grin on Duren’s face when he held the trophy from the GEICO tournament.
“You could see how much pride and happiness he felt in helping the team become national champs,” Boyle said. “There was such joy in his face. That gave me hope that he can be a great player, because winning is really important to him.”
Duren figures to do a lot more winning this summer for Team Final, which looks like the favorite to take home the EYBL title at Peach Jam next month. The team has already crushed opponents on the circuit this spring after Bates decided to join forces with a roster that already boasted Duren, five-star 7-1 center Dereck Lively II and four-star guard Justice Williams. Bates has had all of his teams in the past centered around his talent; he previously played EYBL for Bates Fundamentals, which his father coached, and his dad even started his own prep school last year, with mixed results. Perhaps he saw how being around other great players has raised Duren’s game.
Duren and Bates struck up a friendship as eighth-graders at a USA Basketball camp and have remained close. Though they are jockeying for the top spot in the recruiting rankings, they don’t talk much about it.
“We just think about how to make each other better,” Duren said. “That, and having fun with the game is the whole point. People are going to try to make it like it’s about 1 and 2, but that’s not really the case. We just want to have fun, be 17, hopefully have a good run on the court.”
“If one is 1 and the other is 2, they don’t care,” Brown said. “There’s no inner team fighting over what position they are on a website.”
Bates decommitted from Michigan State in late April, and most observers believe he’ll never play college basketball. Duren’s next stop is less clear. He released a top 11 on April 25 that included two professional options — the G-League Ignite team and the NBL. If Overtime Elite really wanted to make a splash, it could offer Duren a huge contract this summer. Duren said he hasn’t ruled out playing in college, either. He has scheduled visits to Miami (his former assistant coach at Roman Catholic, D.J. Irving, was recently hired on Jim Larranaga’s staff), Memphis and Kentucky for this month. As of Sunday night, he wasn’t sure about his other official visits but Villanova, Michigan, UCLA, Auburn, Alabama and Penn State made his list of 11.
Duren has time to decide and a desire to keep improving. After the Pangos camp, he’ll try to bring home a Peach Jam title. All while sharpening every little aspect of his already impressive game.
“At the end of the summer, I want to have people saying that I got better,” he said. “Not just one specific area. I want people to say, ‘Wow, Jalen Duren got better as a basketball player.’”
The prestigious Pangos All-American Camp began Sunday night, with more than 100 of the top high school players competing before personnel from all 30 NBA teams.
Many of these prospects looked forward to getting exposure at one of the first big events fully open to media and scouts since the pandemic hit. Duren, though? Everybody knows about him. He led Montverde (Fla.) Academy to a national title in April. He plays on one of the most dominant teams on the Nike EYBL circuit. He has been a part of USA Basketball since he was an eighth-grader.
He didn’t need any kind of stock boost in Las Vegas. But he’s here anyway because there’s one thing Duren loves to do: match up against the best players.
“I came here because I just wanted to have fun,” he said. “This camp has a lot of history, and I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to compete with the guys and get better.”
In the first round of camp games Sunday, with NBA folks circling the main court at Tarkanian Basketball Academy, the 6-foot-10, 230-pounder immediately showed why he’s the best big man prospect in the country. He finished with 16 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and two blocks, but it was how he got those numbers that was even more impressive. He had two ferocious one-handed slams, the first coming off an offensive rebound and the other on an alley-oop. He drilled both of his 3-point attempts. He brought the ball up the floor and initiated the offense.
It was the kind of performance that made you think Duren might not just be the best big in the Class of 2022 but the best player in the prep ranks, period. Yes, even over wunderkind Emoni Bates, who is now Duren’s grassroots teammate on the Philadelphia-based Team Final. Rivals.com made the switch this spring, ranking Duren ahead of Bates at No. 1. While some wonder if Bates’ game has plateaued, Duren has continued to refine his skill set. And a big reason why is his work ethic and willingness to test himself.
“He really wants to be the best player he can be,” said Rob Brown, Team Final’s program director.
Brown first spotted Duren during a middle-school tournament in Reading, Pa. Duren was in seventh grade but was already about 6-4, gracefully running the floor and passing the ball to open teammates. “He looked like was 7-foot compared to all the other kids,” Brown said. “I said to myself, ‘My God, this guy is perfect. He’s exactly what we need.’”
Brown soon met with Duren’s parents and convinced them to bring their son to his well-known program. This was right around the same time that Duren decided to focus on basketball after playing a lot of football. “I was one of those kids who didn’t really know the game,” he said of his football career. “I just liked to be aggressive and run around. And I liked to hit.”
His embrace of physicality never left. He grew up in New Castle, Del., but made the nearly one-hour trek to Philly’s Roman Catholic High School to begin his prep career. Duren’s mom, Aneisea Hudgins, worked for a nonprofit in the city, so she’d drive Jalen and his younger brother to school early in the morning before going to her job. Jalen still credits her for his willingness to put in long hours. By the time he was a sophomore, he was already ranked in the top five of his class by the big recruiting services. In 2019, while playing at USA Basketball camp as a 15-year-old against players who were two years older in some cases, he controlled the paint with his toughness and rebounding.
He wasn’t content to just be a powerful, glass-cleaning center, and with good reason. Those aren’t the types of players the NBA wants in this era of spaced-out offenses and 3-point barrages. So Duren has steadily expanded his game to other areas, working to become more of a playmaker, shooter and distributor.
“I think my passing is something that’s very underrated, my ability to see the court,” he said. “Something I definitely think I can do is run the offense from the elbow or from anywhere. I’m not a player who needs 100 dribbles to get where I need to go. I like to set up my guys and find a scorer.”
Duren drew comparisons early in his career to Dwight Howard because of his broad shoulders and strength. More recently he has been viewed as another Bam Adebayo, a more modern NBA five-man who can operate on different areas of the court. If everything comes together and he hits his ceiling, you could see a version of Chris Webber. That’s a pitch Michigan coach Juwan Howard, Webber’s former Fab Five teammate, has made to Duren.
“You can run offense through Jalen now, and it’s seamless,” Brown said. “He still needs to improve his jump shooting a little bit. His shot at times gets a little flat. It’s hard when you have big hands to be a great shooter. But when he gets good arc coming out of his hand, there’s a very good chance it’s going in.”
Last summer, Duren made his biggest move yet by transferring from Roman Catholic to powerhouse Montverde. He went from being indisputably The Man at his high school to another five-star for coach Kevin Boyle. Montverde’s roster this past season included Caleb Houstan (Michigan), Langston Love (Baylor), Ryan Nembhard (Creighton) and Dariq Whitehead, a top 10 player in the Class of 2022. One thing Boyle has stressed to Duren is that, no matter how good he is now, Duren could find himself on an NBA team where he’s the fourth option on offense, especially in the modern game. Duren wanted to learn how to fit in, not just stand out.
“I wanted to have the opportunity to show that I can play with great players and still do me,” Duren said. I feel like a lot of guys don’t get that chance. They just kind of dominate their own situation.
“It’s fun for me, because who doesn’t want to play with great players? The reality of basketball is, you’re not going to be the guy all the way through your whole career. You might get to that point someday. But I feel like if you’re being honest with yourself, you know that’s not always going to be the case. I feel like that’s what (being at Montverde) doses for me. It keeps me honest.”
It also taught him how to bring it every day. Duren has always been a worker, but he could get away with coasting in some games just because he was so much better physically than other high schoolers. Boyle said that when he first got to Montverde, Duren was playing with great effort maybe 50-55 percent of the time. That wasn’t unusual for stars who came to his program; Boyle said even R.J. Barrett was like that when he arrived at Montverde. Practicing against other blue-chippers on a daily basis and angling for minutes on a loaded roster can change that mindset in a hurry.
“He’s made great strides in that area and now is probably around 80 percent of the time with great effort and energy,” Boyle said. “I think he still has to get to that next step. I’ve told him that there will be a lot of guys with his athleticism and size when he gets to the next level, and what’s going to start to separate people is skill and effort. You hope that being around good players with good work ethics that they will raise each other up.”
Montverde lost one game this season and won the Geico High School Nationals title with Duren serving as the force in the middle. He had one of the plays of the year when he caught a floater in midair against IMG Academy, making “SportsCenter’s” Top 10 that day. Boyle remembers the big grin on Duren’s face when he held the trophy from the GEICO tournament.
“You could see how much pride and happiness he felt in helping the team become national champs,” Boyle said. “There was such joy in his face. That gave me hope that he can be a great player, because winning is really important to him.”
Duren figures to do a lot more winning this summer for Team Final, which looks like the favorite to take home the EYBL title at Peach Jam next month. The team has already crushed opponents on the circuit this spring after Bates decided to join forces with a roster that already boasted Duren, five-star 7-1 center Dereck Lively II and four-star guard Justice Williams. Bates has had all of his teams in the past centered around his talent; he previously played EYBL for Bates Fundamentals, which his father coached, and his dad even started his own prep school last year, with mixed results. Perhaps he saw how being around other great players has raised Duren’s game.
Duren and Bates struck up a friendship as eighth-graders at a USA Basketball camp and have remained close. Though they are jockeying for the top spot in the recruiting rankings, they don’t talk much about it.
“We just think about how to make each other better,” Duren said. “That, and having fun with the game is the whole point. People are going to try to make it like it’s about 1 and 2, but that’s not really the case. We just want to have fun, be 17, hopefully have a good run on the court.”
“If one is 1 and the other is 2, they don’t care,” Brown said. “There’s no inner team fighting over what position they are on a website.”
Bates decommitted from Michigan State in late April, and most observers believe he’ll never play college basketball. Duren’s next stop is less clear. He released a top 11 on April 25 that included two professional options — the G-League Ignite team and the NBL. If Overtime Elite really wanted to make a splash, it could offer Duren a huge contract this summer. Duren said he hasn’t ruled out playing in college, either. He has scheduled visits to Miami (his former assistant coach at Roman Catholic, D.J. Irving, was recently hired on Jim Larranaga’s staff), Memphis and Kentucky for this month. As of Sunday night, he wasn’t sure about his other official visits but Villanova, Michigan, UCLA, Auburn, Alabama and Penn State made his list of 11.
Duren has time to decide and a desire to keep improving. After the Pangos camp, he’ll try to bring home a Peach Jam title. All while sharpening every little aspect of his already impressive game.
“At the end of the summer, I want to have people saying that I got better,” he said. “Not just one specific area. I want people to say, ‘Wow, Jalen Duren got better as a basketball player.’”
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He looks 25
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Good interview. Cade seems very mature for his age.
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Wolves fan, here so where does this pick have to land so we can keep it?
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Think top 3?
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Top 3
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Everyone's situation is different, but these kids are starting a movement.
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If warriors don’t get it this year they get unprotected next
I wish I had more faith in the wolves doing well because I like Edwards and Karl when he isn’t kitty
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Understand. I just have questions will the trio of Kat/D’Lo/Ant-man really work? Also, what pieces will be around this team to help. Thanks for the info. It just tough because if Portland breaks up we still got to fight off Ja and Zion to make the playoff next season. im gonna have hope but i just want to see some improvements. I think also D’Lo and KAT really need time to play on the court.
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