It’s honestly crazy how many immediate impact defenders there are in this class. Ausar, Cason Wallace, Lively, Jaquez are all borderline elite defenders already. There’s also a ton of guys with the tools, skills, and attitude, just lacking opportunity to show out Amen, Black, Bilal, OMax, AJax, Camara. I’m sure there’s others, and if I missed your guy i’m sorry.
Then there’s obviously the court warping defensive presences of Chet and Vic. It’s “cheating” a little that arguably the best defensive prospect from last year is debuting with this class, but still. I can’t remember another rookie class that had 10+ guys that I could easily see being all-def some day.
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I think this draft class will ultimately go down in history along with the 96 draft as being seen as one of the best. I think Wemby, Scoot, Chet, and Ausar are future hall of famers, and there may be a couple more.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this becomes the norm for awhile, at least as long as the NBA’s “meta” stays the same. Kids who were 12ish when the Warriors and then a few years later the Rockets started really revolutionizing how the game was played saw how important being a 3-and D player was, and how it can legit lead to max contracts for roleplayers. And shooting is one of those skills that, at least to a certain point, is teachable and can always be worked on. So they committed to defense at a young age because they saw that it’s valued both on the court and on the paychecks.
tbh it feels like people say this every year
One of many people’s draft concerns w/ Jaime was on the defensive end, and personally I was even like worried his lateral movement was a little slow. But dude is really a pretty amazing defender, his isolation defense is insane rn. He’s only allowing .31 PPP, which is number 1 in the league
Rayan Rupert will be a superstar. (he’s also a good defensive prospect)