Welcome to the second addition to my prospect stock update series! If you haven’t seen a previous post in this series, than basically this is just going to be me talking about prospects who I’m putting higher on my board recently and prospects who I’m putting lower on my board recently. Nothing complicated, just a fun little post where I can talk about some prospects!
Rising: DJ Wagner
I know he hasn’t put up the impressive numbers that we thought he could, but I recently did a deep dive on DJ Wagner, and I really liked some of the things I saw. His ability to get to his spots is absurdly good, and his shot making ability is really good as well. There is a lot of stuff he is going to have to clean up if he wants to reach his potential in the NBA; but I honestly think he could be a 25+ PPG scorer in the NBA one day. He reminds me of Tyrese Maxey with his speed and shot making ability, though he also reminds me of Dennis Smith Jr, so there definitely are a wide range of outcome. However, he is just so much fun to watch, and I’ve realized that I was being too hard on him before.
Rising: Kel’el Ware
I am genuinely shocked that Ware isn’t a consensus top 10 prospect at this point. He is putting up great numbers across the board, is fun to watch, and has so much clear upside to his game. Despite all of this, he is often ranked in the mid teens—early twenties on people’s draft boards. I used to be there with him, but now I’m really starting to like how he plays. He’s a versatile defender, athletic lob threat, can shoot 3s efficiently, can run in transition; this kid does a lot of things that NBA teams really want out of the of their starting center. I don’t think there is any reason he shouldn’t be a consensus top 10 prospect at this point, he is already a good player and has tons of upside.
Rising: Cam Spencer
Unlike the first two players I talked about, Cam Spencer is likely not going to be a guy who has the potential to be making all star teams one day. The reason I have him here is because he has one elite NBA skill, and that is 3-point shooting. He is a super efficiency shooter across the board, and he’s been doing this for his entire college basketball all career. He also isn’t too shabby of a passer. He doesn’t have the same kind of upside that other prospect do, but he can be a guy who is at least 40% shooter in the league. He can be a teams Joe Harris or Corey Kispert.
Falling: Stephon Castle
It hurts to say this because I have been a fan of Stephon Castle for a while, but he hasn’t been very good this season, and I’m starting to question how much potential he really has. Defensively, he’s been what I expected. A good perimeter defender who can swallow smaller players whole with his length and agility. Offense is where the problems arise though, and that mostly comes with his scoring. He had shot the ball horribly this year, to the point where any sliver of hope I had for his shot is pretty much gone. He hasn’t been creating for himself at all. His Playmaking has been fine, but not at the level you want from a guy who doesn’t shoot well or create shots for himself. I still believe he has the upside to get back to a higher level of prospect, but I’m far less confident in that than with a lot of other prospects.
Falling: Bronny James
It’s been a lot of ups and downs for Bronny James over the last few months, but recently it’s been mostly downs. He hasn’t played well this season. It could be partially due to the heart issues he dealt with, but Bronny has seemed to lost some of those abilities he had in highschool. He isn’t making his shots anymore and his playmaking can be inconsistent. I still believe that Bronny can be a good defender in the league, but I have way more questions than answers when it comes to his offense right now. The flashes are still there, which gives me a little bit of hope that he still has something in him. However, at this point, unless a team is absolutely certain that drafting Bronny means getting (or if your the Lakers, keeping) LeBron James, then I would be hesitant to draft him.
That’s all for now! Thank you for reading this little article I put together. I plan on releasing one or two of these every single month leading up to the draft, so be on the lookout for more of these in the future! Also, if you have any questions at all, feel free to ask them!