The Stepien NBA Draft Podcast

Cole returns and we start the podcast with discussion about the NBA Lottery/draft order. Before the player breakdowns we touch on the NBA combine and news about who is staying in the draft and who is returning. This time we dissect three players: Zhaire Smith, Lonnie Walker, and Troy Brown. Enjoy. 

Cole is replaced by Ben Falk, and he and I discuss broad draft topics from NBA trends that effect drafting strategies, viewing players as distributions, and several more. Enjoy. 

Cole and I are joined by JZ Mazlish to discuss his recent articles about Bamba's defensive upside, and Ayton and Bagley's offensive upside. We end with a few brief discussions about Jontay Porter as a Wendell Carter analogue, Dzanan Musa's athleticism, Keita Bates-Diop, Rawle Alkins, Kevin Heurter, Jarred Vanderbilt, and Kerwin Roach. Enjoy.

Cole and I touch on some draft updates, then dive in on lessons from the NBA playoffs. Our deep dive profiles are Jacob Evans and Shamorie Ponds, then Cole talks about the Nike Hoops Summit and how depressing this upcoming 2019 draft class might be. Enjoy.

Cole and I discuss draft declarations: who is interesting to us, how we might advise players. We then touch on how impactful tanking is from a league perspective. We "end" with three player breakdowns: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, De'Anthony Melton, and Landry Shamet. Enjoy.

Cole and I are joined by boy wonder Jackson Hoy. We return from a long break with a macro perspective of the draft, specifically how our preseason rankings compare to our current rankings and what we can learn from the changes. We then hit some important prospects at the top of The Stepien's draft board: Jaren Jackson, Trae Young, DeAndre Ayton, Marvin Bagley and Wendell Carter. We end with a few thoughts on Zhaire Smith and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Enjoy.

In part two of our conversation, Austin and I cover the potential NBA prospects in the East and Midwest regions, as well as offer up our bracket picks (pre-De'Andre Hunter injury news). You can follow Austin @apete1993. 

Strengths and Weaknesses of Michael Porter Jr. Recorded Nov 22.

Austin Peters, an assistant coach at Shenandoah University, joins Cole Zwicker of The Stepien to preview the NCAA Tournament from an NBA draft perspective. In part one, Cole and Austin touch on teams who were snubbed and highlight the prospects in the 'First Four' games you should track. For the remainder of the podcast, the two go through every match up and lay out every prospect in the South and West regions that are on NBA radars, as well as break down potential prospect matchups to look forward to in later rounds of the tournament. Enjoy! 

Strengths and Weaknesses of Luka Doncic. Recorded Nov 22.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Wendell Carter. Recorded Feb. 9.

JZ Mazlish and Cole Zwicker touch on JZ's recent article on The Stepien regarding the "NBA Talent Curve," how it factors into establishing a draft framework and apply this construct in terms of tiers to the 2018 draft class. JZ and Cole spend the remainder of the podcast sifting through topics such as what prospects could amount to stars, what abilities constitute a draft inefficiency and most importantly, we hone in on JZ's observations thus far for a majority of the top 25 prospects. 

Part 2 of this episode is about Marvin Bagley and if his slightly outdated playing style can be overcome by his generational athleticism. Enjoy.  

Cole and I watched a ton of Duke over the past couple weeks, so to begin this episode we discuss our feelings about Duke's less heralded prospects Duval, Allen, Trent, Bolden and DeLaurier. Then we try to maintain a draft/team building centric discussion of the NBA trade deadline, but venture into NBA takes as well. Enjoy.

Mike and Jackson, experts in fringe prospects, quickly profile 20-plus potential late first and second rounders. They touch on Khyri Thomas, LaGerald Vick, Kerwin Roach, and many more. Enjoy.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices