2023 Dub Nation HQ Draft Tournament

Crowd sourced for crowd soreness

Results updated here, the master index for the 2023 Dub Nation HQ Draft Tournament.

The Live Reaction Threads

For maximum entertainment, read all the live comments in

• 2023 Warriors NBA Draft Viewing Guide and Likely #19 Pick Time. This is the first thread, where the news of the Paul - Poole trade hits.

• Report: Jordan Poole and Ryan Rollins traded for Chris Paul; plus Draft Night watch thread

• Brandin Podziemski drafted at #19 by Warriors! Update: GSW drafts Trayce Jackson-Davis at #57; Patrick Baldwin Jr traded to Wizards. This also has a bunch of video and text scouting reports on the new Warriors.

• Apricot’s Collected Live Draft Day Commentary

First, some self-congratulations

If you can’t crow when you get lucky and predict the future, then when can you?

• (June 18 2023, four days before the draft) Eric Apricot (11 ♡):

  My gut tells me (i.e. I have zero proof of this) that GSW strongly prefers a more mature prospect (like Trayce Jackson-Davis, Jaime Jaquez, or sort of Podziemski) that are seen as a reach at #19, so they are trying to see if they can trade down a few spots and pick up some assets. But it’s a dangerous game as all these guys seem to be quietly rising into the range where it would be no surprise to see them go #16-#30. I wouldn’t be surprised if GSW can’t move the pick and end up “reaching”.

Just about got every sentence right (Larry Harris confirmed they chose to not move down because of intel that they would lose Podz) and nailed the two draft picks. Whew!

Disclaimer: Past results are not indicative of future performance.

Rare Apricot Draft Board Success

First, I feel very good about my Draft Tourney which was rather hard to put together. In early May, I took 11 players from mock drafts in our range. But then I added five Wild Card entrants who were at the time mocked as being too low to take:

• Brandin Podziemski (our actual pick)

• Trayce Jackson-Davis (our actual pick)

• Bilal Coulibaly (#7)

• Noah Clowney (#21)

• Sidy Cissoko (#44)

So if you followed our Draft Tourney, you were fully caught up on who these weird draft picks were.

I will also add that my big board at void’s ended up having my Top 8 be 5 lottery picks, 1 other out of reach and one second rounder and… TADA our two picks.

After a streak of three years where GSW drafted my last choice (this year it would have been G.G. Jackson and Cam Whitmore), this was the rare time my board is in tune with both our team and the NBA.

1. Dereck Lively (lottery, #12)

2. Jordan Hawkins (lottery, #14)

3. Bilal Coulibaly (lottery #7)

4. Trayce Jackson-Davis (our guy at #57)

5. Leonard Miller (don’t know how he slipped to #33)

6. Brandin Podziemski (our guy at #19)

7. Jett Howard (lottery #11)

8. Jalen Hood-Schifino (#17 out of reach)

Why we have the Tourney

The tournament is designed for people who are not draft experts to catch up on prospects in the Warriors range at a casual pace. This is the reason it is sliced up into one on one votes instead of a massive 16 person scouting report.

The ultimate goal is for you to develop opinions and attachments about the different prospects, so you can argue with others, dream about the future, enjoy the draft with more suspense and emotional investment, and then in the future tell everyone how you had it right and the drafters were a bunch of idiots.

And yes yes everyone wants to trade the pick for someone ready to contribute. You can add to conversation with specific players to target, or even better, specific trades.

The DNHQ Big Board…

Super commenter void has made (again) a web app where you can record your Big Board for our limited pool of “Might Fall To #19” Tourney participants.

• void’s DNHQ Big Board Vote Site

• You can also see my preferences for previous years, poor misguided soul

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Tourney Results

The results combine the article poll votes plus the 10x weighted comment votes.

Final Round Winner

• Dereck Lively II 49%.

• Jordan Hawkins 24%

• Jett Howard 23%

• Colby Jones 4%

• Dereck Lively II is the winner of our little Tourney! What’s to dislike about an athletic center who is a defensive wizard, dunk finisher and in the future potentially a stretch 5? Yes there are the questions of a lack of motor and the small issue of his hype being so enormous that he’ll likely be taken in the lottery well before #19. But that just shows that we have good taste.

Second Round

• Jett Howard (1) vs Noah Clowney (9)

  • Jett Howard 57%

  • Noah Clowney 43%

  • Yes, a lot of us are worried about Jett’s defense, but enough of us (including me) want to gamble on a smooth shooter and shot creator.

• Jordan Hawkins (2) vs Kris Murray (10)

  • Jordan Hawkins 55%

  • Kris Murray 45%

  • Copy and paste the uneasy vote from above: Yes, a lot of us are worried about Jett’s Jordan’s defense, but enough of us (including me) want to gamble on a smooth shooter and shot creator tireless off-ball cutter.

• Dereck Lively II (6) vs Sidy Cissoko (14)

  • Dereck Lively II 80%

  • Sidy Cissoko 20%

  • Even though voters think Lively won’t be there to draft, they voted with their hearts and left the game theory behind.

• Colby Jones (12) vs Bilal Coulibaly (13)

  • Colby Jones 62%

  • Bilal Coulibaly 38%

  • A close vote, but the comments broke hard for Colby Jones, mainly because voters did some game theory and decided Coulibaly was not going to fall down to #19.

First Round

• Jett Howard (1) vs Brandin Podziemski (16)

  • Jett Howard 54%

  • Brandin Podziemski 46%

  • I didn’t vote, but I would have rolled the dice on Podz. But I didn’t want to be the guy overriding the popular DNHQ vote. Picking Podz is the kind of high-risk stab I approve of, as his competition level and athleticism are a question but his effective creativity seems to follow in the footsteps of Santa Clara alums Steve Nash and Jalen Williams. Jett’s defense seems uncertain enough that to make me worry he can’t be part of a championship team.

• Jordan Hawkins (2) vs Trayce Jackson-Davis (15)

  • Jordan Hawkins 76%

  • Trayce Jackson-Davis 24%

  • You know it’s not a complete fix, because here are two of my favorite prospects matched up in the first round. I’m obviously very interested in TJD since I stuck him in as a Wild Card. The playmaking, the poise, the court vision, the defense. The Warriors even invited him in for a workout. But in the end, three-point shooting wins in this league, and I would bet on a shooter who’s proved his skill on the biggest stage (he completely swung the NCAA Tournament game against a Saint Mary’s team I was pulling for, the bastard).

• Jalen Hood-Schifino (3) vs Sidy Cissoko (14)

  • Jalen Hood-Schifino 38%

  • Sidy Cissoko 62%

  • Our first upset. In the past Cissoko might have been my kind of guy, but an Okongwu and Garuba later, I no longer trust my love of athletic guys with feel and no jumper. I’ll go JHS, sharing all the concerns about flaky shot and lack of athleticism.

• G G Jackson (4) vs Bilal Coulibaly (13)

  • G G Jackson 3%

  • Bilal Coulibaly 97%

  • The random draw might have shafted Jackson by matching him against a similar high risk young player who seems a little more dependable and a lot more stashable abroad to develop. DNHQ really did not like GG’s youthful run-ins with his coaches and immature defense. Coulibaly continues to throw down occasional highlights in the French pro leagues.

• Brice Sensabaugh (5) vs Colby Jones (12)

  • Brice Sensabaugh 15%

  • Colby Jones 85%

  • Wooof, DNHQ is in a two-way mood this year. Anyone with a whiff of bad defense gets extra scrutiny and anyone with That Dog Within on defense gets extra love.

• Dereck Lively II (6) vs Leonard Miller (11)

  • Dereck Lively II 71%

  • Leonard Miller 29%

  • A lot of affection for both these players with multiple people saying they would be happy with either one and that it was sad that the true finals are in the first round (that’s luck for you… see below on the seeding process).

  • Lively definitely has the edge for me. He seems to be coming in pretty ready on defense — though with a big fouling problem — and I’ve learned from my aforementioned Okongwu / Garuba affections to be less enthused about no-shot athletic power forwards.

  • However, given that Lively skipped his scheduled workout with GS this week (apparently to workout for LA at #17 instead), we have a collective unease that he may have a guarantee earlier or at least good reason to believe he will not fall to #19 after all.

  • FYI, The Ringer’s latest June 6 Mock Draft has Lively going #12(!).

  • That is life and I won’t change up the tournament field mid-journey. The main purpose was to get us thinking about what we value in a draft pick and to one-by-one get to know the main pick candidates, and that has been achieved whether or not we collectively come up with the most realistic choice.

• Rayan Rupert (7) vs Kris Murray (10)

  • Rayan Rupert 49%

  • Kris Murray 51%

  • Well that was close. The poll vote was a landslide for Murray, but the comments tilted slightly to Rupert. Tilt your head and you can dream that Rupert, budding defensive ace, turns into a Kawhi Leonard type. I’m intrigued, but I’m still not sold on the predictability of the Australian pro league, and he’s VERY VERY raw on offense.

• Dariq Whitehead (8) vs Noah Clowney (9)

  • Dariq Whitehead 41%

  • Noah Clowney 59%

  • Very little appetite to take on a potentially long injury rehab for Whitehead, and Dub Nation is high on defense right now. But the discussion in the comments was very evenly divided.

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Bonus Rounds

(2023.06.08) The Tourney field is set about a month ahead of time. In that month, prospect reputations go up and down. It would be difficult to adjust the tournament field as you go, and that would also be taking too seriously what is a super unscientific process.

This bonus round will be its own separate mini-tournament to allow us to scout and vote on some key prospects who didn’t make it into our tournament.

• Bonus Group A: Ben Sheppard, Kobe Bufkin, James Nnaji, Maxwell Lewis

  • Ben Sheppard 10%

  • Kobe Bufkin 70%. The poll was close but Kobe is the runaway winner in the comments for his two way play and promise.

  • James Nnaji 5%

  • Maxwell Lewis 16%

• Bonus Group B: Jaime Jaquez, Jalen Wilson, Julian Strawther, Terquavion Smith

  • Jaime Jaquez 93%. Even more of a runaway victor in both the poll and the comments.

  • Jalen Wilson 4%

  • Julian Strawther 3%

  • Terquavion Smith 0%

For Bonus Group A: in our roundup of 20 mock drafts, most of the mock picks were already in our tournament field, with these exceptions:

• Ben Sheppard. Wasserman, B/R (2023.06.02). Holy crap, Sheppard has been shooting upwards on the mock drafts.

• James Nnaji. Givony and Woo, ESPN DraftExpress. (2023.06.05)

• Kobe Bufkin. Krysten Peek, Yahoo! Sports. (2023.06.05)

  • When setting the field, Bufkin was considered out of our range. His rank has been drifting downwards ever since.

• Kobe Bufkin. Givony and Woo, ESPN DraftExpress. (2023.06.05)

Also, I re-computed the Tourney field with the latest Mocks, and the four top players that would have made the Tourney today are

• Kobe Bufkin (16.5)

• Maxwell Lewis (26.3)

• Ben Sheppard (28)

  • Actually worked out for GSW on June 6.

• Jaime Jaquez (30.3)

  • Actually worked out for GSW on May 30

Thus I will add Lewis to Bonus Group A and put Jaquez in Bonus Round 2.

For Bonus Group B, we know many of the players that have actually worked out with the Warriors. I am keeping a list. I’m not going to scout 32 players, but I think it’s worthwhile to scout some of them. Here are the top 8 invitees so far, ranked by Sam Vecenie:

• Dereck Lively II 14 (he cancelled)

• Colby Jones 28

• Jaime Jaquez 31

• Jalen Wilson 33

• Julian Strawther 35

• Trayce Jackson-Davis 40

• Terquavion Smith 45

• Brandin Podziemski 47

We have the 4 players not in the Tourney in Bonus Group B.

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Original Announcement

1. Yes, we are having a Draft Tournament

Yes, we are still having our FOURTH annual DNHQ Draft Tournament, where Dub Nation gets to vote on whom the Warriors should draft via head to head showdowns.

The draft will happen on Jun 22 2023, 5pm.

If the Warriors end up trading the pick, I’ll end the draft tournament early.

2. TL; DR. Here is the Final Field

• Jett Howard (1)

• Jordan Hawkins (2)

• Jalen Hood-Schifino (3)

• G G Jackson (4)

• Brice Sensabaugh (5)

• Dereck Lively (6)

• Rayan Rupert (7)

• Dariq Whitehead (8)

• Noah Clowney (9)

• Kris Murray (10)

• Leonard Miller (11)

• Colby Jones (12)

• Bilal Coulibaly (13)

• Sidy Cissoko (14)

• Trayce Jackson-Davis (15)

• Brandin Podziemski (16)

3. Deciding the field

It’s impossible to predict the exact players that will be available at the Warriors draft slot #19. Instead I took a number of well-respected mock drafts¹ and excluded all players which were drafted no later than #19.

Excluded Players (all mock drafts have them gone by #19)

• Victor Wembanyama

• Scoot Henderson

• Brandon Miller

• Amen Thompson

• Ausar Thompson

• Jarace Walker

• Taylor Hendricks

• Cam Whitmore

• Anthony Black

• Cason Wallace

• Gradey Dick

• Kobe Bufkin

• Keyonte George

• Nick Smith

Our Tournament Field

Here are all 11 players remaining whom at least one mock draft selects at #20 or earlier.

• Brice Sensabaugh

• Colby Jones

• Dariq Whitehead

• Dereck Lively

• G G Jackson

• Jalen Hood Schifino

• Jett Howard

• Jordan Hawkins

• Kris Murray

• Kyle Filipowski - back to Duke

• Leonard Miller

• Rayan Rupert

Wild Cards

I added 5 players that were the highest ranked player not listed above from some interesting draft analysts. Naturally, I did also select for players that are interesting to me…

• Sidy Cissoko (Adam Spinella)

• Trayce Jackson-Davis (also Crow @bballstrategy)

• Brandin Podziemski (Dean on Draft)

• Noah Clowney (Hollinger)

• Bilal Coulibaly (Givony, ESPN)

Seed Order

Finally, I seeded them in the order of their average ranks in the mock drafts.

Warriors Pre-Draft Workouts

• Public List, updated regularly

1. Wasserman B/R 4/4, SB Nation 4/4, The Ringer 5/14, Vecenie TheAthletic 5/14, Givony ESPN, 5/17