2021 Dub Nation HQ Draft Tournament
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2021 Dub Nation HQ Draft Tournament
We're crowdsourcing this pick to the smartest crowd in Dub Nation
It’s time for our annual Draft Pick Tournament, where we decide whom we want for the #7 pick, in a big bracket with pairwise showdowns.
Last Year’s: 2020 Draft Pick Tournament
Spoilers
The Tournament
Starts this week and should end right before the actual NBA Draft. For each showdown, people can vote on my Twitter poll or state your vote clearly in the DNHQ comments. Naturally, 1 comment vote = 10 Twitter votes.
I’ll bring the scouting reports and commentary. You bring your vote.
I’ll keep updating this page with the tournament posts.
First Round
#1 Davion Mitchell vs #16 Jaden Springer (71% - 29%). Davion wins, but many voters are very anxious about him.
#2 Franz Wagner vs #15 Isaiah Jackson (100%-0%). A perfect sweep. Amazing.
#3 James Bouknight vs #14 Jared Butler (69% - 31%). Mixed feelings about Bouknight too, but he pulls through. Not a great score against a player who might not even be allowed to play in the NBA.
#4 Keon Johnson vs #13 Chris Duarte (38% - 62%). A big upset, but not that surprising, as Duarte is a real darling of Dub Nation.
#5 Jalen Johnson vs #12 Usman Garuba (53% - 47%). Jalen pulls out a squeaker. I would have taken Garuba. I am a sucker for great defenders and good passers.
#6 Josh Giddey vs #11 Ziaire Williams. (51% - 49%) Incredibly close vote.
#7 Moses Moody vs #10 Corey Kispert (82% - 18%). Moses easily wins, but lots of love for Kispert at #14 as well.
#8 Kai Jones vs #9 Alperen Sengun. (20% - 80%). Kai deemed too raw for most voters.
Second Round
#1 Davion Mitchell vs #9 Alperen Sengun. (22% - 78%) On paper, a huge upset, but everyone on DNHQ could see this coming. The anti-Davion wave is real.
#2 Franz Wagner vs #7 Moses Moody (24%-76%). Lots of love for both candidates, but Moody comfortably wins, with some prominent vote switches.
#3 James Bouknight vs #6 Josh Giddey. (52% - 48%). Another close one. The comment vote was almost tied, but Twitter broke for Bouknight.
#13 Chris Duarte vs #5 Jalen Johnson (51% - 49%). Whew, a close one, where the HQ comment vote overrode the Twitter vote.
Semifinals
#9 Alperen Sengun vs #13 Chris Duarte (83% - 17%). A resounding victory over many people’s preference for the #14 pick.
#7 Moses Moody vs #3 James Bouknight. (81% - 19%) A close call for many voters, but in the end, they broke hard for Moody, especially in the comments.
Finals
#7 Moses Moody vs #9 Alperen Sengun (61% - 39%). To my amazement, Sengun wins the Twitter poll, but the DNHQ comment vote is a strong majority for Moody.
Boss Fight
Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Kuminga, The "What If They Fall" Showdown. People want Barnes (78%) and Kuminga (67%) over the field if available, and in the unlikely event both are available, 64% - 24% Barnes over Kuminga.
Final Wrapup
DFiB did some weighting of the votes and computed this average Non-Top-6 Big Board by DNHQ voters.
Moody
Sengun
Wagner
Bouknight
Kispert
Giddey
Williams
Mitchell
Jones
Duarte
Johnson
Garuba
Butler
Johnson
Springer
Jackson
Also, DNHQ community member void went the extra mile to write a Big Board compiler which lets us immortalize our own personal Big Boards for future humiliation, and aggregates the results.
Appendix: Choosing the field
Who is in the Draft Pick Tournament for #7?
This year there is a consensus Top 6:
Cade Cunningham will go #1
Jalen Suggs, Jalen Green and Evan Mobley will likely be the next three in some order
Barnes and Kuminga should finish the Top 6.
It’s possible there will be some little surprises in order, but everyone expects those to be the Top 6. And #7 is a bit more wide open than usual. So let’s have a tournament of all the picks that the mock drafters think will go between #7 and #13. Basically, any player not listed here is very likely to be available at #14 anyway.
I looked at 15 published mock drafts by prominent media, and here were the players.
Alperen Sengun x 9
Corey Kispert x 8
Davion Mitchell x15
Franz Wagner x14
Isaiah Jackson x2
Jaden Springer x3
Jalen Johnson x12
James Bouknight x10
Josh Giddey x14
Kai Jones x4
Keon Johnson x14
Moses Moody x11
Scottie Barnes
Tre Mann
Usman Garuba x2
For completeness, here are the Mock Drafts choices for GSW.
#7
Davion Mitchell x8. Givony, ESPN. Woo, SI. Greer, Sporting News. Taylor, Yahoo! Sports. Parrish, CBS. Spinella 3.0. Chad Ford, Big Board, Boone, CBS
Jalen Johnson, O’Donnell, SB Nation
James Bouknight x4, Vecenie, TheAthletic, Kalbrosky, USA Today. NBADraft.net (6/22), Kawakami, The Athletic
Josh Giddey. NBA Draft Room
Keon Johnson. Zielonka, Field Level Media
Franz Wagner x 2, The Athletic Staff, Wasserman, BR
#14
James Bouknight. Givony, ESPN. Greer, Sporting News.
Josh Giddey. O’Donnell, SB Nation
Jalen Johnson. Woo, SI
Usman Garuba. Vecenie, TheAthletic
Cameron Thomas, Kalbrosky, USA Today
Davion Mitchell, NBA Draft Room
Isaiah Jackson. Zielonka, Field Level Media
Alperen Sengun. Taylor, Yahoo! Sports. Parrish, CBS.
Ziaire Williams. NBADraft.net (6/22)
Franz Wagner. Spinella 3.0
Corey Kispert, Kawakami, The Athletic, Wasserman, BR. Chad Ford, Big Board.
Chris Duarte, The Athletic Staff, Boone, CBS
The Seedings
I’ve taken Scottie Barnes and Jonathan Kuminga out of the field, and we’ll have a special runoff round between those two and whoever we select as the winner of the tournament. I added Ziaire Williams, Chris Duarte, and Jared Butler, who were good suggestions as dark horses to be picked #7, and dropped Tre Mann who was mentioned only once and then no higher than #17 in any other mock.
I believe the odds are very high that GSW’s #7 pick will come from this pool of players.
Everyone gets seeded by this score: the sum of their appearances in post-lottery mock drafts from #7 to #13, plus (times they were actually selected for the GSW #7 pick, plus number of selections for GSW in pre-lottery mock drafts) times 2.
#1 Davion Mitchell
#2 Franz Wagner
#3 James Bouknight
#4 Keon Johnson
#5 Jalen Johnson
#6 Josh Giddey
#7 Moses Moody
#8 Kai Jones
#9 Alperen Sengun
#10 Corey Kispert
#11 Ziaire Williams
#12 Usman Garuba
#13 Chris Duarte
#14 Jared Butler
#15 Isaiah Jackson
#16 Jaden Springer
Bonus Reference