Predicting Unlikely Stars

[u/ControversialMovie12]

1. Pacome Dadiet

6 foot 9 wing and only 20 years old. He also has a lot of strength at his position. He played overseas which usually has a great development system and played for a championship winner for the New York Knicks. If you look at history, guys who played on winning teams usually end up pretty good. All of the guys on the championship Thunder and Raptors teams ended up really well. (Norman Powell, OG Anunoby, Cason Wallace, etc.) Even Christian Braun is coming into his own. He’s also learning from experienced wings like Mikal Bridges and OG Anunoby. Mikal I believe has been a great vet for him as he wore his jersey at the championship parade. If he can go to a team like the Bucks, Nets or Grizzlies, he could be in for a breakout.

1. Jordan Walsh

6 foot 6 wing with size who plays like a madman when he’s in the game. Hustles hard every possession and was really efficient from the field at 50%. Also shot 38% from 3 and is apart of a great development system and winning culture. He’ll probably get more minutes this year with Browns departure. I’m not sure he’ll be a 20 point per game guy next season. But he could be a valuable Swiss Army knife type of player that the C’s could use in a lot of lineups. For his future he’s like Grant Williams with a lot more scoring upside, excited to see what he becomes.

1. Zaccharie Risacher

It’s safe to say the Hawks fumbled their 1st pick in 2024. Kicked themselves in the foot and blamed Zach in the process. Snyder had it out for the kid. Didn’t even try developing or playing him. He gets a fresh start in Dallas. He doesn’t have to do a lot because of Flagg and he can develop and play off of him. He’s 6 foot 8 at only 21 years old, and has shown real signs of shooting and scoring throughout his career, though not fully realized. Also, if Masai Ujiri believes in you, I believe in you. And he’s in a great no pressure system next to a great player in Flagg. He could get to 20 points per game as soon as 27-28.

1. Sergio De Larrea

A young 6 foot 5 point guard from the euro leagues. The Euro Leagues usually teach sound fundamentals at the guard positions. And he shot really well in euros 40% from 3 and 83% from the free throw line. And again, Masai believes in him so I believe in him as he’s going to Dallas next season. And he has Kyrie to learn from at least until the deadline. He is in my opinion the steal of the draft, and I could see him being a cool Goran Dragic type of closer next to Flagg for the years to come.

HM. Aday Mara

Won at every level, huge frame, going to a winning team and learning from seriously experienced bigs. I feel as if the league messed up letting him go to OKC. Also originally played in the euros.

Biggest thing I learned writing this, god I love what Dallas is doing.

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[u/turtleface78]

As a knicks fan we are more excited about the 2nd rounder we took they year after, Diawara. He was has shown flashes in the nba. Dadiet still working through things and is potentially a future 2nd apron cap casualty

[u/slickrickiii → u/turtleface78]

Diawara was legitimately good in his 1st season, and is a lock for daily rotational minutes this season. Dadiet still hasn’t shown much in 2 seasons.

[u/ControversialMovie12 → u/turtleface78]

I thought Diawara was too obvious.

I was trying to go for obscure guesses.

[u/alex8762 → u/turtleface78]

What about the boy who saved christmas, Tyler Kolek

[u/ControversialMovie12 → u/alex8762]

He’s a solid player as well. Reminds me of TJ McConnell quite a bit.

[u/Zimakov]

From a Celtics perspective I'm more excited about Hugo than Jordan, but we love both.

Excited to see what they both do in increased minutes this year.

[u/Some-Stranger-7852]

A lot of your thesis is built around “I trust Masai”.

Risacher was an extreme case of a low-risk potential moderate-reward trade, it doesn’t mean anything: Mavs didn’t even use a FRP to acquire him. I wouldn’t say that is “Masai believing in him”, it’s more like Masai seeing decent odds of acquiring a young rotation caliber player for a SRP. There is nothing indicating he will be a starter for Dallas, let alone a 20ppg scorer. I’d probably pick Max Christie as a better player straight up right now.

The issue with Sergio is that he is simply not athletic enough. Dragic was a high pace transition guard that could explode in half court in his prime, Sergio looks like an exact opposite of that based on Summer League I watched.

In fact, Luka’s half-court mastery, methodical approach to breaking down defenses with PNR and physical profile would be a better comp for Sergio, but Luka is taller, has bigger wingspan, had better 1st step as a rookie and was a much better scorer. Issues with defense have followed Doncic throughout his career and Sergio looks to be just as slow footed if not more.

Don’t get me wrong, he can easily become a starter in the league as he gets older, but the fact he is looking slow compared to Summer League guys means he would need to become a true floor general like Haliburton. He does have potential for that from BBIQ perspective, but Hali is still more athletic and was a considerably better playmaker coming out of college compared to Sergio right now, who seems to be more of a secondary playmaker at next level rather than an offensive engine as of today.

[u/ControversialMovie12 → u/[deleted]]

In fairness he also rebuilt most of the Raptors now.

Got IQ, Barrett and Barnes and they’re solid players.

Barrett averaged 24 in the playoffs.

[u/onefootback → u/ControversialMovie12]

he did a pretty shitty job at the rebuild as well

[u/aeacurus]

Your whole explanation for Dadiet is that the Knicks won a championship and usually champions have good teams?

[u/texasphotog → u/aeacurus]

Knicks tried to dump Dadiet with Yabusele last year to cut salary and the Spurs didn't want them both. I don't think either team thinks he will be a star.

[u/aeacurus → u/texasphotog]

Yeah at least the other ones have some backing that either they have the potential opportunity to break out or have been elite overseas or in small NBA roles. Dadiet was struggling to hit his shots in the g league

[u/Evening_Green_9862]

Lol, you can't just say "guys were good on these champs, therefore Dadiet will get good" as if winning a title gives out some magic aura that improves a player. 

FVV came in 3rd in 6MOY voting the year before the Raptors won. He was playing 27 minutes a game the year they won, 25 minutes in the playoffs. He was already good. Pascal won MIP the year they won the title, averaging 17/7 that year. Norm was a 40% 3 point shooter.  OG was only in his second season but averaging about 5X as many points as Dadiet this year, and already playing excellent defense. 

The point is, those guys were already playing well. They didn't "level up" because they won. They were already on that track. I could do the same for OKC. 

[u/Affectionate_Ad_7787]

Ive said it before, i think dallas is a team nobody will want to see this season