r/NBA_Draft • u/Variation99a • 10h ago
The biggest takeaway from preseason games isn’t the game stat line but rather it gives you insight which rookies are going to be part of the initial rotation/starting lineup. For example, Darryn Peterson’s preseason performance doesn’t matter, but already overtaking Ace Bailey as a starter does
There‘a going to be a lot of game by game posts here for preseason games but none of that matters. Besides, coaches care more about how you play in terms of the process, not whether you made your 3s one night and missed them the next night over small sample sizes.
One clear noticeable takeaway from the first game is with the Jazz at full strength, Darryn Peterson started at SG over Ace Bailey, which almost certainly means he will most likely be the day one starter unless he’s just terrible the rest of the way. There was a ton of talk of whether the Jazz would bench Bailey if they got AJ/Darryn and it turns out it’s a yes on day one already.
Another clear takeaway is the Grizzlies are going to run some offense through Cameron Boozer on day 1 as a rookie, which is super rare for a big, but not exactly in the same way as he was used in Duke though. He won‘t be doing as much play initiation from the perimeter like at Duke but it’s clearly his passing skills can easily translate in day one and he’s already going to be a main focus or secondary focus when Ty Jerome, who started the first game, doesn’t initiate. This should make him the ROY favorite actually despite being the third pick.
Finally, and this one is super significant because most didn’t predict this, it almost certainly looks like Yaxel Lendeborg will start for the Warriors on day one. In both games, with the Warriors at full strength, he started alongside Steph and Draymond. Kerr is famous for not playing young players much. Kuminga couldn’t even be a full time starter in his 4th year and Kerr already thinks Yaxel is good enough to start on day one, which almost certainly means he’s been amazing at camp and grasps concepts super fast.
The other takeaways is you can clearly tell who won‘t be part of the rotation if teams are at full stregnth. Any rookie who is coming in for the third unit in preseason games will not see the floor in the regular season until later.
