Intel Report: The Finish Line in Sight

A few last-minute rumors within 36 hours of draft night

Less than 36 hours from the draft, we figured we’d come back with one more piece of intel or aggregation. Before we do, we need to give one more piece of caution out there for all to remember: these are not reflections of our opinions, nor are they guaranteed to be 100% true. These are just the rumors or pieces of intel that we have heard.

The first rule to parsing through the rumor mill and the intel you hear: try to figure out what the person telling you (or the person this information originated from) has to gain from this transaction. If the information neatly passes through that filter without cause for concern, then it’s likely to be accurate.

By no means are we the expertly tapped into league, player, agency or scouting sources on the internet. But we do have a few points of contact at varying levels, and can share forth some of the information we’ve gleaned here. It’s for you to decide — and use your additional filter on top of ours — if this is purely conjecture or somewhat merited.

• While the first three selections are still largely unknown, we are starting to feel comfortable in saying that Jabari Smith, Chet Holmgren and Paolo Banchero will be getting drafted in some order to Orlando, Oklahoma City and Houston.

• The real madness is slated to begin at 4 with Sacramento. On June 15th, an ESPN mock draft with intel highlighted the Kings owner Vivek Ranadive had a preference to take Keegan Murray over Jaden Ivey. Ranadive is not known for his patience, has tinkered with selections before (think Nik Stauskas) and is more driven by ending the Kings’ postseason drought next year than by making the right long-term solution.