High school teammates Cade Cunningham (right) and Moses Moody, the No. 1 and 14 picks, respectively, pose at the 2021 NBA Draft (Adam Silver/Instagram).


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A couple days after the 2021 NBA Draft, independent draft analyst Brian Schroeder brought his insight and expertise as he ran through the most notable storylines surrounding this year’s class. Among a slew of other topics, he addressed why Sharife Cooper fell precipitously, what makes the Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley so adaptable defensively and why Brian’s the “only person on the internet who likes and defends” a particular pick.

4:30-5:44: “It’s been 10, 15 years since [the Pistons] have had that kind of player. … I really don’t see how [Cade Cunningham] is not gonna be at least very good. It seems almost impossible to me because he’s an excellent shooter. He’s very, very good at defense; that’s not talked about enough. I don’t really care how bad his burst is at 6-foot-8. He’s 6-foot-8. He’s gonna be the guy you build around, and that’s gonna help him. That’s gonna help everyone else on that team, really.”

7:25-8:18: “[Scottie Barnes is] just cool. He’s a really, really likable person. That’s not to say that Jalen Suggs is not likable or somehow teams don’t like him. I think [the Raptors] just fell in love with Scottie as the ‘guy.’ I understand the rationale. The Raptors, maybe arrogantly, really believe in their ability to develop people. They developed [Pascal] Siakam, they’ve developed OG Anunoby. … They really think they can teach the kind of player that Scottie is to be more scoring-oriented. … He just does not look to score at this point, He’s a defender. He’s an excellent passer. But the frame and just the makeup, I think, are what they fell for.”

8:43-9:37: “I would have taken Mobley, but that’s more because I think his skill-set at his size and position is just rarer. There are not five 7-footers who move like he does and can play defense like he does. … The way I’ve been referring to Mobley lately is he’s like water – he conforms to the surface of whatever you put him in. Any possible defensive situation you put in, he will figure out how to excel in it. The question for Mobley…is he going to be your lead scorer? And it’s like, ‘Well, probably not, at least not for a while.’ And [Jalen] Green, I think, could probably do that immediately and is an elite athlete and hard worker.”

13:06-13:45: “I think it’s probably reasonable to think to assume that, let’s say they went to Duke, and [coach Mike] Krzyzewski has his system. He’s not the most rigid coach in the world, but he’s not gonna tear apart his system every year to fit two guys who are gonna be there for six months. I feel like the G League…I think it’s fair to say that they catered directly to their skill-sets more, training and play-calling and all that.”

17:51-19:10: “This is the fifth draft I’ve done full-time stuff on. [Cooper] is the best passer I have seen, pretty significantly. Creating advantages, hammering them open, just like the technique of throwing passes, he’s just completely sublime at it. And he was putting up 22 and eight in the SEC, the strongest, most physical conference after missing half the season and not being allowed to practice with his team. … I think teams were just, they didn’t really know what to think of him or they had a point guard already or they just were scared off by the shot. … It’s more than likely some teams didn’t, for some reason, think that a 6-foot-1 point guard can succeed despite the playoff run that Trae Young just had and Chris Paul’s entire career. It is true that for that size guy, there’s a very high bar, but I think Sharife can clear that bar.”

21:42-21:50: “I am not a [Jonathan] Kuminga believer, but he is a pretty great athlete, he’s young, he plays hard, so there’s reason to buy in.”

34:14-36:02: “I seem to be the only person on the internet who likes the pick and defends it: Santi Aldama at 30 to the Grizzlies. … More than any other team, they are very, very good at zeroing in on the guys they want to be their role players. And they cut Jontay Porter recently, which tells me that…they want to bring this guy over and have him be their backup center.”

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Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod.