NBA Draft 2021: Evaluating overall strengths and weaknesses of draft class

Strength: Wings

With the NBA shifting towards a positionless game, this class brings in a ton of wings that can slide across a few positions. There’s also a variety of different types of wings. There’s Jonathan Kuminga who is young, strong, and a potential small-ball four. Franz Wagner is a plus-team defender with insane length.

There are three-and-D wings in Keon Johnson, Moses Moody, Corey Kispert, Chris Duarte, Ochai Agbaji, Kessler Edwards. And there are defensive-minded wings in Aaron Henry and Terrence Shannon Jr. Organizations looking to add depth at that position will have a variety of options to choose from.

Weakness: Bigs

Following a very strong class of centers, comes one that lacks depth. Evan Mobley is the only surefire center in this class I would bet my life on to be in the league in 5-10 years. Usman Garuba projects defensively as a five, but what he does on offense and how his lack of height for a center holds up is the big question mark. Isaiah Jackson is an intriguing rim protector, but he’s still very raw and needs a ton of offensive development before he’s a contributor on that end.

Alperen Sengun is almost the inverse of Jackson: a polished and productive offensive player, but at only 6’9, he needs to improve on defense. Day’Ron Sharpe is the other center I’d consider taking in the first round and while he’s arguably the best passing five, his body and footspeed aren’t at an NBA level right now.

In the 31-60 range, Charles Bassey is a classic rim-running center who could potentially carve out a role. Filip Petrusev has some potential as a stretch five. Teams looking to take a chance on a big as an undrafted free agent could turn to Jay Huff or Neemias Queta. Again, that’s a handful of names, but a lot of question marks attached to those names.