The Athletic: NBA Mock Draft (#28. Cam Christie, Minnesota to Utah)

Donate To GopherHole



EasyThere Pilgrim said:
But if you can move up to the #17 pick, you can increase your salary by 50%.

And if you can move up to the #11 pick, you can increase your salary by 2.5 times.
Click to expand...
Sure, but there's no guarantee of that, is there? He could just as easily come back for his sophomore season and play himself right out of being drafted at all. He could have a chance at a second contract at age 23, and with the crazy money in the NBA now they're giving out crazy contracts. If he goes to the combine and teams are telling him they have him as a first rounder, I don't see how you turn that down if it's your lifelong dream. This may be much ado about nothing, but it'll ultimately be Cam's call and we'll find out in time.
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
One could easily make that mistake by reading the cutout and not the entire article. And my comment stands on our Carrington.
Click to expand...

One could. But they’d be making a mistake. And logic would lead you to know that no one thinks our Carrington is a first round prospect.
 



WindyCityGopher said:
It’s still guaranteed millions Brice Sensabaugh was the 28th pick last year and signed a 4 year, $12,576,077 contract with the Jazz, all guaranteed. You don’t turn down that money when you’re 19.
Click to expand...
Only the first (2) years are guaranteed (1st round contracts always come with a team option for the 3rd and 4th seasons).

But yea- it's still life changing money.
 

WindyCityGopher said:
It’s still guaranteed millions Brice Sensabaugh was the 28th pick last year and signed a 4 year, $12,576,077 contract with the Jazz, all guaranteed. You don’t turn down that money when you’re 19.
Click to expand...
Let me know at what age you turn that down. I am curious.
 




WindyCityGopher said:
If you're an older, established veteran $3M/year isn't great money, especially in today's NBA where some just above replacement players are getting $15-20M/year. It's a matter of perspective, I guess.
Click to expand...
I was thinking of a "normal" person. Yes Elon pulls that out of his couch cushion.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
But if you can move up to the #17 pick, you can increase your salary by 50%.

And if you can move up to the #11 pick, you can increase your salary by 2.5 times.
Click to expand...
Right or wrong that isn’t how the NBA draft operates. First rounders are almost exclusively NCAA freshman, G Leaguers or Europeans. Very few players raise their draft stock after their freshman year.
 


Ron Johnson Super Fan said:
Right or wrong that isn’t how the NBA draft operates. First rounders are almost exclusively NCAA freshman, G Leaguers or Europeans. Very few players raise their draft stock after their freshman year.
Click to expand...
That's only sort of true. This year per one mock draft source nbadraft.net - it is projected that there will be 23 first round US college players of which 10 are non- freshmen. Most of these guys would not have been first rounders before this- so for those ten it is probably working out pretty sweet if it comes to pass like this.

Right now, Christie has a bright future, and I think he will make it to the NBA for sure, but he hasn't looked anything like an NBA player recently. He would be well advised to do one more year I think.
 




Gold Vision said:
You thought Braeden Carrington would be in an NBA mock draft?
Click to expand...
I also called out Christie as an NBA 1st rounder months ago to get grilled on this board…look how things have changed. A team with tons of first round picks (OKC), would take a flier on him, it’s low risk.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
But if you can move up to the #17 pick, you can increase your salary by 50%.

And if you can move up to the #11 pick, you can increase your salary by 2.5 times.
Click to expand...
sooner you are in the league the sooner your second contract kicks in, making 10 mill at 23 vs 25-26 is a big net difference over the course of a career
 

WindyCityGopher said:
Sure, but there's no guarantee of that, is there? He could just as easily come back for his sophomore season and play himself right out of being drafted at all. He could have a chance at a second contract at age 23, and with the crazy money in the NBA now they're giving out crazy contracts. If he goes to the combine and teams are telling him they have him as a first rounder, I don't see how you turn that down if it's your lifelong dream. This may be much ado about nothing, but it'll ultimately be Cam's call and we'll find out in time.
Click to expand...
kix4kix said:
sooner you are in the league the sooner your second contract kicks in, making 10 mill at 23 vs 25-26 is a big net difference over the course of a career
Click to expand...
True. True.

But there's also the possibility of returning to college for 1 more year and playing well...and moving yourself up to mid-1st-round instead of borderline-1st-round. And greatly increasing your salary.
 


He's not exactly helping his stock any these last 3 games, but I still think he's gone.

45% stays in draft
35% Gophers next year
20% transfers
 

Wet_Blanket_Guy said:
One could easily make that mistake by reading the cutout and not the entire article. And my comment stands on our Carrington.
Click to expand...

Or you could read an earlier post that explained it...but why would you do that and take away your chance to take a shot at a player.
 

Like all of us, I want Cam back. He would be a core component of a Gopher team trying to take a leap into the NCAA tournament. Also, it doesn’t take an NBA scout to be able to see that if he enters the draft he won’t see much NBA playing time in the next year or two (imagine Anthony Edwards getting physical with him). The Reusse tweet from a few weeks ago was unnecessarily callous, but Cam will probably spend the next year or two toiling in the G League. Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion, he’s gone.

As everyone knows, his family has gone through this before with his brother Max. It seems that the family’s MO is an NBA fasttrack. Why did Cam choose MN over more established coaches, programs, and NIL? Playing time and the specific opportunity to handle the ball some. Now that he’s got his name out there, with his sweet shooting stroke, “even more ball skills than normal,” a brother who’s a proof of concept, and an abnormally weak draft, it all lines up to go.

I trust the mock drafter Sam Vecenie more than most. He actually talks to NBA scouts and executives. In his introduction, he admits that there is a lot of variability to this weak draft and “Scouts are really mining the college freshman class to uncover high-upside late first-round picks, even if those players are seen as serious projects.” You can already see Cam’s talent; it doesn’t seem too hard to project where he can be in a few years. He’s not a raw, athletic prospect that *might* be able to develop a shot down the line.

It’s early, so who really knows where Cam would go, but if approximately 28 is the high point, would going back to school really be an advantage draft-wise? Probably not. Let’s say he has a great year, becomes an All-Big10 type player. Some on here say he’d be a lottery pick, but going from a bad draft in 2024 to supposedly a much better one in 2025, he probably wouldn’t move up much higher. So many picks get drafted on potential and he and his family know that. That’s why this is the year he’ll enter the draft. My other worry is that Garcia sees this happening and decides to leave too.
 

Oatmeal Savage said:
Like all of us, I want Cam back. He would be a core component of a Gopher team trying to take a leap into the NCAA tournament. Also, it doesn’t take an NBA scout to be able to see that if he enters the draft he won’t see much NBA playing time in the next year or two (imagine Anthony Edwards getting physical with him). The Reusse tweet from a few weeks ago was unnecessarily callous, but Cam will probably spend the next year or two toiling in the G League. Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion, he’s gone.

As everyone knows, his family has gone through this before with his brother Max. It seems that the family’s MO is an NBA fasttrack. Why did Cam choose MN over more established coaches, programs, and NIL? Playing time and the specific opportunity to handle the ball some. Now that he’s got his name out there, with his sweet shooting stroke, “even more ball skills than normal,” a brother who’s a proof of concept, and an abnormally weak draft, it all lines up to go.

I trust the mock drafter Sam Vecenie more than most. He actually talks to NBA scouts and executives. In his introduction, he admits that there is a lot of variability to this weak draft and “Scouts are really mining the college freshman class to uncover high-upside late first-round picks, even if those players are seen as serious projects.” You can already see Cam’s talent; it doesn’t seem too hard to project where he can be in a few years. He’s not a raw, athletic prospect that *might* be able to develop a shot down the line.

It’s early, so who really knows where Cam would go, but if approximately 28 is the high point, would going back to school really be an advantage draft-wise? Probably not. Let’s say he has a great year, becomes an All-Big10 type player. Some on here say he’d be a lottery pick, but going from a bad draft in 2024 to supposedly a much better one in 2025, he probably wouldn’t move up much higher. So many picks get drafted on potential and he and his family know that. That’s why this is the year he’ll enter the draft. My other worry is that Garcia sees this happening and decides to leave too.
Click to expand...
It's bad enough that Cam would leave solely based on potential.

But it's even worse if he leaves only because the draft class is so weak. Is this really true?
 

Oatmeal Savage said:
Like all of us, I want Cam back. He would be a core component of a Gopher team trying to take a leap into the NCAA tournament. Also, it doesn’t take an NBA scout to be able to see that if he enters the draft he won’t see much NBA playing time in the next year or two (imagine Anthony Edwards getting physical with him). The Reusse tweet from a few weeks ago was unnecessarily callous, but Cam will probably spend the next year or two toiling in the G League. Sadly, I’ve come to the conclusion, he’s gone.

As everyone knows, his family has gone through this before with his brother Max. It seems that the family’s MO is an NBA fasttrack. Why did Cam choose MN over more established coaches, programs, and NIL? Playing time and the specific opportunity to handle the ball some. Now that he’s got his name out there, with his sweet shooting stroke, “even more ball skills than normal,” a brother who’s a proof of concept, and an abnormally weak draft, it all lines up to go.

I trust the mock drafter Sam Vecenie more than most. He actually talks to NBA scouts and executives. In his introduction, he admits that there is a lot of variability to this weak draft and “Scouts are really mining the college freshman class to uncover high-upside late first-round picks, even if those players are seen as serious projects.” You can already see Cam’s talent; it doesn’t seem too hard to project where he can be in a few years. He’s not a raw, athletic prospect that *might* be able to develop a shot down the line.

It’s early, so who really knows where Cam would go, but if approximately 28 is the high point, would going back to school really be an advantage draft-wise? Probably not. Let’s say he has a great year, becomes an All-Big10 type player. Some on here say he’d be a lottery pick, but going from a bad draft in 2024 to supposedly a much better one in 2025, he probably wouldn’t move up much higher. So many picks get drafted on potential and he and his family know that. That’s why this is the year he’ll enter the draft. My other worry is that Garcia sees this happening and decides to leave too.
Click to expand...

Very well said. I agree with Garcia too, he could easily sign after the 2nd round is over and be a 3pt threat at the nba level. Teams know what they're getting with Garcia and it would be low risk.

To lose players to the nba is not an issue, ultimately it should bring higher rated recruits here as well.
 

Spottedmuskie said:
Very well said. I agree with Garcia too, he could easily sign after the 2nd round is over and be a 3pt threat at the nba level. Teams know what they're getting with Garcia and it would be low risk.

To lose players to the nba is not an issue, ultimately it should bring higher rated recruits here as well.
Click to expand...
I love Dawson- but don't think he's an NBA player, would be shocked if he ever makes a roster.

Will make some serious coin playing in Europe though.
 

Max didn’t have the NIL option that Cam has. I hope we can help him enough in that respect. If he is first round for sure- he’s gone. Other than that I think he stays.
 

bga1 said:
Max didn’t have the NIL option that Cam has. I hope we can help him enough in that respect. If he is first round for sure- he’s gone. Other than that I think he stays.
Click to expand...
If it was about NIL-scale money, I think he would have gone to a school who would have included that.
 



Spottedmuskie said:
Very well said. I agree with Garcia too, he could easily sign after the 2nd round is over and be a 3pt threat at the nba level. Teams know what they're getting with Garcia and it would be low risk.

To lose players to the nba is not an issue, ultimately it should bring higher rated recruits here as well.
Click to expand...

I don’t think he consistently shoots it at thee at a high enough level, to fit into a Matt Bonner type role
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
It's bad enough that Cam would leave solely based on potential.

But it's even worse if he leaves only because the draft class is so weak. Is this really true?
Click to expand...

It’s based on one mock draft and Cam didn’t appear in any until this one; to my knowledge, he isn’t listed in any others.

This is all pure speculation for now and unless he gets a mid level first round grade, logic would dictate there’s no reason to risk it at the end of the first round, lest you slip into the second round (non-guaranteed) money, as no one can guarantee you’ll be picked 28th - this is sports gossip, plain and simple.
 
Last edited:

You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom