Upsyde Blog

UPSYDE SPORTS PRESENTS: BIGGEST REACHES AND STEALS IN THE DRAFT: Obviously, this is one of those "way too soon" articles that you look back on a year, two years, or 5 years later and are like, wow, at least those takes where hot. Some of these selections are based on personal preferences during my watching of film and the others are based on small sample sizes during Summer League and other performances. BIGGEST REACHES: JOSH GIDDEY - There were several GMs gushing about this guy. He's got a 6' 8" frame, elite passing ability, and has youth on his side. My concerns are that he will have trouble figuring out his position. Theo Maledon had a pretty strong summer league performance and started most of last year. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is at full health and is a lock in the starting-5. You also have an abundance of forwards - Dort, Mann, Poku, Bazley, Roby, Williams, JRE - the list goes on. Most of this team has this feeling of true position-less basketball and that...

UPSYDE SPORTS PRESENTS: SUMMER LEAGUE TAKES: Every year there are players that get way overvalued based on their summer league performances. Usually they are guys that get drafted late in the first and they get fans and GMs questioning their decisions. We've seen it recently with guys like Kuzma, Bacon, and Olejeye - all great role players, but not nearly the darlings they were in the Summer League. This list is to determine which players you should be worried about and which players are legit. PAYTON PRITCHARD - Prichard is one of the players I've been keeping a close eye on this off-season. While he's not a large guard, he's quite strong and quite athletic. When given minutes last year, he's done well. In the 4 games which he played over 30 minutes per game, he averaged 18.5 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 4.0 APG, and had 61/50/93 splits. Obviously these are probably outliers, but we're catching a glimpse at his ceiling. While it was not the most efficient performance, he did ...