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The early signing period for college basketball prospects is around the corner, November 10-17. I thought it would be interesting to check the latest class rankings for 2023 prospects according to a few .com sites. ESPN.com is not included in the count, in any event my Mizzou Tigers certainly surprised me. It appears to date Dennis Gates and staff have done a decent job recruiting. Of course it’s realized accomplishments on the court are far more important than ranking on paper. I still remain careful based on Mizzou football, Eli Drinkwitz and his coaching staff appear to make noise in recruiting which to date has not panned out. I refuse to look at success this upcoming season for Mizzou basketball, this is a patchwork team. This class (2023) should be a truer test of Gates and his recruiting efforts. In closing I haven’t given up on Drinkwitz, I still expect him to turn the corner with his football program. 

on3.com

40^th

247Sports.com

12^th

Rivals.com

15^th

Dub Power

I’m going to allow Draymond Green his space, this is a positive regarding the Dubs. Can they escape the west and defend their championship? The question will not be answered until May or June 2023 but let’s check out a couple of things. It would appear 7-foot James Wiseman now healed is prepared to play major minutes at the center position. The depth chart list Kevon Looney as the starter but that just might change at some point. At the power forward position is Green however waiting in the wings is Jonathan Kuminga.

Despite some of the negatives attributed to Stephen A. Smith it’s apparent the coaching staff is satisfied with the effort of Kuminga. Playing both guard positions is Jordan Poole, this 6-foot 4 guard had a break-out year during the Warriors championship season. Could he replace Klay Thompson at the shooting guard…time will tell on that one. As for the balance of the bench it looks good plus the ability to spell the starters providing quality offense and defense. Are the Warriors scary, no they are not however they have a veteran presence. A presence that says we are the champions, the road to the championship runs through Chase Center.

What now

The saga of Emoni Bates continues with this latest news, felony charges were dropped. If you remember the account, he was stopped during a routine traffic check. Found in the glove box was an unregistered firearm, I’ve read nothing to confirm this, but the automobile he was driving was borrowed so we guess the gun belonged to the owner of the vehicle.  Eastern Michigan University announced Bates player status would be re-instated. He could have been charged with a felony, its now been reduced to a misdemeanor.

Bates must enter a diversion program to have his record expunged, in addition as part of the agreement a mentorship program is required. It’s my belief his professed basketball career might be at a crossroads. The crossroads in this instance has nothing to do with the legal issues he faced it’s the other thing. Is or rather will Bates prove all of us wrong? The bright NBA future once projected for Bates is rather dim at this point in time. Bates is at a point he must prove to all he is the legitimate star once projected by that NBA scout during his sophomore year of high school. After all we are looking at the former Gatorade Player of the Year in Michigan basketball.

The worst franchise

I wonder if you find this interesting, every time someone writes a piece on a bad NBA team, they always omit the Sacramento Kings out of the equation. Consider this, the last time the Kings earned a playoff berth was the 2005-06 season. A 12-year-old who might have attended one of those playoff games is now 28-years old, it’s been 16 years since the Kings last earned a playoff berth. The Kings have suffered from bad management, bad coaching and in some instances bad players. Let’s take this one step at a time…management. The Maloof brothers owned the team during a time period they were successful on the court, although they never won a championship, they were always contenders.

In 2013 the brothers sold the team to an ownership group headed by Vivek Ranadive. Several years later Ranadive brought out his partners and became the sole owner. It is difficult to determine Ranadive’s role based on the next portion coaching. Mike Brown is now the 8^th coach the team’s had since 2013 and the problem we are unsure if any of these guys were given adequate time to develop a team. Four of the number spent a single season as head coach, it’s impossible to establish any continuity if a team is constantly changing coaches. Finally we arrive at the talent pool, the Kings can look at few top prospects despite finishing at or near the bottom. A number of these draft choices have been traded to other teams throughout the NBA. With that closes our short check of what I believe is the worst run franchise in the NBA.