Ouija Wonderings Volume #2: 7/22-8/16
Rowan returns with his next salvo of thoughts, machinations, and considerations about the 2025 draft class, with a particular focus on cross-contextual scouting in this volume!
Welcome back! Or, if this is your first time reading Ouija Wonderings, just welcome. I was nervous and excited for Volume 1 to release in July, but it was quite a fun experience to try something new and share more of what I think about the NBA Draft and how to scout it.
Last time, I promised that the other volumes would be shorter than the first. Well… about that. Due to the nature of my time to watch the tape and what I feel I need to know to be ready for the next draft cycle, this will be a longer piece again. Ouija Wonderings should slow down and slim out once we’re in the regular NCAA and NBA season, but for now, I once again will drop a dossier of draft musings on your doorstep.
Without further ado, let’s get back into it! There’s a lot of ground to cover, both in who I’ve watched and how I watched them, so I’ll stop dragging my feet and return to my wonderings!
My Process, Briefly
How do I construct a draft board? As I said last week, I started with film but kept my eyes and ears open more accurately. By now, I’ve done my obsessive part to learn who is good at the youth levels of most leagues and nations worldwide, but the joy of scouting is when someone catches you by surprise.
Thus, I’m always on the hunt for a player I’ve never heard of or haven’t watched much until recently. I categorize and list out new players that I learn about so that I can watch them later, and as a list-maker at heart, I probably have too many convoluted, overlapping lists to name when it comes to basketball. The notes app, a Google Drive document, or even a piece of paper; I must keep track when I need to remember what I want to do scouting-wise.