Ouija Wonderings Volume #4: 8/31-9/17

What's better than biweekly? Triweekly! After a final film push and subsequent brief lull, Rowan returns with another set of considerations about his board and this draft class!

Now that the calendar has flipped over to September, the return of the real #scoutingszn is within sight…sort of. The first college basketball game won’t tip until November 4th. NBL Blitz will have offered a tantalizing taster for the NBL Next Stars, and the rest of the international leagues are still a few weeks away.

I’m almost done with my preseason scouting for the 2025 NBA draft. I’ve watched more basketball this summer than ever, which I blame on my schedule and my overall strength of will. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I feel I have the most well-rounded perspective on prospects in the preseason I’ve ever had in my time pondering the draft.

So, where does that leave this column? Most of the players I’ve watched in the past three weeks aren’t going to start high on the Ouija Board. They’re more in the sleepers camp, where I can see a world where they rise, but I don’t know if that’s the world we live in. I’d love to be wrong for a few favorites, but I’ll wait until the next edition to start pinning down who might be my guys for this year.

Instead, enjoy the last firehose-style coverage of everything I’ve been watching until the regular seasons for several leagues start back up. I’ll still be watching basketball because how can I not, but it’ll be with a slightly different spin as I’ll detail this volume of Ouija Wonderings toward the end.

My Process, Briefly

If we’re being honest, I kind of overdid it.

By “it,” I mean my approach to offseason scouting. With clarity of mind and confidence of spirit, I undertook the most tape-crunching I’ve ever done. Due to the nature of my work, I had the chance to watch this, and after this volume, I’ll have achieved my goal; I’m also finding myself a bit burnt out on basketball at the worst time.

Burnt out is a strong term, but it represents more that I need to take some concerted time off before the start of the college season to make sure I have the stamina to watch multiple games a year when it matters. That’s not to say that the offseason film didn’t matter as much, but the games played during the cycle have more weight than in the past.

So now, after churning through hours upon hours of film for the past few months, I’m taking a few weeks “off” in a way, not from thinking about basketball, per se, but from my rabid pace. There’s no point in entering the 2025 draft cycle with heavy eyelids and a hampered spirit.

What I’ll spend this time doing, instead of watching basketball, is thinking through it. I’ve watched almost every player on my early Ouija Board, so it’s time to finish where I think each player will go for my preseason board. The why of each ranking will be what I focus on, alongside the ranges where I could see each prospect falling for better or for worse.

Thus, I won’t be taking any sort of step back from No Ceilings. Instead, I’m reallocating my energy so that I can be the best version of myself for the upcoming draft season.