With the NBA Draft just a couple of weeks away on June 25, there is still plenty of curiosity over which franchise will end up selecting 7-foot-1 Stanford big man Maxime Raynaud. In a recent piece over at ESPN that debated which players a team would select based on need or value, Raynaud was mocked to both the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic for different reasons.
In this mock, they had the Hawks taking Joan Beringer, 18, and the No. 5 international player in the Draft with the No. 13 overall selection. That pick was made to fill the biggest need on the team according to one analyst. With their second pick of the first round, the other analyst had them taking Raynaud after grabbing point guard Egor Demin out of BYU with their first selection.
In essence, the draft plan is similar for both guys, but they just flipped who to target between the two picks. Raynaud was listed as the best value for the Hawks at No. 22 overall. Just a few selections later, both had selected Raynaud, with him landing on the Magic at pick No. 25.
This draft season, Raynaud has been under a bit of a spotlight after his impressive NBA Combine performance, which has seemingly vaulted him into the first round after previously been a cusp guy. The trait that scouts have really enjoyed is that he still appears to have plenty of room for growth, and that he's a quick study.
It also doesn't hurt that he's a big man that can shoot the three ball. His size is something that you can't teach, so the question becomes how quickly NBA executives can expect him to be able to pick up defensive rotations and handle the NBA game.
According to The Athletic, Raynaud ranks in their sixth tier of draft prospects, which is guys that are second-round guarantee swings. In other words, he has some skills, but he's not necessarily viewed as a starter out of the gate. How much room he has for growth and what kind of potential front offices see in him will determine where he ends up getting selected.
Some have mentioned that his foot speed on defense is a bit lacking, and his angles to the ball on defense leave a little to be desired, but given that Raynaud went to Stanford and has grown as a basketball player each and every season he was with the Cardinal, there is room to believe that he'll be able to figure things out in short order.
To that point, Raynaud wasn't even necessarily a sure-thing to get drafted entering the 2024-25 season, but after putting up 20.2 points and 10.6 rebounds with 1.7 assists per game, he has vaulted into not only a certain pick, but a probable first rounder at that. He went from averaging 15.5 points per game as a junior to 20.2 his senior season.
He had entered the transfer portal after the dismissal of head coach Jerod Haase following his junior year, but after speaking with new head coach Kyle Smith, Raynaud decided to withdraw his name from the portal, though On3 had ranked him as the No. 1 player in the portal, and ESPN had him at No. 5. It's hard to say that he made the wrong choice, given how things appear to be working out.
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