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These are Walter’s Sunday Nuggets featuring:

• A compilation of recommended reading for the serious football fan/fantasy player

• A summary of important news from this week to be aware of

• A non-football thing to fixate on as the wait for the NFL season continues

📚 Recommended Reading 

Awesome thread from Ryan Heath that demonstrates some really cool analytic methodology to try to create edges in fantasy analysis!

🏈 The Newsroom

Could be something, could be nothing…

This far out from the season it can be difficult to parse what stories will have a meaningful impact on the NFL season. Here are some stories we are monitoring: 

• NFL is suspending former Ravens kicker Justin Tucker for 10 weeks of this season for personal conduct violations. Tucker is currently a free agent and looks pretty unlikely to factor into the fantasy season in 2025.

• “Jaguars RB Travis Etienne is expected to remain the team’s top back, but he could take a backseat as a rusher as the team’s running game and his receiving ability evolves.” - Demetrius Harvey confirming what we already suspected.

• Henry Ruggs III is eligible for early parole in August of 2026 and some are speculating that we will see him play in the NFL again at some point.

• “(Rashee) Rice finished the offseason program without much, if any, aftereffects from last year’s knee injury. The Chiefs really think he’ll grow into a top-10 receiver in 2025 (though the league office could still suspend him for part of the season whenever Rice’s street racing incident from ’24 is adjudicated).” - Albert Breer in his column for SI this week

• Some buzz about Marvin Mims Jr. to get you through your week

A Non-Football Something

This is section where I plan on highlighting something non-football related each week. It could be a movie, a podcast, a story from another sport, a book, a concept etc. Its an experiment really in an effort to add more personality to the piece and expand my repertoire as a writer (personally). This week I asked the whole team to contribute a takeaway/theory that they had from all of the NBA transactions:

Thoughts from NBA Draft Week 🏀

Can the Hawks go on a Pacers-like run next year?

With the acquisitions of Kristaps Porzingis and Asa Newell (someone I view as a steal), the Hawks are in a very intriguing spot prior to free agency even getting started.

The Pacers didn't make much offseason noise prior to the 24/25 season, and they were largely considered a non-title threat. But, with good coaching, an elite facilitator, solid perimeter shooting, a rim protector, a shooter that can get hot at any given moment, and a talented stretch-big with championship pedigree, the Pacers were mere moments from hoisting up the Larry O'Brien, and maybe would have if Haliburton had not torn his achilles.

How are the Hawks similar?

Quinn Snyder → Rick Carlisle: Well respected veteran coaches with previous deep playoff runs in other organizations

Trae Young → Tyrese Haliburton: Elite facilitators who are major threats from beyond the arc

Caris LeVert, Zaccharie Risacher→ Benedict Mathurin, Andrew Nembhard: Skilled perimeter scorers with questions about defense and consistency who serve as X-Factors in the offense

Jalen Johnson and Dyson Daniels → Aaron Nesmith: Solid perimeter shooters and extremely talented wing/guard defenders

Onyeka Okongwu → Myles Turner: Talented rim-protectors who can stretch the floor if needed

Kristaps Porzingis → Pascal Siakam: Talented veteran stretch-bigs with rim protection

The Hawks have some unique flourishes of their own, but there are certainly some resemblances between the two clubs, and it will be very interesting to see how well the Hawks mesh this season. In an injury weakened Eastern Conference, a deep run is very possible.

-Andrew Sampogna

Hot Start for Ace in Utah

Rutgers forward Ace Bailey had a short list of teams he wanted to go to in the 2025 NBA Draft. The Washington Wizards (No. 5), New Orleans Pelicans (No. 6), and Brooklyn Nets (No. 7) were on his short list of preferred destinations. However, the Utah Jazz swooped in and grabbed him at fifth overall in the draft.

This is where things get complicated because Bailey obviously doesn’t want to play for the Jazz. He declined a workout with Utah before the 2025 NBA Draft, and a report came out that Bailey's camp told a team in the top-5 not to draft him. While it's unclear if that team was the Jazz, the Rutgers product didn't seem too pleased when he got drafted fifth overall.

He reportedly traveled to Utah on Saturday (long after 18th selection Walter Clayton Jr.), but this whole situation is so bizarre for modern NBA and has the potential to become problematic. The Jazz have no plans of trading him at this time.

I will be extremely interested in seeing how this plays out. Chief executive officer Danny Ainge has yet to blink in this game of chicken, but Bailey also is not the caliber of prospect where he can call his own shots. He profiles as a *potential star wing and is an extremely good fit for this young Jazz roster, but the floor here is also fairly low.

Are we watching an awkward first chapter for a perennial all-star and the next Jazz franchise player? Or is this going to be one of the biggest prospect flameouts in the 21st century? Both are in play.

-Joey Pollizze

The Yang Hansen Pick is Incredible

Every year around 3-4 days before the NBA draft I deep dive draft guides, podcasts, and mocks to get a sense of the player pool and put all of my firm player takes on a note sheet in my phone that I send to my friends. These takes are based exclusively on things I have read. I do not watch any film or do any of my own analysis. They are aggregations of everything I have read and the stories/player types that I am most drawn to. This year, at the very bottom of the note page I had a section for players I thought were sleepers. There was only one name.

Yang Hansen.

The 7’1 Chinese center is absolutely massive and has tremendous feel for the game. He’s a willing 3-point shooter and a rim deterrent at his favorite level. He is just a super fun player build that I thought would be an awesome project. Every mock I read had him going between 37 and 50 overall on draft night.

And the Portland Trailblazers after trading down from number 11 took him at 16!

These are the Portland Trailblazers who already roster Deandre Ayton, Robert Williams III, and Donovan Clingan. These are the same Portland Trailblazers who also desperately need shooting and connective pieces despite having some pretty exciting young pieces and a ferocious defense.

This is genuinely one of the funnest picks I can remember in any sports draft. It was such a surprise, probably a massive reach, and an insane risk from a team that had so many other directions they could plausibly go. But also…Yang Hansen kind of rules?

The fun potential for a player like this is off the charts. Portland was already kind of a league pass darling for the last season. I cannot wait to see how this plays out.

-Patrick McDonnell