I cannot stress enough just how much better Raven Johnson has gotten at basketball over the last year. Like it is not it’s not funny. We are looking at a player go from being what I would say is easily a third round pick and the projection this year was like second maybe third round pick and player way into a no doubt about a first round pick category.
So Raven Johnson has been unbelievable in my opinion absolutely unbelievable. And today we are watching I’m watching South Carolina versus um versus Oklahoma in what should be what I thought was going to be a close game. Oklahoma beat South Carolina in the regular season. Raven Johnson has 16 points.
We’ve got two minutes to go in the second quarter. Raven Johnson has 16 points. And this is coming from somebody who is the best perimeter defender in college basketball. There are if we’re talking about point guards in this draft. Yes. you don’t take her over Olivia Miles. There is an argument if you look and there’s the next three which is Kiki um Iana and what is it um her obviously I personally think that it’s not a crazy take if you want to try if you want to argue that Iana Martin is um is what you call it better than her okay Cool.
If you want to argue that um that what’s her name is better than her um that Kiki Rice is better than her, cool. I don’t necessarily agree, but okay, cool. And I think they might be taking over in the draft. There is no ifands or buts about it that this is a first round pick. And it’s funny when we’re looking at a lot of like a lot of the um like players in this draft.
There’s so many players that have pretty much gone and kind of ruined their own draft stock. They’ve ruined their own draft stock and it’s not gone well. Like going an extra year in college doesn’t always end up being a smart decision. Like Claw J. Johnson might drop. Ironically in my mock draft I have her going probably as high as she would went last year.
But like there’s a world where she drops through to she drops to 10. Her reputation has gone down a lot since her junior season where she was eligible to be drafted. I think Lauren Betts’s reputation has gone down since her junior season. Even though Lauren Betts was good this year, she was much better last year.
Um and then I’m just trying to think off the top of my head what other players coming back for the fifth year. Olivia Miles, in fact, has the same reputation, but based on how she played in the tournament last year, her reputation’s probably improved, probably gone up. But Raven Johnson has been the biggest riser. Like, this is a dog.
This like that’s the best way I can describe it. This is a dog. She is somebody that can um guard the other team’s best player. And like not only can she guard the other team’s best player, she’s able to um now score the ball, she shoots the ball a lot better. Like she shoots 50 40 80 from the field.
Like that is a like scarily scarily good percentage. And this is somebody that people are like, “Oh, you can’t draft her. She can’t shoot.” But I’m like, you’re not teams aren’t going to guard her. Teams aren’t really going to guard her. So, you don’t need to worry too much about her being this like unbelievable shooter because she’s going to be left wide open a lot.
And while she’s left wide open a lot, you’re now going to see a situation where she’s going to be left wide open or situations in the W where she just needs to hit open shots. That’s all she has to do. And teams aren’t going to be guarding her. She can’t create her own shot. But I just saw her dribble, dribble, dribble, shoot a really, really nice pullup.
shoot a really nice pull up um and like make a re like that’s important. The ability to create your own shot is something that she’s going to have to do at some level in the WNBA and she’s shown if she can do it at some level and I think she could be the first player off the board for South Carolina her and it could be over Taniah Latson.
the fact that coming into this year, no one would have believed that. Like Taniah Latson was the player that was supposed to be brought in to make South Carolina win a title and evidently Taniah Latson has not done that. She’s just hit a four-point play, but like Taniah Latson has not been a has not been what was expected of her in South Carolina.
She hasn’t been bad. Like I don’t think South Carolina or like Snatson’s been a bad player for South Carolina, but like she was expected to be an all-American. She was expected to maybe be the difference maker and make this team beat like Yukon lost Paige and Tia Latson gained Medina Okott and like Antonia Latin.
I know they lost Gina Pow Pow, but still like they were expected to be at least as good, if not better than last year. And now I don’t see them winning a title. And I don’t see them making it past Texas if we’re being real. I don’t see them doing that. But the one positive with South Carolina is their best player this year by quite a lot has been um Raven Johnson who again this is somebody that coming out of her junior season was expected to be a top six or seven pick in the draft.
I think she was projected to go seven to Chicago um at which was this pitch Chicago was supposed to have had at the time of at the time of the lot or at the time of the Olympics in 2024. That was what um where she was expected to go and I think a lot of people thought that she was going to go in the top 10 in 2024 and had a horrific 2024 season.
like she was starting over Malaysia full wy who was genuinely better than her in at everything last season and the defense wasn’t even there like it was supposed to have been from from Raven like the defense wasn’t there like it was the previous season and this year the defense is still there like everything’s still there from Raven Johnson and that’s that’s all you can really hope for is that you’re getting the elite defense and if you get even above average level offense with her defense.
Like that is a first round pick. I don’t care what anyone says. If you’re even getting above average defense with the offense that Raven Johnson has, you’re you’re using a first round pick on that player. You absolutely are using a first round pick on that player. But uh yeah, that is um that is pretty much it, lads.
That is pretty much it. Um let me know what you guys think in the comments section below. Do you guys think the Fever or a team in and around the Fever’s range should um use a first round pick on Raven Johnson or do you guys think that nah nobody should use a first round pick on Raven Johnson and that’s just a crazy take? I still think that there are like a lot of pe like if the Fever used a pick on Raven Johnson it wouldn’t be a bad pick.
I I’m very very confidently can say using a pick on Raven is not a bad pick. Is not a bad decision to make. But uh yeah, that is pretty much it lads. Let me know what you guys want or think in the comments section below.
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