#i know we can’t control execution of getting the ball into the hoop

[the-physicality]

.

[hephaestiions]

Addictive Tendencies

@hprarepairnet​ & @slytherdornet​ - quidditch player ships challenge Pairing: Marcus Flint x Oliver Wood (Flintwood) Summary: “I hate him,” he whispers fiercely against the fist he stuffs into his mouth to keep himself from screaming long and loud at the heavens, at the Founders, at the bloody sun. “I hate him so damn much.”

“Makes me wonder why I bothered to show up, then,” comes the all too familiar heavy drawl, and if Oliver’s heart had dropped before, now it drowns. One thing leads to another. 

Warnings: Light angst, break-ups, everyone swears a great deal, mentions of nsfw/18+ activities. Rating: Teen. 

Word Count: 4k (yes, I know, it is very long for a Tumblr fic) 

For all that he feels almost dead going through the motions of life, Oliver comes alive on the pitch. There’s something about the clean, crisp scent of fresh air– the kind reminding him of the open fields close to home– and the adrenaline rush of mounting a broom that leeches into every cell of his being. It fires his synapses, jolts his entire body out of the sleepwalking trance he slips into during classes and meals and all the other mundanities that compose everyday life. Oliver can’t wait to go pro.

To leave fucking Transfiguration and Potions and Professor Sprout’s herb gardens behind. To make the familiarity of the broom clenched under his thighs and the roaring blood in his ears his livelihood, his reason to wake up every morning and  go back to bed each night without drinking himself into a stupor thinking of everything that could have– Fuck no. He’s not going down that road right now.

Right now, his focus needs to be narrowed down to that slim space between the hoops and the perfect, concentrated manoeuvre that will allow him to slip through. His focus needs to be on his game, his practice, not on… other things.

Vision tunnelling, Oliver tenses his calves around the reliable solidity of his broom, and corkscrews his entire body almost violently through the gap, veering dangerously close to the metal bars of the left hoop, emerging unscathed and out of breath on the other side. He wants to be happy.

Wants to be proud, because this is the first time he has executed this move flawlessly without either crashing his elbow or his knee or his side into some part of the hoops. He desperately wants to feel the joy he would be whooping with by now if this had been even six months ago. But all he feels is the desperate desire to hear Marcus shout, “That’s what I fucking call a Hummingbird, Wood, you fucking genius!” either from the stands or from his place on another broom by Oliver’s side. He’s met with silence. The wind moans, twisting its way through the branches of the trees lining the entrance to the Forbidden Forest. Oliver wants to drive himself into a metal bar just to work off some of the pent up frustration and rage gathering in his shoulders, his back muscles, his stomach. The almost physical ache gripping and tearing at his heart. He kicks out, and the broom bucks underneath him, buoyed in the wrong direction by an errant current of air. There’s a brief moment of sheer terror as his body misbalances midair, but he isn’t the fucking captain of Gryffindor for nothing. He lets himself fall for a second, letting his weight gather momentum, before pulling out at the very last second. Sometimes he wants to smash his entire body into a wall, but he knows better than to work out his aggressive tendencies on the unforgiving pitch.

His legacy deserves better than to be remembered as a gruesome splatter on the grounds of Hogwarts. Marcus though. Marcus can bloody well plummet to death for all Oliver cares. Except.

Except the very thought sends shudders down Oliver’s spine, and his hands inadvertently reach out into thin air even contemplating the prospect of letting Marcus hurt himself. Except that Oliver would take the fall before letting Marcus take it. He’s fucked, truly. “You’re a bloody fool, Oliver,” he mutters to himself with only the wind listening in. “And for once you’ve got something other than terrible grades to prove how truly fucked you are.” Marcus’ words echo in his head, a never ending loop of heartbreak and agony and gut-wrenching misery that no rationally thinking future pro Quidditch player has the time for. You– you know how the world is beyond Hogwarts, man. You know it’s not good to– to people like us, especially when we want to play and go pro, you know. It’s bollocks mate, is what it is, but it’s life and I guess I want a career more than a fuck. Because that’s all they’d been of course. A fuck. Fuck Marcus. Well and truly fuck him into next Sunday, next month, next bloody year. That line of thinking conjures up a whole new set of images that are doubly uncomfortable when one’s private parts are squashed onto a pole of unforgiving wood. His whole body itches and aches and buzzes with energy he doesn’t know how to work off, so he perfects his form on the broom and swoops in and out of the spaces between the hoops, tracing fast paced figure of eights that even the best of the best would have a tough time keeping up with. It’s mindless and the cold wind sniping at his cheekbones jars him into the present, into the steadiness of swerving past the bars of the hoops and spinning around like his life depends on it. Fuck Marcus Flint and his stupid, scared arse and his willingness to give up on everything Oliver thought was sacred to them. Fuck him. After half an hour, he wants to keep going, but his whole body resists, aching and burning along the lines of tension in his muscles. He feels heavy and tired, like a stone about to drop, and he turns on his broom to swoop down when– When he sees him. In the stands. The crossed arms, the wind billowing through strands of hair that are surprisingly soft to the touch (Oliver knows that because he’s touched those stands reverentially in the showers, in hidden alcoves, during warm, hot moments of kisses and mouths trailing over flushed skin–). The green robes are flying out behind the solitary figure in the stands like a cape from one of Katie’s superhero comics, and there’s no mistaking the identity of the man. Not for Oliver at least.   Marcus is watching him. Has been for Merlin knows how long. All Oliver wants to do is touch down and drag himself over to the stands and crash into Marcus’ arms, but he resists the urge. Instead, he laps a lazy loop in the air, before his tired body forces him to retire, and instead of picking the pitch like a sane person, Oliver perches on the edge of the middle hoop, crawling off the broomstick onto the thick metal. It’s surprisingly comfortable. It’s also a ploy to wait Marcus out, but well. It doesn’t seem to be working quite yet. Some part of him wants to swing his legs around his broom, swoop down beside Marcus and kiss him senseless. Some part of him wants to pull Marcus in and just relearn the feeling of their bodies touching again. He reins this part in with every ounce of control and every shred of self respect he has. He holds it back, letting it kick and rage and fester at the back of his heart, where he keeps his pain and his misery and his urges to do things he will regret within five seconds. That part of his heart– It’s ugly. He turns away from the imposing figure Marcus cuts in the stands with his biceps bulging and his hair, longer than it was since Oliver last ran his hands through it curling around his strong neck. Oliver can feel the pressure of it, of Marcus’ head pillowed against his lap when they could sneak an afternoon away to the Astronomy Tower. Marcus’ dark hair curled into Oliver’s fist as they talked, as they kissed, as they pushed each other’s clothes off with all the pent up energy of two prowling hyenas going in for the kill. He feels the tears rise, but he doesn’t want to cry. Not here anyway, with Marcus watching for whatever Merlin-forsaken reason. Doesn’t want to raise his hand in the tell tale sign of wiping away his tears. Doesn’t want to be weak.

Instead he stares at the setting sun even though the riot of colours across the sky only make him angrier. Why should the world get to move on and revel in its beauty when his life feels like radio static? Why should sunlight have the right to twirl pretty patterns into Marcus’ eyes when Oliver isn’t there to see it? Why does even nature get to laugh at his sad, pathetic arse and why doesn’t he ever get to move the fuck on? “I hate him,” he whispers fiercely against the fist he stuffs into his mouth to keep himself from screaming long and loud at the heavens, at the Founders, at the bloody sun. “I hate him so damn much.” “Makes me wonder why I bothered to show up, then,” comes the all too familiar heavy drawl, and if Oliver’s heart had dropped before, now it drowns. “What,” he says without turning around for fear of what he’ll see, “are you doing here?” “Saw you practicing from the Tower. Thought I might join you.” Oliver lets loose a laugh. “Get lost,” he says, and grimaces when it comes out slightly choked. “Or I’m telling Hooch you’re spying on the Captain for his plays.” “I have plenty of plays of my own,” Marcus says, and Oliver cringes at the suggestive undercurrent of the words. “Or did you forget?” When the weight of his anger and his hurt and his exhaustion crash into him, Oliver almost falls off his precarious perch. He staggers slightly and has to reach out with one hand to grip the edge of the hoop. His other hand slackens around his broom, and it teeters dangerously in his loose grip. Somehow, he doesn’t have the energy to hold it tighter. The tiredness creeps into his muscles, his bones, the raging fires of his heart, shrouding his entire being in a blanket of heaviness that he can’t shrug off. Here he is, trying to hold himself together, and Marcus has the balls to be making innuendos. “Last I checked, Flint, your plays were off limits. And you didn’t want any of mine, either. Which begs the question that I already asked you, why the fuck are you here?” Marcus is silent, because of course he is. Damn bastard, he can’t even give Oliver a good reason, a good excuse for his real purposes. “Come to gloat?” He asks, and his voice comes out a broken whisper. “Come to check in on poor Ollie and how he’s doing now that you’ve binned him?” “Oliver–“ “Shut up,” he says, he begs, and turns to face Marcus, and promptly has the breath knocked out of him. Because Marcus, oh, he’s bathed in the light of the golden sun, bathed in every shade of desire, coloured in Oliver’s dreams. There’s that uncertain turn to his lips, as though he expects Oliver to shove him away, tell him to leave, as though he doesn’t want to. He doesn’t look like he’s gloating (and Oliver knows how Marcus looks when he gloats, because goddamn, he’s lost Quidditch matches against this man). If anything, he looks a little wrecked, but in the most beautiful way imaginable, and Oliver– Oliver has never wanted to kiss someone more. Marcus sighs. His lashes flutter against his cheek and his shoulders droop slightly, and he looks a little lost when he gazes at some spot in the distance and says in a slow lilt, as though he’s searching for the words as he goes, “I– I missed you, Oliver.” And those words, the words he’s been craving to hear for a whole fucking month now wash over him, curl into the spaces that are yawning open and empty in the absence of the warmth Marcus had been when they’d spent those five glorious months in each other’s sunshine.

“We were just fucking,” he says anyway, because he’s too damn proud to be soothed of a month’s hurt by some half hearted confession of being missed. “Right, Flint? Just a fuck.” “You know that’s not true.” “Do I?” Oliver asks. He wants to be angry, wants his eyes to flash, wants to clench his fists and look ready to batter Marcus into a bloody pulp for daring to hurt him the way he did, but the words come out thick and heavy, laced with the burdens Oliver has been carrying alone. He never cared, he never looked at me as anything except a fuck, he just wanted some fun. Human beings, fragile creatures. Togetherness is more of an addiction than drugs and whisky could ever be. “Oliver, I– I was scared, and–“ “And you thought I wasn’t? You thought it was a breeze for me, that I hadn’t ever considered what the damn repercussions could look like–“ “That’s what you made it sound like!” Marcus throws both his hands up, and there’s a wild light in his dark eyes. “You made it look so easy with all your casual, hey Flint, care for a Butterbeer this weekend and Marcus, look at me and your damn smiles– and I– I was scared out of my mind Oliver, and you just looked like it was something you were born with.” “Born with what?” “Confidence! Fearlessness! Like you couldn’t give a fuck what people in locker rooms would think if you went pro, if I went pro, like you didn’t care that coaches would pay less attention to you, or make you the punching bag of the team, like teams would only sign you on if they had to pay you less if they found out about this.” Oliver sighs. It’s so obvious now that all through those months when Oliver had been caught up in a haze of a perfect love story of two Quidditch captains from historically rival houses, Marcus had been overthinking his choices, his career, everything. “This isn’t a hand job in a dark bed in the dorms, Oliver, and you know it.” He feels weary. Wrung out. “I wasn’t born with it,” he says, and looks away again at the darkening horizon. The sun is now a ball of red against a blue sky turning black. “What?” “Confidence, or fearlessness, or whatever you thought came easy to me. But you were scared about fucking up your career and I was scared of fucking us up. You were thinking about whatever pro team deals you dream of and I was thinking that something I would say or do would push you away because I’m too much of a stupid fuck for anyone to be with. Wood, have you got leaves for brains? Wood, if I knocked on that head would it ring hollow?” “Oliver,” Marcus says, and he sounds so shocked, so hurt that it’s like a string tied to the back of Oliver’s head has been pulled. He turns to face Marcus again, and he looks devastated.

He looks like he’s seeing Oliver for the first time.

“You really thought that I thought you were–“ “Bollocks for brains, yeah.” And because he can’t bear to see Marcus look so upset, he adds, “But that’s alright now. I’ll get over it, and you, and you can sign all the pro deals, and have a couple babies and no one will think you and I–“ Marcus slaps a hand over his mouth. “Shut up,” Marcus says, and oh, he’s so beautiful when he’s angry. “You’re a bit thick sometimes, I’ll give you that,” Marcus says in a voice so low that it sounds like he’s admitting state secrets instead of the most obvious thing that anyone who speaks to Oliver for five minutes can pick up on. “But don’t ever think that you’re stupid, or that you’ve got leaves for brains– Oliver what the fuck? The way you– the way you remember all the damn plays starting from the fucking 1790s and how you can recite precedents for every move anyone makes on the field and how you know exactly which player to pair with which one, which one needs to be benched– Oliver, you’re made for this. You don’t need some Transfiguration O to prove that.” He doesn’t know whether to believe this is happening. And worse– he doesn’t know what it means. If he’s imagining it, he’s further gone for Marcus than he can ever admit to anyone who is not a Mind Healer. If he’s not imagining it, Marcus is here, after a bloody month of ignoring him, breaking his heart, stomping on it with the butt end of a broom, to tell him– Rage curls in his stomach. He jerks away from the hand Marcus has now slid onto his jawline, regretting the motion immediately when the thumb tracing circles into the space behind his ear is dislodged. “And you’re telling me this now? After telling me you care more about your career than a fuck? Why bother? If that’s how you feel– it’s not going to change!” Marcus looks down. Oliver wants to curl a hand under that drooping chin, pull it up, kiss it better, but he holds himself back. “I was scared,” he whispers. Oliver wishes he weren’t so fucking easy, because the ice walls he’d thrown up to keep Marcus and his mind games out is already thawing. “I was so scared.” “You had a reason,” Oliver mumbles. He looks down. The drop to the pitch is sheer, sharp. If he falls, there’s no way he can be saved unless Marcus decides to be a hero. The thought brings a small smile to his lips. “I was being a coward,” Marcus says sharply. “Thorne– Thorne’s y’know, bisexual and all that, and he’s playing great game with the Magpies–“ “We can’t all be Thorne. And Thorne was stoned in Diagon.” “By one man who was arrested by Kingsley Shacklebolt. We might not be Thorne, but we can try.” The sound that rips itself from Oliver’s throat is rife with the pain and frustration of a month of second guessing and heartbreak. “Why does it matter?” Oliver asks, his voice carrying in the emptiness of the pitch. “Why the bloody fuck does any of it matter Marcus, you don’t want this, it was just a fuck–“ It happens so fast that Oliver doesn’t process it till its done. Marcus surges forward on the broomstick, invading the meagre personal space Oliver had tried to maintain between them so he wouldn’t reach out, be overly-familiar, push Marcus away the first time he’d dared to venture close in so long. Their eyes meet, and the pitch, the hoops, the past month and their discussion fades to nothing but white noise in the back of Oliver’s brain. Marcus, bless his balance on a broom, reaches out with one hand to cup the back of Oliver’s neck and the other comes to frame his face, resting on his ear. He waits for a second, for permission, to be pushed away, hell, Oliver doesn’t know, and then they’re kissing, Marcus’ hot, perfect, slightly chapped lips fitting against his. Something clicks into place finally. Something disjointed and broken snaps back inside his chest and the heavy weight he’d gotten all too used to carrying lifts like the healed wing of an injured bird. His heart soars with all the delight of a creature learning to fly once more, and something in this urgent, heartfelt kiss feels like a reassurance. I missed you, it says. I’ve been waiting for you. I’m sorry for hurting you. A million apologies in a single press, a single touch, in the soft breath that gusts over Oliver’s nose. It could be seconds, could be decades when Marcus finally pulls away. Oliver has to shut his eyes, clench them tightly to keep the traitorous tears from falling, from ruining this perfect moment that he’s certain will be shattered anyway when Marcus realises what he’s done. But Marcus doesn’t release a horrified gasp, doesn’t push him away, doesn’t retreat with the air currents back to the stands. Marcus stays there, floating gently on his broom, holding Oliver’s face between his hands, waiting for something. Oliver’s too scared to open his eyes and figure out what. He’s never felt so small, never felt himself be flayed open by circumstances rendering him raw and broken and ready to be picked apart. It’s exhilarating and terrifying, and Marcus is here to watch. He doesn’t know if this feeling of trust is warranted, especially after everything Marcus said and did, but he knows he can’t make himself be suspicious or cruel in this moment. He will hate himself forever if he pushes Marcus away right now, and of all the punishments Oliver has suffered, self inflicted misery isn’t one he particularly enjoys. But he can ask, so he does. “What now?” Marcus shrugs. Oliver feels it, the slight tremble, the tell tale stiffness and when he opens his eyes, he’s surprised to see tears in Marcus’. “Are you–“ “Shut up, Wood.” Oliver watches Marcus close his eyes, bite his lip, whisper something inaudible and pull himself together. Watches him try to be steady. To know that they are here, suspended midair in a moment in time, being unsteady together rouses the buried beast of hope in Oliver’s heart. The sun has set. The horizon is a bruised blue now, and Marcus still looks like a shining beacon of future possibilities set against a dark sky of prejudice and inevitable darkness. “So. Thorne.” Marcus smiles despite himself. Nods. “Thorne.” “You’re kidding yourself if you think you play as well as Thorne does.” This time, Marcus laughs. It’s slightly choked, and only barely there, but it’s a laugh. “That’s not the fucking point and you know it.” “Oh I don’t know,” Oliver teases. “I’m a bit thick, aren’t I?” Marcus sobers up almost immediately. Oliver’s heart goes into overdrive, panicking. What if he said something wrong? Reminded Marcus of why he left? But Marcus merely looks serious when he says, “It’s still true.” “What?” “About the teams and coaches and the players. The world– The damn Quidditch world isn’t kind to people like us.”

Oliver looks at Marcus, at the depth of his eyes that people ignore when they critique him for being a bastard (he is a bastard, Oliver knows, just a bastard with depth and capability for kindness that Oliver feels privileged to know exists), at the worried cleft between his eyebrows, at the self conscious way in which he pulls his lips over his teeth. “The pitch makes up for it,” he says. “If I get to keep you and the pitch and my broom, I don’t give a fuck about what coaches and players and galleons have to say.” Marcus lets out a sound like a strangled sob and rests his forehead against Oliver’s. If Oliver hadn’t been holding onto his broom with one hand and the Quidditch hoop with the other, he’d have held Marcus a little closer, but he settles for kissing Marcus’ nose.

“I like galleons,” Marcus whispers after a while. For the first time in a month, Oliver feels a genuine laugh erupt from his chest, into his throat, out of his mouth. He feels light. “You’ll make plenty, don’t you worry,” he says instead. “Promising Chaser, conniving little Slytherin, bit of a looker too– why wouldn’t you?” “Are you calling me handsome, Oliver?” Oliver snorts. “Stop fishing. If the whole Quidditch thing goes balls-up, you can always model for Gladrags.” “Which section of Gladrags?” “Let’s see. Much as I’d love to see you in women’s lingerie, I don’t know if the civil public is willing to, so I’d say the part where handsome young wizards pose in their underwear with their hands suggestively placed behind their heads.” “The civil public doesn’t read Gladrags, Oliver.” “Are you calling me uncivil?” They burst into laughter, something dark and heavy lifting from their beings, and the tensed, tightened bolts of coiled emotion and anger loosening with every quip, every little kiss, every stolen moment of this. Above them, the sky darkens as the universe’s speckled cloak unravels with the fading light of day. Somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, a Centaur looks up. Somewhere, a first year student catches a glimpse of two figures on one of the hoops of the pitch and looks away with wide eyes and a racing heart.

On the pitch, two boys share a secret smile in the darkness, and somewhere above them, the stars align perfectly.

[qiankunfics]

KunTen Masterlist Part 3

AO3

1. La danse des masques (The dance of the masks) by skymoonlight

Summary:  A month full of balls that all the princes had to attend and, to make it worse, Kun had to host them all in the palace, being forced to endure that odious Thai prince who seemed to enjoy making his life miserable. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

2. Turbulence, and then none by pyakpyaknation

Summary: Soulmate au where the first words your soulmate says to you are written on your wrist and while A has an absolutely unhelpful 'Hey' written on them, B has something very unique and weird. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

3. hearts like drums by lovelight (Delenaley)

Summary: Ten's completely and utterly fucked, he can't even confess without straight up insulting his crush. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

4.  must cry out loud by andnowforyaya

Summary: He wanted to shake himself apart. In pieces, maybe it wouldn't hurt as much. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

5. Boxing Day by violetpeche

Summary: Christmas: for all the superficial, capitalist hell it stood for now, Kun rather liked that time of year. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

6. yesterday, today, and until the end of the world by rowenabane

Summary: He is still searching, though. He won’t stop until he finds it. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

7. Come Back (Nightmare) by NovemberSuns

Summary: After disappearing for four years, Ten comes crashing back into Kun’s life. Kun doesn’t know what to make of this stranger he once called his best friend. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

8. needlepoint by fairyslush

Summary: in which ten is a fashion designer, and he decides to embroider their little family of four onto his neurosurgeon husband's labcoat. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

9. flavour you by mikararinna

Summary:  Ten sacrifices his staff meal for a chance at an Americano, Kun waits for Ten to bring in his favourite flavour. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

10.  go the distance (a new chapter with u) by borntovixx

Summary: Alternatively: YouTube chef Kun shows off his boyfriend to his followers. Rating: General  Status: One-Shot

11. ursa major by lowkeyamen

Summary: "It's a star map." Ten let out a little breathy laugh; it was pretty obvious Kun had no idea what this was. "It's a snapshot of what the sky looked like the night you first told me you loved me." Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

12. Family Planning by eggboyksoo

Summary: Starting a family is hard. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot Trigger: unaccepting family of teen pregnancy?

13. not even you could destroy your shine by jeannedarc

Summary: Kun closed his eyes and prayed for something exciting to happen to him. Anything. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

14. people say (we're so weird) by sayounarahitori

Summary: In which some WayV members know more than they'd like, some know less, and nobody has a crush on Ten, okay. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

15. Stamped by Lertsek

Summary: There is one soul mark in particular that Ten treasures, one that appeared when he passed the audition to train under SM Entertainment. It's that of a little dancer, looking up, face not visible but hands in the air, ready to jump. Rating: Mature  Status: One-Shot

16. The Retreat by andnowforyaya

Summary: Kun begrudgingly attends a week-long relaxation retreat at his friend (and business partner) Johnny's behest. There, he meets Ten. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

17. You have weird taste by princessgongjunim (MyOwnCharacterInEverything)

Summary: In an universe where you can taste what your soulmate is eating.  Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

18. in limine by florulentae

Summary: Kun goes to sleep in New York and wakes up in Madrid. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

19.  A Lotus in Bloom by Crucified_To_A_Star

Summary: Ten is the Mogwai that bought Kun's soul; set to protect and elevate him until the contract's time runs out, by any means necessary. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

20. Happy Home by taeyongseo

Summary: Kun is doing just fine on his own. Being a single father at age twenty-one isn't easy, but he has the lines of his life clearly drawn. That is, until Ten comes in and blurs them all. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

21. come and find me by sayounarahitori

Summary: Ten comes home. Rating: General  Status: One-Shot

22. to the moon and back by staryukhei

Summary: ten is a good parent. he just can't say no. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

23. You Get Me Closer to God by dustysadderdaze

Summary: There was nothing Ten adored more than defiling angels. Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot 

24. No Manners by SenpaiJecho

Summary: “You’re such a fucking asshole” Kun murmured against Ten’s skin, his hands wandering all over his body, desperate, needy. He was furious with him for fucking him up but, at the same time, he wanted to consume him completely. Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot  Trigger: Cheating

25. 家 (jiā) by moonfleur

Summary: “Missed you,” is all he says and Kun smiles, all knowing and more than a little fond. Ten sighs, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to control the shaking in his voice. “Miss you all actually.” Rating: Teen  Status: One-Shot

26. It Starts with a Wish by nu-exo (Nekohime)

Summary: The man lowered himself to a knee before Ten, reaching out a hand to tip Ten’s chin up with a finger. “You ask for a lot, little prince. You have a dragon’s hunger.” Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

27.  The Anatomy of Change by vinylcherry

Summary: Kun and Ten meet at three points in their life, but circumstance always seems to pull them apart. Will this time be any different? Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

28.  silk and snakeskin by fairyslush

Summary:  ten is a lamia who eats the hearts of those who love him. kun is a reaper who collects the souls of the devoured. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

29.  to lost by mikararinna

Summary: It was initially Ten's idea to go on a road trip, Kun was just there to execute it. He didn't really expect to get lost in the middle of it. But it was better than losing each other. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

30. Exit Strategy by cobalamincosel

Summary: That is until a stranger named Ten makes his way into Kun's oasis and suddenly, Kun doesn't have only himself to worry about anymore. Rating: Teen Status: One-shot  Triggers: Zombies

31. Tease by dojaefairy

Summary: Ten looks at him and briefly considers answering “dick”. Rating: Explicit  Status: One-Shot

32.  heaven is a place on earth (with you) by storytimewithme6

Summary: a look into kunten's married life. Rating: Mature Status: One-Shot

33. Face to Face by winterofouryouth

Summary: Ten had been thinking about it for a long time but his thoughts had been extra loud lately. He didn't know why, but something about the stale heat inside the tent and Kun's slow breathing next to him made him feel like this was the right moment. Rating: General  Status: One-Shot

34. That's What Friends Do by tensfilm

Summary: “We were just cuddling.” Rating: General  Status: One-Shot

35. now or never now by sayounarahitori

Summary: Ten can always be too much, but today is a new high even for him, especially considering Kun is live on instagram. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

36. face to face by andnowforyaya

Summary:  Ten said, "Sir's traveling. He couldn't make it back in time for me. Of course I'm a little sad, but he promised he'll make it up to me. Plus, I've got all of you to keep me company, right? And since you're here, I should be good to you, too." Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

37. prayer from an angel by seolay (speos)

Summary: Kun is a succubus who doesn’t want to seduce humans for food. In the process of finding other ways to survive, he alerts the attention of an angel who might be willing to help. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

38. Elbow Rub by speckledsolanaceae

Summary: Qian Kun has bumped into you! the app announced, and Ten tapped the notification on impulse. Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

39. In The Morning by devinemoon

Summary: On a Sunday morning, with the sun kissing his loved one’s skin he realizes he loves him. And he wants to stay like that forever. Based on “Kissing in cars” by Pierce The veil. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

40. the bigger the hoops, the bigger the hoe by johnrens

Summary: kun got dragged out to the club when he’d rather not be there, but the man with the hoop earrings from across the club changes his night for the better... Rating: Explicit Status: One-Shot

41.  same deep water as me by sayounarahitori

Summary: Kun cared too much. Ten, unfortunately, cared even more. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

42. creation myth by madhoney

Summary: Kun’s eyes narrowed as he watched Ten float through the soiree. He moved like fluid, drenching everything and everyone in his path with hunger – not that anyone present needed any further persuading before succumbing to the haze of lust that clouded the expansive villa. Rating: Explicit Status: One-shot

43. let me help you by loudqueen

Summary: Sometimes it got too much for Ten to handle, and sometimes he couldn’t get out. But Kun always managed to guide him through it all. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot Trigger: Mentions of depression

44. annoying is kind of my type by aprofessorstale

Summary: Ten and Kun are baristas at a cafe and they can't stop insulting each other because they definitely have crushes they don't want to admit to. Rating: General Status: One-Shot

45. The Crimson Flower by muffincollection

Summary: Ten, a rich businessman is sent to the city with little income to ‘teach him a lesson.’ Upon his job search, he meets a young and philosophical artist Kun— who is more than displeased of his presence. Rating: Mature Status: One-shot

46.  the seven ways i love you (and the seven ways it kills me)

Summary: Ten and Kun have a high risk of dying any second, but that won’t stop them from making each other’s lives impossible. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

47. Perfect Little Family by oonymay

Summary: In which Kun and Ten find a crying child in a forest and naturally decide that raising it in secret is the best option. And therein begins a battle with languages, the meaning of home and feelings. Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

48. Ten, Kun, and the Cat by thesunflowerchild

Summary: “No, Kun, he’s my son!” Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

49. instagram? by mooniesuhs

Summary: “What if we made an Instagram for Louis and Bella?” Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

50. i take care of an eldritch creature w my bf (NOT CLICKBAIT!!!!) [1080p]

Summary: four times yangyang almost reveals himself as an eldritch creature (and two times he definitely does) Rating: Teen Status: One-Shot

[medicalquack]

AMA and United Healthcare Combine Efforts to Once Again To Push CMS To Institute Algorithmic and ICD Coding To Rip Off Patients/Deny Access–It’s the Next Chapter of Excess Scoring in the US To Keeps Inequality/Segmentation Rolling

If you have not seen the latest with these two, take a look at to how they want to use segmentation for profit.  It is so much of a "One Trick Algo” World out there anymore, the can’t hardly create enough bullshit commentary to cover up what’s really going on.  These two have been doing stuff like this for years, as I’ve written about a lot of it during the active years of my blog.  Way back in the early days of small developers creating EMRs before the government got involved, there were many of us that just sat back and wondered why the AMA always showed full on preference for anything United Healthcare (namely the Ingenix subsidiary which was being run by former CMS director Andy Slavitt at the time) came out with.  It just went on and on and you too can search in the web’s archives and find a lot of it, as well as just searching my blog for that matter.  AMA has been making money selling Ingenix (now Optum) coding books forever on their site.  Here’s a link from 2010 below as an example of the cushy AMA/UNH relationship over the years. ClickFreeMD Selling Software EHR, Practice Management Bundled Records Solution–Emphasis on AMA Endorsement And Software “Powered” by Ingenix–Tethered or Untethered Now we have this data plague as I call it of an issue of Excess Scoring.  I wrote about that a few years ago as our entire country is totally whacked out on the fact that everything needs to be scored, and that’s not true at all, some of the best things in life are NOT scored.  Here’s some back links.  Excess Scoring of US Consumers, US Citizens-Scored into Oblivion By Proprietary Algorithms and Formulas, Never Duplicated or Tested for Accuracy-Profits of Big Business And A White House Executive Command To Continue the Abuse.. The End of “Consumer Common Sense” in the US-Fueled by Excess Scoring for Profit, Sustained By Media Publications Serving To Further The Inability For Simple Every Day Life Decisions… United Healthcare Now Offering Employers Wearable Wellness Devices- UnitedHealthcareMotion–More Data To Mine And Sell With Related Risk Assessment Scoring Processes About You-Excess Scoring Actually when I was communicating with a former CMS executive about this, they said it was right out of United Healthcare's 2010 report, the stratification report, which also went way over the top on telling people how UNH thought they should raise their kids and indeed this is right on the same line of thought with these ICD Codes.  Doctors, nurses alike think the the AMA and United Healthcare are out of their minds and can see especially with Part D, its a way to lop on more risk so UNH can bill the government more money, called RISK FIDDLING. So get a load of this nonsense on how the AMA and United Healthcare want to code you, so they can use the result sin run you through a ton of other data bases to deny or allow access.  That’s what this is all about if you haven’t figured it out yet.  You should also know that once you get coded or tagged with this nonsense coding and US caste system type of scores, that it never comes off.  You will be stuck with one of these balls and chains forever, so hey WTF, let’s score everyone with Z60.82 for Inadequate social interactions.  This is such a piss poor model that I bet even the Quants that created it must be cringing, you know they don’t have to like or believe all the crap their employers want them to do but they have families to feed.

You are already getting the crap scored out of you every time you fill a prescription, and yes it’s the PBMS using this scoring system that was created with Ingenix algorithms that were sold to Express Scripts in 2010, yeah another Andy Slavitt algo game for cash, as UNH made him and his former partner, Senator Warren’s daughter, Amelia quite wealthy in 1999 when UNH bought their company, which was basically nothing more than a script discount operation and they made money from the PBMs.  So here’s how the pharmacists are directed to “score” you or they can lose their jobs.  Patients Who Pay “Cash” When Filling Prescriptions Are Now Called “Outliers, Pharmacists Required to Fix Outliers as They Show Up As Non Medication Adherence Compliant With 5 Star Systems Full of Flawed Data… The bottom line here is that the AMA and United Healthcare are making complete fools of everyone thinking that some brainchild coding is going to change anything, as it won’t, it will more than likely end up costing more money as of course it will end up requiring software updates, right…LOL…and the AMA will get paid royalties for creating new CPT codes that will have to go along to match the ICD diagnosis codes so doctors can get paid to throw you under the Bad Algo Coding bus where you will not only see potential limitations in care today, but this will follow you forever and make it harder for you to jump through more algorithmic hoops that the Quants will model.  If you’re not getting this, then watch my video at the link below and then continue on to watch the 4 videos from others and see how far down in the algo toilet you might be.  Algorithms, Scoring Metrics, Privacy and more in today’s Healthcare business world–The Healthcare Algo Cartel Again I’ve been writing about algo abuse and and cheating code for years, and it’s happening everywhere, as with software you can do something about anything, create little virtual worlds where folks function and create new little virtual values, but what happens when the real world comes knocking?  The dupes sadly go click on One Trick Algos for even a deeper saturation of perception deception.  That’s what this coding BS for care here is all about and somebody needed to say it, as they are virtual values that will not end up helping you one bit, but the AMA and UNH will profit royally as they have practices algorithms deception for years.  I think today it’s only 15% of the MDs in the US are members of the AMA, so many have dropped out as it’s more of a lobby for money now versus representing doctors in the US and this movement has been going on for years.  UNH is and has been the king pin for Quant modelers for years so everything modeled mathematically from that corporation needs extensive scrutiny as it geared for shareholders first, patients second, the massive number of algorithmic subsidiaries tells that story well.  We need to index and license ALL data sellers so we can get an idea of what’s really going on in the black box scoring algorithms executing code unknown everyday, and remember we just see the front ends so remember there’s a whole other reality in how those algos collect your data, score you, screw you, etc. for the sake of corporate profits.  “One Trick Algo World” Needs to be Licensed and Indexed–Spurious Correlations “For Profit” Are Out of Control

via Blogger https://ift.tt/33ut09g

[flauntpage]

Game Five: What to Watch For

The Sixers can finish the job at home tonight, and it’ll probably be more interesting than Andre Iguodala hitting a pair of free throws against the Derrick Rose-less Chicago Bulls.

I’m intrigued to see how Miami comes out after losing both games at home. Do we see utter lethargy and despair? I don’t know. Maybe those guys are thinking, “hey, listen, we won the last game in Philly, so let’s give it a go.”

What I do know is that your 76ers should be frothing at the mouth to finish off the Heat and turn attention to the Boston/Milwaukee matchup, a 2-2 series with neither team looking like a world beater thus far.

What to watch for tonight:

4th Quarter Execution

Playoff basketball often comes down to late game half court possessions. We finally got that in game four and the Sixers executed on the two sets they ran with less than one minute on the clock.

I shared these on Sunday morning but didn’t get into too much detail, so I wanted to revisit them, beginning with the dunk that Ben Simmons hammered home:

This is the “horns” set that the Sixers use frequently.

Basically you run a mid-court triangle with your ball handler at the tip and two guys on the elbow. You put the other two players in the corners, which makes it look like the University of Texas logo, right? –

You also hear this referred to as an “A” set, because if you connect the five dots on the floor, it looks like… well… the letter A, just upside down:

Anyway, the Sixers got James Johnson on a back screen here, with Josh Richardson failing to switch and giving Simmons a clear path to the hoop.

One of the strengths of the Sixers’ horns look is that they can surround Simmons with four shooters. In that set above, Dario Saric and Robert Covington can hit from the corners while Joel Embiid and JJ Redick can pop from the elbow for kick outs as well. When you watch the play above, you see Miami’s rim protector, Hassan Whiteside, nowhere near the rim because he’s out at the elbow trying to keep tabs on Embiid:

That’s bread and butter Sixers right there. Simmons sees a lane and drives, but he’s capable of kicking out to four shooters, including his 7’2″ center, who is pulling the rim protector far away from the rim.

That was the first play.

On the second play, they went to another staple, just a simple “25” look which is action between the shooting guard and center.

They again took advantage of Richardson, this time making him chase JJ Redick into a beefy Embiid screen:

Wonderful screen from Embiid, who knocks Richardson to the ground. Again Whiteside finds himself stranded, pulled away from the rim and unable to close out Redick on the perimeter.

Look at the spacing on this sequence:

They don’t have a single player standing inside the two-point area. Covington is playing as a four, Marco Belinelli as a three, and Embiid is standing in the corner.

Redick catches on the wing, brings Joel into the play, and they dribble hand-off into a nasty pick that frees Redick for the open look. Whiteside is cooked.

So those were two well-executed plays by the Sixers, and good calls by Brett Brown. They got Miami on a blown defensive assignment on the first one, then exploited Richardson and Whiteside on the second one. It should make Erik Spoelstra think about taking Whiteside off the floor if this situation pops up again to go with Kelly Olynyk or Bam Adebayo instead.

Points in the paint

Ironically enough, Hassan Whiteside did have his best performance of the series in game four.

He finished with 13 points on 6-9 shooting and 13 rebounds in a series-high 26 minutes. He was a +6 despite turning it over four times.

The Sixers had really been limiting points in the paint during this series, but gave up 56 on Saturday and 21 from fast break opportunities. You saw that change in the fourth quarter when Embiid collected himself and ripped off three blocks, asserting his authority at the rim and really clamping down on the defensive end.

Keep on eye on whether or not Spoelstra gives Whiteside 20+ minutes again tonight, or whether he goes back to Olynyk in a smaller look. He can also give Adebayo another physical run at Embiid and try to emulate what Miami did so well for three quarters the other night.

Turnovers

Breaking news: they can’t cough it up 26 times again.

I’ve talked a lot about how the Sixers usually make up for lost possessions via turnovers with offensive rebounding and a fast pace of play, but just to try a different type of exercise, let’s go back and look at how they respond AFTER atrocious turnover games.

There were 12 games this year where the Sixers turned it over 20 times or more:

They actually went 6-6 in those games, so go figure, 7-6 now if you include game four.

Here, then, is how they handled the ball in each game after the 12 above:

March 6th: 14 turnovers (at Charlotte)

December 15th: 19 turnovers (vs. OKC)

January 24th: 14 turnovers (vs. Chicago)

December 23rd: 22 turnovers (at Toronto)

March 1st: 9 turnovers (at Cleveland)

November 9th: 17 turnovers (at Sacramento)

January 20th: 16 turnovers (vs. Milwaukee)

December 25th: 15 turnovers (at Knicks)

March 15th: 14 turnovers (at Knicks)

January 18th: 22 turnovers (at Boston)

January 3rd: 13 turnovers (vs. Spurs)

October 25th: 14 turnovers (vs. Houston)

The Sixers finished the regular season ranked dead last with 16.5 turnovers per game. You can see above that they got their TOs below that average 8 times out of 12 following those horrendous 20+ games. Only twice did they follow up a 20+ turnover game with another 20+ turnover game, and that was against Boston and Toronto, the two best teams in the Eastern Conference.

Similar to bouncing back from losses, the pattern seems to suggest that they usually get the turnovers under control after a bad game. Considering the fact that they coughed it up just 14, 10, and 10 times in games one through three, it seems like 26 is just a massive outlier. Plus, you’ve got Embiid trying to adjust to the mask and get comfortable on the offensive end, so you can mention that as a significant footnote below the game four box score.

That’s about it. Let’s play basketball.

      Game Five: What to Watch For published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[flauntpage]

The VICE Sports Guide to the 2017 NBA Draft

Is Markelle Fultz the next great NBA point guard? Can Lonzo Ball live up to his father's hype? Who's the more desirable small forward of the future, Jayson Tatum or Josh Jackson?

You have NBA draft questions. We have answers. All season long, VICE Sports has been scouting top prospects and potential sleepers; check below for the particular player on your radar. (All stats and vitals are from DraftExpress.com.)

Markelle Fultz, guard, Washington

Height/weight: 6'4'', 195 pounds

Stats: 23.2 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game, 5.9 assists per game

Projected: No. 1 overall

There are many reasons the University of Washington freshman point guard is a presumptive lottery pick in this summer's NBA draft, and may even end up as the top overall selection. He's that good. At the same time, there's a question hanging over him, one being asked by fans, media, and even some league scouts.

If Fultz is such an incredible basketball player, then why the heck was his college team so lousy?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Lonzo Ball, guard, UCLA

Height/weight: 6'6'', 190 pounds

Stats: 14.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 7.6 APG

Projected: Lottery

Ball looks like an organization-changer, a wholly unselfish maestro who was put on the Earth to play basketball and win games. He may or may not be the best player in the draft, but there's no arguing that he's the most singular. And his uniqueness extends to the one aspect of his game that is often held up as a next-level question mark.

Specifically, how will Ball's one-of-a-kind jump shot—characterized by a funky gather and release on the left side of his body, even though he's a right-handed shooter—work against NBA defenders?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Josh Jackson is expected to be a high lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Photo by Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Josh Jackson, forward, Kansas

Height/weight: 6'8'', 203 pounds

Stats: 16.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 3.0 APG

Projected: Lottery

The 6-foot-7 wing embodies much of what the league is looking for, and where the game is going. From his mindset to his athleticism to his basketball IQ, there's very little he can't do at a high level, and he's just 20 years old.

On the other hand, there are a few complicating factors—some involving alleged bad behavior off the court—that could end up limiting Jackson's ceiling.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jayson Tatum, forward, Duke

Height/weight: 6'8'', 204 pounds

Stats: 16.8 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.1 APG

Projected: Lottery

In NBA circles, he's considered a "plus-plus" prospect in terms of his background and personality. He comes from a basketball family: his father, Justin, played at Saint Louis with former NBA player Larry Hughes, who is also Tatum's godfather. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal went to the same high school as Tatum and has taken him under his wing, as has former NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway. It also helps that Tatum has a reputation for being a tireless worker who is always adding new wrinkles to his game.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

De'Aaron Fox, guard, Kentucky

Height/weight: 6'4'', 171 pounds

Stats: 16.7 PPG, 4.0, RPG, 4.6 APG

Projected: Lottery

On draft night, front offices considering Fox will be confronted with a pair of related questions. One, can a team build a top offense in the modern NBA around a starting point guard who can't shoot? Two, is Fox's jumper totally broken and unfixable?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jonathan Isaac, forward, Florida State

Height/weight: 6'11'', 205 pounds

Stats: 12.0 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 1.2 APG

Projected: Lottery

Florida State big man Jonathan Isaac looks like a typical upside player: "Boom or bust" is how one NBA executive described him to me. Standing 6-foot-10 but weighing just 210 pounds, the rail-thin 19-year-old is all gangly athleticism. He has enticing perimeter skills—a fluid jump shot and the ability to drive to the rim—yet struggles with both confidence and consistency, and hasn't shown much in terms of creating offense for himself.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

When your stroke is pure enough to catch Phil Jackson's eye, reportedly. Photo by Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Lauri Markkanen, forward, Arizona

Height/weight: 7', 225 pounds

Stats: 15.6 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 0.9 APG

Projected: Lottery

Markkanen hits three-pointers when spotting up. He hits them in pick-and-pop situations, or in slide/slip screen actions. He hits them as a transition trailer. He'll knock them down coming off of a down screen. He can hit them off of a two-dribble step-back, or winding around a screen as a ball-handler. Basically, there's no situation where Markkanen isn't comfortable gunning from deep, and a lot of that has to do with his picture-perfect mechanics.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Malik Monk, guard, Kentucky

Height/weight: 6'4'', 197 pounds

Stats: 19.8 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.3 APG

Projected: Lottery

Over the last decade-plus of draft prospects—hundreds and hundreds of players—the Kentucky shooting guard stands out as genuinely unique. He's a volcanic offensive force, seemingly put on this Earth to get buckets, a 6-foot-3 scorer averaging 22.4 points per game on a 63 percent true-shooting percentage, one of five high-major guards to put up such numbers in the last 25 years of college hoops.

And stats don't tell the whole story. I've watched a lot of college basketball, and I've never seen a player so prone to preposterous, NBA Jam-style he's-on-fire shooting stretches.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Dennis Smith Jr., guard, NC State

Height/weight: 6'3'', 195 pounds

Stats: 18.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 6.2 APG

Projected: Lottery

For his own safety, Smith Jr. shouldn't be allowed to play basketball without a parachute strapped to his back. During a recent workout with the Los Angeles Lakers, he logged a ridiculous 48-inch vertical leap. Gravity doesn't affect Smith Jr. like most human beings; he's equally explosive off one leg or two, and packs enough energy in his 195-pound frame to convince shot-blocking bigs they should retreat and live another day.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Zach Collins, forward/center, Gonzaga

Height/weight: 7', 230 pounds

Stats: 10.0 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 0.4 APG

Projected: Lottery

Collins didn't come out of nowhere. He was a McDonald's All-American last season, the first ever to commit to Gonzaga out of high school. But he also was a late bloomer. Stuck behind a pair of former five-star recruits in Stephen Zimmerman and Chase Jeter, Collins didn't start for his high school team, Las Vegas's Bishop Gorman, until his senior year. Moreover, he's the first to admit that he wasn't really all that good until the end of his prep career, when he morphed from tall and gangly into an athletic two-way force.

In fact, that late transformation is part of how the Zags ended up landing him.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Luke Kennard, forward/guard, Duke

Height/weight: 6'6'', 202 pounds

Stats: 19.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.5 APG

Projected: First round

Kennard is a smooth-shooting marksman with an extremely high basketball IQ who gets by on guile and dexterity, and scored lots of points for the Blue Devils at a historically efficient rate. If all of that brings to mind comparisons with some other recent prospects who have enjoyed varying levels of success at the professional level—like Jimmer Fredette, Doug McDermott, or Nik Stauskas—well, that's probably your unconscious bias at work.

Take a closer look: Kennard is bigger than Fredette, a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body. He has better ball-handling and playmaking skills than McDermott, who is less a shooting guard than an undersized forward. Compared to Stauskas, Kennard has superior body control and a stronger release.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Luke Kennard (left) and Justin Jackson are both expected to be first-round 2017 NBA draft picks. Photo by Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Jackson, forward, North Carolina

Height/weight: 6'8'', 193 pounds

Stats: 18.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.8 APG

Projected: First round

Heading into the college season, many NBA evaluators believed that Jackson was a fixed quantity: highly skilled, somewhat limited athletically, can't hit outside shots. By taking league feedback and working hard on his jumper and footwork, Jackson rewrote his own scouting report.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

John Collins, forward, Wake Forest

Height/weight: 6'10'', 225 pounds

Stats: 19.2 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 0.5 APG

Projected: First round

After a solid freshman season, albeit one littered with foul trouble, Collins dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference as a sophomore this year. This is not an exaggeration, and I will repeat it for effect: John Collins was dominant in college basketball's deepest conference, and went far too unnoticed for how unbelievable he was. The six-foot-ten big man averaged 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in only 26.6 minutes per game this season. His 35.9 PER led all of college basketball.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

OG Anunoby, forward, Indiana

Height/weight: 6'8'', 215 pounds

Stats: 11.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.4 APG

Projected: First round

Basically, Anunoby currently fits the profile of a future NBA role player, and not a budding star. He's a potentially elite defender hampered by offensive limitations that didn't improve after a full collegiate off-season. It would take outlier levels of future improvement to bring him anywhere close to Leonard. And hey, sometimes that happens (see: Kawhi), but nobody should expect it.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Terrance Ferguson, forward, Australia

Height/weight: 6'7'', 186 pounds

Stats: 4.6 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 0.6 APG

Projected: First or second round

Skipping the established NCAA-to-NBA pipeline is risky. At the [NBA draft] combine, Ferguson acknowledged that he could be selected anywhere in the draft; we won't know for years whether playing in Australia was savvy, self-sabotaging, or somewhere in between.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jawun Evans could be a second-round 2017 NBA draft sleeper. Photo by Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Jawun Evans, guard, Oklahoma State

Height/weight: 6'1'', 177 pounds

Stats: 19.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 6.5 APG

Projected: Second round

Make even the smallest mistake in defensive execution, and Evans will pounce. Leave the smallest opening in a trap, and he'll split it with a wicked right-to-left crossover. Go under the screen, and he's a capable jump shooter off the dribble from deep. Hedge the screen to allow his defender time to recover, and he'll go around and find the open roller with either a quick pocket pass or an artfully weighted lob. Get caught in the mud after he's rocked the defender to sleep, and he'll accelerate to the hoop. That same speed also allows Evans to reject screens altogether, and still get into the paint.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Sindarius Thornwell, guard, South Carolina

Height/weight: 6'5'', 214 pounds

Stats: 21.4 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 2.8 APG

Projected: Second round/undrafted

Prospects who play themselves off the NBA Draft radar rarely make it back on. Thornwell has come a long way, and done so with hard work and tangible improvement. For the majority of NBA players—especially role players—want and persistence are as important as talent, because everyone has talent, and sticking around in the world's best basketball league is very, very hard.

Thornwell didn't have go to South Carolina in the first place. He didn't have to stay there after a so-so start. But he did, and now you can make the case that he's the most important player in program history—surpassing Alex English, John Roche, and legendary diminutive scorer Devan Downey. Whether Thornwell is drafted or not, whether he plays in the NBA or somewhere else, his resilience should help him find a home.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

The VICE Sports Guide to the 2017 NBA Draft published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

The VICE Sports Guide to the 2017 NBA Draft

Is Markelle Fultz the next great NBA point guard? Can Lonzo Ball live up to his father's hype? Who's the more desirable small forward of the future, Jayson Tatum or Josh Jackson?

You have NBA draft questions. We have answers. All season long, VICE Sports has been scouting top prospects and potential sleepers; check below for the particular player on your radar. (All stats and vitals are from DraftExpress.com.)

Markelle Fultz, guard, Washington

Height/weight: 6'4'', 195 pounds

Stats: 23.2 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game, 5.9 assists per game

Projected: No. 1 overall

There are many reasons the University of Washington freshman point guard is a presumptive lottery pick in this summer's NBA draft, and may even end up as the top overall selection. He's that good. At the same time, there's a question hanging over him, one being asked by fans, media, and even some league scouts.

If Fultz is such an incredible basketball player, then why the heck was his college team so lousy?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Lonzo Ball, guard, UCLA

Height/weight: 6'6'', 190 pounds

Stats: 14.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 7.6 APG

Projected: Lottery

Ball looks like an organization-changer, a wholly unselfish maestro who was put on the Earth to play basketball and win games. He may or may not be the best player in the draft, but there's no arguing that he's the most singular. And his uniqueness extends to the one aspect of his game that is often held up as a next-level question mark.

Specifically, how will Ball's one-of-a-kind jump shot—characterized by a funky gather and release on the left side of his body, even though he's a right-handed shooter—work against NBA defenders?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Josh Jackson is expected to be a high lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Photo by Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Josh Jackson, forward, Kansas

Height/weight: 6'8'', 203 pounds

Stats: 16.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 3.0 APG

Projected: Lottery

The 6-foot-7 wing embodies much of what the league is looking for, and where the game is going. From his mindset to his athleticism to his basketball IQ, there's very little he can't do at a high level, and he's just 20 years old.

On the other hand, there are a few complicating factors—some involving alleged bad behavior off the court—that could end up limiting Jackson's ceiling.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jayson Tatum, forward, Duke

Height/weight: 6'8'', 204 pounds

Stats: 16.8 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.1 APG

Projected: Lottery

In NBA circles, he's considered a "plus-plus" prospect in terms of his background and personality. He comes from a basketball family: his father, Justin, played at Saint Louis with former NBA player Larry Hughes, who is also Tatum's godfather. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal went to the same high school as Tatum and has taken him under his wing, as has former NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway. It also helps that Tatum has a reputation for being a tireless worker who is always adding new wrinkles to his game.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

De'Aaron Fox, guard, Kentucky

Height/weight: 6'4'', 171 pounds

Stats: 16.7 PPG, 4.0, RPG, 4.6 APG

Projected: Lottery

On draft night, front offices considering Fox will be confronted with a pair of related questions. One, can a team build a top offense in the modern NBA around a starting point guard who can't shoot? Two, is Fox's jumper totally broken and unfixable?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jonathan Isaac, forward, Florida State

Height/weight: 6'11'', 205 pounds

Stats: 12.0 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 1.2 APG

Projected: Lottery

Florida State big man Jonathan Isaac looks like a typical upside player: "Boom or bust" is how one NBA executive described him to me. Standing 6-foot-10 but weighing just 210 pounds, the rail-thin 19-year-old is all gangly athleticism. He has enticing perimeter skills—a fluid jump shot and the ability to drive to the rim—yet struggles with both confidence and consistency, and hasn't shown much in terms of creating offense for himself.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

When your stroke is pure enough to catch Phil Jackson's eye, reportedly. Photo by Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Lauri Markkanen, forward, Arizona

Height/weight: 7', 225 pounds

Stats: 15.6 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 0.9 APG

Projected: Lottery

Markkanen hits three-pointers when spotting up. He hits them in pick-and-pop situations, or in slide/slip screen actions. He hits them as a transition trailer. He'll knock them down coming off of a down screen. He can hit them off of a two-dribble step-back, or winding around a screen as a ball-handler. Basically, there's no situation where Markkanen isn't comfortable gunning from deep, and a lot of that has to do with his picture-perfect mechanics.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Malik Monk, guard, Kentucky

Height/weight: 6'4'', 197 pounds

Stats: 19.8 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.3 APG

Projected: Lottery

Over the last decade-plus of draft prospects—hundreds and hundreds of players—the Kentucky shooting guard stands out as genuinely unique. He's a volcanic offensive force, seemingly put on this Earth to get buckets, a 6-foot-3 scorer averaging 22.4 points per game on a 63 percent true-shooting percentage, one of five high-major guards to put up such numbers in the last 25 years of college hoops.

And stats don't tell the whole story. I've watched a lot of college basketball, and I've never seen a player so prone to preposterous, NBA Jam-style he's-on-fire shooting stretches.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Dennis Smith Jr., guard, NC State

Height/weight: 6'3'', 195 pounds

Stats: 18.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 6.2 APG

Projected: Lottery

For his own safety, Smith Jr. shouldn't be allowed to play basketball without a parachute strapped to his back. During a recent workout with the Los Angeles Lakers, he logged a ridiculous 48-inch vertical leap. Gravity doesn't affect Smith Jr. like most human beings; he's equally explosive off one leg or two, and packs enough energy in his 195-pound frame to convince shot-blocking bigs they should retreat and live another day.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Zach Collins, forward/center, Gonzaga

Height/weight: 7', 230 pounds

Stats: 10.0 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 0.4 APG

Projected: Lottery

Collins didn't come out of nowhere. He was a McDonald's All-American last season, the first ever to commit to Gonzaga out of high school. But he also was a late bloomer. Stuck behind a pair of former five-star recruits in Stephen Zimmerman and Chase Jeter, Collins didn't start for his high school team, Las Vegas's Bishop Gorman, until his senior year. Moreover, he's the first to admit that he wasn't really all that good until the end of his prep career, when he morphed from tall and gangly into an athletic two-way force.

In fact, that late transformation is part of how the Zags ended up landing him.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Luke Kennard, forward/guard, Duke

Height/weight: 6'6'', 202 pounds

Stats: 19.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.5 APG

Projected: First round

Kennard is a smooth-shooting marksman with an extremely high basketball IQ who gets by on guile and dexterity, and scored lots of points for the Blue Devils at a historically efficient rate. If all of that brings to mind comparisons with some other recent prospects who have enjoyed varying levels of success at the professional level—like Jimmer Fredette, Doug McDermott, or Nik Stauskas—well, that's probably your unconscious bias at work.

Take a closer look: Kennard is bigger than Fredette, a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body. He has better ball-handling and playmaking skills than McDermott, who is less a shooting guard than an undersized forward. Compared to Stauskas, Kennard has superior body control and a stronger release.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Luke Kennard (left) and Justin Jackson are both expected to be first-round 2017 NBA draft picks. Photo by Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Jackson, forward, North Carolina

Height/weight: 6'8'', 193 pounds

Stats: 18.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.8 APG

Projected: First round

Heading into the college season, many NBA evaluators believed that Jackson was a fixed quantity: highly skilled, somewhat limited athletically, can't hit outside shots. By taking league feedback and working hard on his jumper and footwork, Jackson rewrote his own scouting report.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

John Collins, forward, Wake Forest

Height/weight: 6'10'', 225 pounds

Stats: 19.2 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 0.5 APG

Projected: First round

After a solid freshman season, albeit one littered with foul trouble, Collins dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference as a sophomore this year. This is not an exaggeration, and I will repeat it for effect: John Collins was dominant in college basketball's deepest conference, and went far too unnoticed for how unbelievable he was. The six-foot-ten big man averaged 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in only 26.6 minutes per game this season. His 35.9 PER led all of college basketball.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

OG Anunoby, forward, Indiana

Height/weight: 6'8'', 215 pounds

Stats: 11.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.4 APG

Projected: First round

Basically, Anunoby currently fits the profile of a future NBA role player, and not a budding star. He's a potentially elite defender hampered by offensive limitations that didn't improve after a full collegiate off-season. It would take outlier levels of future improvement to bring him anywhere close to Leonard. And hey, sometimes that happens (see: Kawhi), but nobody should expect it.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Terrance Ferguson, forward, Australia

Height/weight: 6'7'', 186 pounds

Stats: 4.6 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 0.6 APG

Projected: First or second round

Skipping the established NCAA-to-NBA pipeline is risky. At the [NBA draft] combine, Ferguson acknowledged that he could be selected anywhere in the draft; we won't know for years whether playing in Australia was savvy, self-sabotaging, or somewhere in between.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jawun Evans could be a second-round 2017 NBA draft sleeper. Photo by Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Jawun Evans, guard, Oklahoma State

Height/weight: 6'1'', 177 pounds

Stats: 19.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 6.5 APG

Projected: Second round

Make even the smallest mistake in defensive execution, and Evans will pounce. Leave the smallest opening in a trap, and he'll split it with a wicked right-to-left crossover. Go under the screen, and he's a capable jump shooter off the dribble from deep. Hedge the screen to allow his defender time to recover, and he'll go around and find the open roller with either a quick pocket pass or an artfully weighted lob. Get caught in the mud after he's rocked the defender to sleep, and he'll accelerate to the hoop. That same speed also allows Evans to reject screens altogether, and still get into the paint.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Sindarius Thornwell, guard, South Carolina

Height/weight: 6'5'', 214 pounds

Stats: 21.4 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 2.8 APG

Projected: Second round/undrafted

Prospects who play themselves off the NBA Draft radar rarely make it back on. Thornwell has come a long way, and done so with hard work and tangible improvement. For the majority of NBA players—especially role players—want and persistence are as important as talent, because everyone has talent, and sticking around in the world's best basketball league is very, very hard.

Thornwell didn't have go to South Carolina in the first place. He didn't have to stay there after a so-so start. But he did, and now you can make the case that he's the most important player in program history—surpassing Alex English, John Roche, and legendary diminutive scorer Devan Downey. Whether Thornwell is drafted or not, whether he plays in the NBA or somewhere else, his resilience should help him find a home.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

The VICE Sports Guide to the 2017 NBA Draft published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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The VICE Sports Guide to the 2017 NBA Draft

Is Markelle Fultz the next great NBA point guard? Can Lonzo Ball live up to his father's hype? Who's the more desirable small forward of the future, Jayson Tatum or Josh Jackson?

You have NBA draft questions. We have answers. All season long, VICE Sports has been scouting top prospects and potential sleepers; check below for the particular player on your radar. (All stats and vitals are from DraftExpress.com.)

Markelle Fultz, guard, Washington

Height/weight: 6'4'', 195 pounds

Stats: 23.2 points per game, 5.7 rebounds per game, 5.9 assists per game

Projected: No. 1 overall

There are many reasons the University of Washington freshman point guard is a presumptive lottery pick in this summer's NBA draft, and may even end up as the top overall selection. He's that good. At the same time, there's a question hanging over him, one being asked by fans, media, and even some league scouts.

If Fultz is such an incredible basketball player, then why the heck was his college team so lousy?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Lonzo Ball, guard, UCLA

Height/weight: 6'6'', 190 pounds

Stats: 14.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 7.6 APG

Projected: Lottery

Ball looks like an organization-changer, a wholly unselfish maestro who was put on the Earth to play basketball and win games. He may or may not be the best player in the draft, but there's no arguing that he's the most singular. And his uniqueness extends to the one aspect of his game that is often held up as a next-level question mark.

Specifically, how will Ball's one-of-a-kind jump shot—characterized by a funky gather and release on the left side of his body, even though he's a right-handed shooter—work against NBA defenders?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Josh Jackson is expected to be a high lottery pick in the 2017 NBA Draft. Photo by Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Josh Jackson, forward, Kansas

Height/weight: 6'8'', 203 pounds

Stats: 16.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 3.0 APG

Projected: Lottery

The 6-foot-7 wing embodies much of what the league is looking for, and where the game is going. From his mindset to his athleticism to his basketball IQ, there's very little he can't do at a high level, and he's just 20 years old.

On the other hand, there are a few complicating factors—some involving alleged bad behavior off the court—that could end up limiting Jackson's ceiling.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jayson Tatum, forward, Duke

Height/weight: 6'8'', 204 pounds

Stats: 16.8 PPG, 7.3 RPG, 2.1 APG

Projected: Lottery

In NBA circles, he's considered a "plus-plus" prospect in terms of his background and personality. He comes from a basketball family: his father, Justin, played at Saint Louis with former NBA player Larry Hughes, who is also Tatum's godfather. Washington Wizards guard Bradley Beal went to the same high school as Tatum and has taken him under his wing, as has former NBA All-Star Penny Hardaway. It also helps that Tatum has a reputation for being a tireless worker who is always adding new wrinkles to his game.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

De'Aaron Fox, guard, Kentucky

Height/weight: 6'4'', 171 pounds

Stats: 16.7 PPG, 4.0, RPG, 4.6 APG

Projected: Lottery

On draft night, front offices considering Fox will be confronted with a pair of related questions. One, can a team build a top offense in the modern NBA around a starting point guard who can't shoot? Two, is Fox's jumper totally broken and unfixable?

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jonathan Isaac, forward, Florida State

Height/weight: 6'11'', 205 pounds

Stats: 12.0 PPG, 7.8 RPG, 1.2 APG

Projected: Lottery

Florida State big man Jonathan Isaac looks like a typical upside player: "Boom or bust" is how one NBA executive described him to me. Standing 6-foot-10 but weighing just 210 pounds, the rail-thin 19-year-old is all gangly athleticism. He has enticing perimeter skills—a fluid jump shot and the ability to drive to the rim—yet struggles with both confidence and consistency, and hasn't shown much in terms of creating offense for himself.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

When your stroke is pure enough to catch Phil Jackson's eye, reportedly. Photo by Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports

Lauri Markkanen, forward, Arizona

Height/weight: 7', 225 pounds

Stats: 15.6 PPG, 7.2 RPG, 0.9 APG

Projected: Lottery

Markkanen hits three-pointers when spotting up. He hits them in pick-and-pop situations, or in slide/slip screen actions. He hits them as a transition trailer. He'll knock them down coming off of a down screen. He can hit them off of a two-dribble step-back, or winding around a screen as a ball-handler. Basically, there's no situation where Markkanen isn't comfortable gunning from deep, and a lot of that has to do with his picture-perfect mechanics.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Malik Monk, guard, Kentucky

Height/weight: 6'4'', 197 pounds

Stats: 19.8 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.3 APG

Projected: Lottery

Over the last decade-plus of draft prospects—hundreds and hundreds of players—the Kentucky shooting guard stands out as genuinely unique. He's a volcanic offensive force, seemingly put on this Earth to get buckets, a 6-foot-3 scorer averaging 22.4 points per game on a 63 percent true-shooting percentage, one of five high-major guards to put up such numbers in the last 25 years of college hoops.

And stats don't tell the whole story. I've watched a lot of college basketball, and I've never seen a player so prone to preposterous, NBA Jam-style he's-on-fire shooting stretches.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Dennis Smith Jr., guard, NC State

Height/weight: 6'3'', 195 pounds

Stats: 18.1 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 6.2 APG

Projected: Lottery

For his own safety, Smith Jr. shouldn't be allowed to play basketball without a parachute strapped to his back. During a recent workout with the Los Angeles Lakers, he logged a ridiculous 48-inch vertical leap. Gravity doesn't affect Smith Jr. like most human beings; he's equally explosive off one leg or two, and packs enough energy in his 195-pound frame to convince shot-blocking bigs they should retreat and live another day.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Zach Collins, forward/center, Gonzaga

Height/weight: 7', 230 pounds

Stats: 10.0 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 0.4 APG

Projected: Lottery

Collins didn't come out of nowhere. He was a McDonald's All-American last season, the first ever to commit to Gonzaga out of high school. But he also was a late bloomer. Stuck behind a pair of former five-star recruits in Stephen Zimmerman and Chase Jeter, Collins didn't start for his high school team, Las Vegas's Bishop Gorman, until his senior year. Moreover, he's the first to admit that he wasn't really all that good until the end of his prep career, when he morphed from tall and gangly into an athletic two-way force.

In fact, that late transformation is part of how the Zags ended up landing him.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Luke Kennard, forward/guard, Duke

Height/weight: 6'6'', 202 pounds

Stats: 19.5 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 2.5 APG

Projected: First round

Kennard is a smooth-shooting marksman with an extremely high basketball IQ who gets by on guile and dexterity, and scored lots of points for the Blue Devils at a historically efficient rate. If all of that brings to mind comparisons with some other recent prospects who have enjoyed varying levels of success at the professional level—like Jimmer Fredette, Doug McDermott, or Nik Stauskas—well, that's probably your unconscious bias at work.

Take a closer look: Kennard is bigger than Fredette, a shooting guard trapped in a point guard's body. He has better ball-handling and playmaking skills than McDermott, who is less a shooting guard than an undersized forward. Compared to Stauskas, Kennard has superior body control and a stronger release.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Luke Kennard (left) and Justin Jackson are both expected to be first-round 2017 NBA draft picks. Photo by Mark Dolejs-USA TODAY Sports

Justin Jackson, forward, North Carolina

Height/weight: 6'8'', 193 pounds

Stats: 18.4 PPG, 4.7 RPG, 2.8 APG

Projected: First round

Heading into the college season, many NBA evaluators believed that Jackson was a fixed quantity: highly skilled, somewhat limited athletically, can't hit outside shots. By taking league feedback and working hard on his jumper and footwork, Jackson rewrote his own scouting report.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

John Collins, forward, Wake Forest

Height/weight: 6'10'', 225 pounds

Stats: 19.2 PPG, 9.8 RPG, 0.5 APG

Projected: First round

After a solid freshman season, albeit one littered with foul trouble, Collins dominated the Atlantic Coast Conference as a sophomore this year. This is not an exaggeration, and I will repeat it for effect: John Collins was dominant in college basketball's deepest conference, and went far too unnoticed for how unbelievable he was. The six-foot-ten big man averaged 19.2 points, 9.8 rebounds, and 1.6 blocks in only 26.6 minutes per game this season. His 35.9 PER led all of college basketball.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

OG Anunoby, forward, Indiana

Height/weight: 6'8'', 215 pounds

Stats: 11.1 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 1.4 APG

Projected: First round

Basically, Anunoby currently fits the profile of a future NBA role player, and not a budding star. He's a potentially elite defender hampered by offensive limitations that didn't improve after a full collegiate off-season. It would take outlier levels of future improvement to bring him anywhere close to Leonard. And hey, sometimes that happens (see: Kawhi), but nobody should expect it.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Terrance Ferguson, forward, Australia

Height/weight: 6'7'', 186 pounds

Stats: 4.6 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 0.6 APG

Projected: First or second round

Skipping the established NCAA-to-NBA pipeline is risky. At the [NBA draft] combine, Ferguson acknowledged that he could be selected anywhere in the draft; we won't know for years whether playing in Australia was savvy, self-sabotaging, or somewhere in between.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Jawun Evans could be a second-round 2017 NBA draft sleeper. Photo by Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

Jawun Evans, guard, Oklahoma State

Height/weight: 6'1'', 177 pounds

Stats: 19.0 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 6.5 APG

Projected: Second round

Make even the smallest mistake in defensive execution, and Evans will pounce. Leave the smallest opening in a trap, and he'll split it with a wicked right-to-left crossover. Go under the screen, and he's a capable jump shooter off the dribble from deep. Hedge the screen to allow his defender time to recover, and he'll go around and find the open roller with either a quick pocket pass or an artfully weighted lob. Get caught in the mud after he's rocked the defender to sleep, and he'll accelerate to the hoop. That same speed also allows Evans to reject screens altogether, and still get into the paint.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

Sindarius Thornwell, guard, South Carolina

Height/weight: 6'5'', 214 pounds

Stats: 21.4 PPG, 7.1 RPG, 2.8 APG

Projected: Second round/undrafted

Prospects who play themselves off the NBA Draft radar rarely make it back on. Thornwell has come a long way, and done so with hard work and tangible improvement. For the majority of NBA players—especially role players—want and persistence are as important as talent, because everyone has talent, and sticking around in the world's best basketball league is very, very hard.

Thornwell didn't have go to South Carolina in the first place. He didn't have to stay there after a so-so start. But he did, and now you can make the case that he's the most important player in program history—surpassing Alex English, John Roche, and legendary diminutive scorer Devan Downey. Whether Thornwell is drafted or not, whether he plays in the NBA or somewhere else, his resilience should help him find a home.

Read the full VICE Sports scouting report.

The VICE Sports Guide to the 2017 NBA Draft published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv