As you probably know by now, NBA insider Adrian Wojnarowski isn’t supposed to report draft picks before Commissioner Adam Silver announces them. That results in Woj getting creative on Twitter and using fuzzy language to… report draft picks while protecting himself and still adhering to the rules, I guess.

The by-product is a laugh out loud moment or two, because he comes up with some ridiculous stuff, like this:

Some of the stuff he used to say was hilarious, like “enamored,” “tantalized,” and “has a laser on.” He’d come up with all kinds of crazy shit. Woj has dialed it back recently, though, and he used the same eight phrases over and over again on Thursday night, which I’ve ranked here:

 

8. “targeting”

This is a common Woj phrase. He basically just throws in the towel during the second round and uses “targeting” for every player, like Alabama’s JD Davison:


 

7. “focused on”

This is another good one. The Pacers have their man. They are FOCUSED ON Andrew Nembhard:

 

6. “atop the draft board”

Common logic would say that if a team has a player “atop the draft board,” and it’s their turn to pick, then they will get said player:

 

5. “landing on”

This is one of my personal favorites. Are the Wizards flying a plane? They landed on Yannick Nzosa:

 

4. “wants”

Such a simple choice here, but very effective. Oklahoma City wants Jalen Williams, but will they get him? –

 

3. “stands at the top”

Splitting hairs here, since this is very similar to “atop the draft board,” but I give Woj credit for a little tweak here and moving some words around and coming up with something different:

 

2. “remains the frontrunner”

Wink wink

Chet Holmgren was not only the frontrunner for the 2nd overall pick, but he did indeed become the 2nd overall pick:

 

1. “planning to select”

This gets the #1 ranking from me, because it’s the most basic out of all of them. We can safely assume that if a team is “planning to select” someone, that they will indeed do it.

The other funny thing is that Woj is citing “source” or “sources” every single time, which becomes a throw-away clause at the end of every tweet. I’d love to be in the production meeting or read the emails exchanged between him and ESPN. “Okay, you can break every pick and trade, just cite sources and use goofy language to dance around it.” The end product is the same thing anyway, so what’s the point?