HartfordWhalers wrote:pacers33granger wrote:The shot is really the only major thing separating him from being a Prince-like player right now..[snip]..which is basically Tayshaun Prince.
Except Tayshawn Prince was that guy with much more shooting range.
If someone wants to say that is what they expect, fine. However it is closer to a ceiling than a floor at this point.
Of course. I think overall the comparison of MKG to Prince is a lazy one since they're different types of players. My point is more that I'd expect MKG to become a guy on the level of Prince (i.e. great starter, wing stopper, never really a star though and not able to create any offense). I think MKG will be able to excel in different ways on offense. He's much more of a slasher.
I think a better comparison would be Marion, though I don't expect him to be as good as Marion was in his prime. Still, Marion's first 5 years in the league saw him average around 52 TS%. He did also score and shoot more, but was 21 when he came into the league. And he made his jumper work later on in his career. Lance Stephenson was another guy who drastically improved his jumper. Couldn't shoot at all his first two years, but kept working at it.
I also think we saw that guys who can't shoot but still have lots of other skills can be an asset and play winning basketball with Tony Allen and Shaun Livingston. Now those careers would be disappointing for a number 2 pick, but neither really had the potential MKG has (Livingston did before the injury).
I understand your point of view and others like yours. There's a lot of question marks and it is rare to see a guy really succeed with as bad a jumper as MKG has had. I believe though that if you put him on a team like Philly that's young and will be running a lot, he could do much better on offense. He could just need to get easy buckets to help his confidence and focus, which are tough to come by for a guy like in Charlotte's offense.