FarBeyondDriven wrote:HadAnEffectHere wrote:Yeah, Matas' entire upside is based on triple threat stuff and back to the basket stuff. He has to be an extremely high usage guy to make up for how bad his defense is and that's clearly what he wants to do. The "plug and play" and "secondary playmaker" stuff feels like pure fantasy. He's an iso scorer only who is currently bad at iso scoring because his tools are bad and his jumpshot is bad.
Have you even watched him play? He's almost exclusively an off-ball 3 and D wing with the ability to drive on closeouts and on occasion ISO against mismatches. I've also seen plenty of evidence that he has promise as a defender with a knack for blocking shots. His issue at Ignite is that he is likely a 3/4 like Keegan Murray, Harrison Barnes, Tatum and had trouble (like they do) staying in front of quicker wings which happened a lot since he almost exclusively played the 3. If he plays the 4 this won't be as much of an issue. He'll need to put on muscle to be able to defend the 4 but it's doable. The point is, he has enough promise on defense as a switchable 3/4 it could lead to him becoming a starter which is why he's in the lottery mix. Worrying about defense from a 20 y/o 6'2" guard with a weak wingspan is one thing, worrying about it from a 19 y/o 6'9" wing with good wingspan is another. The draft is all about tools and potential for half the prospects. The others it's about filling specific needs as role players.
Yes, I have watched 5-6 full games highlights. Just for instance, he has 3 isolation plays inside the first 4 clips.
He isn't a very good shooter right now, so I think trying to play him like a Harrison Barnes, PJ Washington type is setting him up for failure. His best case scenario in my opinion is a team puts the ball in his hands like a Gordon Hayward type of role and let him develop on ball skills in PnR, posting mismatches, and playing more in the mid range game. None of that is really screaming off-ball 3D type.
Obviously the Ignite are 2-31 so this style hasn't really worked but that would be the move if taking him in the top 5 is to give him a larger role to see if he can become more efficient. Because again he is a meh athlete, meh shooter, meh defender so you are probably getting a meh player if that is the role you want him to play.
If I want a true off the ball type of guy I would rather take Cody Williams, Risacher, Walter or Saluan