tong po wrote:DuckIII wrote:I will. Because its not a basketball reason. Its a trend reason. A perception reason. You evaluate individuals. Its little less arbitrary and idiotic as saying that you shouldn't "draft players from Duke."
Well…nobody's gonna agree with me, but I'm just gonna say it: every white American wing prospect that was hyped up enough to make the first round in the last decade has been incredibly overrated due to being white. They get the usual white player platitudes like "smart," "hardworking," "skilled," "gritty," etc., when if they were the same player but black, they probably would not, at least not to the same extent. This isn't only a white guy thing, sometimes random black guys get these pointless platitudes as well (hello, Marcus Smart), but it has definitely pumped up the stock for a lot of white perimeter players who, with hindsight, should have easily been seen as the middling-to-terrible prospects they really were.
I mean, why is McDermott somehow now a top-10 lock, while fellow slow ass 3/4 tweener Kyle Anderson is barely a first rounder? How is McDermott somehow just assumed to be able to transfer his skillset over to the pros but not Anderson?
I think there is a tendency for them to get overrated because GMs give them a bit more leeway in thinking they will "figure it out" once they reach the pros. I'm personally still bewildered as to how every white guy in the last ten years that was drafted in the lottery was, in fact, taken in the lottery. I know not all of them are bad players or anything, but how they were that hyped up as NBA prospects instead of being seen as the late first rounders/second rounders they should have been eludes me.
Of course, I realize it's also bewildering how these same GMs thought Parsons and Budinger were only second round prospects. I would assume they didn't really come off as "smart" players in college.
I'll answer the Kyle Anderson bit, because Doug is absolutely elite at shooting and that is a premiuim while Kyle is not. Fair or not, Kyle has exceptional vision and feel for the game but that part is always overlooked for score ring and shooting IMO.
I happen to like both players a lot but I think it has more to do with their individual skill sets although there might be some truth to what you are saying.
so a white player picked 8 isn't deserving of the spot, he was picked because a gm is looking to lose his job? If the consensus on a player is he is a top 10 pick (and all gms agree, mocks have him there), then he is obviously deserving of that indication that he is that level prospect. Gms don't make picks out of pity.