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Once upon a time Shabazz Muhammad was expected to be one the best players in the nation, but he didn't look the part in his lone season at UCLA, and he failed to impress during workouts leading up to the draft. Nonetheless, the Minnesota Timberwolves landed the first-rounder on draft day via a trade with the Utah Jazz. Team president Flip Saunders quickly preached patience with expectations for Muhammed, saying that the rookie would come off the bench, which makes sense, since they now have Kevin Martin and Chase Budinger on the wing. However, after Muhammed was booted out of the NBA Rookie Transition Program for having a lady friend in his room, Saunders hinted at a lack of patience for stuff like that.

“In our league, you have to be disciplined and being ‘disciplined’ is being able to adhere to whatever rules are given and you gotta abide by the rules,” Saunders told KFAN's Dan Barriero, via Scott Schroeder of ProBasketballTalk.com. “So that’s been disappointing. But when I talk to him, he’s either gonna learn the rules and learn to abide by things with the big boys or he’s gonna really quick learn a geography class: where Des Moines is in the NBDL down in Iowa.”

Zing! Clearly, Saunders is going to give Muhammad a very short leash when it comes to becoming a professional. The bigger concern for the long term is whether he really is as good as he has been hyped. After watching him at UCLA and during Summer League games, he seems to have little to offer besides chucking up shots from anywhere, while having no court awareness and little interest in sharing the rock. Fantasy owners will be wise to steer clear of Muhammad this season.

ComboGuardCity wrote:As said in another thread, his scorers mentality never stops.

DetroitDon15 wrote:He is a perfect example why NBA was smart to go away from the no college jump but I think he needs to go to three years before drafted. These guys are just too immature most of the time.

theBigLip wrote:

DetroitDon15 wrote:He is a perfect example why NBA was smart to go away from the no college jump but I think he needs to go to three years before drafted. These guys are just too immature most of the time.

Agree. I was originally against the "one year after HS" draft rule, but most of these guys really need to work on their game. As the D-League develops more, and once every single NBA team has their own D-League team, I think things could change and more players go the D-League route.

DetroitDon15 wrote:

theBigLip wrote:

DetroitDon15 wrote:He is a perfect example why NBA was smart to go away from the no college jump but I think he needs to go to three years before drafted. These guys are just too immature most of the time.

Agree. I was originally against the "one year after HS" draft rule, but most of these guys really need to work on their game. As the D-League develops more, and once every single NBA team has their own D-League team, I think things could change and more players go the D-League route.

I don't think a lot of the players will skip college to go the D-League route if they go to a three year rule. I see the hyped ones (IE Shabazz Muhammeds, Ricky Ledo, Brandon Jennings, and so on) will jump to Europe to get paid. I have no problem with that in all honesty. This one and done is a joke. Guys are still getting drafted on high school hype. Lots of these guys would be weeded out and not wasted picks. There are too many lotto busts happening.

Drwho17 wrote:Will they take Siva for him? Send Flip a #2 for Shabazz, he will be a dominant scorer in the NBA.

Summer League means NOTHING.

c-dot wrote:

DetroitDon15 wrote:

theBigLip wrote:
Agree. I was originally against the "one year after HS" draft rule, but most of these guys really need to work on their game. As the D-League develops more, and once every single NBA team has their own D-League team, I think things could change and more players go the D-League route.

I don't think a lot of the players will skip college to go the D-League route if they go to a three year rule. I see the hyped ones (IE Shabazz Muhammeds, Ricky Ledo, Brandon Jennings, and so on) will jump to Europe to get paid. I have no problem with that in all honesty. This one and done is a joke. Guys are still getting drafted on high school hype. Lots of these guys would be weeded out and not wasted picks. There are too many lotto busts happening.

Not really, there hasn't been a lot of one and done lotto busts in the last few years. Don't forget Drummond got drafted on HS hype, he really didn't do anything in college.

dan2314 wrote:i think he will be one of those guys who is just a massive disappointment to every team, but will constantly be viewed as 'lets take a chance on him as we might be able to turn him around'. kinda like beasley i guess.