Launch Smailagic onto the court or to the moon thread.

[AdonalFoyle4Prez]

G-League Numbers from his rookie season to now:



Not sure if it's a confidence issue, not working on his game, or he just plain sucks, but these numbers are so-so. Prerequisite: If you're a Euro-player, you are expected to at least have your free throws above 80% and/or can shoot the hell out of the ball from long-range (At least the expectation for how the league is being played, now.).

Kirk Lacob, do us all a favor: Stay the F out of all-things player scouting.

[WarriorGM]

G-League Numbers from his rookie season to now:



Not sure if it's a confidence issue, not working on his game, or he just plain sucks, but these numbers are so-so. Prerequisite: If you're a Euro-player, you are expected to at least have your free throws above 80% and/or can shoot the hell out of the ball from long-range (At least the expectation for how the league is being played, now.).

Kirk Lacob, do us all a favor: Stay the F out of all-things player scouting.

I notice certain things that make me wonder about the above numbers. First of all his playing time is falling from 800 minutes to 170. That's going to affect rhythm. Next his most recent year is based on 10 games. Too small a sample size really. Notice also his 3pt% cratering. Given the previous not surprising. His 2pt% is going up though.

I have a suspicion that the way the team is choosing to develop him might be affecting his numbers. Same with Wiseman. Smailagic and Wiseman seem to look better the first we saw them and started looking progressively worse offensively. I think they're trying to focus on defense.

[AdonalFoyle4Prez]

G-League Numbers from his rookie season to now:



Not sure if it's a confidence issue, not working on his game, or he just plain sucks, but these numbers are so-so. Prerequisite: If you're a Euro-player, you are expected to at least have your free throws above 80% and/or can shoot the hell out of the ball from long-range (At least the expectation for how the league is being played, now.).

Kirk Lacob, do us all a favor: Stay the F out of all-things player scouting.

I notice certain things that make me wonder about the above numbers. First of all his playing time is falling from 800 minutes to 170. That's going to affect rhythm. Next his most recent year is based on 10 games. Too small a sample size really. Notice also his 3pt% cratering. Given the previous not surprising. His 2pt% is going up though.

I have a suspicion that the way the team is choosing to develop him might be affecting his numbers. Same with Wiseman. Smailagic and Wiseman seem to look better the first we saw them and started looking progressively worse offensively. I think they're trying to focus on defense.

I think we all forget sometimes how our offensive schemes is all laid-out for mostly Curry and Klay (Shooters, simply) due to the spacing created by them and others making the extra pass for the corner 3 or someone on top of the key. Why we drafted Wiseman when the league's been trending this way into more of a perimeter-oriented game, offensively and defensively? How or why does Wiseman fit into this team's gameplan? Am I missing something? If it's banking on his potential to eventually play the perimeter game, then I don't know. It's going to take 1-2 more years to see that, but what 7 footer other than KD has played the perimeter game successfully (If that makes sense at all)?

[shazam_guy]

I don't think they're banking on Wiseman to be an outside player, although if he can shoot the three, obviously that's a big deal for a big man. I'd guess they're hoping for a smarter (on defense, anyway) Javale who can get his own shot whenever he needs to, and make it, as well as running the court for dunks and keeping opposing players from driving the lane with impunity.

[Warriors Analyst]

Keeping Smailagic was dumb for various reasons.

What's his absolute ceiling? Probably more or less what Omari Spellman did last year. Going into the season our big man rotation consisted of Wiseman, who was a total unknown in terms of what type of oncourt production he'd contribute, a reclamation project in Chriss who had all of one NBA season under his belt where he wasn't a total disaster, and an injury prone Looney. Smailagic was never going to get minutes over any of those guys if healthy. Once Chriss went down, Smailagic should have been cut. Yes, people will say that the more reasonable thing to do would have been get rid of Chriss and that's exactly what the Warriors did by trading him to San Antonio, they simply did it at the last possible moment and in the most fiscally prudent way.

But what value does Smailagic provide? What value will he provide next year? He's a low-ceiling project C on a roster that already has one project C. Before Chriss went down, it was fair to say he was still something of a project himself. So again, what does Smailagic offer? Not much. Kerr gifted him meaningful minutes in one game and he got absolutely embarrassed by the Grizzlies frontcourt and we lost in a very close game, in large part because Smailagic's minutes dug us into a hole in the first quarter.

The Warriors PR people had the local writers write a puff piece about the Warriors' plan to develop Smailagic into their own version of Davis Bertans and anybody with any modicum of sense could tell that the plan was an absolute joke. Smailagic is a career 27.8% 3P shooter and 64.2% FT shooter in the G-League. Davis Bertans is a career 40.8% 3P and 85.8% FT shooter. The gap between them is insurmountable and for Smailagic to reach those heights after being this bad at shooting would be an unheard of achievement.

In training camp Kerr said this about Smailagic: "he's not a player you're gonna say, 'OK, he's really versatile defensively and we can have him guard multiple positions.' I don't look at him as that. I look at him more as a face-up five. I think that's gonna be his role ultimately in the NBA."

https://www.nbcsports.com/bayarea/warriors/steve-kerr-provides-detailed-vision-alen-smailagics-warriors-role

What Kerr is saying with a kind amount of spin here is that Smailagic is a terrible defender who is going to have to shoot the ball well in order to provide any type utility at the NBA level.

So again, what does he provide? By the eye test, he has an excellent pump fake and unusual creativity for faking DHO's into his own drives. Cool, but that stuff doesn't really matter if his shot doesn't come together, and again, the Warriors just invested in another project C.

We'd have been much better off having a vet C on the roster, even if they weren't going to get significant minutes this year. Right now Wiseman's only competition at the C position in practice are Looney and Smailagic, and to a lesser extent, Dray and JTA. I love Dray and Looney, but I'm not convinced that either of them are ideal mentors to Wiseman who can impart the knowledge Wiseman needs about how to survive in the league as a 7 footer. Draymond and Looney are both genius level defenders, but how does what they do translate to Wiseman? Draymond is a 6'5 PF who plays best at center switching across multiple decisions and Looney is a brilliant defender whose body is so limited that I don't remember seeing him jump on a pumpfake once in his six year career.

[HiRez]

You've got Lee, Mulder, JTA, Smailagic, and Mannion, all non-guaranteed for next season. I wouldn't miss any or all of them if they were gone next year.

I mostly agree except for JTA, if he's one of the first guys off the bench, not so much, but for somewhere on the bench I think he's worth keeping. Highly efficient 57% FG% including 43% 3P%, plays more physical than most of the softies we have, and he's generally pretty solid. Lee I'm on the fence about, he does some good things but then the next game he's terrible or invisible. They probably keep him because of the Steph connection though.

[Mylie10]

Lee is challenged athletically......that just kills him on certain plays. He tries really hard though, so can’t hate on him.

[and1GS]

You keep Lee as cheap back of roster filler. He sets a good example, knows the system and does some helpful things in a pinch. He should NOT play in a playoff series, but he may have to.

[DevinVassell]

JTA is the perfect third stringer and a warrior to the core. Poole deserves more time.

I'll donate the astronaut suits for the rest.

[DevinVassell]

Lee is challenged athletically......that just kills him on certain plays. He tries really hard though, so can’t hate on him.

Lee needs some testosterone shots. Total featherweight physically and talks like he has been stuck in a coolroom for a few hours.

[TB]

Every time Smiley plays, he is sort of intriguing and doesn't look terrible for his age. Actually see a little of Looney in his game at times.

The big issue seems to be that we just haven't seen him play enough, and clearly he must be practicing terrible and dumb as rocks because he never gets minutes and does tend to just be running around without really knowing the plays. Luckily he has a natural feel for the game and makes some things happen here and there.

I still see no reason to sign any 10 day bigs. All we need to do is stay in the 10 seed, and Steph can take care of that himself. So lets just roll with Looney, Dray, Paschall, Smiley at center.

Now, when he gets minutes vs Cavs tonight and looks like a complete waste of space, i'll delete this post