Prez wrote:The odds of re-injury with Giles have to be absurdly high at this point. Even if he gets back to respectable athleticism which he apparently is, it could all be over with even one more knee injury. That and he had some concerningly bad awareness at Duke especially defending the PnR. It's probably mostly rust but it's something to note. I could talk myself into the pick but there's just so many question marks there. And if it turns out he's closer to form than I think, teams will know it and he probably won't be there at 17.
Giles was bad initially after getting back from the knee clean-up surgery at Duke with defending PnR and really defending everything, so K sat him A LOT. It took quite a while (honestly until the ACC Tourney) for him to earn K's trust and get increased minutes. Some regular season games he only saw a few minutes of action, no joke. But a switch seemed to turn on during the ACC Tourney. If you want to look at his potential, go back an watch those four games they won in four days, specially the UNC game. A LOT of that was Giles playing near his potential. He was defending the PnR really well, getting back to his man after hard shows on the ball handler, finishing around the hoop, and showing the end to end athleticism everyone thought he had pre-injury.
If you want them to swing for the fences at 17, and Giles is still available, he is absolutely the biggest swing for the fences. He still has all that talent that would have made him a top five pick pre-injury. It just comes down to whether you believe he is destined to have another injury. (I put little concern into his vert numbers, as that was never his game to begin with. He was dominant in HS based on his wing span and his tenaciousness on the boards. Both of those are still there.)
