Catledge wrote:tiderulz wrote:Catledge wrote:The problem with comparing Smart and Oladipo's scouting reports is that Dipo's scouting report was basically wrong. He was described as a SG version of Gerald Walllace -- two-dribble drives, elite defense, and high intensity. Now we see that his ball handling and shooting are way better than the scouts said. It's extremely unlikely that Smart's scouting report will be equally wrong in the same way.
or it shows that there are so many players out there, and many college players do whatever it takes for their team that scouts get wrong what their strengths and weaknesses are. Smart could very well play better than his scouting report says.
Yeah, of course Smart could out perform the scouting reports, but that's true about everybody. The vast majority of guys who are scouted as below-average shooters will in fact turn out to be below-average shooters, and most guys who work really hard in the off season don't make giant jumps in their games like Dipo has. They usually take small steps like Hark has.
I'd go with tide's thoughts more but this is clearly a great idea to explore. I've been thinking about watching some of Oladipo's IU games for this very reason. There's just too much of a college system & lineup chemistry in place to showcase a player's full portfolio of skills sometimes. I mean, what can you do about playing outside of your college system if its at the level of a highly defensive and 59 FG% SG, don't do anything else generally. Detecting a full portfolio and range of potential is where it's fascinating and tricky, I think it's scouting to every type of play and examining the mechanics of the small sample plays like Oladipo IU PnR's, then its sports physiology and psychology. Oladipo had the same athleticism and quickness in IU, its not hard to project that same athleticism in a different position at PG. Combine his 2 way value with great defensive pressure and the personality of a supremely confident and high work ethic player, and you probably have too many signs that he has a better than most chance to translate into a great NBA player. There's some similar reasoning to Smart which helps him still be a top 5 draft prospect by most sites. He has more freedom in OKST, so he might have to show more improvement than most but I think he is already a better driver than Oladipo right now. He's also shown a similar supreme confidence (with maturity) and clutchness as Oladipo.
