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Was listening to the Paul George podcast and heard Draymond’s take on Andrew Nicholson being drafted in front of him. Andrew seemed like a nice guy though, lol. Starts at the 44:00 min mark.

Saw that and died laughing. Bro did look awkward af.

eyriq wrote:Saw that and died laughing. Bro did look awkward af.

Straight up, lol.

So true. Nicholson was a clown.

Good point about guys who don't look like basketball players are probably jokes.

I never liked the Nicholson pick.

What does a real basketbal player look like?

I guess it’s more about having a “mean streak”.. That’s something I can get behind. It helps when you have some guys on your team that players hate to face on any given night. In this league I think there’s only a handful of guys that have that personality and also back it up.

The closest one we have is Moritz or Suggs but I doubt opponents are scared of them

Howard Mass wrote:I never liked the Nicholson pick.

His footwork was pretty good for a big man though.. besides that…

I took a bit of exception to this narrative. Nicholson was a Physicist Forward, but other than that, he was also one of the rare dudes that actually learned new skills and changed their games to fit what the Magic needed of them as he was a traditional post player who evolved into stretch 4.

At the same time, game evolved to putting a premium on switchability and defending in space and he lacked in athleticism department, notably lateral quickness and a bit of awareness as well, leaving him out of league eventually. That aside, to me Andrew Nicholson is a classic example of player development you hope to see, as we saw with Vučević too. He was no Elfrid, Bamba or Mario, that is for sure.

Usually people on internet expect to see huge development over the summer, but as I said in other thread, it very rarely occurs. Some people probably mistaken Jokić or Arenas as "player development", which it actually ain't. Most of those dudes who appear as incredibly improved actually had the skills from get-go and were either overlooked because some of their flaws were incorrectly perceived by scouts or coaches, or they get unexpected opportunity, or most probably - both.

p0peye wrote:I took a bit of exception to this narrative. Nicholson was a Physicist Forward, but other than that, he was also one of the rare dudes that actually learned new skills and changed their games to fit what the Magic needed of them as he was a traditional post player who evolved into stretch 4.

Draymond to me sounds like the bully in school, picking on the “nerds”.. dude whacked his own teammate in the face

I respect his basketball talent but besides that he doesn’t strike me as a likable person.

Nicholson dropped a perfect game on Draymond. Shot 100% and scored like 24 that night, I think. Guess Draymond forgot that part.

He plays in the Philippines now and averages like 33ppg.

MagicHolland wrote:

p0peye wrote:I took a bit of exception to this narrative. Nicholson was a Physicist Forward, but other than that, he was also one of the rare dudes that actually learned new skills and changed their games to fit what the Magic needed of them as he was a traditional post player who evolved into stretch 4.

Draymond to me sounds like the bully in school, picking on the “nerds”.. dude whacked his own teammate in the face

I respect his basketball talent but besides that he doesn’t strike me as a likable person.

He also appears, or he believes to be well spoken enough to wiggle his way out of trouble, worst kind of bully in my opinion. Draymond clearly has his place in the league and can impact a game at high level, but I am not sure he improved as much as he benefited from Warriors system and players around him. If Nicholson and him switch places in alternative reality, I am not convinced they both wouldn't be out of league now.

Couldn't really listen because of all the cursing, so to speak of the Nicholson part, it's not cool to make fun of people's look. I don't care what he looked like for Draymond and PG to sit and laugh about that is a sad look.

The thing I remember most about Nicholson was how excited he was when we drafted him. Made me want to root for him. He didn't seem entitled like so many players do, he seemed genuinely happy and grateful.

Kinda low to make fun of how he walked and how he talked but as far as on-court production goes it's pretty safe to say it was a dissapointment. I loved the torture chamber though, I wish we ever went an actual game actually trying to focus on it just to see how it turned out lol. He was definitely too slow, too small (for a big) to stick around in the league but I do distinctly remember a stretch of games where it felt like he turned into a sniper from 3 lmao, those were some pretty rough times as a Magic fan

If we drafted Draymond in 2012, he probably ends up being just as known to NBA fans as Andrew Nicholson is.

I kind of see it though. Had a very mild-mannered, Eeyore-like personality and ran awkwardly because he had huge feet. Some nice moves but never worked out.

I won’t hear a bad word sad about the master of the torture chamber. His footwork in the low post was a thing of beauty. He had some 3pt potential. But he would’ve needed Garnett behind him to cover for him defensively.

Bensational wrote:He had some 3pt potential.

He currently shoots 6 3s per game at 50%.
https://www.proballers.com/basketball/player/56438/andrew-nicholson
https://www.proballers.com/basketball/player/56438/andrew-nicholson/totals

I actually think he was better than a lot of people give him credit for. He was on a dreadful team and that doesn't help most young players. What I think the issue is he played in the wrong era. He's more of a throw back player that's used to team basketball and the pace that was played in the 80's and 90's. The modern game doesn't suit him because the NBA has become NBAAnd1. I have no doubt if he was drafted in those older eras he would've had a productive and long career, maybe not as a star or even a starter, but definitely a quality player off the bench as his floor.