LloydFree wrote:I think you got that backwards. At least on this board. Amongst the guys here who actually watch games, probably 75% had someone else ranked as #1 and in many cases someone else #2 also.
I watched at least 6 full games of Fultz, and he wasn't very impressive in any one of his matchups against quality opponents. (Gonzaga, Arizona, Oregon, UCLA). And he sat out nearly all of the road games against the good team's in his conference.
Hmm. Perhaps I got it wrong then and I should check the older topics, I thought that the narrative was that Fultz was the #1 and we were heavily debating about our player for the #3 spot where I favored Jonathan Isaac and many were in love with Josh Jackson and a couple prefered Jayson Tatum. I feel that most of the Dennis Smith jr. love really originated in hindsight after watching him in Summer League and Preseason.
His efficiency dipped a bit against those top tier teams, but I disagree with your take that he wasn't very impressive in those games. Opponents just clogged the court and forced Fultz to take tough shots or see his teammates brick every attempt. He often started the games trying to engage his teammates and took the game over when he realized it was kind of pointless, at least that's how I felt.
Despite the concerns about his quickness see how creative he is around the basket, shifty enough to get Jordan Bell off guard, finishes with both hands. He went 1-5 from deep in this game, but apart from that he was very efficient around the rim against some good shot blockers. 22 points, on 16 shots and basically no easy points from transition because Washington couldn't get a stop as usual.
Jan 4 Oregon:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400915606Jan 21 Utah:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400915637Jan 29 Arizona:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400915648Feb 4 UCLA:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400915660Feb 18 Arizona:
http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=400915681I checked the boxscores and it sort of confirmed my thoughts that he wasn't extremely inefficient (apart from the January 29 game against Arizona). Also look at the percentages of his teammates, there's not one player who had helped him a tiny bit. You could say that that's partly the job of the PG, providing good shots, but with Romar's offense and two useless bigs clogging the lanes it was nearly impossible.
Personally I never had the feeling that any of the prospects in this draft had a realistic chance of reaching superstar level (top 15 player), but Fultz had the best chance imo (with DSJ a close second). He had decent body control at the rim, was creative, shifty with the ball, good handles, had decent vision and his shooting, both off the catch and off the dribble, were really promising.
None of these evaluations should change after 2 good SL games, 1 poor preseason game and a decent one. Now if he continues to be afraid to shoot jumpers the rest of his life, then it's a different story haha.