He just hasn't progressed that much in the last couple of seasons. A 18/19 year old with great athletic tools has an allure that a 21 year old with great athletic tools doesn't. I saw their game yesterday - he was a non-factor (and his team really needed him to step up after Lucas went down with an ankle injury - btw, Lucas might have surpassed Georginho as the best NBA prospect) and his counterpart, a 38 years old, completely dominated the game. And they spent a good amount of time guarding each other. If a guy who wasn't good enough for the NBA in his prime (and he actually had a season with the Spurs some 15 years ago) is tearing him apart at 38, perhaps De Paula isn't quite yet the NBA material OP seems to think he is. He's a very good defender on the ball, great tools, active arms, shaky but improving fundamentals - yet annoying bad off the ball, always ball watching - teams target him there. Reminiscent of John Wall. He's mediocre all round offensively and I'm not sure his potential is all that high at this point. He's fast and fluid but not explosive - he's a diesel who needs space or a recovering defend to take off. Although his first step has some promise, but he does lack a second and a third one. His dribble is way too high and wild, lacking advanced dribble moves, or any sort of shiftiness. Doesn't really have an easy time creating his own shots even with the low level of the current Brazilian league. He's very altruistic and a pretty good passer, and he can be quite prolific from the low post (although in part because he's often being defended by ~5'7'' guy that he wouldn't meet in the NBA) but at creating separation off the dribble, he's pedestrian. Not even the best lead guard in his own team.
I think picking him in the 2nd round and stashing him in Europe, or in the D-League with a 2-way contract, makes the most sense. Once he corrects his defensive flaws, then he might be worth minutes (and a contract) in the NBA as defensive guard. A Marcus Smart with less defensive playmaking - Smart is actually a good comparison for him. But as of now he has too many defensive lapses to play that role.
doordoor123 wrote:He didn't shoot it well in this game, but he's shooting around 40% from 3.
That's not correct. If it were, then yeah, he'd probably be a very enticing prospect. But he's shooting 40% from 2 and 32% from 3. If he had a good shooting touch, then he'd be what you think he is.
UcanUwill wrote:I know basically nothing about that league, but looking at stats, a lot of Americans I havent heard dominate that league. Former Euroleague scrub Marcelinho Machado who is now 42 years old still averaged 14.6 point per game in that league. So, doesnt look that competitive, not sure its worse than D league, but it probably is.
Marcelinho was still the 6th man of the year last season. Brazilian basketball is going through a huge crisis, at all levels: financial, organizational, talent drought. The national team is suspended from international competitions (Brazil won't be sending a team to the U18 FIBA Americans championship or the Americup this Summer), ~youth leagues/tourneys have ended; the only thing still working is actually the pro-league - although, as one would expect, clubs weren't immune to the economic crisis and the quality of the imports plummeted and any decent national player is abroad - except the young, the old and the mediocre. Hence why guys who were dominating the league in their prime 10/15 years ago are still doing the same in their late 30s.
doordoor123 wrote:He has gone stretches where his scoring and shooting has been better. Again, he has bad coaching and the spacing just isn't good.
This is completely untrue. Obviously he doesn't have NBA level coaching, but he has the best coaching he could get in Brazil - ironically, the most promising prospect in Brazilian basketball right now might be his team's head-coach. They're playing the league finals with a roster of kids and rejects and no imports. 5 players in the rotation under 22 years old. And their spacing is fine, they almost always play with a stretch 4.
ps - I'm going to guess you don't really follow George and Paulistano as closely as you pretended to. In fact, I'm positively sure you don't.