Austin Daye

[Doc J]

Why is he not a lock for the lottery? Size, skill, upside, versatility....what's he missing that someone like Anthony Randolph (apparently) wasn't last year?

I like Daye better than the far more hyped Earl Clark.

[ManualRam]

Why is he not a lock for the lottery? Size, skill, upside, versatility....what's he missing that someone like Anthony Randolph (apparently) wasn't last year?

I like Daye better than the far more hyped Earl Clark.

not a great athlete, soft, slow, frail and weak with a terrible frame

[i<3basketball]

Earl Clark>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Austin Daye

Clark has actually produced and is barely scratching the surface of his abilities. Both are underrated prospects as of now but Clark is by far the better player and less of a potential bust than Daye.

[bigballa3jj]

Daye has the tools to be good, but needs to get much stronger and to me he seems lazy.

[ecuhus1981]

Why is he not a lock for the lottery? Size, skill, upside, versatility....what's he missing that someone like Anthony Randolph (apparently) wasn't last year?

I like Daye better than the far more hyped Earl Clark.

At 18, he 6'10, 210lb Randolph put up 16/9 in the SEC, against a consistently higher level of competition. The 20yo Daye (also 6'10 but only 190lbs!) put up 13/7 in the WCC. If you don't account for level of competition and pace-adjust per 40 minutes, their numbers almost match, but foul trouble was a constant problem for Austin, limiting his impact.

Also, you can't use the "Daye was on a team of stars" excuse in this comparison, because Anthony (Thornton, Mitchell, Johnson and possibly Temple) played with just as many NBA-level teammates.

No doubt, Daye is a lottery talent. If he leaves now, without filling out his body (210 should be his BARE minimum weight) and with many holes showing in the attitude and leadership categories, he's a boom-or-bust prospect. I can't see him going higher than 18 or 20, and he has the possibility of falling out of the 1st round. He simply cannot defend any position in the league right now, and less and less NBA teams are willing to give the green light to project tweener bigmen who can't D up.

As for Earl, they are slightly different players, but I prefer the guy who will hit the glass and defend his tail off. (ahem, that's not Austin.)

[riehldeal]

watch 30 seconds of side by side film on Daye and Randolph and hopefully it becomes blatantly obvious why one is the superior NBA prospect/talent

[PowerElite]

Clark is dribble happy. Daye doesn't need to dribble the basketball to be effective on offense.

[wiff]

Living in Spokane and being a big fan of the Zags, Daye could really use another year at school.

Yeah the kid has talent and he can do a number of things well, but he floats. Sometimes he's out there and you wouldn't know it.

Plus Daye needs a major attitude adjustment. I don't think "in his mind" that he has ever committed a foul. It's really frustrating to watch the kid pout instead of just accepting the call and head down the floor to play "D"

Don't get me wrong you can see the talent but he's just not there yet.

[Bernman]

Why is he not a lock for the lottery? Size, skill, upside, versatility....what's he missing that someone like Anthony Randolph (apparently) wasn't last year?

I like Daye better than the far more hyped Earl Clark.

At 18, he 6'10, 210lb Randolph put up 16/9 in the SEC, against a consistently higher level of competition. The 20yo Daye (also 6'10 but only 190lbs!) put up 13/7 in the WCC. If you don't account for level of competition and pace-adjust per 40 minutes, their numbers almost match, but foul trouble was a constant problem for Austin, limiting his impact.

Also, you can't use the "Daye was on a team of stars" excuse in this comparison, because Anthony (Thornton, Mitchell, Johnson and possibly Temple) played with just as many NBA-level teammates.

No doubt, Daye is a lottery talent. If he leaves now, without filling out his body (210 should be his BARE minimum weight) and with many holes showing in the attitude and leadership categories, he's a boom-or-bust prospect. I can't see him going higher than 18 or 20, and he has the possibility of falling out of the 1st round. He simply cannot defend any position in the league right now, and less and less NBA teams are willing to give the green light to project tweener bigmen who can't D up.

As for Earl, they are slightly different players, but I prefer the guy who will hit the glass and defend his tail off. (ahem, that's not Austin.)

The SEC's a better conference, but let's be honest, they've been crap ever since Florida was decimated by early declarations. And Gonzaga tries to be a pseudo high major by playing disproportionately tough competition out of conference. So in reality there's not much difference in their strength of schedule. Gonzaga ranked 93rd in SOS this year and LSU was 81 when Randolph was there.

Daye was on a team of stars. Randolph played alongside some (albeit not as many) talented players. Maybe if like Daye he played more in the flow of the game to maximize everyone's ability, instead of ballhogging and taking dumb shots to minimize it; his team would have been almost as good as Gonzaga's. Instead of being much, much worse. Shocking, LSU was one of the surprise teams in cbb after Randolph left.

Daye is probably a better outside shooter than Randolph can ever dream of being. He posted excellent 3 point percentages for anybody each of his first two seasons, let alone somebody that tall. With his length, high release, and dribble threat; he could be an unalterable shooter at times, tantamount to Sheed Wallace in that area. Who BTW also thinks he's never fouled anybody, same with everybody on the Pistons. It didn't stop him/them from being very relevant in the league for many years.

Finally, for a frontcourt that gets a lot of flack for its defensive deficiencies (Daye and Heytvelt), it's pretty amazing they could manage to be 18th in cbb in adjusted efficiency. Pargo, Downs, and Bouldin must be elite perimeter defenders then, and should all get drafted in the first round on that ability alone.

[NO-KG-AI]

And considering Randolph was 197 at the draft camp, he was even lower at LSU.

This myth that Anthony Randolph is 210+ is hilarious.