Grew wrote:The Bufkin love on this board is astounding to me. Everyone knows we lack high end talent yet you would settle for the low ceiling high floor guard of the draft.
This kid had an extra season of sitting on the bench and practicing to figure out the college game, which is a totally different game than the NBA. Stepped on the court every night believing Hunter Dickinson was the best player on his team. Went to a blue chip school where he put up decent numbers to NOT EVEN MAKE THE TOURNAMENT. I guess the numbers on a bad team thing doesn't matter for college?
In contrast Keyonte George scores more point (albeit inefficiently) on a team with multiple upper classman guards who think it's their team, yet Keyonte swaggers on the court believing he's the best player on it. Baylor earned a 3rd seed in the tournament.
When comparing these two to what our team needs, the choice is clear to me. Did you guys watch a lot of Bufkin? Or is this mostly looking at his percentage at the rim and the highlight vids. This guy isn't another Fox just because he finishes at the rim with his left hand. How much are we putting stock in his name being Kobe?
Obviously if we draft him I hope I'm wrong but I just don't see the mentality/physicality that's going to propel this kid into becoming anything significant in the NBA. I think he's an 8th man on a good team at his peak. I would love it if the hype he's getting made a team in front of us draft him.
It's fine to like Keyonte more (I gotta admit, he looks great in his work out vids, and I'm willing to be convinced the ankle injuries were the reason for his poor efficiency), but 'm not sure how you've concluded that Kobe is a "low ceiling" player.
I don't think anyone is comparing him to Fox, but the touch around the rim, particularly with his left is great and he gets to it very easily. I also personally don't care at all that his name is Kobe. I think you need to give folks a little benefit of the doubt. It's not like MU is some directional school in the middle of nowhere, they were on TV a lot this year. Kobe's improvement was evident to anybody paying attention.
When given the opportunity to take the reigns of the offense, I think Kobe killed it. It certainly helped that his 3pt shot seemed to turn around over that same period. Before that, MUs offense revolved around Jett and Hunter. Keyonte, coming in as a 5-star blue chip, featured prominently for Baylor from the jump - even with a crowded backcourt. While there were some notable scoring outburst, as you noted, the results were mixed.
Are you suggesting that Kobe should have taken more shots early on in the year? I guess, but the flip side to that argument is that he's a team-player. Again, it's fine to prefer other players above Kobe, but given his rapid improvement and age, I think the low-ceiling label is unfair
*INGRAM*ALLSTARSEASON* Wemby is HIM
Maybe 6'6 in shoes? He's could be Manu 2.0!