HornetJail wrote:JMAC3 wrote:HornetJail wrote:comfortably B without hesitation
at least a 50% chance you get someone who doesn't look completely lost in the NBA right now... Castle, Sarr, Zacc, Clingan, Edey, Ware, McCain, Knecht, DaSilva, Missi, Dunn are already NBA players, Holland, Sheppard, Dillingham and some others at least project to have an NBA skill. Buzelis is pretty lost but still an upgrade on Salaun, Topic and Holmes out for the season but supposed to be talented.
If anyone offered me anything at all for Salaun, I'd take it
I could provide 100 examples of an upperclassmen having an okay rookie year to never improve and eventually turn into a guy getting DNPs. If you really care this much about the first 50 games of a guys NBA career you should have Johnni Broome, Cam Jones and Alex Karaban as lottery talents in this next class because I can pretty much tell you that they will look better than half the freshman drafted in the lottery for the first 4 months of the season next year.
So lets just avoid this freakout in the future and draft a guy that profiles as a 15 mpg player that can score 5 ppg and is 23 yrs old in the top 10 moving forward. Line up the low upside upperclassmen for this board
provide those 100 examples, and also provide 100 examples of a guy completely incapable of playing basketball to the extent that Salaun is right now... that grows up to become an NBA player
because I think we're looking at a Anthony Bennett/Nikoloz Tskitishvili/maybe Kevin Knox level player if we're being generous, that doesn't make it through his rookie contract
I mean you can look at just Charlotte Hornets
Frank Kaminsky had a solid first year or 2 in the NBA before never improving, but thank god he looked good early and was on the same levels as much younger players Devin Booker and Myles Turner. We really had a fighters chance to say we won the draft the first 60 games of their career.
Reverse with Malik Monk, who most around here labeled a bust as a 19 yr old. Good thing we gave up on him, he never turned it around... oh wait.
Last year there were people on here wishing Sasser fell to us instead of NSJ, shocker the 20 yr old is trending up meanwhile 24 yr old 2nd yr player Sasser is trending down statistically and catching DNPs.
Jaime Jacquez has 3 DNP in last 4 outings. Scoring 3 less ppg this year as a 23 yr old 2nd yr player after people were pushing him for ROY over Miller. How many fans would have taken him over Thompsons twins last year? wayyyy too many.
Ryan Dunn is practically out of the Suns rotation after being a starter for a month, a non-factor the last 15 games as a 22 yr old. Probably trending down moving forward when people were losing their minds a month ago thinking he was untouchable in a trade.
Guys like Dunn, Da Silva, Edey, Knecht, Devin Carter are already trending down as older players the last 15 games compared to their high points this year. Meanwhile guys like Ware, Buzelis, Dillingham are trending up as the season closes as younger players that were disregarded early in the year.
Max Christie, Nikola Jovic, Jalen Johnson are good examples that did basically nothing year 1/2 as very young prospects that their teams probably were calling busts compared to 10 guys drafted around them and are now clearly on the rise.
None of this is saying Tidjane is some guaranteed stud, but older players performing better earlier is a clear trend year over year. Ignoring that and writing off the 19 yr old while applauding a 23 yr old for being "playable" seems like a pretty bad process if you follow the NBA even a little bit.
