Juan Toscano-Anderson: The NBA G League Is "The 2nd Best League In The World"

[og15]

Lol, this is just a waste of time and text.

If anyone is concerned about what a G-League player is saying about the quality of different leagues, they need to really take a step back and think for a second.

G-League isn't even built to be a high quality league. There are sooo many things that could be done to it if that was the real goal, but it's just simply not a real goal for them.

If one is actually getting angry or insulted as opposed to just laughing at the stupidity, they are really exhibiting thin skin.

Honestly I'm surprised the G-League team even got to any sort of final game and was close in the game. Is this even a "team", or just guys thrown together for the tournament? At least it's better than the G-League champs of the previous season method which wouldn't even be the same team lol, or the G-League select team that is a practice team.

[wco81]

Nobody GAF which is the second best league.

And JTA was probably just trying to motivate his teammates during a time out and said some dumb things in the heat of the moment.

[Doctor MJ]

OP you right about G League. No doubt about it.

Only thing I’ll say: I feel like all the attempted hype for the G-League died when Scoot went from “Wemby’s rival” to one of the worst high profile rookies we’ve ever seen

The entire concept of the “G League instead of College” was that it would be better preparation for the NBA, but if that were true it shouldn’t have been possible to spent a year in the G League without red flags showing up. The G League seems to have been more interested in promoting Scott than alerting him to the things he desperately needed to improve.


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I would argue that the red flags were there with Scoot and just ignored. Same with the Thompson twins. But that happens with players out of Europe as well.

The Thompson twins didn't play in the G League and I don't see how anyone ignored those red flags. They were literally the starting point of every scouting report.
Just they had amazing strengths that actually translated in the NBA.
Scoot's issue, in his rookie season, was that we didn't really see his strengths.

And just to respond here to reply to both of you:

I absolutely agree that there were in fact red flags...it's just that Scoot was not discussed by mainstream sources as someone with major issues that he'd need to work on to make it in the NBA, in part because that's not the story that was coming out of the G League Ignite.

Re: Scoot's issue is that we didn't see his strengths. Fair point about how we discuss it. When I'm saying "red flags" here, I mean anything more that would keep Scoot from succeeding in the NBA.

Specifically: Scoot was talked about as a good-as-they come a) agility, b) body and ball control, c) leaping ability, with d) an extreme wingspan for his size. So a guy who reminds of Dwyane Wade & Derrick Rose. The red flag then is the fact that he doesn't look like he's the same species as those guys at all and so we have to question what it is scouts were seeing when they mistook Scoot for such an outlier when he wasn't.

Not looking to get the pitchforks out for any specific scout because it was most of them. It's more a question of "What's wrong with how scouts watch the game that they can't even identify who is and who isn't a physical outlier?" We know that it's hard to scout mental stuff, but the stuff that made Scoot a hyped prospect seems like it should be the easiest stuff to see, and so if most scouts can't even do that right, well, we've got a problem.

I'll also emphasize: There are always going to be great talent who fall through the cracks simply because scouts can't see everyone against top competition repeatedly, so this doesn't concern me as much. It's the idea that you have these scouts watching kids and then championing specific kids as mega-prospects who then get championed by others as mega-prospect, and so in theory you shouldn't be able to get Scoot-level hype unless Scoot actually stood out glaringly over all the other guys he was competing with...but I'd say now we know that that's not what actually happened with Scoot. He clearly excelled at a lesser level, got some initial hype from there, and then subsequent scouts seemed to only see what they were told they would see by those who saw him first.

[Godymas]

disagree..I mean G League Ignite being competitive kind of invalidates that claim. Euroleague is probably the second best.

[AussieBuck]

I remember when OP was arguing Euroleague as better than the NBA. Only took two decades to chase a more realistic goal in the battle of the minor leagues.

[Mirotic12]

Vincent Poirier, who should know, as he has played in the NBA, the NBA G-League, the EuroLeague, the Spanish first division (ACB), the French first division (Pro A), and the French second division (Pro B), isn't buying the BS.

https://www.proballers.com/basketball/player/17233/vincent-poirier

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https://www.eurohoops.net/en/trademarks/1717423/vincent-poirier-i-think-the-euroleague-is-really-the-second-best-league-in-the-world/

...I don’t think the G League is even a real league...Of course, I don’t know which is more valuable for the NBA, the G League or the EuroLeague. But I think the G League is probably the same level as the French second division or something like that. No disrespect, but that’s the way it is, I played there too. I know players who went to Europe and were much better when they were playing in the G-League...

[BarbaGrizz]

Even the Spanish 2nd Division is better than the G League

[KGtabake]

I seriously doubt if this player could have any sort of relevance in the EuroLeague.

[CROBulls]

I seriously doubt if this player could have any sort of relevance in the EuroLeague.

I think he just sealed his destiny of any european journey basketball career. When loudmouth speaks and get mic, they gonna get clowned. I mean I dont blame him, he sees one loudmouth president candidate on news every day with mic daily on his mouth to talk like this so naturally another one thinks he can do it too.

[tbhawksfan1]

G league is like AAU culture and mentality making it to the NBA minor leagues. The best players only want to leave and well coached, system teams are hard to find because it's a very me-centric environment where players prefer to get their stats rather than win

G league needs to rein this in and create a more realistic team environment where team goals are prioritised....

My g league Hawks have been able to implement this the last couple years and it's showing in development

The Ignite guys busting is also telling

[SelfishPlayer]

OP you right about G League. No doubt about it.

Only thing I’ll say: I feel like all the attempted hype for the G-League died when Scoot went from “Wemby’s rival” to one of the worst high profile rookies we’ve ever seen

The entire concept of the “G League instead of College” was that it would be better preparation for the NBA, but if that were true it shouldn’t have been possible to spent a year in the G League without red flags showing up. The G League seems to have been more interested in promoting Scott than alerting him to the things he desperately needed to improve.


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Scoot was a 6'3" teenager. Why are there so many people that expected more from him? People speak of him as if he was the #1 overall pick and he has no future in the NBA based upon the stats he produced as a 6'3" teenager. I personally never seen a special player in him before he was drafted, but he can certainly potentially become a Tyrese Maxey or Jalen Brunson level player in the NBA at some point. That would be worth the 3rd overall pick in the draft..

[homecourtloss]

All this because what some end of the bench scrub Tuscano said? Hah yikes. Who cares what he said man. I have literally never heard of anyone else saying anything about G league being the 2nd best in the world lol. Most folks here in the US don’t give a flying f*ck about the G league

Imagine spending the amount of energy the OP has trying to refute Juan Tuscan Anderson when no one actually cares about or agrees with Juan Toscono anyway.

OP had geared up for the Olympics anticipating a loss by the U.S. team after which he could continue to make his claims about Euroleagues being as good as/better than the NBA. He was waiting to bump his “The U.S. has lost 11 out of its last 400 games,” which of course is a strange way to make an argument that NBA players being overrated. Now the fight begins anew after OP found this Juan Toscano soundbite.

[ChiTownHero1992]

G-League is a minor league, anyone who thinks its better than Euro and FIBA pro teams is just ignorant

Talent overseas both foreign and American is crazy good and many players could play in NBA but often choose to be closer to home, with teammates they enjoy, more playing time, more "stardom", etc many reasons to choose a starring role Europe over a "staring role" in the G-League that NO ONE watches.

There's guys like Mirotic that was looked at as a borderline All-Star both in 17-18 and 18-19 and looking like a strong candidate to take a leap and he chose to go play in Spain as the "star" rather than be a borderline guy in NBA and I think he made a great decision

[Onlytimewilltel]

All this because what some end of the bench scrub Tuscano said? Hah yikes. Who cares what he said man. I have literally never heard of anyone else saying anything about G league being the 2nd best in the world lol. Most folks here in the US don’t give a flying f*ck about the G league

Imagine spending the amount of energy the OP has trying to refute Juan Tuscan Anderson when no one actually cares about or agrees with Juan Toscono anyway.

OP had geared up for the Olympics anticipating a loss by the U.S. team after which he could continue to make his claims about Euroleagues being as good as/better than the NBA. He was waiting to bump his “The U.S. has lost 11 out of its last 400 games,” which of course is a strange way to make an argument that NBA players being overrated. Now the fight begins anew after OP found this Juan Toscano soundbite.

Hah I guess everyone needs a purpose in life, something to strive towards. New goals, new beginnings

[GreatWhiteStiff]

Mirotic tryna take shots at the nba now through the quality of its "second division". Very clever, Mirotic.

[Buckets22]

Quite a few D-League players stuck around in the NBA longer than Spanoulis. Food for thought.

[Blame Rasho]

Quite a few D-League players stuck around in the NBA longer than Spanoulis. Food for thought.

Hey hey… he just wanted to go back to his mommy…

Don’t make fun of him because he sucked in the NBA and embarrassed himself.

[Doctor MJ]

OP you right about G League. No doubt about it.

Only thing I’ll say: I feel like all the attempted hype for the G-League died when Scoot went from “Wemby’s rival” to one of the worst high profile rookies we’ve ever seen

The entire concept of the “G League instead of College” was that it would be better preparation for the NBA, but if that were true it shouldn’t have been possible to spent a year in the G League without red flags showing up. The G League seems to have been more interested in promoting Scott than alerting him to the things he desperately needed to improve.


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Scoot was a 6'3" teenager. Why are there so many people that expected more from him? People speak of him as if he was the #1 overall pick and he has no future in the NBA based upon the stats he produced as a 6'3" teenager. I personally never seen a special player in him before he was drafted, but he can certainly potentially become a Tyrese Maxey or Jalen Brunson level player in the NBA at some point. That would be worth the 3rd overall pick in the draft..

You seem like you're saying that fans were expecting too much of him because of his size and age, but folks like me aren't talking about what we personally expected. Rather we're talking about the hype ahead of time. The NBA very much tried to hype the 2023 draft as a draft with 2 generational talents who would be rivals, and in doing so they did a tremendous disservice to Scoot.

Re: can "certainly potentially" become Maxey or Brunson. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the phrase I've quoted. What I'll say:

- Rookies get better in subsequent years, so we'll see what happens.

- But we should not pretend that the struggle Scoot had last year were merely typical levels of rookie struggle. It's really, really not normal for a rookie to get as much primacy as Scoot got last year and for him to not even make All-Rookie 2nd team. In such awards typically every player who gets major run as a rookie gets All-Rookie nods, and it ensures that all of the most hyped rookies get love even when they really struggle.

If you had told me before the season started that Portland would let Scoot shoot >10 FGA/g and asked me what the odds were he'd make All-Rookie (1st or 2nd) team, I'd have said 99%. And yet as it was, Scoot was so bad as a rookie I thought it was a given he'd miss out.

We're talking about a situation where Scoot was drafted to be Portland's franchise player, and yet they have to be going into this year with the expectation that if he doesn't show massive growth, he might not even have a future as a role player.

And again, this is not me looking to express my own scouting on Scoot. I'm just talking based on having watched the NBA for a very long time and knowing how rare it is to have a player so disappoint in his rookie season while getting playing time. It's not normal.

[SelfishPlayer]

OP you right about G League. No doubt about it.

Only thing I’ll say: I feel like all the attempted hype for the G-League died when Scoot went from “Wemby’s rival” to one of the worst high profile rookies we’ve ever seen

The entire concept of the “G League instead of College” was that it would be better preparation for the NBA, but if that were true it shouldn’t have been possible to spent a year in the G League without red flags showing up. The G League seems to have been more interested in promoting Scott than alerting him to the things he desperately needed to improve.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Scoot was a 6'3" teenager. Why are there so many people that expected more from him? People speak of him as if he was the #1 overall pick and he has no future in the NBA based upon the stats he produced as a 6'3" teenager. I personally never seen a special player in him before he was drafted, but he can certainly potentially become a Tyrese Maxey or Jalen Brunson level player in the NBA at some point. That would be worth the 3rd overall pick in the draft..

You seem like you're saying that fans were expecting too much of him because of his size and age, but folks like me aren't talking about what we personally expected. Rather we're talking about the hype ahead of time. The NBA very much tried to hype the 2023 draft as a draft with 2 generational talents who would be rivals, and in doing so they did a tremendous disservice to Scoot.

Re: can "certainly potentially" become Maxey or Brunson. I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the phrase I've quoted. What I'll say:

- Rookies get better in subsequent years, so we'll see what happens.

- But we should not pretend that the struggle Scoot had last year were merely typical levels of rookie struggle. It's really, really not normal for a rookie to get as much primacy as Scoot got last year and for him to not even make All-Rookie 2nd team. In such awards typically every player who gets major run as a rookie gets All-Rookie nods, and it ensures that all of the most hyped rookies get love even when they really struggle.

If you had told me before the season started that Portland would let Scoot shoot >10 FGA/g and asked me what the odds were he'd make All-Rookie (1st or 2nd) team, I'd have said 99%. And yet as it was, Scoot was so bad as a rookie I thought it was a given he'd miss out.

We're talking about a situation where Scoot was drafted to be Portland's franchise player, and yet they have to be going into this year with the expectation that if he doesn't show massive growth, he might not even have a future as a role player.

And again, this is not me looking to express my own scouting on Scoot. I'm just talking based on having watched the NBA for a very long time and knowing how rare it is to have a player so disappoint in his rookie season while getting playing time. It's not normal.

It's obvious that you don't know the rarity of 6'3" and under teenage NBA players. Anfernee Simons, look how long it took before he settled into who he is.

[Blame Rasho]

^^^^*

What an obtuse post…

Yes… Doctor MJ is clueless unlike you…

Well maybe he is with his Duncan takes