SelfishPlayer wrote:Doctor MJ wrote:SelfishPlayer wrote:
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.
I don't even know how you could think you could know this based on what I said, but you're not just wrong, you're not seeing the obvious consistent take that I haven't explicitly stated previously, but will do now for the benefit of those who would benefit:
Scoot's size had everything to do with why it was so noteworthy to see him hyped as a generational player to rival Wembanyama, and why he was seen as a franchise player when he was drafted by a franchise that understood it would mean moving on from Damian Lillard because of it (which certainly was not the case for Brunson or Maxey)...so yes, I fully understand the standard distribution of size in the NBA, and me knowing this I believe should have been predictable based on what I've said previously.
Because you previously concluded the opposite I would request you please step back a minute before responding to make sure you're not making other false assumptions about what I've said.



























