redslastlaugh wrote:Of the four prospects, I'm the least high on Hugo Gonzalez but I admit, he also has the highest potential upside. Hugo is only 19 with a strong frame and motor but I'm not that high on him, even though he came into the season as a potential lottery pick. Sometimes a youth player is rated as a potential top 5 pick a year before the draft and then, come the draft time, gets picked much lower, & I think this is typically a bad sign. Sometimes a player matures faster than his peers and that player dominates on the junior level based on a physical advantage that fades over time. And perhaps that's what happened with Hugo?
Looking backwards, Justin Edwards was viewed as potential top 5 pick during the 2024 draft cycle and then ended up going undrafted on draft night. Skal Labissiere in 2016 was foreseen as a potential top 5 pick who also ended up sliding to #28 like Hugo. I view a 18 yr old prospect who is rated really highly and then falls as a bad sign for that players prospects.
In Hugo's case, it also bothers me that Brooklyn had five first round picks, four in a reasonable range to select Hugo, with a coach, Jordy Fernandez, who is Spanish himself and very plugged into basketball in Spain and BRK passed on Hugo four times. Tough look right there.
My expectation, and I hope I'm wrong, is Hugo follows a Nassir Little or Dzanan Musa path, where a highly decorated junior level prospect with elite physical tools gets taken in the first round, but then just doesn't pan out and, five yrs out, is playing in another league not the NBA. But there definitely exists also high upside possibility where Hugo becomes a top 50 type of impact NBA player as his skills develop.
Even though I don't have high expectations for Hugo, I kind of like the pick just for the outside chance at his super high end outcome. On the outside chance that Hugo develops into an OG Anonoby type of frontcourt player, it's fine to take that swing.
It's the Nets, man. But yeah it's a valid point.
I love Hugo's scouting capsules. At least the ones that say good things about his intangibles. Intangibles coupled with talent gives him a really high ceiling so long as his skills come along over time.
While I have my own concerns about him, I don't think he is Nassir Little or Skal. He strikes me as more...I have to think of someone...but I think he eventually becomes a useful/valuable glue guy type at worst.
If I am being honest, Brian Scalabrine is a guy who came to mind when I thought about it post draft. That probably sounds (and to a lesser extent is) ridiculous, but...
If his Euroleague stats from last season are a good indication - and they might not be, smallish sample size - he might have NBA talent but is possibly years away from really being in the NBA convo. 35% from two and 29% from three, terrible A/TO ratio for a lower usage guard, 0.3 steals per 36.
Rebounding was solid, stocks/foul OK by Euroleague standards, but don't make him out to be the defender some scouts say he is.
Liga ACB stats weren't bad, but I'm not inherently sure how well they translate, and they weren't that great, and from what I can tell he hasn't even really shown potential as a three point shooter at any level to date.
At the very least I don't think his perimeter skills as a whole are as good as he has been given credit for, and given that he is built so well for a young guard, I was thinking he might actually be seen more as an undersized PF once he is filled out in a few years. That's how Scal, and Grant Williams for that matter, came to mind. I don't really think either is a great comp, for obvious-ish reason, but strengths and weaknesses might not be far off.