tester551 wrote:tester551 wrote:Colbinii wrote:
Struggle seeing him drafted?
Is your head okay? He has much better tape offensively than Coulibally who was drafted in the lottery last year.
Or I assume you didn't think he would be drafted either?
Yes - the videos I saw - he looked slow & pudgy.
If you have tape where he looks like a top 10 pick, please provide a link. I want to see...
For the record, I was high on Coulibally. Not as high as the Wizards... but I had him ~10-12 on my draft board.
In this video, he had 1-2 really impressive passes and 1-2 above average passes.
Defensively, he's terrible.
I still have a tough time seeing what makes him a top 10 pick.
https://youtu.be/h3KN-gul6ts?feature=shared
First off, you can't just go by the eye test. You gotta factor everything in to the equation. Eye test + stats/production + age + level of competition they're facing + size/physical attributes + intangibles (basketball IQ, maturity, work ethic, etc.)
In the case of Topic, his production in one of the better pro leagues in the world at such a young age while having good positional size (a 6'6" PG with a reported 7'0" wingspan) is enough to put him in the top 10 (probably top 5) discussions, especially in a weaker draft class. I mean, the only other prospect from recent drafts who have had this type of combination of positional size, production in a top pro league at age 18 was Doncic, Sengun, perhaps Giddey and perhaps Lamelo.
Topic is at 18.5 PPG, 6.5 APG, 4 RPG and 1 SPG, playing in one of the world's top pro leagues, vs grown men (same league and same team Jokic played for). Topic was MVP of the 2023 FIBA U18 championship, leading Serbia to gold medal. And he was MVP of ANGT Next Generation tournament (Spring 2023), had a 49 point game in the tournament.
If you want to nitpick his game and/or his physical attributes, go ahead. But he's a top 10 pick. And any nitpicking you do should just result in trying to figure out whether he's ranked 1, 5, 10 or 4, etc.
Basically 100% of players with this type of positional size, production in such a tough pro league at such a young age have returned top 10 value.
Not to mention Topic is a very cerebral, high IQ, high feel player who clearly has a very good work ethic.
Secondly, he's Probably the best passer in the draft. And it's not just making flashy passes, but it's also the vision, the timing, the placement, the touch he puts on his passes, and how functional they are - he's not just hunting assists or making fancy passes - he's making them when running PnR (which translates to the NBA since that's a very prevalent play type in the NBA), he makes really good hit-ahead passes to get his team in scoring position before the defense gets set, etc.
His defense isn't that bad. He's not a great defender but he holds his own and relentlessly forced turnovers this past summer at the FIBA U18 tournament..