Arsenal wrote:
Kon basically gamed the system with low usage on a totally stacked team, which is inflating his efficiency compared to his peers who had the burden of shouldering the offense like Tre, KJ, Ace etc. Unlike others he had the luxury of only shooting wide open 3's, wide open driving lanes, and a premium lob threat.
1) Kon would not have earned a starting job at Duke as a freshman if he wasn't legit. That is not something that is handed to somebody "gaming the system".
2) Just curious, how many successful lobs did Proctor or Sion or other teammates throw up for Maluach? Seriously asking. Why could Kon take advantage of a stacked team and others couldn't?
3) During most of the ACC tournament, Cooper Flagg was injured and Kon was put into the role of #1 option. He helped Duke win the tournament and won the MVP. Over the three games, he averaged 21.0 points per game on 48.6% field goal shooting, with 5.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. It's admittedly a small sample size, but that's elite production and a really good indication that his game is capable of scaling up.
4) People have analyzed Kon's on/off splits without Flagg, and (no surprise) he was really good whenever Cooper wasn't on the court, including against the best college teams.
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=2450188&start=140#p118675676
In lineups without Flagg (lineup B), Kon's AST% rose to 23.7%, got to the rim a bit more, and didn't have a big drop in efficiency.
Good numbers with Flagg (lineup A) and without (lineup B) against top 60 competition. His ability to get to the rim and finish didn't drop against good teams, and his AST% stayed at a respectable number.
Arsenal wrote:
His athletic testing was atrocious and on par for centers, not even close to NBA-level guards or wings. It's absolutely correct that he won't defend as he's a tweener, way too slow for guards and too small to guard forwards.
1) His athletic testing was lower tier, but not atrocious. The main thing that matters is that he meets some baseline of athleticism where he's not going to get run out of the league. We see in the NBA Finals that small and slow TJ McConnell is sometimes the best player on the court. We've seen that Jokic is arguably the best player in the NBA for the last 5 years, and he's a slow fat man that cannot jump. Basketball is a skill and mental game as well as a physical contest and great skill and other attributes can trump athleticism.
2) Kon is not athletic, but his body frame and weight starts out great for guarding bigger players. Despite being shorter, he's immediately going to be able to hold his ground better than a lot of faster athletes. Look at combine weights for some of the players bandied about at #3 compared to Kon for example.
Arsenal wrote:
It has nothing to do with racism since everyone has acknowledged that his teammate Cooper Flagg is a tremendous athlete with excellent positional size. Crying "racism" for Kon is just another cope.
Nobody can read minds and know what's in other peoples' heart, but I think a lot of people do tend to put White snipers into their own little box and not consider their games beyond that. There are posters who are evaluating the draft that still think that Kon is just a pure sniper and has nothing else to his game. They don't look at his stats driving to the rim and finishing and other great things that he does far better than much better athletes. Is that motivated by racial stereotypes or something else?
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