rcklsscognition wrote:So Simmons and Ford are very concerned that McLemore is not mature enough to be successful in the NBA. Not like doing drugs immature, but just young, inexperienced, wide-eyed, unaware of what it takes to succeed, etc. They said he could bust if he goes to the wrong team. They didn't say what team was best, but isn't it Orlando? JV and Henny did a great job bringing our rookies into the fold this year. They preached patience and not putting the rookies in positions to fail. They built their confidence, got them a personal trainer that they practically lived with. They brought them along. Seems like a good fit.
I've always been into examining and highly valuing the character/mentality insight every year with draft prospects and FA's, but it almost feels like they're going overboard with this on Oladipo and McLemore and a few others. The thing with McLemore is his background history and his more normal maturity for his age than some of the higher maturity players at the same age. He still played a PF a lot when younger, he still played only 1 college season. Oladipo played 3 seasons already so there's a lot of water behind him not being an All star probably, but he also keeps improving and is pretty much as young as McLemore with a better motor.
The thing with McLemore is he has a ridiculously perfect skill set for a 2nd to 3rd option anyways, not a 1st option expectation and this helps alleviate many of his concerns a little bit, and his mentality and development curve still feels on the low end of where he could improve to if he has a team like the Magic bringing him along at a proper pace of development. I think of McLemore making a big jump in his 2nd-4th season window unlike some more NBA ready prospects. But I've said this before and I'll say it again, I also could see him hitting a high stride kind of quickly in a very J.J. like role for the Magic, quite easily. The rest is him getting 1-2 years older, settling into his NBA life and developing his skills very well along the way.
Remember the big boards and mocks right after the season ended. No games have been played since then.
