Burke is #1 in ESPN rookie rankings

Laimbeer · Post #1 » by **Laimbeer** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:42 am

Burke is #1 in ESPN rookie rankings. Paywalled article. Here is a small excerpt.

"As we look forward it will be hard not to expect much more from Burke, who has found a way to dominate games despite his lack of size and elite athletic ability, because Utah's schedule will get easier (the Jazz have played the most difficult schedule in the NBA so far). Plus, Burke has proven he has the ability to improve (like he did from his freshman season to his sophomore season at Michigan), which should give Jazz fans more reason to smile." -

http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/story/_/ ... s-top-spot

Post #2 » by **Snakebites** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:48 am

This wouldn't bother me in the slightest if KCP had been even passable so far.

ImHeisenberg · Post #3 » by **ImHeisenberg** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 1:49 am

Good for Burke. I was definitely one of his doubters.

MrBigShot · Post #4 » by **MrBigShot** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:01 am

All those guys who said he was a career back up or journeyman are going to be eating a lot of crow. I still think MCW is the #1 rookie though, easily.

MotownMadness · Post #5 » by **MotownMadness** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:01 am

Of course he is

Post #6 » by **CoreyGallagher** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:03 am

He is playing well, however it's funny that accompanying the article is a link to the rookie's stats and it doesn't exactly support their rankings...

http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/statis ... on/rookies

Suppose a possible case of being out of sight, out of mind regarding MCW, however I'm skeptical because since he's come back from injury he's put up back to back double doubles, so sort of odd.

ComboGuardCity · Post #7 » by **ComboGuardCity** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:10 am

Burke has surprised me, but no way in hell is he the #1 rookie. That's just ESPN trying to get hits.

Burke isn't a piston and never was. He's a guy from ohio who went to michigan for two years. He doesn't solve any of our problems

kurtis48239 · Post #8 » by **kurtis48239** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:14 am

I believe it was me and 2 other guys who rode the burke train to the end and it would bug the hell outta me when people would say you only like him because he plays for MI,or he wont amount to anything in this league.All of the things I said that would translate and make him a good pg,it looks like those things are whats making him stand out.

I have faith in KCP and think its only a matter of time befor he hits the ground running,but its so the oposite of what others said about burke happening to us with kcp,you dont become the best player in college and lead your team to the finals and not have a good chance of becomeing something good in the NBA.

princeofpalace · Post #9 » by **princeofpalace** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:15 am

KCP has been bad so far but who the f cares about Burke?

Natopher · Post #10 » by **Natopher** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:22 am

I also rode the Burke bandwagon for a while (not sure if it was until the very end, but I remember being disappointed when we took KCP over him). That said, I'll take Jennings over Burke. Jennings has played great for us this year, and I fully expect KCP's shot to start falling. And when you throw in his defense, I'm not upset with the pick. I like Burke, and I'll watch him from time to time, but he doesn't make me wish we hadn't traded for Jennings.

pistontr · Post #11 » by **pistontr** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:38 am

dumars.

ComboGuardCity · Post #12 » by **ComboGuardCity** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:43 am

I'm not unhappy with KCP either. He's not there as a spot up shooter, but his defense has been impressive.

Clarity · Post #13 » by **Clarity** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:44 am

Zero relevance.

gusman · Post #14 » by **gusman** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:47 am

Kcp has contributed zero

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gusman · Post #15 » by **gusman** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:47 am

We should have drafted Burke.

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menten · Post #16 » by **menten** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:49 am

we could've had burke or mcw. instead we get a guy whose ceiling is keith bogans.

Q00 · Post #17 » by **Q00** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:50 am

I wanted Burke over KCP, so I can't say I'm surprised. But we got our PG anyways (who is better than Burke) so who cares now?

It would've been nice to have the more valuable asset, but Burke would be coming off our bench in limited minutes behind Jennings right now, and probably not contributing much more than KCP anyways. So its not really about Burke v KCP, its about what other non-PG could we have gotten instead of him at 8?

Looking at the list, aside from maybe Hardaway, I don't see anyone doing much better than KCP from this draft. So I guess it is what it is. Just a bad draft that happened to have a couple good players who happened to both play a position we didn't need. As in this team wasn't going to invest heavily in another rookie PG again, nor should they have (knowing now that they got Jennings)

MrBigShot · Post #18 » by **MrBigShot** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 2:58 am

McCollum has yet to play. He may end up being a guy that we regret passing over, though it's not likely that he shows it immediately because he won't have free reign like some other rooks currently do.

Notanoob · Post #19 » by **Notanoob** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 3:36 am

MrBigShot wrote:McCollum has yet to play. He may end up being a guy that we regret passing over, though it's not likely that he shows it immediately because he won't have free reign like some other rooks currently do.

I sincerely doubt that we'll be regretting passing over McCollum over Burke, MCW or the Greek Freak. He got seriously overrated because of his efficiency. Everyone overlooked how tiny a sample size it was (his senior season was shortened by injury) and the level of competition he faced (awful). He'll be a decent backup guard who'll hope to hang on to a job long enough to get into a studio, since he sounds extremely intelligent.

I'm a Michigan homer, but I was terrified that he'd fail to live up to expectations here. I'm happy that he got to go somewhere else and has succeeded so far. Too bad it's Utah though, no one wants to be stuck there.

I think he might end up better than Jennings though. Neither can really play defense, neither can finish around the rim awfully well, both can hit 3's and are score-first sorts of guard, but Burke seems to have a much better feel for the game. He's very inconsistent right now, but I have better hopes that he'll improve over Jennings.

That said, I do like how Jennings has played, and how he's brought it pretty much every night, even if his box score has been up and down.

Man, I'm getting a real sinking feeling about our team. Just got to hold on until next season, at least with regards to KCP. And no matter what, no matter how many mistakes we've made, it doesn't really matter since we have Drummond. We aren't going to be a contender until he's developed into a top-15 player, and seeing as that might take some time, any mistakes we make can be undone.

You know, Tim Hardaway Jr. has been a much bigger surprise than most. I really had low expectations for him, because I felt that he was simply too inconsistent on offense and not good enough on defense to make up for it. Now he looks like the only competent player on the Knicks outside of Carmelo and Chandler.

Damon_3388 · Post #20 » by **Damon_3388** » Sat Dec 28, 2013 3:58 am

He's shooting pretty poorly, can't defend a door yet, and is getting a heap of touches (thus inflating his numbers somewhat) on one of the worst teams in the league. Nothing to get excited about or regret just yet IMO.