DanTown8587 wrote:MojoPharoah wrote:sipclip wrote:The guy is a lot more athletic than some of you are making him out to be. He is obviously not high flyer but he can move his feet and his shooting ability will open up his driving game.
Not enough to play the 3 or 4 in the NBA. Teams will put him on an island and destroy him on the regular on D. Offensively, most NBA forwards have the athleticism to easily press up on his jumper and recover to snuff his drive. Then what? He's forced to take an awkward shot over a longer defender or to pass it out for a reset.
Not exactly the stuff of legit NBA scorers there.
Really? What teams have multiple ball handlers at the 3/4 spot where McDermott would have to guard a very elite scorer over some other defender? He's going to go late lottery/mid first, that sounds like a 7th-8th man or potential starter.
I mean why can't he have a career like a Jared Dudley?
Jared Dudley can adequately defend multiple positions, that would be why. Dudley has the length and agility to guard both wing spots and some stretch-4 types. McDermott, otoh, is a 6'8" undersized PF with slow feet and a short wingspan; that makes him an easy target for virtually every starting caliber forward.
As far as teams that start scoring forwards at both spots that would create total mismatches against McDermott, you'd probably be better off asking what teams don't. He lacks the foot quickness to guard almost every 3 on the perimeter and lacks the length and strength to defend against most 4s in the post. The starting forwards for every Eastern conference team except possibly PHI, CHA & MIL are all capable of exploiting McDermott either off the bounce in space &/or in the post.
Let's take CHI, for instance. If McDermott were starting vs CHI, that would mean he would have to guard either Butler or Boozer/Gibson, one kills him off the dribble, the other pair beat him on the block. WAS would mean he'd have to guard Nene or Webster/Ariza, one would post him, the other 2 blow by him off the wing. TOR would mean he'd guard either TRoss or Amir, both could drive by him with ease. BOS would mean he'd guard either Green or Sullinger, Green could blow by him or shoot over the top while Sully would overpower him and shoot over his length.
ORL would mean Afflalo/Oladipo & Tobias Harris; all of whom would blow past him.
He could hide against PHI on guys like Hollis Thompson or Elliot Williams, but each has the athleticism to get past him off cuts and handoffs. He'd get killed having to guard Thad Young though, or Turner before he was traded. He could guard Ilyasova in MIL, but would be in trouble if they played Middleton & Butler together.
And this is just in isolation. McDermott would also be an issue needing to defend against PnR. He lacks the ability to hedge or trap, because there would be almost no way he'd be able to move his feet fast enough to prevent a guard from turning the corner around him. So that means he'd have to drop a la Hibbert, but he lacks the length to contest shots, so he'd be allowing easy pull-ups and possible blow-bys if he steps up at all.
Those things, in concert, make him a bench scorer, because he is too exploitable to play starter's minutes on a team that cares about D. However, if he plays for D'Antoni or someone like that, then he'd likely start, but the team would go almost nowhere.