Zach LaVine

[dancooper]

one of the questions with zach lavine its his position on the court, of course he has to develop his defense, yada yada, but I have him as a lottery pick IF shooting guard position gets assumed. as a point guard he is a weak version of russel westbrook, he doesnt distribute the ball that good for a pg

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[SelfishPlayer]

He reminds me of Lou Williams. He has fewer flaws at the same age like lack of size for guarding the SG position and a completely broken jump shot that needed to be fixed. Lou also had to be coached to not avoid contact and finish through it. Unlike Lou, thanks to LaVine's size he will not have years of his career wasted being coached to play the PG position which is in opposition to his scorers mentality. So I believe LaVine's career will answer the question of "What if Lou Williams had legit SG size and a consistent outside shot?"

[MCDubbin]

Jrue wasn't a good college player (well he played on a stacked team so he didn't get much minutes) but he was like the top pg in hs for his class. IIRC wasn't he rated #2 overall when he was a senior?

Totally different case with LaVine.

[MinneOOPalis]

Jrue wasn't a good college player (well he played on a stacked team so he didn't get much minutes) but he was like the top pg in hs for his class. IIRC wasn't he rated #2 overall when he was a senior?

Totally different case with LaVine.

?

He was one of the best guards on the west coast in high school

[ManualRam]

Jrue wasn't a good college player (well he played on a stacked team so he didn't get much minutes) but he was like the top pg in hs for his class. IIRC wasn't he rated #2 overall when he was a senior?

Totally different case with LaVine.

?

He was one of the best guards on the west coast in high school

lavine was a late riser who ended up with a composite ranking of 49
holiday's composite ranking was #2 in the country

[miltk]

Jrue wasn't a good college player (well he played on a stacked team so he didn't get much minutes) but he was like the top pg in hs for his class. IIRC wasn't he rated #2 overall when he was a senior?

Totally different case with LaVine.

jrue was forced to play sg to darren collison's pg, who unexpectedly returned to college. he was the gatorade poy and jockeyed for the #1 spot with tyreke evans. TOTALLY disenchanted with how he was being used but more importantly didn't get along with howland. he was a starting sg so he got plenty of pt.

[SelfishPlayer]

I refuse to hold what scouts thought of LaVine as a high school basketball player against him. I think that it's more important that he came from an area of the country that's elite at producing NBA talent. He didn't just pop up out of nowhere out of nowhere. He rose out of the Seattle area NBA prospect factory. It appears that a perfect storm has happened to contribute to him not being a celebrated NBA prospect at this time in his life. A late growth spurt and a bad decision to attend a university that didn't absolutely guarantee him a starting job have contributed to him being criticized as making a mistake by entering the draft. I'm sure his goal was to be a professional basketball player and not a great college basketball player. His game is built more for the NBA than college, but even Klay Thompson wasn't highly regarded by draft websites. His last year in college he could be seen regularly as a 2nd round prospect through the month of March. People are being mislead by sites that don't really know NBA talent. LaVine looks worthy of being a lottery pick in this draft to me.

[miltk]

okay, so zach posted a 46" at the laker workout. that's thompsonesque.

that should really turn heads with the jump-happy nba.
http://nba.si.com/2014/06/04/zach-lavin ... out-photo/

[Talent Chaser]

I can't see him falling past 25, once that frame gets some muscle Hes going to be very good.

[frozt]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/AlexKennedyNBA/status/474320050816819200[/tweet]

[miltk]

but even Klay Thompson wasn't highly regarded by draft websites. His last year in college he could be seen regularly as a 2nd round prospect through the month of March. People are being mislead by sites that don't really know NBA talent. LaVine looks worthy of being a lottery pick in this draft to me.

but thompson had numbers. if zach had numbers he would be a top7. he was projected that way when everyone was all bubbly over him in his first 7games, but after that his numbers tumbled percipitously against better teams- he had limits that made people wonder why. he never backed up what he did at the start. i watched him all season so i see him as a practice player.

[ManualRam]

imagine if he jumps 48 in a later workout. he'd be top 5.

[SelfishPlayer]

but even Klay Thompson wasn't highly regarded by draft websites. His last year in college he could be seen regularly as a 2nd round prospect through the month of March. People are being mislead by sites that don't really know NBA talent. LaVine looks worthy of being a lottery pick in this draft to me.

but thompson had numbers. if zach had numbers he would be a top7. he was projected that way when everyone was all bubbly over him in his first 7games,

He wasn't projected that way on DX. DX is my go to website for prospects, so I was surprised to see this LaVine's name in the top 10 when I went to NBAdraft.net. DX at a point didn't even have LaVine in the 2nd round just like they didn't have Rondae Jefferson in the 2nd round. Both of these players are NBA 1st round picks in my opinion. Their mistake was committing to universities that would not make them guaranteed starters. I'm sorry, I'm not willing to hold it against Zach LaVine that a college coach didn't make him a starter in favor of some other guys who have games more suitable for college basketball. Tony Wrotten is another guy with great talent that people thought left too early. The NBA game is a different game. It rewards speed and athleticism more than college basketball. It's a shame that LaVine wasn't a starter so that he could at least have 14ppg on his resume.

[Jajwanda]

alot to love and hate about the kid.

-explosive athlete with decent size ( minus being a twig) who showed he can shoot.

-but skinny as chit, struggles to finish around the rim and jumper not consistent. far from polished.

man, talk about a boom or bust prospect. he should not touch the lottery. he's simply not ready to play.

im rooting for him though. didnt see alot of live play, but seen a few games and studied some of his tape. love his athleticism.

What if you stash him though and you don't care about his current contribution.

[ColdBlooded]

alot to love and hate about the kid.

-explosive athlete with decent size ( minus being a twig) who showed he can shoot.

-but skinny as chit, struggles to finish around the rim and jumper not consistent. far from polished.

man, talk about a boom or bust prospect. he should not touch the lottery. he's simply not ready to play.

im rooting for him though. didnt see alot of live play, but seen a few games and studied some of his tape. love his athleticism.

What if you stash him though and you don't care about his current contribution.

Sure, but how many teams in the lottery really want to do that?

[miltk]

but even Klay Thompson wasn't highly regarded by draft websites. His last year in college he could be seen regularly as a 2nd round prospect through the month of March. People are being mislead by sites that don't really know NBA talent. LaVine looks worthy of being a lottery pick in this draft to me.

but thompson had numbers. if zach had numbers he would be a top7. he was projected that way when everyone was all bubbly over him in his first 7games,

He wasn't projected that way on DX. DX is my go to website for prospects, so I was surprised to see this LaVine's name in the top 10 when I went to NBAdraft.net. DX at a point didn't even have LaVine in the 2nd round just like they didn't have Rondae Jefferson in the 2nd round. Both of these players are NBA 1st round picks in my opinion. Their mistake was committing to universities that would not make them guaranteed starters. I'm sorry, I'm not willing to hold it against Zach LaVine that a college coach didn't make him a starter in favor of some other guys who have games more suitable for college basketball. Tony Wrotten is another guy with great talent that people thought left too early. The NBA game is a different game. It rewards speed and athleticism more than college basketball. It's a shame that LaVine wasn't a starter so that he could at least have 14ppg on his resume.

there was no site that actually came out and proclaimed a lottery, however after him being the pre-missouri scourge of the cupcakes, he was getting ink and hype. that's when the "westbrook with a shot" cropped up and from there that tag had a momentum of it's own. it was just talk that the comparison inevitably led to thinking he was top7. at that point and time i don't think vonleh or embiid were being talked about yes? it was the big3, smart, and i don't know who else.

[bah humbug]

This might be crazy high praise but he reminds me a lot of 18 yr old Kobe. They had the same pros/cons too. I want la to trade down and get him

[RSCD3_]

This might be crazy high praise but he reminds me a lot of 18 yr old Kobe. They had the same pros/cons too. I want la to trade down and get him

Handles?

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[Jajwanda]

Kobe was far ahead of where Lavine is right now in terms of ability to get into the paint. That said Kobe had been playing for ages, Lavine is really just starting out. Good kid, he'd make a great developmental player for L.A. and he may very well be the guy L.A. trades down for.

[Notanoob]

Tons to hate about this kid
Among shooting guards in this draft:
-scored the least, and it wasn't even close. The difference between him and the next lowest scoring SG is the same as the difference between that SG and the 9th highest scoring SG
-2nd worst FT%, one of only two SGs who shot under 70% at the line
-fouled the most
-near the bottom in every rebounding category
-mediocre steals numbers, which become awful when you adjust for the fact that he played a lot of zone defense
-below average FG% and 2P%
-didn't take enough shots for his 3P% to be meaningful, which combine with his bad FT shooting means you can't trust him to be a shooter in the NBA
-comically bad FT rate, especially compared to other guys who primarily shot jumpers
-near the bottom in TS%
For a guy who claims to be able to play point guard, he ranks
-close to last in assists for SGs
-close to last in assist% for SGs
-is not a particularly good ball handler or slasher
-did not show great vision or decision making
And just observations without stats
-totally clueless on defense
-absurdly bad finisher, avoids contact, almost never dunks on people
-does basically all his scoring in transition, which is worrying, because I want a guy who scores in the half-court, especially since with his defense he won't be generating fast breaks that much

So in sum, we have a guard who is a questionable shooter, never gets to the line, can't finish around the rim, is terrified of contact, doesn't rebound, and has absolutely no idea how to play defense. He isn't actually good at anything besides scoring in transition, but he's considered a first round pick because he's got great athleticism.