Kidd-Gilchrist Sophmore Year + Future?

[KI-DW-TT-AB]

Drtg and defensive win shares never should have been let through the window in the first place....

Not many fans seem to have the patience necessary to let young players develop.

fwiw, I think Drummond still could have gone as high as #2, but didn't show very well at the combine or in workouts/interviews. TRob is the guy many expected Charlotte to snag, but MKG and Beal were certainly in the mix as well.

Yup.

Funny how people's memory changes as time passes. TRob was 2nd on most mock drafts. Followed by MKG/Barnes. Beal was barely in lottery until the tournament, 7-10 range until the combine. Jeremy Lamb was a top 5 projection just weeks prior. Lamb/Beal comparisons were a thing. GSW was to draft Waiters at 7 & he wasn't even a first round pick at midseason.

I was with you until this. Beal was a consensus lottery prospect from the beginning of his freshman season.

I said barely, which could be 13-14th, but I looked back & seems like most had him at 9-10th.

Major sites take down their projections throughout the year, but articles on user generated sites stay up, which always heavily resemble each other obviously.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/9028 ... e-top-spot

oct 2011

sullinger at 4th, harrison over davis, James McAdoo 5th (will he ever come out?)

Perry Jones at 7th (he was actually projected 1st for a while for the 2011 draft).

Rivers over Beal, Marquis Teague 10th, Terrance Ross at 19th, and no mention of Lillard yet. TRob at 25. No Llilard at all, no waiters.

http://www.oregonlive.com/nba/index.ssf ... -mock.html

that one's better since it's feb 2012 and things started to take shape.

Sullinger still top 5, Perry Jones still top 10, nobody knows who Llilard or Waiters is yet.

http://cleveland.cbslocal.com/2012/04/0 ... k-draft-1/

damn.

[fatlever]

Admitted Hornets fan here. MKG has several problems.

- The jumper is just atrocious and honestly he has not shown the diligence needed to work on it. If he does not put in the work this offseason then his potential long term is severely limited

- He's a two foot jumper. MKG has a lot of athleticism, but it sometimes doesn't get noticed because he always jumps off two feet without truly exploding off one.

- His handles are not great. He can dribble from one end of the court to the other without losing the ball, but he's not a one on one iso player.

The thing he has going for him is his intensity, and age. He still has time to get significantly better, but he has to be willing to put in the work. He should be in a gym today taking hundreds of jumpshots with an improved form, but the sense i get is that this is not happening.

nobody at any level has ever questioned MKGs work ethic. i am not sure why you believe he is not working hard to correct his flaws and improve his game.

[will]

Had to look up some MKG videos on Youtube. Mark Price working with him on that shot. Seeing him jump on freethrows is still hilarious.

[Eoghan]

I'm pleased with his progress but dealing with constant coaching schemes hasn't helped, especially since Clifford's offensive schemes and substitutions are basically the exact opposite of MKG's game.

There's not much you can do offensively with a wing who can't shoot, make FT, or get to the line. His passing doesn't look as nice as anticipated.

He never touches the ball so he can't display hardly any passing. Charlotte doesn't run, ever, and b/c Al is so poor defensively they have to rush back on defense after every shot instead of crashing the glass. MKG is the only one allowed to look for 2nd chance pts and he does a decent job of it considering he's going 1 on 4 most of the time. He can't slash b/c none of the other Charlotte players provide any spacing either.

[will]

Bring MKG to Toronto!

[Spicy P]

The guy is only 20. Give him a year or two. He won't be a star, but he can become something similar to an Andre Iguodala without the 3-point range.

That's still a stretch. People forget that other than lockdown defense, Iguodala was also an excellent ball handler with extraordinary vision and passing ability. He was a very efficient point forward during his peak years in Philly.

I'm more referring to the current and Denver Iguodala. Basically a glorified role player. But I agree that he probably won't reach that level of playmaking ability that Iguodala had. I think Gerald Wallace would be a better comparison.

[Johnlac1]

I'm one of those people still high on MKG despite his awful shot. If he doesn't fix it, he'll never approach his potential. What are the chances that he does fix it? I've never seen form like that in the modern era. I don't know what Mark Price is teaching him, but I doubt he's telling him that form is the correct one. It will be a shame, because MKG has the tools to be a top player in the league. But great defense alone won't do it.

[Illmatic12]

I'm one of those people still high on MKG despite his awful shot. If he doesn't fix it, he'll never approach his potential. What are the chances that he does fix it? I've never seen form like that in the modern era. I don't know what Mark Price is teaching him, but I doubt he's telling him that form is the correct one. It will be a shame, because MKG has the tools to be a top player in the league. But great defense alone won't do it.

Agreed, if Mark Price is teaching him then why is he shooting like that?

Or is MKG just ignoring him or what?

If I was Mark Price, I would be embarrassed to have my name associated with a pupil who is shooting like that. There are so many easy fixes in his form. You could take someone from a remote village in a 3rd world country who has never touched a basketball in their lives, and within a week you could teach them to have better form than MKG (who has been playing bball all his life?)

[Optimus_Steel]

I didn't understand then why a guy that had very under-developed offensive skills went so high. Yes he is athletic, had length, yes he has a motor. But he is very limited offensively. I would understand the risk taking him #2 if he was a big and long, athletic center, but he is a small forward. When as a very high draft pick your biggest asset is considered your motor thats not a good thing.

[JonFromVA]

Everybody has their favorite mock draft sites, but thanks to the internet archive, here are 3 snaphots of that draft from DraftExpress.

January: https://web.archive.org/web/20120112044 ... raft/2012/

May: https://web.archive.org/web/20120518122 ... raft/2012/

June: https://web.archive.org/web/20140331183 ... raft/2012/

Over this span...

MKG moved from #8, to #3, to #4.

Beal moved from #10, to #5, to #3

Waiters moved from #??, to #23, to #7

Lamb moved from #11, to #12, to #13

etc...

MKG at #2 wasn't a ridiculous pick at all, but everyone knew he was very raw offensively. There's little choice but to wait and see how far hard work (and hopefully some solid developmental coaching) can take him.

If the Cavs decided that Waiters and Irving weren't going to work, I would have strongly considered flipping Waiters for Kyrie's old HS buddy - even though Dion has shown far more on the offensive side of the floor and we already have our own jump shot challenged raw player in Tristan Thompson. Why? Because MKG still has a ton of potential upside.

[Eoghan]

I'm one of those people still high on MKG despite his awful shot. If he doesn't fix it, he'll never approach his potential. What are the chances that he does fix it? I've never seen form like that in the modern era. I don't know what Mark Price is teaching him, but I doubt he's telling him that form is the correct one. It will be a shame, because MKG has the tools to be a top player in the league. But great defense alone won't do it.

Agreed, if Mark Price is teaching him then why is he shooting like that?

Or is MKG just ignoring him or what?

If I was Mark Price, I would be embarrassed to have my name associated with a pupil who is shooting like that. There are so many easy fixes in his form. You could take someone from a remote village in a 3rd world country who has never touched a basketball in their lives, and within a week you could teach them to have better form than MKG (who has been playing bball all his life?)

Well yeah, it's almost always easier to mold a lump of clay than it is to undo bad habits that are firmly ingrained.

Price is allegedly reworking his shot over a long term process. This year the focus was basic footwork, MKG's feet didn't point anywhere close to the rim when he used to shoot. Price actually had him start jumping during free throws and it was working fairly decent until MKG broke his hand.

[Johnlac1]

I'm one of those people still high on MKG despite his awful shot. If he doesn't fix it, he'll never approach his potential. What are the chances that he does fix it? I've never seen form like that in the modern era. I don't know what Mark Price is teaching him, but I doubt he's telling him that form is the correct one. It will be a shame, because MKG has the tools to be a top player in the league. But great defense alone won't do it.

Agreed, if Mark Price is teaching him then why is he shooting like that?

Or is MKG just ignoring him or what?

If I was Mark Price, I would be embarrassed to have my name associated with a pupil who is shooting like that. There are so many easy fixes in his form. You could take someone from a remote village in a 3rd world country who has never touched a basketball in their lives, and within a week you could teach them to have better form than MKG (who has been playing bball all his life?)

It's truly one of the screwiest releases I've ever seen in over fifty years of watching the sport. How in the heck did come up with a weird release like that in the first place? It's actually mind-boggling that a player at the level of MKG could have a shot like that.

[Dupas]

Thats what happen when people fall in love with atheleticism. Kid cant put the ball in the basket for his life

[rockmanslim]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NII9RZ7HvFs[/youtube]

[jakebernat]

I'll take a 6'8 Tony Allen on my team any day.

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[neiiru_3]

Drafting a one way player (defense only and SF) at #2 doesn't sound like a smart decision. I don't know for me if I have a draft pick that high sure you want a guy with high upside, but he has to be able to play right away as well. MKG struggles on offense. He's terrible. He's not a bad defensive player, but he's no Rodman. So yes he's a disappointment so far.