Thon Maker

[GimmeDat]

It's interesting how, in the same stroke that people have dismissed his mixtapes, they've dismissed any degree of versatility or guard skills.

No, he's not the next KD, but for a big guy, he does have a very competent handle, a good feel for the game and is a good passer. For someone who, on the offensive end, will be stretching the floor, those skills are pretty desirable. He's not there yet, the TO's need to reduce and the shooting in game (he seems to be shooting the ball well in workouts) needs to become more efficient, but they are tools that he's flashed. He's smart and a hard worker, I think he'll get there.

[Bum Adebayo]

It's interesting how, in the same stroke that people have dismissed his mixtapes, they've dismissed any degree of versatility or guard skills.

No, he's not the next KD, but for a big guy, he does have a very competent handle, a good feel for the game and is a good passer. For someone who, on the offensive end, will be stretching the floor, those skills are pretty desirable. He's not there yet, the TO's need to reduce and the shooting in game (he seems to be shooting the ball well in workouts) needs to become more efficient, but they are tools that he's flashed. He's smart and a hard worker, I think he'll get there.

He doesn't have a good feel for the game, that is one of his most clear weaknesses, but that could be fixed a bit with more experience probably. What worries me is him having bad, shaky hands (not neessariliy small, just bad, kinda like Noel hands) where he bobbles a lot of passes, and him having average touch around the rim. I am talking about things you just can't improve. The weight thing you could argue he can put on weight, but he has rail thin legs, his lower body is more worrisome than his upper body.

[toussaud]

more than anything, in a weak draft past the first 2 maybe 3 picks, someone is gonna gamble on his upside .

if i'm a team like the t wolves, that don't really need a young player, or the suns that have multiple picks, i'd rather gamble on maker's upside in the middle / late lotto than take a guy like...Sabonis, who even if he pans out, just how good is he gonna be? is it a guy i'm gonna lose sleep over not picking? not really.

i don't see a situation where a guy this fluid with this stroke and his athletic ability busts out of the league. maybe not become a star okay i'll give you that, but BUST? i dont' see it.

[CeltsfanSinceBirth]

For a guy that has such great work ethic, intelligence and motor, I'm surprised he's still not being questioned about why he didn't go to college and compete against the best. Sticking around in a Canadian prep school an extra year to beat up against kids a year younger than him sounds suspicious.

[Bum Adebayo]

For a guy that has such great work ethic, intelligence and motor, I'm surprised he's still not being questioned about why he didn't go to college and compete against the best. Sticking around in a Canadian prep school an extra year to beat up against kids a year younger than him sounds suspicious.

He would've been exposed in college, like he was in Nike Hoop Summit and others, that's why he did all he could to jump straight from HS to NBA. Basically what he pretends is his hype mixtapes being his calling card instead of his play against quality competition

[toussaud]

Whatever it was it wasn't his reasoning plus he's been to like 3 schools in 4 years good luck with that clearing house

[RollingWave]

come on , this is relatively later first we're talking about here, by default it's a place where your either taking high risk guys or low ceiling guys. so just forget about the high risk part, that's pretty much assumed anyway.

As long as your not taking him like top 8 top 10 or something it's hardly ridiculous in this draft. especially since multiple teams have so many picks they're going to gamble on high upside guys anyway.

If your not sure about any of those guys, going with length can almost never be faulted.

[jpengland]

come on , this is relatively later first we're talking about here, by default it's a place where your either taking high risk guys or low ceiling guys. so just forget about the high risk part, that's pretty much assumed anyway.

As long as your not taking him like top 8 top 10 or something it's hardly ridiculous in this draft. especially since multiple teams have so many picks they're going to gamble on high upside guys anyway.

If your not sure about any of those guys, going with length can almost never be faulted.

Teams like the Celtics and Philly with multiple 'bonus' picks late in first will surely roll the dice on him.

I think the red flags are being overused here in terms of schooling, experience etc.

He's a physical freak, 7 footer with a 36 inch vertical who has the makings of a jumpshot and handles good enough to attack a close out, can switch onto guards pretty well, rebounds the ball and has shot blocking instincts. He seems to be a hard working kid, too.

I'd be gambling on that any time after pick 10 if there wasn't anybody I was enamored with. His interviews have also shown he's NOT trying to be Kevin Durant - he knows he needs to be a defensive driven, hard working big.

Draft him, get him to work on his jumpshot, running the floor and protecting the rim. Stick him in the D-League, Don't expect anything for a couple of years and then I genuinely think his floor is a decent shot blocking stretch big off the bench and his ceiling is pretty damn high if he puts it all together.

[TheGoodDoctor]

The one thing that confuses me is that Thon was being recruited by every major school...

Apparently Kentucky, Duke etc were after him so you would think elite schools like that have an eye for talent yet the media keeps writing him off as a scrub?!

[TraBuch]

The one thing that confuses me is that Thon was being recruited by every major school...

Apparently Kentucky, Duke etc were after him so you would think elite schools like that have an eye for talent yet the media keeps writing him off as a scrub?!

As someone who follows Duke recruiting extremely closely, K stopped recruiting him a long time ago. The last time he was a major target was in 2014. A quick Google search shows that Calipari also stopped recruiting him last year.

[cellar-door]

The one thing that confuses me is that Thon was being recruited by every major school...

Apparently Kentucky, Duke etc were after him so you would think elite schools like that have an eye for talent yet the media keeps writing him off as a scrub?!

It's a long way from college prospect to NBA player, I mean Ryan Kelly was a top 15 recruit who went to Duke. I don't see Maker being written off as a scrub, I see people saying he's several years away from being an NBA player, and that there is some dispute as to his most likely outcome.
To me one worry is that he didn't go to college. Now I don't know enough about the details, so maybe he was worried he wasn't going to be eligible (combo of grades and amateur status issues I've heard), but he's been very carefully kept away from real competition in a way that has to worry teams. A GOOD year at a Kentucky or Duke would have helped his stock a lot, though the risk is a bad year would make him a late second.

[stitches]

Maker apparently was impressive in today's workout with the Jazz. Here's what Walt Perrin(vice-president of player personnel for the Jazz) said about him and the workout:

-him and Paige did really well going through the workout having in mind they had a workout yesterday in New York for 25 teams.
-his body might need 2-3 years before he's ready, but Perrin said he can see a coach give him minutes because of his shooting/faceup game.
-he watched him play 2 years ago, he's gotten bigger, smarter and his shot is better than back then(IMO, all good signs that he's working and improving his game)
-offensively he's likely going to be a faceup player, rather than post up(because of body type), defensively he might have hard time with strong bigs, but he will probably be able to guard players on the perimeter - quick for his size and long.
-he's a very good athlete from baseline to baseline, average to above average athlete vertically(that's interesting because his testing suggest he's elite vertically)
-good rebounder(good numbers for his age group)
-about basketball IQ - he's a very smart player, picked up things easily, willing to learn. Probably didn't have great coaching so far. The learning curve might be really quick in terms of picking up things.

[Bum Adebayo]

Maker apparently was impressive in today's workout with the Jazz. Here's what Walt Perrin(vice-president of player personnel for the Jazz) said about him and the workout:

-him and Paige did really well going through the workout having in mind they had a workout yesterday in New York for 25 teams.
-his body might need 2-3 years before he's ready, but Perrin said he can see a coach give him minutes because of his shooting/faceup game.
-he watched him play 2 years ago, he's gotten bigger, smarter and his shot is better than back then(IMO, all good signs that he's working and improving his game)
-offensively he's likely going to be a faceup player, rather than post up(because of body type), defensively he might have hard time with strong bigs, but he will probably be able to guard players on the perimeter - quick for his size and long.
-he's a very good athlete from baseline to baseline, average to above average athlete vertically(that's interesting because his testing suggest he's elite vertically)
-good rebounder(good numbers for his age group)
-about basketball IQ - he's a very smart player, picked up things easily, willing to learn. Probably didn't have great coaching so far. The learning curve might be really quick in terms of picking up things.

Did he say anything negative about him?

[HotelVitale]

The one thing that confuses me is that Thon was being recruited by every major school...
Apparently Kentucky, Duke etc were after him so you would think elite schools like that have an eye for talent yet the media keeps writing him off as a scrub?!

It's a long way from college prospect to NBA player, I mean Ryan Kelly was a top 15 recruit who went to Duke. I don't see Maker being written off as a scrub, I see people saying he's several years away from being an NBA player, and that there is some dispute as to his most likely outcome..

Yeah, that's a strange (or maybe just ignorant?) comment from GoodDoctor. Every year we watch top 10 recruits fall off the face of the earth: Josh Selby was a #1 ranked recruit, LeBryan Nash, Ricky Ledo, Cliff Alexander. Being a top-10 guy at one stage in your mid-teens is absolutely no guarantee that you're going to be a NBA player, let alone star.

Also, the draft media isn't calling Maker a 'scrub.' He's expected to go in the 20-30s, so they're saying he might be the 20th or 30th best human available to enter the NBA this year, instead of one of the best 5 or 10. He's acknowledged as one of the best 600 or 700 players in the world...but you have to be one of the best 200 or so to be a successful NBA draft pick.

[stitches]

Did he say anything negative about him?

Here's the interview: http://espn700sports.com/interviews/walt-perrin-utah-jazz-pre-draft-workouts-5-25-16/

The main negative is his body not being ready.

[jpengland]

Maker apparently was impressive in today's workout with the Jazz. Here's what Walt Perrin(vice-president of player personnel for the Jazz) said about him and the workout:

-him and Paige did really well going through the workout having in mind they had a workout yesterday in New York for 25 teams.
-his body might need 2-3 years before he's ready, but Perrin said he can see a coach give him minutes because of his shooting/faceup game.
-he watched him play 2 years ago, he's gotten bigger, smarter and his shot is better than back then(IMO, all good signs that he's working and improving his game)
-offensively he's likely going to be a faceup player, rather than post up(because of body type), defensively he might have hard time with strong bigs, but he will probably be able to guard players on the perimeter - quick for his size and long.
-he's a very good athlete from baseline to baseline, average to above average athlete vertically(that's interesting because his testing suggest he's elite vertically)
-good rebounder(good numbers for his age group)
-about basketball IQ - he's a very smart player, picked up things easily, willing to learn. Probably didn't have great coaching so far. The learning curve might be really quick in terms of picking up things.

That's pretty much exactly as I had him pegged.

He's going top 15 IMO. Somebody is going to take a flier on him - the upside is too much. If he really is as hard working and smart as it appears then his floor is a lot higher than first thought, too.

If you can have him running the floor, protecting the rim and knocking down jumpers - with his length and athleticism he's a rotation player at worst IMO.

Glad he seems to finally be shaking the mix tape/he wants to be KD narrative.

[stitches]

That's pretty much exactly as I had him pegged.

He's going top 15 IMO. Somebody is going to take a flier on him - the upside is too much. If he really is as hard working and smart as it appears then his floor is a lot higher than first thought, too.

If you can have him running the floor, protecting the rim and knocking down jumpers - with his length and athleticism he's a rotation player at worst IMO.

Glad he seems to finally be shaking the mix tape/he wants to be KD narrative.

I'd be totally OK with the Jazz drafting him at 12.

[madmaxmedia]

If most of his workouts go as well as the Jazz one seemingly did, then I guess mid-first.

I wonder though, if he's sort of an unknown and you work him out and love him, wouldn't you downplay the public scouting report a bit? Of course any team interested in him is going to work him out and draw their own conclusions. But the more validation he gets from around the league, the less risky he will be as a draft pick (for the GM who picks him).

Maybe the Jazz likes him even more than they expressed, or maybe less and they're actually targeting somebody else.

[LeCalinou]

The issue with Thon Maker is he is not good. Has he ever had a truly good camp? Guy is so over-hyped it is ridiculous, also it's no lock he is eligible.

Based on what? Where you at those camps? Do you know in what kind of environments that was?
And are you actually aware that he has changed countries 3 times already, and will do so again to play in the NBA?

Forget about basketball for a second: imagine you had to move, with your family, for 3 times, before reaching the age of 18. You would probably feel uprooted, maybe lacking friends, maybe lacking confidence etc.
Well, now apply that to athletes that get compared, in a vacuum, to different basketball stars, at certain stages in their lives.

There are absolutely no guarentees in life, I don't know either if he'll get accustomed to the life style, get to work with good developpement coaches, actually still enjoy the game once he gets older?

What people don't realize about successfull teams, especially those whoe draft well, is that they have the full support-system in place for young men to achieve their potential.
SAS, OKC, GSW - they've drafted well, according to sound principles, and they also had some luck.

A counter example to me is Cleveland. LeBron left, and then they had indecent amounts of luck. The no.1 pick in 2011, which became Irving, they got from the Clippers in a salary dump (Baron Davis). They also drafted Waiters (they couldn't wait to get rid of him), Thompson (good value for no.4), Bennett (the biggest bust in NBA history), Zeller and Wiggins (LeBron didn't like him so he had to go away).

[LeCalinou]

If you don't believe the skills will translate because he hasn't faced strong-enough competition, just watch (and LISTEN) to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RCqF9RlAD4 .
He has good fundamentals, he talks a lot on Defense, he encourages everyone on the team, he speaks up.
This is why Draymond Green wasn't drafted higher, although the basketball talent was there, because young players are tested in an empty gym, based on irrelevant statistics.