Ruzious wrote:dangermouse wrote:Any word on what the contract is, one of those two-ways to develop in... whatever the D-league is called now?
I didn't realise he was only 6'6", he's got length then. Athletic and talented player in my opinion. I like him.
Yeah, I was impressed with him yesterday. He's somewhat of a physical specimen out there - listed at 205, I think he's more like 220. He's not much of a shooter, but he plays hard on defense and uses his length and athleticism. His stats weren't great in the G League, but I think he's making a good case for belonging in the NBA as an "energy player" off the bench. We'll see.
Seems to me that, as an "energy player," what you do with your "energy" is put up "stats." If your numbers have no positive impact on a team's overall numbers in a game, you can have virtually no positive impact on the game. Not saying that nothing you do can ever turn out to be helpful in one or another situation, but... truth is that numbers win games, & players put up the numbers.
Felix was drafted #33 in 2013 on the strength of his outstanding Senior year at ASU. He went right after Allan Crabbe & Alex Abrines, both of whom are solidly established in the league, & before a bunch of guys who have turned out to have actual NBA careers, among whom Isaiah Canaan, Jeff Withey, James Ennis & Joffrey Lauvergne.
The best sample I can find for him was last year in the G League, where he wasn't good. Every 40 minutes, he took 14 shots & 4.8 FTAs to put up 16.1 points -- just about a .50 TS% in the minor leagues. He rebounded well for a guard, but in everything else he was punk.
If he winds up on our roster, as it seems quite possible he will, it would be one more indication of Ernie's failure to find & develop young players. Felix doesn't add anything, has no further growth in him at 27 (of course never say never yadda yadda, but come on...), & will never become a trade asset with any value.
We have an inordinate number of players of that kind -- guys who will never give us back what it has cost us to acquire & pay them: in one way or another, at this point I'd put Morris, Smith, Satoransky, Mahinmi, Frazier, Ochefu, McCullough & Scott on that list -- 8 of the 13 guaranteed contracts. If we sign Sloan & Felix to get to 15, that makes it 10 out of 15.
Note that I don't mean to be referring to how well or badly these guys play -- that's a separate question. What I mean is that they won't bring us more later than they have cost us up to now. That would not be true, for example, of Sheldon Mac if he developed into a solid rotation NBA player. In that case, a guy who didn't even cost us a draft pick, & whom we paid the minimum, would have become valuable enough that he would bring back more in a trade than we'd spent to acquire & develop him.