College/Draft Thread Part 5 - NCAA Tournament Edition - Knicks #1 Baby!!!

[Chanel Bomber]

If RJ can improve his FT% to around 75% and improve his shooting overall, I see him becoming a Kawhi Leonard/taller Jimmy Butler player on offense. A guy who who just dominates his match-ups physically, who can get to the free throw line consistently, post up, playmake and (eventually) score from outside. He still has tunnel vision at times but he's also shown excellent court awareness and vision for a wing in the pick-and-roll. I trust his love for the game as well, I don't think he's the next Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Knox. He's got heart.

The two things I'm really worried about are the FT shooting and his inability to elevate when driving to the basket. It's just weird, because he does have hops. But I love his upside at the NBA level. I'm good with him or Zion. I'm not convinced at all by Morant. Not saying he's not a great prospect, but I'm personally not sold on him tbh.

[Juco24]

It's easy for me to say but I think Cam could really benefit from another year at this level and get seasoned under K. Enjoy college life and preseason #1 pick. Have no idea what his finances are but another year could help him ala Ja

[Chanel Bomber]

My biggest worry with Ja is that his effort, awareness, and fundamentals on defense, in the games I've watched, were pretty terrible. With his speed and athleticism and heart, he can be very competent, but that's my #1 concern with him right now and why I'd give the slight edge to Culver at #2. I was pretty disgusted watching Ja on defense.

He was completely disinterested and disengaged on defense in the tournament. He literally let his teammates do all the dirty work for him, just because he was carrying the offense. This showed a sense of entitlement that I found a bit ugly and slightly concerning. I'm afraid he's more flash than substance. Of course, I could be completely wrong (I was wrong about Sexton just last year).

Last time I had ever seen this was Messi during the 2014 World Cup where he didn't bother to track back to preserve his energy. But he's effin Messi, and I still didn't like it, but at least you could sort of understand.

[NoLayupRule]

My biggest worry with Ja is that his effort, awareness, and fundamentals on defense, in the games I've watched, were pretty terrible. With his speed and athleticism and heart, he can be very competent, but that's my #1 concern with him right now and why I'd give the slight edge to Culver at #2. I was pretty disgusted watching Ja on defense.

I share your concerns, especially on defense

he reminds me a lot of Jennings

[bleedblue3303]

Question for everyone. I am far form a NCAA expert. Had some questions about Cam Reddish. Was wondering is it possible on a team with Zion and RJ who were also closest of friends and so extremely ball dominant. It forced he to take fast shots when he had the ball because he knew he wouldn't get it back often? just seem weird a guy touted so well for his shooting was so inconsistent this year.
Or am I reading too much into this and Cam is just straight Dookie as a ball player and will bust in the NBA.

[DOT]

My biggest worry with Ja is that his effort, awareness, and fundamentals on defense, in the games I've watched, were pretty terrible. With his speed and athleticism and heart, he can be very competent, but that's my #1 concern with him right now and why I'd give the slight edge to Culver at #2. I was pretty disgusted watching Ja on defense.

He was completely disinterested and disengaged on defense in the tournament. He literally let his teammates do all the dirty work for him, just because he was carrying the offense. This showed a sense of entitlement that I found a bit ugly and slightly concerning. I'm afraid he's more flash than substance. Of course, I could be completely wrong (I was wrong about Sexton just last year).

Last time I had ever seen this was Messi during the 2014 World Cup where he didn't bother to track back to preserve his energy. But he's effin Messi, and I still didn't like it, but at least you could sort of understand.

You can get by with a PG that isn't great on D

But one that straight up doesn't play defense you're gonna struggle with

Most PGs in the NBA are not good defenders. But the good ones at least try on that end (mostly).

As long as you give effort, it's workable. Ja just doesn't care on that end, and that frustrates the hell out of me, cause he has the tools to at least be not terrible

Now, this all could change when he gets to the league. But when you combine that gamble with the fact that his jumper is very concerning, he drops down quite a bit on my board

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

[Fat]

Question for everyone. I am far form a NCAA expert. Had some questions about Cam Reddish. Was wondering is it possible on a team with Zion and RJ who were also closest of friends and so extremely ball dominant. It forced he to take fast shots when he had the ball because he knew he wouldn't get it back often? just seem weird a guy touted so well for his shooting was so inconsistent this year.
Or am I reading too much into this and Cam is just straight Dookie as a ball player and will bust in the NBA.

Dudes role was to be a spot up it’s not like he was some kind of lights out shooter in high school either he had to transform his game to fit with how duke was constructed

But on the flip side he has had opportunities on duke but still looked kind of off. His biggest strength right now is that he”s a nice size wing that is a streaky shooter/defender I don’t feel he was properly developed at duke because they limited him to taking 3”s 90% of the time so rj and Zion could have a little more wiggle room to operate.

I still believe he will look real good at the next level what he brings to the table now will immediately translate and he has a nice ceiling

[Duke4life831]

If RJ can improve his FT% to around 75% and improve his shooting overall, I see him becoming a Kawhi Leonard/taller Jimmy Butler player on offense. A guy who who just dominates his match-ups physically, who can get to the free throw line consistently, post up, playmake and (eventually) score from outside. He still has tunnel vision at times but he's also shown excellent court awareness and vision for a wing in the pick-and-roll. I trust his love for the game as well, I don't think he's the next Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Knox. He's got heart.

The two things I'm really worried about are the FT shooting and his inability to elevate when driving to the basket. It's just weird, because he does have hops. But I love his upside at the NBA level. I'm good with him or Zion. I'm not convinced at all by Morant. Not saying he's not a great prospect, but I'm personally not sold on him tbh.

I've seen this a lot lately, RJ being able to get to the line a lot. I just don't know where it's coming from. RJ has the worst FTr for anyone being considered a top 10 pick, not named Cam Reddish. He's really not that good at getting to the line. A FTr of only .310 isn't anything to write home about. Comparing him to Butler since he was brought up. Butler had a FTr of .776 for his 3 years in college, in his 2nd year (first season of major minutes) he had a FTr of .875.

Just a comparison of the other most likely top picks FTr.

Zion: .467
Ja: .512
Culver: .379
Hunter: .398
Little: .366
Rui: .477
Keldon Johnson: .414
Cam: .264

Throw in Jaxson Hayes and Bol Bol (bigs so not really a fair comparison) and Garland (only 4 games, so not enough to draw a conclusion on) and those are 12 guys (including RJ) that are all probably going to go lotto.

I actually think you can say RJ's ability to get to the line is a weakness for him.

[Duke4life831]

Question for everyone. I am far form a NCAA expert. Had some questions about Cam Reddish. Was wondering is it possible on a team with Zion and RJ who were also closest of friends and so extremely ball dominant. It forced he to take fast shots when he had the ball because he knew he wouldn't get it back often? just seem weird a guy touted so well for his shooting was so inconsistent this year.
Or am I reading too much into this and Cam is just straight Dookie as a ball player and will bust in the NBA.

Dudes role was to be a spot up it’s not like he was some kind of lights out shooter in high school either he had to transform his game to fit with how duke was constructed

But on the flip side he has had opportunities on duke but still looked kind of off. His biggest strength right now is that he”s a nice size wing that is a streaky shooter/defender I don’t feel he was properly developed at duke because they limited him to taking 3”s 90% of the time so rj and Zion could have a little more wiggle room to operate.

I still believe he will look real good at the next level what he brings to the table now will immediately translate and he has a nice ceiling

I can say with 100% Cam's role was expected to be much larger by the staff before the season. It became very apparent he was not able to handle running the offense. And if you actually go back, you see the offense run through Cam less and less throughout the season. He ended up with 26 more turnovers than assists on the season. It got to the point where you basically had to cringe and look away whenever he tried to put the ball down and create.

One of his worst stretches (worst until the tournaments started) was when Zion went down. It was another opportunity for him to show he was able to take a bigger role, and again showed he didn't have any ability to put the ball down and create.

[robillionaire]

looks like tankathon tweaked their board a couple hours ago http://www.tankathon.com/big_board

[Chanel Bomber]

If RJ can improve his FT% to around 75% and improve his shooting overall, I see him becoming a Kawhi Leonard/taller Jimmy Butler player on offense. A guy who who just dominates his match-ups physically, who can get to the free throw line consistently, post up, playmake and (eventually) score from outside. He still has tunnel vision at times but he's also shown excellent court awareness and vision for a wing in the pick-and-roll. I trust his love for the game as well, I don't think he's the next Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Knox. He's got heart.

The two things I'm really worried about are the FT shooting and his inability to elevate when driving to the basket. It's just weird, because he does have hops. But I love his upside at the NBA level. I'm good with him or Zion. I'm not convinced at all by Morant. Not saying he's not a great prospect, but I'm personally not sold on him tbh.

I've seen this a lot lately, RJ being able to get to the line a lot. I just don't know where it's coming from. RJ has the worst FTr for anyone being considered a top 10 pick, not named Cam Reddish. He's really not that good at getting to the line. A FTr of only .310 isn't anything to write home about. Comparing him to Butler since he was brought up. Butler had a FTr of .776 for his 3 years in college, in his 2nd year (first season of major minutes) he had a FTr of .875.

Just a comparison of the other most likely top picks FTr.

Zion: .467
Ja: .512
Culver: .379
Hunter: .398
Little: .366
Rui: .477
Keldon Johnson: .414
Cam: .264

Throw in Jaxson Hayes and Bol Bol (bigs so not really a fair comparison) and Garland (only 4 games, so not enough to draw a conclusion on) and those are 12 guys (including RJ) that are all probably going to go lotto.

I actually think you can say RJ's ability to get to the line is a weakness for him.

I stand corrected, thanks for sharing those stats. I do see a willingness to attack the rim from RJ, which apparently doesn't consistently translate into free throws. Like an optical illusion I guess. Interesting.

[Duke4life831]

If RJ can improve his FT% to around 75% and improve his shooting overall, I see him becoming a Kawhi Leonard/taller Jimmy Butler player on offense. A guy who who just dominates his match-ups physically, who can get to the free throw line consistently, post up, playmake and (eventually) score from outside. He still has tunnel vision at times but he's also shown excellent court awareness and vision for a wing in the pick-and-roll. I trust his love for the game as well, I don't think he's the next Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Knox. He's got heart.

The two things I'm really worried about are the FT shooting and his inability to elevate when driving to the basket. It's just weird, because he does have hops. But I love his upside at the NBA level. I'm good with him or Zion. I'm not convinced at all by Morant. Not saying he's not a great prospect, but I'm personally not sold on him tbh.

I've seen this a lot lately, RJ being able to get to the line a lot. I just don't know where it's coming from. RJ has the worst FTr for anyone being considered a top 10 pick, not named Cam Reddish. He's really not that good at getting to the line. A FTr of only .310 isn't anything to write home about. Comparing him to Butler since he was brought up. Butler had a FTr of .776 for his 3 years in college, in his 2nd year (first season of major minutes) he had a FTr of .875.

Just a comparison of the other most likely top picks FTr.

Zion: .467
Ja: .512
Culver: .379
Hunter: .398
Little: .366
Rui: .477
Keldon Johnson: .414
Cam: .264

Throw in Jaxson Hayes and Bol Bol (bigs so not really a fair comparison) and Garland (only 4 games, so not enough to draw a conclusion on) and those are 12 guys (including RJ) that are all probably going to go lotto.

I actually think you can say RJ's ability to get to the line is a weakness for him.

I stand corrected, thanks for sharing those stats. I do see a willingness to attack the rim from RJ, which apparently doesn't consistently translate into free throws. Like an optical illusion I guess. Interesting.

He has the playing style as someone who gets to the line a lot. But I don't think he has the skill set for it. His inability to create separation or turn the corner on his defender prevents his defender from being in a bad position to foul. This was against college competition as well. I assume this will be even harder for him against NBA competition.

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

[Knicksfan1992]

My biggest worry with Ja is that his effort, awareness, and fundamentals on defense, in the games I've watched, were pretty terrible. With his speed and athleticism and heart, he can be very competent, but that's my #1 concern with him right now and why I'd give the slight edge to Culver at #2. I was pretty disgusted watching Ja on defense.

He was completely disinterested and disengaged on defense in the tournament. He literally let his teammates do all the dirty work for him, just because he was carrying the offense. This showed a sense of entitlement that I found a bit ugly and slightly concerning. I'm afraid he's more flash than substance. Of course, I could be completely wrong (I was wrong about Sexton just last year).

Last time I had ever seen this was Messi during the 2014 World Cup where he didn't bother to track back to preserve his energy. But he's effin Messi, and I still didn't like it, but at least you could sort of understand.

You can get by with a PG that isn't great on D

But one that straight up doesn't play defense you're gonna struggle with

Most PGs in the NBA are not good defenders. But the good ones at least try on that end (mostly).

As long as you give effort, it's workable. Ja just doesn't care on that end, and that frustrates the hell out of me, cause he has the tools to at least be not terrible

Now, this all could change when he gets to the league. But when you combine that gamble with the fact that his jumper is very concerning, he drops down quite a bit on my board

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

I've learned to not really judge these guys too much defensively in college. A lot of them are told not to foul or carry such a heavy burden for the team offensively that they are hidden on the defensive end. I'm more interested in physical tools and how thephysique and functional athleticism of the player could possibly translate. I think Ja could end up being a decent point of attack defender (if he cares enough to try) because he's quick and obviously has very good instincts as shown by his passing chops and even with minimal effort on that end he's got decent "stock" numbers. His issue is he'll never be able to switch effectively IMO.

My biggest issue with Ja, as a prospect as a whole, is weighing just how valuable the things he's really good at are and how much the aspects of his game that he needs to improve will hold him back. He's a really unique and odd point guard prospect for the modern game. Hard to get a read on.

[magnumt]

Read on Twitter

I think he’s laughing at the Center part, not the Best part.

—Mags

[sol537]

He was completely disinterested and disengaged on defense in the tournament. He literally let his teammates do all the dirty work for him, just because he was carrying the offense. This showed a sense of entitlement that I found a bit ugly and slightly concerning. I'm afraid he's more flash than substance. Of course, I could be completely wrong (I was wrong about Sexton just last year).

Last time I had ever seen this was Messi during the 2014 World Cup where he didn't bother to track back to preserve his energy. But he's effin Messi, and I still didn't like it, but at least you could sort of understand.

You can get by with a PG that isn't great on D

But one that straight up doesn't play defense you're gonna struggle with

Most PGs in the NBA are not good defenders. But the good ones at least try on that end (mostly).

As long as you give effort, it's workable. Ja just doesn't care on that end, and that frustrates the hell out of me, cause he has the tools to at least be not terrible

Now, this all could change when he gets to the league. But when you combine that gamble with the fact that his jumper is very concerning, he drops down quite a bit on my board

Sent from my SM-G965U using RealGM mobile app

I've learned to not really judge these guys too much defensively in college. A lot of them are told not to foul or carry such a heavy burden for the team offensively that they are hidden on the defensive end. I'm more interested in physical tools and how thephysique and functional athleticism of the player could possibly translate. I think Ja could end up being a decent point of attack defender (if he cares enough to try) because he's quick and obviously has very good instincts as shown by his passing chops and even with minimal effort on that end he's got decent "stock" numbers. His issue is he'll never be able to switch effectively IMO.

My biggest issue with Ja, as a prospect as a whole, is weighing just how valuable the things he's really good at are and how much the aspects of his game that he needs to improve will hold him back. He's a really unique and odd point guard prospect for the modern game. Hard to get a read on.

I can sort of understand that thinking in the regular season to a degree but this was in the tournament where every game is do or die. His laziness on that end was appalling. And there are ways to play solid defense without fouling out every game (see Culver, Hunter, etc.) To me, it shows a lack of IQ for the game (ie undervaluing the importance of defense) or a lack of caring. It's a tough one.

[RHODEY]

Watch on YouTube

[DaGawd]

Watch on YouTube

Not all too surprising but damn Antoine really let himself go after his playing days

[NoLayupRule]

If RJ can improve his FT% to around 75% and improve his shooting overall, I see him becoming a Kawhi Leonard/taller Jimmy Butler player on offense. A guy who who just dominates his match-ups physically, who can get to the free throw line consistently, post up, playmake and (eventually) score from outside. He still has tunnel vision at times but he's also shown excellent court awareness and vision for a wing in the pick-and-roll. I trust his love for the game as well, I don't think he's the next Andrew Wiggins or Kevin Knox. He's got heart.

The two things I'm really worried about are the FT shooting and his inability to elevate when driving to the basket. It's just weird, because he does have hops. But I love his upside at the NBA level. I'm good with him or Zion. I'm not convinced at all by Morant. Not saying he's not a great prospect, but I'm personally not sold on him tbh.

I've seen this a lot lately, RJ being able to get to the line a lot. I just don't know where it's coming from. RJ has the worst FTr for anyone being considered a top 10 pick, not named Cam Reddish. He's really not that good at getting to the line. A FTr of only .310 isn't anything to write home about. Comparing him to Butler since he was brought up. Butler had a FTr of .776 for his 3 years in college, in his 2nd year (first season of major minutes) he had a FTr of .875.

Just a comparison of the other most likely top picks FTr.

Zion: .467
Ja: .512
Culver: .379
Hunter: .398
Little: .366
Rui: .477
Keldon Johnson: .414
Cam: .264

Throw in Jaxson Hayes and Bol Bol (bigs so not really a fair comparison) and Garland (only 4 games, so not enough to draw a conclusion on) and those are 12 guys (including RJ) that are all probably going to go lotto.

I actually think you can say RJ's ability to get to the line is a weakness for him.

I stand corrected, thanks for sharing those stats. I do see a willingness to attack the rim from RJ, which apparently doesn't consistently translate into free throws. Like an optical illusion I guess. Interesting.

I think that’s a big difference between leagues

The nba rewards aggressive driving with free throws
RJ will get to the line much more in the nba than in college imo

[3toheadmelo]

Read on Twitter

I think he’s laughing at the Center part, not the Best part.

—Mags

Duh lol