scrabbarista wrote:Bill Simmons teased a take that everyone should slow their roll on Cunningham on his podcast yesterday.
With the big caveat that my opinion was formed off of a few highlights and scouting vids watched over the last few months, I was "encouraged" to hear someone like Simmons agree with my impressions. When I first checked out Cunningham, Mobley, and Suggs, I was most impressed by Suggs, then Mobley, then Cunningham. [EDIT: I'm not saying CC "sucks," or anything crazy like that. I'm just talking in the context of "should he be the number one pick?"]
Simmons gets a lot of disrespect, but he's been attending NBA games since the 70's, watches an obscene amount of NBA basketball, literally wrote a book on the history of the league, and, imho, has a good grasp of elite NBA talent. He's not always right, sure, (Derrick Williams was a big miss), but he was incredibly adamant on the Oden/Durant question, which he ended up nailing (he predicted Oden's body would break down and Durant would be a generational player - before the draft), and I respect his opinions on that highest level of "historical" talent. I think he's been a little too high on Doncic, but he was exuberant about Doncic as an all-timer well before nearly all non-fanboy pundits, which looks smart to me.
I'll be interested to hear his full take, which he said should be coming up on The Ringer's "University" pod, or whatever it's called. Either today or next Wednesday, I guess.
I haven't read any of this thread, so I apologize if this has been covered, but what do you all make of CC's negative AST/TO ratio? Is it really as simple as "his teammates suck?" Should it be at least a bit of a red flag that he can't even get it to 1-1? I submit all of this humbly, as someone who only pays attention to the most elite prospects and almost never watches a full college game.
Numbers and highlights don't give a full context of Cade and what he brings to the table. He's literally someone you have to watch to understand why the love is as strong as it is. IRT to the question about the assist to turnover ratio i think there is a combination of lazy handle at times (especially when forcing action) and teammates missing open looks. He can be better in traffic, he can bring his handle lower, he can do a better job of defensive dribbling considering he isn't an explosive athlete by any stretch, forces some passes at times and can on occasion fall victim to turnovers via contact hunting. I don't want to outright say his teammates suck but i do think folks who are numbers shopping will see a distinct difference when Cade gets surrounded by better shooters and finishers plus additional space and less attention.
In terms of Simmons saying slow our roll, obviously gotta wait and hear the take, BUT it's perfectly reasonable for someone to look at this class and think Cade might not necessarily be the guy orrrrrr find one of the other studs to be more appealing. Cade is a lock for some but it's not a Zion, Bron, AD level resounding consensus for him to be the guy at 1, especially not with the level of talent in the top 5 this year.
