DrWood wrote:Looking at Okafur's career stats. He scored 17.5, 7 Rebs, 1.2 blocks as a 20-year-old rookie. Not bad for a 20-year-old rookie on a terrible team. Never came close to those counting stats again, though obviously his minutes went down.
Do you think there's a way to predict which player will improve, and how much? Do NBA teams do psych evals of prospective draftees? Would it tell them anything? Does it explain why some players drop in the draft and others are risers?
edit: And is there a way to predict which players might be decent reclamation projects?
Not really. Even the best evaluators get plenty wrong in every sport.
Yes, I do think they do at least some psych evals. Maybe 'psych' isn't the right word but that's what the interviews and doing their due diligence on their background is all about.
For Okafur specifically, I'd venture the issue with him was the evolution of the NBA. Probably would've been a solid if not All Star type player 15-25 years ago. Kind of the Greg Monroe type problem.
For reclamation projects, I think the best way I'd look at is to scrap the idea of them being 'star' or 'go to' type lead players. Then at that point try to identify a high level specific NBA skill they have where they can contribute as a role player or if you put him a spot to just emphasize this strength while minimizing the exposure of his weaknesses. If they don't have a clear higher level NBA skill probably just move onto another guy.
I'm with others on Harden, he's not going to be anything to scoff at, nor was he last year after leaving Houston. Could easily argue him for MVP for the time he actually played, he was really really good while KD and Kyrie were in and out of the lineup he was carrying the team.
Resident Lillard truther since 2015.
