Hal14 wrote:-What position does he play? His skill set is more of a wing, but I don't think he's quick enough to play the wing in the NBA. He's skinny, lacks physicality, good but not great rebounder, below average rim protection so not sure about him playing PF. He's kind of like a tweener, in between the 3 and the 4 spot.
I've always felt the position thing is overblown. Especially in the current NBA where traditional roles are blurred. I've never seen guys fail because they're stuck between position at the NBA level. They fail because they can't play period. Notice how there's exactly zero good "tweeners" in the league. That's because when they can play they are "versatile". Funny how Draymond Green was a tweener until he took David Lee's spot and now he's just a perennial DPOY candidate with top level playmaking. Or Grant Williams. He was a tweener then this year he started hitting shots and not constantly fouling and suddenly he's just a NBA player.
Hal14 wrote:-His advanced stats so far this season (net rating, PER, TS%, assist to turnover rate) are pretty bad. This tells me that while he's scoring points, he might be an empty stats kind of guy
That is a legit concern.
Hal14 wrote:-Not loving the body language. Often times has a pouty face or will flail his arms about when he or a teammate has a call go against them
The body language might be a problem. Nobody likes a whiner and if he's an immature guy throwing a tantrum everytime he doesn't get a call, it's not a good look. But it might also be nothing. At least it shows he cares about the result of the game and he's not just going through the motions. Look at guys like Jokic. At times he has the worst body language I've seen on a basketball court and he's the MVP. Tatum throws his hands up after every drive. I wouldn't read too much into it.
Hal14 wrote:-Might be the worst defender in this draft class, which goes along with point above about poor net rating this season
-Really upright, doesn't really get down in his stance defensively and doesn't get down low enough when handling the ball (obviously makes it easier for defender to steal it from him, makes it so he has less control of the ball)
I remember years ago, Stevens saying how hard it is for young guys in the NBA to get in a stance and guard. Usually they need to add a lot of muscle to their lower body to be able to sit down and defend for 30 minutes a night. That's talking about 20, 21, 22 yaers old mind you not skinny 18 years old. I really think a lot of his issues are going to get corrected with a stronger base after a couple of summers in the weight room. I'm not disputing that he's terrible defensively right now. But I don't know how realistic it is to ask a teenager playing 30 minutes every game against grown men while carrying a big role on offense to also expand a ton of energy on defense anyway. He's 6'10, with a 7'0 wingspan, pretty mobile and smart. He has the tools to be fine on that end.
BostonCouchGM wrote:I'm not at all interested. I get the appeal. Legit 6'10" and shoots 40% from three. And at least one of these stretch bigs seems to be taken in the first half of the 1st round each year but I don't want it to be us. He seems to lack maturity from the footage I've seen. Very low BBIQ. It could just be boredom but it's a turnoff to me. There's plenty of talent that should be available at the 4 for us at our pick where we don't need to take a project with issues.
I really don't see the low basketball IQ so I'd love it if you could expand on that. Obviously it's just highlights so it needs to be taken with a grain of salt but in that video you can see that he can run a pick and roll, keep his man on his hip and read the help defense before picking the right pass :
Sure nobody is going to confuse him with Chris Paul but I rarely see that level of patience and vision from a player this young let alone from someone with his mix of size and shooting.