King Ken wrote:B-Ball Freak wrote:Roddy B for 3 wrote:
I agree with you I think in a standard draft Culver is more of a 5-10 guy instead of where I have him now (clear #4).
For instance I think he will be better than Fultz/Ball/Josh Jackson from '17 who all went top 5.
But I would have him at 7-9 in the rediculously deep '18 draft.
Hindsight is 20/20 though Fultz/Ball/Josh Jackson looked ALOT better coming out of college plus all three were freshmen. I dont even think Culver would be a lottery pick in the 18 draft.
Outside of Jackson, the other two were much better talents out of college. It's not even close. Ball right now will likely be better than the best of Culver in the NBA if he's drafted to be a 2/3.
Yeah but they were still top 5 picks.
If Culver is worse than every player picked top 5 in the '18 draft and worse than Tatum and Fox from the '17 draft (none of which is written in stone) BUT he is better than Fultz, Ball and Jackson (not written in stone either)
That would make him the #8 pick from the two drafts. Which
Fox, Tatum, Ayton, Bagley, Luka, JJJ and Young all better
Culver
Ball, Jackson, Fultz all worse
#8 prospect out of the past two drafts top 5 seems mathematically very standard for a player expected to go top 5.
If the question is "is Culver worthy of being a top 5 pick" well, if you think Culver will be better than 30% of the players who have been top 5 picks from the last two drafts we should assume Culver is worthy of being top 5 pick.
I know there are other variables, but a top 5 NBA pick isnt guranteed success. If I had a #5 pick this year I'd be looking to trade down for Boston's three firsts.
I'm not saying Culver is a Carmelo Anthony or LeBron James or anything.
I'm really not.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I think Culver is the #4 prospect in a weak draft and a 5-9 guy in a standard draft.
If Zion/Morant/Barrett/Reddish(#8 or so on my board) go 1-4 and I was picking 5 I would be happy to trade down with Boston for #13,#18.
The reason I'm talking about Culver so much is because he's a local kid and I know people were probably ready to rip him after this game and only look at the bad. So as soon as the game ended I posted what he did good and every time someone dumped on him I defended him because, for everything he did bad today he still lead the team to 125% of Vegas predicted score while contributing (via Points and Assists) 33% of the teams offense. He also guarded the other teams best player alot. And did what he did against a great graey defense.
I'm defended Culver from the hate because people tend to dump on high valued prospects after bad fg% games in high stakes situations. When they do that they forget about all the great the player has done and does.
It's the same phenomenon as when people talk bad about Russell Westbrook who like Culver is a .001% player in his league.