Elrod is Back wrote:Homerclease wrote:Elrod is Back wrote:
I doubt they will try to dump him and will move him to anyone willing to be a "taker." And I hope they don't move him.
Yabs may never make it in the NBA. And looking at the 2016 draft, a lot of first rounders will probably never amount to much, so Yabs would be no exception if he fails, too.
But his skills and athletic gifts and size are so clear at such a young age--and the combination so rare-- it seems the smart course to keep him and see if he can be developed. The upside is very high if everything comes together. The rap against him is that he has yet to play against a high level of competition. Well he just turned 21 and he can get plenty of higher grade competition next year. Then we will see what we have got here. And if he flops, so what? He will be as good as most anyone else we could have taken at 16. Henry Ellenson, anyone? If other teams value Yabs enough to offer us something of real value, that suggests to me that others are seeing what the Cs see and it is wise to keep him. If no one offers much for him, there is no reason to move him.
For the record, Yabs is totally dominating in China and that is all we can ask of him. He is also getting better as the season progresses. His last few games have been scorchers. When Marcus Thornton (2015 2nd round pick) put up mediocre numbers in Australia last year (and in Italy this year) it established that he was not NBA material. Well, Yabs has been anything but mediocre. He is ready for the NBA come fall 2017.
By the way, Brandon Bass has had a solid NBA career as a rotation big. Yabs is bigger, stronger and has much better hands than Brandon Bass. Yabs has made more 3 point baskets in the past two weeks than Bass has made in his 12 year, 731 game NBA career. Bass is nicknamed "No Pass" Bass because of his tunnel vision on the floor; Yabs will never get a nickname like that based on what we have seen in China so far. If Yabs can be a Brandon Bass who can consistently shoot and make three-pointers he is well worth keeping around. I think his upside is considerably higher.
But that remains to be seen, and a year from now he may join Jordan Mickey in the broken dreams category. But let's keep Yabs and find out in the next couple of years what we have.
No thank you. If they can find someone to give a first round pick this year I jump all over it. I don't know what you guys see in this kid. He's a total zero on defense and spends 75% of his time camped beyond the arc like over the hill Antoine Walker. So what if he's dominating China. They play better defense in the D league for crying out loud
Yabs is doing everything we could hope for in China. We do not know what the D being played in China is. Austin Ainge and the scouts who have covered Yabs in China (quoted in Keith Smith's piece) all said that he is conforming to what is done there, and he is not a concern defensively. Austin Ainge said he may develop into a solid defender. The tools are there, and by all accounts he has a high basketball IQ.
If someone offers no. 1 pick for Yabs, that would firm my resolve to keep him. And I doubt anyone will offer a 2017 no. 1 for Yabs, unless it is near the end of the first round. This is a very deep outstanding draft.
We keep Yabusele.
Until and unless there is a reason not to. And there isn't.
Bass-like with 3-pt ability. = I'll take that.
), or else he would probably be on the team now getting 20 minutes a game, but I think there is definitely some interesting potential there. And it's good he is playing so well out there, as Elrod mentioned, it would be concerning if he was putting up poor numbers against weaker competition.
