I remember Reece Gaines from the 2003 draft. I thought he was going to be a stud! 6'6 point guard. Fooled me....
That's what I was thinking - TMac was a very talented scorer - probably skinnier than PG. Both are flashy at times, but I don't think PG is that much similar though. that's a huge compliment to PG if his game is anywhere close to Tmac (in his prime). PG still has a long way to go but I can see that he works very hard on his game which I can respect.
I never thought Kevin Love would be anything close to what he is now... especially coming out after his freshman year.
Going by the past few drafts.... 2007: Though I was a big Longhorn fan and watched all his games, I never thought Durant would be anywhere near this good. I thought Jianlian could be really good. 2008: I thought 5 was way too high for Love; I thought OJ Mayo would blossom in the NBA. 2009: I was fully on the Ricky Rubio hype train; I thought Jennings was gonna wash out of the league in a couple years. 2010: Went basically as expected, but I thought Luke Babbit would be better. 2011: I thought Klay Thompson was meh; I had him below Burks. 2012: I thought Drummond wouldn't be any good; I thought Barnes would be an all star. 2013: I thought Trey Burke would at best need a few years to be any good; I thought MCW would be terrible.
Right DeMar DeRozan- Many people wrote him off after his rookie year but I knew he was going to be really good anyways. He has superior athleticism with talent combined with being a hard worker. It's all coming together for him and he's getting better and better. Nicolas Batum- I was so excited when we drafted him. I knew he was going to be a good player in the league. Then we trade him right and I was like WTF Noooooooo! Wrong Steph Curry- I thought he would struggle because he's undersized, only thought he was a great college scorer and didn't think his game would translate well in the next level. Ricky Rubio- I thought he was supposed to be the 2nd coming of Pistol Pete. I guess I bought into the hype as well. He did pass the "eye-test" in his footage from overseas. I thought he'd be much better by now but I just double checked his age. He's still only 23. I think the next couple years will be very telling.
Im basing my list on if they ended up being a good/great player in the league, not necessarily if the have had team success. Right: Allen Iverson Tracy Mcgrady Rashard Lewis Wrong: Marcus Camby: imo he dominated Duncan in college. Had a solid career but no where near Timmy level Sebastian Telfair: I thought he was the next Iverson Dajuan Wagner: see above*
RIGHT (that they were gonna be good or make good and at least have a substantial NBA career as a valued piece on a roster): Kyle Lowry J.J. Redick Damian Lillard Stephen Curry Jeremy Lin (knew he was good when I watched him play at Harvard and in preseason) Jared Sullinger (he's gonna get even better) Festus Ezeli (he's still gonna get better) Jae Crowder Jeff Taylor Will Barton Robert Sacre (knew he'd make it with his post game) Mike Scott Reggie Jackson (thought he would do good) Nikola Vucevic (knew he'd make it) Kenneth Faried (knew he'd make it) Tobias Harris (thought he had a good chance) Draymond Green (knew he'd make it) George Hill (knew he was a steal at 26) Serge Ibaka (thought he would be a star when I saw him in video from Africa) Giannis Alphabet (thought he would be great when I watched his video) Courtney Lee (knew he was a baller at Western Kentucky) Jared Dudley (liked him at BC, felt he'd have a solid career) Paul Millsap Right (that they were gonna be bad, either busts or extremely overrated) Tyreke Evans (way, way too selfish with no serious 3-point shot and poor D) Chris Singleton (coudn't shoot, had bust written all over him) Meyers Leonard Wrong (guys I thought would be good): Marshon Brooks (still think he's got talent and could turn into something in the right place) Jimmer Fredette (thought he could be a great spot-up shooter somewhere. still do but it sure ain't happening) Keith Benson (thought he'd be a good backup big for years) Austin Rivers Luke Babbitt Magnum Rolle (thought he'd carve out an NBA career as a role player) Joe Alexander (thought he could play) Chris Douglas-Roberts (thought he would be better) Nick Fazekas (thought his shooting would keep him around a lot longer) Anthony Randolph Wrong (guys I thought would be bad): Kawhi Leonard (didn't think he could shoot) Paul George (didn't think he had the drive) Guys I thought would play a long time but would always underperform their draft position and expectations: Derrick Favors Jeff Green Shelden Williams
I was very high on C-Bud. Kind of reminded me of Larry Bird. C-Bud is no Larry Bird. I distinctively remember watching a UH freshman center play Missouri in a nationally televised game. I thought, "a star is born." How right I was.
Well, there are top talents like Anthony Davis, of course. Only ones I've been really interested in and excited about in recent years were Kawhi Leonard and Kenneth Faried, mostly because I thought we might get one of them. (Actually, I didn't think we could get Leonard. I thought he would be in the top seven or so. But other members on this board thought he might be available when we picked, and that got me kind of excited.) It's hard to get very interested in some 19 year old kid who has been given everything and the press is hyping up and is just going to get drafted by Cleveland anyway.
Another I was pretty high on, and still am, is Jeff Taylor. Thought he was a top 15 pick. Some guys that are still up in the air that I was high on... Jeremy Lamb Harrson Barnes (people wave writtin him off way to early) MKG Otto Porter (not looking good though) Shane Larkin Perry Jones
Chandler Parsons: although i didn't predict he'd be in his current position I thought he'd make the team and basically take budinger's spot, while many were saying he wasn't even NBA material. Thomas Robinson-He'll probably still get a little better going forward, but I thought he had 20-10 potential going into his draft. And I once mentioned Goran's stats in the same sentence as Parker and CP, westbrook too, i think...just to show he was an all-star talent...sigh
I expected Terrence Williams and Thomas Robinson to become serviceable players for the Rockets for at least a couple of years. I expected Jeremy Lamb to be a spark off of the bench as well.
Terrence Williams MarShon Brooks Jordan Crawford Jeff Teague Meyers Leonard (LOL) Oj Mayo Michael Beasley Wesley Johnson Yi Jianlian Sonny Weems Bill Walker Anthony Randolph Yeah i've been pretty horrible at doing this
