Who has been talking about being a SUPER athletic freak ? Duncan was evidently a freak athlete as no 7 footers should be able to move so fluidly out of the triple threat to finish over some other guy without being an incredible athlete. Your counterpoint to 20 years of passing the eye test is an SB Nation article ? You know who is more skilled in terms of fundamentals than Duncan ? Jahlil Okafor...a guy with all the post moves in the book but ultimately limited due to a lack of explosivity.
Also the fact that TD had almost no major injury despite withstanding the rigors of the NBA shows he is definitely athletic.
Dwight in his prime dragged a roster featuring Hedo Turkuglu and Rashard Lewis to the NBA Finals, only other guy to do it since Lebron. Gasol has better fundamentals and will have a longer career but at their peak there is no contest.
Washed up players overseas>>>> NBA Dleague rejects Doncic was playing against grown men instead of college grads hoping to get a summer camp invite.
Top level soccer players definitely have good conditioning. But I'd argue that elite tennis players surpass that.
Don't forget Brazil took two great things and combined them into the best conditioned sport of all time, made artful with body paint. Brazilian Woman's Beach Soccer Spoiler: This is Youtube, so it's safe for work, right? maybe not
This argument is a bit overblown. Grown-ass scrubs are still scrubs at the end of the day while the NCAA also feature a ton of future NBA role players along with the obvious prospective franchise guys. Just for reference, Doncic got shook by Thanasis Antetokounmpo (Giannis' least talented brother) and yet he did not have to go up against a defensive freak like Mo Bamba or , more importantly for a perimeter player, Jevon Carter. Carter is a ball hawk the like of which simply does not exist in Europe and should be an elite NBA defender by the end of his first year in the league. Yet this is the type of defender that elite PG prospects like Trae Young and Sexton have had to deal with. In the case of Young, he often got trapped in his own half-court and was doubled teamed a ridiculous amount of time (like on around 50% of his possessions afaik)
Every professional scout im the world agrees that Euro League is the 2nd hardest league in the world after the NBA. Are you better than every scout on the world? I have not seen anybody say the NCAA is better than Euroleague except you. Search "2nd best basketball league in the world" in google every list out there has Euroleague no 1. Can you give me evidence that will overthrow all these analysts making these articles? WTF thats like arguing the sun is ice cold. Talking about guys like MoBamba, sure those guys may be better than the average Euroleaguer since they are franchise talents but some college teams just feature 1of those guys and majority of teams dont even have 1, how many times a year would Luka Doncic face against those guys? For the rest of the season he would be feasting and pumping up his stats on ncaa nobodies. If NCAA was so tough then guys like Adam Morrison amd Hasheem Thabeet would never have been drafted so high. Beasley was putting up 20 20s in college thats how easy it was for him. Even Trae Young looked like Steph Curry in college and turned into Seth Curry in SL.
Good points made here. I don't think Luka will be a scrub, if that is what you are implying. I believe the best NCAA players may not be as fundamentally ready as Luka is, but they are quicker/ stronger. Luka should turn out to be a good pro, but Ayton has greater upside. I think the Suns made the right pick.
Thanasis is an excellent defender, one of the quickest reactors you can find. I am 200% that he is a better defender than some Jevon Carter. Put them in their respective team's defensive contexts and I'm sure Thanasis is made even more effective as the pace of the game is quicker, the court is smaller, there's no 3 sec rule and his team is better coached. If you don't think Doncic was targeted those games then I'm sure you have no idea what you're talking about. I can't even imagine how bad a scrub like Trae Young would look vs. Euroleague competition, the idea of it is just mind boggling. Can't wait for him to get exposed in the NBA. Too bad the NBA is trending toward exhibitional play, where it's just guys showing off in regular season games, then there's also teams purposely losing games. Trae Young is the type of player who'll actually look good in those games given his team's apparent commitment to making him an insanely high usage player.
Well tbh Ayton was definitely the pick because he is a hometown kid, he is gonna bring fans in. Suns also already have a guard in Booker so they need a big man more than a perimeter player. But then again considering Rox are unwilling to pay the max maybe they should have just offered the max to Capela and then drafted Luka instead. The defense in Euro league is miles above NCAA, first of all the bball IQ is higher because these are grown men instead of kids who dont know what they are doing. Secondly the whole of Europe has a higher population than just colleges in US, that means while the absolute best talent may be in NCAA there is more overall talent in the Euroleague. In terms of upside you really shouldnt underestimate the 19 yr old MVP lol. Luka still has a lot of upside because he is so young. I think Luka should have gone 2nd because of his pedigree and imho both Atlanta and Sac dropped the ball with their picks.
He was definitely athletic. Wasn't he a .. swimmer?... before playing basketball? What he wasn't was an explosive athlete. Which demonstrates that being explosive isn't required.
Grown ass scrubs are still scrubs... just stating facts. Doncic is an elite passer whose eventual NBA career will depend on him being an elite shooter (something he currently is not). Trae Young is a generational shooter with an advanced skillset at the PG position. If Doncic is nailed on to become a very good 3-point shooter, then there would be no contest as to who should become the better player but this is yet to be seen. As for Trae Young getting bodied in the euroleague, you must be kidding. His game is tailor-made for the Euroleague and european basketball in general with its emphasis on shooting and passing. Him being the most heavily guarded player in the NCAA for the last 10 years helps in validating his ball-handling abilities to navigate through half-court traps and blitzing out of the PNR. He would also actually be less of a defensive liability in euro hoop than in the NBA where he projects to be nothing more than a traffic cone (maybe he can salvage a career there if he is a bust in the NBA?). As a counterpoint, Giannis is a player who has obviously benefitted from moving to the NBA with the extra spacing that allows him to take advantage of his unique build while struggling a lot in FIBA competitions where spacing and shooting is at a premium. He would have been half the player he currently is if he still played in the Greek A1. Beasley was/is an extremely talented player that threw it all away because he is a stupid stoner. Morrison was projected to become a nice roleplayer in the NBA until the confluence of knee injuries and chronic disease got the better of him; the dude should not be blamed for Jordan being the dumbest GM/owner in the league. Steph Curry was Seth Curry in his summer leagues outings too as you would expect from a rookie. Thabust is the fruity sub-saharan version of Euroleague star Jan Vesely.
I don't think Doncic will be a scrub at all. He has good ball handling and elite passing ability with an excellent frame for an NBA wing. However, Luka being a generational can't miss type of player will depend on him developing a jumpshot that will force the respect of NBA defenders. Ayton would have been an absolute phenomenon back in the 90s, just born in the wrong era.
Thanasis was an excellent defender....in the G-league. Doncic is going to be going from the poor man's Antetokounmpo (who got him shook) to facing the Paul Georges, Butlers and Robertsons of the NBA along with filthy rich man's Antetokounmpo. The scouting report of Doncic as primary option was out in the last part of the season and his shooting and turnover rate just cratered as a result of the intense attention leading to him getting shook in the Pana match-up. Jevon Carter is one of the best defensive players at his position (PG) to enter the league and is basically Beverly 2.0. Rockets fans will know about him soon enough when they are going to be playing the Grizzlies.
Yeah, and V-Span destroyed the NBA after being one of the GOATS in Europe! There is no way that he was significantly crappier than Rafer Alston!
