Stauskas and Jimmer had no lateral quickness. If Young has curry-like athletic ability and quickness, then we are looking at a man two years ahead of Curry in his development, imagine if Curry put up the 8th greatest season in NBA history at 24 instead of 26. He's already outperforming Curry's Junior year at Davidson statistically at a far superior conference, AT NINETEEN. I'm still unsure where the exact explosiveness threshold is between "Nik Stauskas" and "Stephen Curry", but if he can beat NBA defenders off the dribble, he WILL be the best player on planet earth for at least a year, much like Curry. EDIT: If he refuses to participate/sucks at team workouts/combines in tests of explosiveness, then I'll concede that he will probably be closer to a Bucket Buddy than a Splash Brother.
I ment latteral quickness when I refer to "explosiveness", not verticality. If one equated to the other then Chase Budinger would be an all-star.
Ever since media was telling me to pay attention to this dude, he has lost every game. Literally every game since I've watched him. I started paying attention when Oklahoma was 6th in the nation they are currently 23rd and about to lose to unranked UT. 7-7 in the big 12. How special is this guy really?
big 12 is the best league in college basketball from top to bottom. there's like 3 active HOF coaches alone, not to mention a lot of other upper tier coaches. UT's unranked but they were desperate to get that win as they were on the bubble. OU is super trash outside of trae, no one on that team can create other than trae young. it's actually remarkable what their record was and how they're ranked. if you take him off, they honestly might not have a conference win. he was inevitably going to decline because of the way OU runs their system but he's still playing well, it's just his shot is off recently. he's still a special player and most likely will be in the NBA... probably not a top 5 pick still though because of the resurgence of big men in this draft + doncic/MPJ.
I think he gets drafted somewhere between 7 & 11. I don't think he'll will make an all NBA team or be a multi-time all-star, but he can definitely be a really good role player, providing elite spacing, excellent shooting and good to average playmaking. Despite Young's drop in play the last 10+ games, he still finish the year with great numbers and more importantly still shot over 45% on open Threes, showing that his shooting abilities are elite. His problem in the past 10+ games stemmed from contested off the dribble shots (under 36%) and finishing in the paint (under 50%) as well as terrible defensive plays, all of which will likely continue in the NBA. . Personally would like him to either get drafted by the Knicks, Cavs(via brooklyn) or Sixers (via Lakers). He'll provide these teams elite shooting and spacing and IMO will make these already exciting franchises even more fun. My first choice the Knicks, desperately need someone besides Porzingus to make the franchise fun to watch again & if young isnt a complete bust, his shooting and flash will definitely make the garden electric again. The Cavs and Sixers are both already exciting and adding Young will help the teams spacing and fit.
I’m calling bust. He benefitted from a very high usage and got a lot of attention. Lacks the size and elite athleticism but got the “steph curry range” wow factor instead of “high flying dunks”.
Very few people felt Curry would be great in the NBA either. This guy is a freshman....playing with basically nobody. He was their team. And he drive them to the tournament. When teams realized that he was the whole team, they collapsed on him the second half of the season and watered down his efficiency. He'll be fine in the NBA. I would draft him ahead of Ayton.
I'd take Doncic #1. Haven't really studied the draft yet. I like to wait until the conclusion of the college season. How these guys perform under great pressure is a factor I evaluate.
Doncic is already a proven no-brainer #1 as far as I'm concerned. He's a kid leading a bunch of men. He's got bball iq running out his ears. He's a step ahead of everybody else mentally on the court. He's got great work ethic. He's clean off the court. And he lives (and loves) the game. Lastly, his skills are great. He's a franchise player. If I had the #1 pick I'd take him and I'd be more concerned with getting him help than anything about him. He's better than Ben Simmons and every other #1 pick back to at least Anthony Davis.
Yep. I was really impressed by him leading Slovenia's grown men team to the Eurobasket gold medal, as an 18 year old. Crazy. None of the Europeans in the NBA before him have accomplished anything like that. Edit: I guess Drazen Petrovic did something similarly impressive. He made it into the Yugoslavian 1984 Olympic team (which was always stacked with talent) as a 20-year old and averaged 17.5 ppg, leading them to an Olympic bronze.
But he’s not better than a healthy Michael Porter Jr. MPJ is a Durant clone. Trae Young averaged 28 a game this year & had to take a backseat when they played AAU these last 3 years. Don’t be surprise when Porter goes number 1 after workouts.
