I say he will exceed expectations for a first year player a la Chandler Parsons. I expect to see him coming off the bench in the second half of the season. One of our other three guards will likely be gone. When you can shoot like he does, there is always hope for playing time. He looks durable too. Again, I think he is going to be a pleasant surprise.
He most likely wont see any playing time all year. He's playing in the D-league unless one of the three guards get injured/suck it up very badly or he plays possessed. I don't see any of these things happening however.
Mario Chalmers is a terrible comparison, Canaan is an incompetent defender and was even at the small state school college level
Considering Morey's history of spotting serviceable unknown PG's, I think Isaiah Canaan can be a good PG... meaning another asset that can be traded for an upgrade when the opportunity comes.
It's reasonable to assume that Jeremy Lin gets traded prior to the start of the 2014-15 season, in my opinion, and that Daryl Morey chooses not to re-sign Aaron Brooks. Which means Isaiah Canaan is likely perceived as Patrick Beverly's backup in 2014-15. If Lin is traded during (if not before) the 2013-14 season, and Canaan proves himself at the d-league level, it's possible that he displaces Aaron Brooks as the backup PG this season. He should be a good rotation player relatively quickly. He was an accomplished four year college player at a perennial top 40 college program. Murray State averaged 26.5 wins/season during his four years there, including two 31 win seasons. He's a good ballplayer! If teams drafted on performance, rather than perceived "upside," proven four year guys such as Canaan and Chandler Parsons would not keep falling into Morey's lap in the second round.
I disagree with your premise. Your premise is that we get nothing back from trades. But inevitably, because Morey's such a good talent evaluator, we always do. The only thing that changes now that we're contending is what's coming back. Even if say we trade Beverley for a late-late 1st rounder, what's to say we can't package that with other assets for someone similar to JJ Redick last season(vet on the last year of his contract)? Or perhaps Beverley himself can be part of a package for a Reddick. If anything, Morey's job is much simpler now. Before, his assets had to be utilized to get a star. Now, he can obtain assets for other things too, like veteran role players.
As far as performance level, a lesser Parsons. D-League for 2 months, where he lights it up for 40%+ from downtown. By mid-Feb, he's getting Beverley like minutes at backup SG.
We can expect Morey to bring him along patiently. Aaron Brooks, became the starter at the second half of his second season after Alston was traded away. Lowry, became the starter in his third year after Brooks was injured . Dragic didn't get to start until Lowry was injured. If he is to get any meaningful minutes this year, something either really good has to happen(Canaan tears up the D-League and kills our starter in practice) or something really bad (injuries to the incumbent starters) has to happen.
