Your are right, but sometimes you get upside players like Capela and D-Mo. Gentile is a good player for the 53rd pick, but it is not clear whether he is good enough for the NBA. Llull seems better, and may succeed in the NBA, but again there is no idea of his future plan.
So basically the Rockets options were to pick a player they could likely sign as an undrafted free agent or use the pick on a player playing in Europe that they can wait and see on. If he sucks or can't be persuaded to come over, no harm done. He busts out in Europe, offer him a big contract. Picks like Gentile are no-risk, moderate-reward picks.
To emphasize the no-risk part, remember that we bought the rights to Llull and the pick we used to draft Gentile. Unless you think we're passing up obvious rotation players to get these guys (very unlikely at this point in the draft), there is no downside to doing this.
Good for him. He was unlikely to get a contract offer from the Rockets until at the very least next year if not the year after. Much like with Papanikolaou, and now Llull, we see that the Rockets are more than willing to shell out year 1 MLE type of money in order to counter the large NBA guy outs these guys will have on this type of contract. As others mentioned he's 22 now so in two or three years he will be entering his prime and will have much more international exposure making him a better asset as well. In a couple years he might even be a better Euro player than Llull is now at 27. He's got a ways to go to reach those heights but he had a good strong year to build off of, and could really take off the next year or two.
This right here is why you can't have a cheap owner. Les has made mistakes, but he's willing to shell out a few hundred thousand for these no risk second rounders. These guys don't take up a roster spot or cap space if they stay in Europe and (as you said) don't force you to pass up on obvious rotation guys. Plus, buying second rounders can often yield unexpected benefits. I forgot this until I looked it up, but we bought the rights to Chase Budinger the same year we bought Llull and Taylor. You know what became of Chase Budinger? We traded him for the 18th pick in 2012 (which ended up being Terrence Jones). We literally bought a late first rounder pick for a few hundred thousand dollars.
Not as crafty or as willing a passer as Harden, but he is a big strong wing player who handles the ball better than Parsons. Rockets have a dearth of facilitators, Gentile would have helped this current team, especially coming off the bench. In a couple of years, Rockets may not need him so much.
Bumping this thread to ask if anyone has been watching him at EuroBasket? Apparently took Israel to the cleaners, scored 27 points today, but I didn't think to watch it. Italy plays Lithuania on Wednesday, might be worth a watch.
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yes I watched some italy matches. In the Eurobasket he was less of a chucker than usual and yesterday was the best on the court. But his weaknesses remain the same ,he can't shoot well and he needs to cool. He loses his temper way too often. I can't really judge his defence because Italy doesn't play any defence anyway. The next Italy match is Italy - Lithuania at 21:00CET (I think that's 2pm Houston time but not sure). Italy is the clear favourite. In the semi vs Serbia it will be extremely interesting to see if Gentille can keep his mind cool and not cause trouble again. He has gotten better at it though.
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I love it when guards have a post game. This is the first I'm seeing this. I really didn't like the kid before knowing that tidbit, but he's got a lot of power. Good rebounder at a non-rebounding position. Good stuff.
Italy v. Lithuania is on NBATV right now if you wanna see what our boy is up to. Pretty even game so far.
Well, didn't see much from Gentile today. Couldn't find a boxscore but it seems to me like he was outshined by Bellinelli, the backup guards, and oddly enough Andrea Bargnani. Really fun game to watch, but that's it for Italy.
for the stretches that i watched this game, gentile looked pretty much terrible. missed a bunch of mid-range shots w/ defender in his face, let his man go back door for an alley-oop dunk, missed an easy dunk in crunchtime himself, totally disappeared in OT
Well, he had a putback dunk and another strong dunk; the missed dunk you are referring to was clearly a foul, but they didn't call it. He didn't disappear, they just didn't go to him since they obviously wanted the ball to go to Bellineli. The worst thing he did was when he dribbled the ball into a corner at the end of the 4th quarter. Otherwise he had a strong showing throughout the tournament, maybe not so much in this game, but he impressed me to some degree.
he clearly cried for a foul after the miss but on replay it looked like very slight contact and he just hit the back rim on his own. this was the first italy game i had seen all tournament, and he and gallinari seemed to cry quite a bit all game.
It was all in all a good tournament for him. He showed his improvements but also his weaknesses in the final game. He needs to mature much more mentally and grow up. Right now he doesn't appear to be willing or ready to come over. Learn to shoot, be more consistent in defence that he is very capable of playing well, and chill out. And don't chuck the ball. Maybe in a couple of years when his brain is more ready.
Gentile is a big physical intimidating wing. But he has the frame to get bigger and stronger, could end up as our long sought playmaking stretch 4. Rather than Papanikolaou, he reminds me of Josh Smith, except with out the shot blocking or the hops. But Gentile is a more physical player with a much more polished offensive game. Both are streaky shooters from 3 and really know how to pass. Think he would be a good fit on this team.
