Austin Rivers unimpressive workout drill with Wizards

True. But Rivers is smart kid from what it seems like looking at his interviews and his play. I think we could use someone else on our team that is not scared to take the last shot.

 

Once again, we could use a supestar that will get us in position to take the last shot. and then we need a superstar that will HIT the last shot.

 

A lot of them it looked like he was shooting on his way down rather than at the top of his jump

 

Honestly, is there really any reason for Rivers to impress the Wizards? It's one thing to do well for a horrible team because you want to be a top pick. But if you're going at pick 10-15 range, it would certainly make more sense to want to go to a decent team if you're certain enough of your own skills. Rather than a perennial loser.

 

No really, I see Sam Cassell. He's the guy running the workout, LOL! Assistant coach of the Wiz.

 

Yes. The Wizards could be trading down from #3 to, say, #14.

 

Maybe Austin and his dad don't want him spending time around Andray Blatche.

 

Exactly, which is why Rivers pre-emptively made his "I want to be pick 15 instead" point across to the Wizards.

 

We talkin bout workouts? We talkin bout workouts

 

Thanks for the heads up on Rivers stinking in his workout.

Clearly he cannot play basketball. Everything he achieved this season was a total fluke because he simply doesn't try.

 

I don't understand why people on here go after this kid so hard. You're really gonna determine whether he's NBA ready based off this one workout?

 

LOL I remember last year there was that workout video of Donuts missing every shot possible, everybody called him a bust and he slipped all the way to us. Now, he's dominating euro league and DMO is looking like he could be the star we've been waiting for all these years.

Rocket fans should do the same thing here and make this vid go viral, embed this vid on every forum you can see and point out how much he sucked.

Go and spread the word, and bomb his draft stock. The fact is, this workout is irrelevant because the vid was the last one he was doing after he was tired (IIRC, DMO missed all his shots because he lifted before the workout). Rivers has something nobody on this draft has: pressure to succeed. Rivers is the son of one of the best motivational/developmental coaches in the NBA, he's been coached on what it takes to make it to the NBA. There's no way he's gonna allow himself to be just called Doc River's son his entire life, the kid is hellbent on making a name for himself. I dunno if he'll turnout as the best sg in this draft, but IMHO he'll be one of the hardest working players in this draft class, and I would certainly have us taking him over some unmotivated chump like PJ3, or actually trading up and drafting "bust waiting to happen" Drummond.

 

Jet Chang is a nobody and he didn't even miss - so what does that say?

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How quickly they forget, I hope Austin Rivers falls to us

 

I don't think he lacked talent, I think he was nervous. He is a really good player and we could use him at the shooting guard position!

 

Visibly tired (Beal too). And you know that Rivers strength it's speed and ball handling.

For me the video means almost nothing. You could talk about his body and how he's going to suffer with an NBA regular season, but it's something obvious, no need to watch this kind of video to prove it.

Beal didn't kill the drill neither. And it is theoretically one of his biggest strengths.

 

Where was Rivers? All I saw was Sam Cassell.

 

I'm more than willing to give Rivers a pass for an off day and/or being gassed. His lift didn't look right - Beal was far more fluid and natural.

That said, his season at Duke already demonstrated that Rivers is hardly an uber-accurate sniper like Redick was - Rivers excels at creating space off the dribble, but his shot is so streaky that he can become a machine-gunning liability. He made half his shots only once in his final 10 games (50-129, 38.7%, 1.27 pps). It's telling that he's a below average FT shooter (66%) - that's usually a great litmus test to tell the difference between a shooter and a scorer.

He had some clutch moments, and was definitely a tough assignment, but I don't see him being remotely consistent enough to be much more than a sparkplug off the bench at this level.

 

Thank you for backing up your opinion with some actual research. It is pretty rare around here.

 

Rivers is like every other kid in the draft - flawed in many different ways. If they make it to the combine they do have size, incredible athleticism and a resume. The biggest question is do they have the drive to be an NBA baller? Saying who won't is a somewhat easier task that saying who will. For Rivers to become a successful player is certainly possible. Will he? That question is better left to professionals. And next season for the rest of us.