He was a basketball genius at Ohio State. Now a few months later he's a blithering idiot?? I ain't buying it. Byron Scott has a terrible reputation with players. Terrible. Lakers have screwed the pooch ever since Jim Buss has been charge. Scott as coach is just another example of it. Buss needs to go.
Listen to Russell's interviews. He has the most clueless answers to any question he fields. Again, his on court IQ is OK and he may be teachable but he's not exactly PhD material. He won't figure it out on his own. He needs a Pop or Kerr or someone who can break down the game for him.
That doesn't mean he's got iq problems. He's a bright kid. Tim Duncan and Shane Battier couldn't play for Scott either.
While it is sad he completely missed the point, it is also funny that he has no problem with Kobe playing bad.
I haven't seen him enough to know anyway, but I have read numerous times that Russell's problem is that he's not a special athlete??
Anthony Bennett has replace Kwame Brown as the worst 1st pick ever. Can we assure D'Angelo will replace Darko as the worst 2nd pick ever?
Isn't D'Angelo 12-3-3 on the season? Those aren't gaudy numbers by any stretch, but surely they put him ahead of Darko? Although Darko managed to clock up quite a few seasons (thanks to his size) - if Russell doesn't make it past his rookie contract I guess he could be in trouble
Darko had better numbers, his main problem during his rookie year is larry brown wouldn't give him any PT even if he played well when he was put in. Also Darko was solid defensively, Russell is bad both scoring and defending.
This is Darko who was 1.4 and 1.3 in his rookie season? Not really better numbers (I'll buy the 'couldn't get on the court' thing, but Darko never averaged double digits scoring any year of his career, never close). Sure, Darko could defend a little, hence carved out a niche career (not good enough for a 2 pick, in fact epically bad, but other blokes would be happy to have achieved what he did I suppose!) Franchise was a horrid defender, but because he could score he managed to have a reasonable short career here in Houston. My guess is that Russell doesn't go down as being 'as bad as Darko', based mainly on him having achieved more so far (yes, could be a bad basis of assumption).
Oden was defensible at the time. I think there's a big difference between a pick busting due to injury as opposed to a lack of talent.
Picking players who clearly were on some type of HGH since high school making their bones weak is risky business...especially when you pass on Durant.
Those are very selective picks though Oden was a good player he was just injured, if you're gonna hold that against him what about Yao Ming, Brandon Roy and Jay Washington? Also, with both Oden and Thabeet there weren't that many available superstars after KD and Harden, I remember the class of Harden being esp. weak. What makes Darko and Russell bigger draft busts is that so many guys came after them who turned out into good players, we all know Bosh/Melo/Wade but in Russell's class you also have so many players who are looking really good like Porzingis, Okafor, even Mario's looks like he has a ton of potential.
Russell isn't a bust lol. He's playing on a team with a **** ton of guards and an awful coach. Stop. He's going to be #2 pick worthy. Not as good as Kat or Kristaps, but he'll still be solid.
Also, Russell isn't a point guard. He should be playing shooting guard because that is his natural position.
I'm not defending it I'm saying as far as bigger busts you can argue Russell was a bigger bust since Thabeet's draft class was weaker, in fact there seems to be a lot of let downs in his class with Terrence Williams, Jordan Hill and Johnny Flynn. With Thabeet though the main problem is heart and attitude, and that's the hardest thing to determine in the draft since everyone acts like they're Kobe prior to being drafted.
Why do you keep mentioning other players in the draft class, but not Stephen Curry? Taking Thabeet instead of one of the plethora of guards was pure speculation and a bust. 2009 was far from a bad draft class, and surely better than Bennett's and Kwame's.
I'll let this video speak for itself. He's nowhere near Duncan or Battier in terms of IQ. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JF0n50I6TG0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
