Please remind me of the last time the second best player from a championship team went on to be a superstar
Use their freshman year stats... also he was drafted for his defensive presence. He isn't as polished offensively and that is clear. Shaq freshman 14 & 12 Duncan freshman 10 & 10 Lopez freshman 13 and 6 Remove your Wildcat goggles for me.
Just to school you a little more Bill Walton freshman year: 20 and 15 Ewing freshman: 15 and 9 Robinson freshman: 8 and 4 Olajuwon freshman: 8 and 6 Its clear from freshman year comparisons that Davis is a special talent. I won't deny that. The comparison is still valid. They were all about the same age in freshman year.
You hardly ever see one because superstars on their own dont win in the college game. What did Durant win? Wade? Love? Nothing. Teams win games in college. That being said, John Cal is doing something at UK nobody, including you, has ever seen before. Look at the 2009-10 team. John Wall, Demarcus Cousins, Patrick Patterson. 3 potential super stars (you guys seem to have written PPat off already). Look at this years team. Possibly 6 guys drafted in the first round. You think for a second if MKG was on some garbage team like UCONN or Texas or Marquette or UCLA he wouldnt have averaged 20 a game? Ive watched a lot of college ball. Any of those guys on our starting five last year, to include our 6th man (Darius Miller) and 7th man (Kyle Wiltjer, #19 prospect) would have averaged 15+ for one of those crap teams. I may follow UK, but I would like to see you, written out plain as day, that MKG will be a bust. I will add it to my sig, and 3 years from now, we will see how hes looking.
Actually, if anything should count as a warning sign against MKG - aside from his shooting - it's that he did play on such a loaded team. For most of the games Kentucky played, the five most talented players on the court were always wearing the same jersey. That's never going to happen in the NBA. He's going to get a lot more attention from defenses than he did in the NCAA and any holes in his offensive game are going to be ruthlessly exploited. However, he was able to contribute in a lot of other ways besides scoring, and he seems to have a tremendous work ethic - and the other players on the team seemed to respond to it. When you take an 18 year old kid in the draft to revitalize your franchise it's always going to be a risk - but he seems to have the drive and focus to succeed and to improve his game, rather than rest on his athleticism.
See my previous post regarding wing players in their freshman season. That one you quoted was in response to the idea that Davis is the #1 on 14 & 10
My feelings on him is that he'll be Jerry Stackhouse type with more defense. A decent scoring SG/SF who makes the all-star game a few times, but not a superstar/franchise player.
MKG will more than likely not be a superstar, but he will more than likely be a great role player (lock down defender and 3rd/4th scoring option). He looks like a hybrid Wallace and Shawn Marion. Easy top 5 pick, but other guys will definitely be available with more upside and potential at #2.
Jerry Stackhouse with more defense would be a HOFer. I think you're forgetting how good Jerry Stackhouse used to be. He was far better than just decent.
MKG is 18. Taylor 23. Remember you were 23 and played against 18 years olds? Unless your a complete scrub and the other guy is an out of this world talent, you should get the better of the match-up.
You should watch some of his games or at least read through the scouting reports instead of just my summary, which is just a brief summary. MKG has the speed of PG and the strength to defend 4's. As 18 years old he's going to back down a lot of wings in NBA rightnow. If not, he has the speed to drive by the bigger ones. His famous 'breakfast club' to do weightlifting and other excercises is a strong indication that he'll only get stronger in a few years. I don't see any problem for him to postup against most wings when he's 22/23. He used to play PG and has petty good handle and passing ability for SF/SG. He's just limited in creating his own shots off dribble at this stage, and it's very much in the reach based on his handle/speed/high IQ. He's also a complete player who can do pretty much all the things well and a lot of things on elite level(defense,rebounding,finishing...). I don't know what skill you think he's lacking other than shooting. His 75% free throw shooting and work ethic is good indication for improvement. If you mean compete against Lebron/Kobe/Durant in the Parsons way, he can do it right now as well as , if not better than Parsons. What I mean is he'll be able to compete against them on the same superstar level in a few years. Also I clearly mentioned I hope we could take him at #4/#5(not #2), because Lowry plus filler or a pick has a chance(yes it's a slim chance) for that to happen.
I watched all but 3 of their games last season. I said I thought he would be a very good player. No question he is a gamer. No question about his attitude. Fantastic work ethic. My question is can he develoop his offensive game to superstar status? In other words, can he develop the jumper, can he develop the handle, and can he play the game intellectually at an upper stratospheric level and be a playmaker. Superstars, guys like Kobe, Lebron, Melo, Durant....they have the skillset and the bball iq to do those things offensively. I can't recall any player developing from "garbage man" status into a multi-tool offensive force offensively. Tracy McGrady is probably the closest. But in his case, it was more a matter of not getting minutes and playing alongside Vince Carter who was taking all the shots. When you look at McGrady's production per minute or per shot, once he started gettng minutes and shots the whole game was there. I suspect if he had gotten shots and minutes as a rookie, he would have been a 20 ppg guy as a rookie. And he was the age of a college freshman his rookie season, he didn't go to college. MJ came into the league minus a 3-point shot. But he still hammered out over 20 ppg without the 3-point shot. So, you think MKG can go to the rim like MJ??? I'm sorry, I don't see that. I don't see that kind of quicks and smoothness. I don't see that kind of handle. I see a bigger, bulkier, slower player than Jordan. I'm not saying he's big, bulky, and slow. What I'm saying is the NBA is FAST and uber athletic. You won't get there with just physicality. You gotta have the skillset. I just don't see it in MKG. And I don't know of any previous baller that came to the league without a developed offensive game that developed one in the NBA that put them at superstar status.
Look at who you are comparing him though. Those are the absolute elite offensive players. I don't think anybody is saying that's what MKG will be. He will be a difference maker on the defensive end. A leader, hard worker, good locker room guy. His offensive game will need some time, but if he will end up being a better version of Gerald Wallace (which is my projection) than that's certainly not too shabby either. There is no Kobe, Lebron, Melo or Durant in this year's draft.
