I'm officially off the Chet wagon, we need a guy the refs rig games for, not against. Lord knows we've had enough of the latter.
Watching last night's game brought back bad memories of how the refs officiated Yao. Like people were literally ramming into the guy but he gets call for a blocking foul.
Listen here, people want hard-nosed™ bully-ball®*, since all the washed ups from the 90s keep telling them that the league is soft. *Does not apply to star guards on California teams, touch him and you're done.
Dude he has talent. I'm not saying he's a scrub or anything. But lord he is so ****ing rail thin. He's was getting absolutely punked in box outs... I just don't see it. His game will probably translate a bit better to the NBA, but I just can't buy into that. The big worth taking was Evan Mobley. Said it all last spring, and we went with Green instead. Luckily, Green is starting to show what the hype was about, so I'm okay with it.
The dialogue going on in this thread is exactly what @Clutch is alluding to. One game or a string of games isn't how you evaluate it but this thread has people calling Paolo the GOAT. I like Paolo. I have him third. I think anyone of the top four would be incredible. If we can get ownership somewhere to be as high on Paolo as all of you are, then falling to four has a lot more variability. After that we need guys 5-7 to all kind of blend in as a group. Mathurin showed last night why he isn't a lock to be a top 5 pick. Murray isn't there to raise his stock. Griffin has been steady but isn't showing flashes of potential stardom. Duren is out. Even Hardy in the G-League has a chance to sneak into this range once teams start to really dig in. The guy was a top 5 rated prospect coming into the year and finished very strong in the G-League. It's a hard league to evaluate. Kuminga, Nix, and Isiah Todd all had their stock hurt by playing there last year while Green stayed around his ranking. Jalen was kind of out of the dialogue with draft dudes at this point in time because the tournament took precedence. It should be interesting to see where Hardy eventually lands. I would take him at the Nets pick without hesitation. The fact of the matter is the Rockets likely will have a 53% chance of getting a potential franchise changer in Chet, Jabari, Paolo or Ivey. That means there is a 47% chance we are having to roll the dice that the next group will eventually take the step to change their trajectory. Someone drafted after those four are likely to be an all-star, it's just not likely to be at our pick. That's just how odds work. If Shaedon Sharpe enters the draft? It's a top 5 draft. Root for Shaedon Sharpe to enter. I truly think he has a chance to go #1 if he enters. He's that kind of talent. In short. Root for losses for the Rockets (right now they can fall to 5, the schedule is going to get easy and for every spot add 4 i.e worst = 5th pick, 2nd worst = 6th pick, and so on), root for Shaedon to enter the draft, and root for Paolo and Ivey to have monster games. The more potential top picks, the easier it will be for the Rockets to "get their guy" wherever they may fall. We have absolutely no say in who their guy is. I have no idea who their guy is. The more variance, the better.
Im not taking Wood into consideration with this nucleus moving forward and how HE he fits with any of the possible draftees. I dont disagree that Chet is a great defender. He has shown to be capable of hitting open shots and at times getting downhill. People throwing around sample size equivalents as some sort of negative for Banchero and a positive for Chet is ironic since Chet had maybe one game all year vs a ranked team where he played great and Paolo just showed out vs the very best defensive team in college basketball. Paolo also handled Chet in their matchup earlier in the season. Too bad Gonzaga couldnt advance so everyone could see the rematch. Paolo does more things at a higher level than Chet does plus Paolo doesnt shrink against good players or good teams. Dont overthink it. The tape is right there for everybody to watch yet some still want to cling to projections. Very curious.
You've obviously watched more of Banchero than I have (e.g. I have watched ONE youtube highlight clip lol), from what you've seen so far, what are some of the weaknesses he still needs to work on?
A big gripe people had early on with Paolo was that he's a ball-stopper which was a fair assessment but you can tell they've been going over that in film sessions lately. The way he's been read-and-react'ing the past couple of games has been really impressive.
Such a great post here Paulo gets it done. You can get Rim Protection with Brooklyn pick and Kessler who is truly a 7ft defensive monster and not some tall but frail novelty that can shoot a little.
Banchero is the best college basketball player of this group, but I still don't see the upside projecting him forward. He doesn't have elite length, explosion or shooting touch and he doesn't really bring much defensive value. He has great handles and passing skills for his size, and is a solid finisher, I just have trouble envisioning a scenario in which he is a superstar with his talents. He just seems like a safe floor low ceiling type player to me. If we fall to 4th I would be more than happy to "settle" for Banchero, but the other 3 simply represent a better chance at a true superstar, although higher bust potential as well.
He is an aloof defender. He could stand to be more assertive and physical when playing on that side of the ball. I guess a positive of that is that he is rarely in foul trouble maybe saving himself for the offensive side since his offensive role and load for Duke is exponentially larger than Chet (even Jabari for that matter). He has shown to be able to 'turn up' on defense during critical moments of games. His outside shot has been criticized even when its average. Last night he was hitting his outside shot and also had 3 steals while showing a better focus defensively than usual. I have hope that his flaws are easier to correct than the flaws of the other big guys.
I think he does have elite length and elite size. 6-10, 7-1 wingspan ?It's not a huge + but at 6-10 it doesn't really need to be. Ben Simmons is an elite defender and he doesn't even give a ****. Paolo like Ben was knocked for his defense during his 1 season in college. Paolo seems to care and has the IQ to maximize his talent. I'm still Banchero over Ivey but still below the other 2, but I find myself buying into his hype with every big game even though I preach it's not a one game thing. He came into the season as the #1 guy. He played like the #1 guy for the beginning then slumped as soon as everyone started paying attention. Once again he's playing like the #1 guy. I don't think it's fair to say any of these guys CAN'T be a superstar. The most likely outcome is NONE of them become superstars. If Jokic is drafted in the 40s, Giannis falls to the teens and Kawhi gets passed on for Marcus Morris, I'm not betting against anyone to fail to reach their greatest potential. We don't know any of these guys personally so I just assume they are going to work hard unless proven otherwise. It's not easy to get to the level any of these guys are. You don't just wake up a top 10 player in the country. Paolo, Jabari, and Jaden all have parents who played professional basketball. They know what it takes as an athlete to excel. Notice Paolo doing the inbounds play with ease? It's because he was an ELITE quarterback before he dropped football to focus on basketball after his freshman year. Can you imagine a 6-10 QB? Guys his size with his fluidity don't come around too often. If the Rockets take him anywhere 1-4, I won't be mad. This draft is a four person draft so we basically have the OKC pick situation all over again where we need to be hoping for that top 4 lottery. Although AJ Griffin is a great consolation prize if his medicals pass or Shaedon Sharpe enters and it really is a five person draft and the Rockets have the full ability to ensure they are in the top 5 through continued tanking. (STOP PLAYING THE VETS)
meh.. for a senior to play with such little poise in such an important game speaks volumes. if he was just having a bad shooting night or coughing the ball up a few times i wouldn't mind too much. the reality was that he couldn't get gonzaga into any of their sets bc he couldn't handle any sort of on ball pressure, which impacted how often players like chet and timme could even get the ball in their spots. he's definitely not a pg by any means, not with his lack of vision and inability to control tempo. he's more of a scoring guard with some handles which sadly seems to be the trend of most so-called pgs these days. sorry didn't mean to be too derisive.. just really disappointed with this year's crop of pgs overall (the auburn guards really pissed me off) and a little worried we'll never see pure pgs like cp3 come up anymore, given how bad pg play has been across the board in college this season.
He’s a tweener in the context of potentially playing Small Forward. But at Power Forward he’s fine like you said.
From the videos I saw I can see why people are high on him. He is a super long skilled player who has a soft touch. He can dribble the length of the court, make moves to get to his spot, shoot over players, block shots at the rim. As you mentioned, in the college games I've seen I just haven't seen him put it together in a way that screams NBA star, which is fine, but not for a top pick in the draft. If we pick him I'll trust Stone did his homework and obviously root for him though
Yup, from what I've seen I'd pick Ivey first and figure out our length later in this draft, next draft or via trades/free agency. I've bounced between Smith and Ivey. I also think Banchero has become somewhat underrated on this board because he isn't a defensive machine and his fit next to Sengun is questionable. But, I'd pick Banchero before Chet as well... Again, I've only watched a few games of these guys so I'm a novice. I also understand not everyone games translates to the NBA.
I’ve watched a lot of Chet, he’s playing within the system at Gonzaga and deferring to Timme like a “good” teammate would do. He has a ton of untapped and unused potential on the offensive side. I understand everyone’s concerns about his frame, but the kid is tough. He could bust, but he has the highest upside in the draft imo. Banchero is a really nice prospect, I liked what I saw last night. I just think he is what he is. Some of his strengths won’t be utilized in the NBA though, no team will run an offense through him and can he play off ball well enough to be an offensive force when he isn’t a great shooter?
