Rookie seasons are to team dependent. You put Irving on the Rockets team last season and the guy would have averaged 16 minutes a game and not even been in the running for ROY. I am not saying he won't be a great PG, just that his stats would have been way down because of the intense competition for back court minutes. Being the 3rd or 4th option on offense would not have helped either.
We should be willing to give minutes at the 4. Another season banking on Scola and Patterson is just too much. Willing to give up both.
I could easily see him going in the top 10. Feed him some chicken fried steaks from houston with some coaching from mctalky, and all of the sudden we have ourselves a power forward with size and offensive skills.
CH, he's not a T-Rex like Kevin Willis! The guy has also bulked up a lot the last year. Sure, he has to bulk up more, but he's far from being a stick. And seven feet covers a lot of sins in the arm length department, don't you think?
Did you see Andre Drummond get bounced by Iowa State? Did you see Andre Drummond admit he does not always play his hardest?
Carl I don't really know where you got that impression. He is now close to 240 pounds and … Combines that quickness with an 8’11" standing reach, 7’1" wingspan and 37-inch vertical jump http://www.cbssports.com/nba/draft/players/1751161/donatas-montiejunas
Gator arms. Even Patterson has 8'11" standing reach and people b**** about him being undersized. http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Patrick-Patterson-1225/
His end to end speed is good, but what really impresses me is his quickness, both laterally and with his first step. He's going to be a special player. + he can step out and hit the 3. I really love what I see.
I don't think Patterson is undersized for the 4; but he hasn't been super effective when sliding over. I doubt anyone would call Blake Griffin undersized, even though he's got an extremely poor standing reach. You could spin it that the measurements mean that Motiejunas must have very broad shoulders which portend well to keeping on weight as he gets older. Or the fact that he's basically got the same measurements as Joakim Noah, except with better vertical and 20 extra lbs, and no one questions if he can play center with his "Gator Arms"...
The thing is he is only 20, right? So to be this skilled, and this quick and left handed at 20, yeah, that is a guy worth taking a shot on. I have given Morey grief for not having any high upside guys, but this guy has that and more... He has a massive upside...no guarantees but he has the most potential out of any pick Morey has selected. DD
Motiejunas is 21 (and he'll be 22 before next season begins). Still, I think you may be right about him being the Morey draft pick with the highest potential. Remember, folks. Immediately following the 2009 NBA Draft, when all the 2010 Mock Drafts really start heating up, most (reputable) draft sites/publications had the top of the 2010 NBA Draft looking like this: 1. John Wall 2. Donatas Motiejunas And it's not like Motiejunas played like crap since then. The Rockets were very fortunate that, by pulling his name out of the 2010 NBA Draft (when he likely would have been a late lottery pick), Motiejunas allowed teams another year to find the "warts" in his game. Even more fortunately, Motiejunas improved on several areas of weakness in the year AFTER he was drafted. Still, though, I'm not buying into all the hype about him being a top-5 talent in this draft class. He still strikes me as a "back half of the lottery" level of talent in this year's draft. Still very good. But not a franchise savior. At least not at this point.
Honestly, where he would be drafted is irrelevent, I was just curious as to what folks thought. To me, D-Mo is the only guy on the team that has "Star" potential - check that, Dragic does too - but the rest of the team has role player written all over it. DD
You may be right. Still, don't sleep on Lowry (he's still so young and has continually gotten better every year) or Morris (don't laugh, but the organization still views him as a potential star who just got off to a bad start). Not saying they will be. Just that there's at least "something" there.
Good points Bima. However, does he also have the highest potential of regret if say he was included in a trade for Dwight?
You could say that about any player or draft pick. If he gets traded and pans out for another team, it always sucks. Never by me. I was never a big fan. Had he not been the ONLY decent young player on the Knicks in February 2010 (besides Gallinari, who was off the table), I don't think the Rockets would have been particularly interested in acquiring him. Hill's lottery ranking in 2009 seemed like more a product of there simply not being many good PF prospects (after Blake Griffin) and NBA teams' needing to put SOMEONE in that range as "the next best PF in the draft". Again, was never a fan. Seems like a cool guy. But was never a fan.
