This guy has fallen out of the high lottery all the way to borderline first rounder-likely second rounder. Givony has him listed as a 5. There's no way he can play 5. He's a 4 with tremendous length, good rim protection skills and great help defense off the ball. He's also shown glimpses of a good jump shot. His percentage sucks but that MIGHT BE system related. I don't really know. But his jump shot has something there to work with. In addition he can put the ball on the floor and he does have some post moves. The biggest things I see wrong in this guy's game is his lack of basketball iq and his lack of aggression going after guys offensively. He shies away from contact. Most likely won't be able to fix the iq thing. You simply minimize that issue by putting him in a role off the ball, teaching him to run the corners and cut and finish and catch and shoot and defensively he takes his man and helps off in the paint if necessary. However, I think if a coach could teach him to initiate contact, especially when he has a mismatch low or he's driving into the paint area...I think he could turn into a serviceable 4 man. He has tremendous length. If he would create the contact instead of shy away, if he would go into the defender on his hook shots and drives instead of going backward away from them I think his offensive efficiency would spike and he could be come a problem for a defense. Especially if he works diligently on the corner 3. Would you take a flyer on this kid as a project 4 in the second round? I think I would if we had a second round pick and he was there.
No doubt very frustrating and no doubt very iffy. But.....They also did a poor job coaching him up in my opinion. Playing him at center? Come on. He's a stick man. Should have been exclusively at the 4. My gut instinct is he will continue to bust. But he is one of those guys that has the talent and size to come out of nowhere and have a very good career. For instance of he got that jumper to working efficiently from the corner....... his value to a team would go much much higher because of his defensive potential.
I've seen maybe 10 or so full Baylor games with Austin. I am not impressed. Too skinny to have any impact inside, offensively or defensively, and in addition to that I just don't think he's too talented. His outside shooting is only OK for a big man. I see him as a UDFA D-League player at best. If he proves himself on that level, I'll re-evaluate. But based off what I saw him do in college, do not want. Couldn't have said it better myself. Modern day James Joyce right here.
If we were interested in trading back with Philly for several second rounders he might be worth taking a flyer on as the finesse to Patric Young's brute force (my personal 2nd round wish). I foresee at least 2 years in the weight room before he gets any kind of burn outside of Rio Grande.
Yes, otherwise he'd be a first round pick I think. It's just a huge red flag and drastically narrows your field of vision, hard to predict if he will be able to adjust to nba pace despite his condition.
I went to the UT-Baylor game and mocked him for his softness. He was taller than the UT bigs but got pushed around the whole game. Hence the use of "Player X was softer than Isaiah Austin on that play."
http://baylorlariat.com/2014/01/30/austin-overcomes-blind-eye-on-court/ Ugh. He'll never be an efficient shooter no matter how good his mechanics become. Might as well lock this thread up.
Holy **** he is. Some guy actually created a thread about drafting a player with 1 eye. I can't believe how dumb this forum can be sometimes.
He's 7'1 but he's rail thin. I don't watch college basketball but I saw his story on sportscenter, can he play defense blind? Serious question, I've never seen his game. Who does he compare to?
He's one caught my attention since last year. All I can say is I really want to like him. He does have good size though.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Baylor announced Isaiah Austin has been diagnosed with Marfan syndrome, career-ending prior to NBA Draft</p>— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/statuses/480754931847016449">June 22, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>On Isaiah Austin: "One feature of Marfan syndrome is aortic enlargement, which can be life-threatening." Brutal news for him</p>— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) <a href="https://twitter.com/DanWetzel/statuses/480755716081188864">June 22, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Thoughts and prayers with <a href="https://twitter.com/IsaiahAustin">@IsaiahAustin</a> after diagnosis of career-ending medical condition: <a href="http://t.co/Cx2p0zGMDY">http://t.co/Cx2p0zGMDY</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23SicEm&src=hash">#SicEm</a></p>— Baylor Basketball (@BaylorMBB) <a href="https://twitter.com/BaylorMBB/statuses/480754424126521344">June 22, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Wow, I'm so sorry to hear that. While I didn't see him as a real NBA prospect, he was going to earn a paycheck playing hoops somewhere before this diagnosis.
