Lebron is a big too in case it slipped your mind lol. AD led teams went to the playoffs Booker led teams didnt go anywhere and collected lotto picks. Between the two I am on record preferring Green but its dumb to say you choose Booker over AD just cuz you think Mobley will leave to play with a guard. Objectively thats just wrong, you think your star will leave before he has played a game? Why we even tank then lol, how do you know your guard wont be Kawhi and go to Toronto? Banchero and Holmgren are top 2 picks next year how you guarantee we get them? What if you dont get them? You end up in Cavs situation where the BPA is always a guard lol. Getting a big now guarantees your team will be bad next year and guess what, there are more good guards than bigs in the draft. Last year Wiseman was the only center worth picking but you had guards from no 1 Edwards to Quickley lasting till 25. There are always more guards than centers available. Again I'm leaning more on Green but your reasons for passing on Mobley just dont make sense. In fact it is the opposite you should be team Mobley for the reasons you have stated. An AD is more valuable than a Booker. An AD does more for winning than a Booker. A big man project like Mobley will cause you to be worse than getting a scorer like Green. If you plan to take somebody next year, there are more higher quality guards than center in the draft. If you plan to get both big and small in the draft it doesnt matter which goes first, they are only separated by a year Mobley wont want out in his 2nd year.
I'm a firm believer that if your lotto pick is a 3-4 year project, they are 99% going to bust. I look at the history of super stars in this league, or even just all NBA level players. Almost all of them were very good in their rookie season, and were all star level by year 2 or 3 at the latest. Look at the current crop of young stars, tell me which one was a player that was a raw product and then developed over 3 seasons. Luka - Great from day 1 Tatum - Great from day 1 Donovan - Great from day 1 Zion - Great from day 1 Morant - Great from day 1 Trae - all star by second season Booker - great scorer by second season Honestly I can't think of a single super star in the past 2 decades that was a "project" other than Giannis who took a couple of years to develop. Maybe Harden, but he was the 6th man on a finals team by his 3rd season and had all NBA level efficiency. Even Jokic who was a nobody second round pick was playing at all star levels by his second season. I'm not saying Mobley is all that raw, he's actually quite developed on the defensive end. But if you are going to tell me he's going to take 3-4 seasons to develop, he's probably never going to be that great. You don't develop into the next AD, either you are the AD from day 1, or you aren't.
It would be fun to compete, miss the playoffs and still hit a high pick ala Toronto no? Im not looking forward to multiple years of buttcheek basketball so I will go with the quickest route to relevancy.
Exactly, Green could be ROY with his scoring and being featured on a bad team. Mobley worst case could start with RGV that's how long it will take him to develop.
Defense is the hardest skill to translate to the NBA and Mobley can't hold his position against NCAA level competition. It will take time for Mobley to get used to it. A positive of picking Mobley is that we will be assured of getting a good pick for 2022.
All this to really ultimately say Mobley has little chance at all to be AD's level anyway and why he's compared to Bosh. A 20, 10 guy on bad teams and a good 3rd wheel with 2nd best player peaks on a team with Bron and Wade or Pau Gasol, a 20, 10 guy on mediocre teams, but a good 2nd wheel with a few best player peak moments on a team with Kobe. AD's one of the best PF's ever talent wise and looked like a more athletic Wake Forest Tim Duncan and won a National Championship and has many #1 player peaks on a team with Bron. There was no way AD was not going #1, while Greens comp, Beal was #3 in AD's draft. Most around the league are hyping Green over Mobley. Would have never been the case with Beal over AD. There's a reason for that. Mobley is not projected to be on AD's level. AD is the unanimous #1 pick this year too IMO. Even if you classify LeBron a big, he's a perimeter big, and his career wouldn't be the same without teaming up with a lot of these good bigs on bad teams who had no perimeter help or any help either due to incompetence or bad draft picks or too good to be bad enough-Bosh(bargnani #1), Love(Rubio and Flynn over Curry), and AD(Noel and giving up on Buddy for Tyreke). 2 of them tried to pair with another big, and Minny tried to get a pure point for Love and later Derrick Williams) All mistakes. (I'll admit the Ad/Boogie experiment was looking scary b/c both could play in and out) Meanwhile, Booker's team while bad, were bad out of necessity, and got their Ayton(goes over Mobley in this draft too) to pair with Book, + several other good players. Point is, it's easier to just get the big after you already have the star perimeter player. You start over thinking it when your only good player is a big and how you should build around him. Dreams of twin towers, or pure points feeding him end up with us looking incompetent. Suns are a really similar team to compare our current situation right down to the cheap owner that no one likes. I do like Mobley and believe he will be a legit versatile defensive star and i will welcome him. I just think it's much more of a risk to build around him. Especially when IMO, Bosh, Gasol and AD all were far more advanced and polished offensively. Especially when Mobley doesn't look like he can carry any more mass without it being detrimental to his versatility. If it's Mobley, my hope will be for KPj to remain professional off the court and mature and develop into a legit superstar. I just see a young Marcus Camby both in long term body build and game development in Mobley when i'm trying to aim higher. You add Camby when you have Melo and AI or in Toronto's incompetent case when you already had T-Mac and VC. EDIT: Camby was on those teams prior to the perimeter stars on both Toronto and Denver, so bad example but goes to show it would have been a nice piece after the star perimeter players developed. And to my point, maybe we'll be bad enough to get our perimeter star after getting Mobley first because Camby is just a piece. A super role player if you will. Id rather have the perimeter star first. Gobert before Mitchell is another example. Took 4 years.
Yes it does, but next year there are more bigs to choose from + Mobley is definitely more of a project. I am good with either player and love Mobley more as a player, but Green has the package.
Tilman Fertitties had a recent quote in the Landrys Times. "I see what this Third baseman / Catcher - Shohey Ohtummy is doing for the Angels, we need to grab Jalen Green and market to that side of the world."
The hell? Are we just making stuff up now? Mobley was one of the best defenders in college, whereas Green didn’t even try on defense.
I don't have a strong opinion on who the Rockets should take at this point. However, the idea that Mobley is more of a project than Green is just weird. Mobley is already a good defender, with excellent instincts and quick feet. Those attributes are going to translate regardless. So he is going to be a good defender in the NBA, the question is he going to be an anchor or just a guy that overall defends well. You can call the PAC12 weak, but Mobley is only the third freshman in 20 years to lead the nation in win shares.... the others were AD and Zion. If you go back over the last 30 years, there isn't a single freshmen that lead the country in W/S that didn't become a star. Even guys in the top 5, almost universally became stars (Kevin Love, Jason Kidd). There have been some so-so players that lead the country in W/S, but not at a young age. So the idea that Mobley is more of a project that Green makes zero sense to me at all. The appeal of Green is that he has high upside as a perimeter player and scorer, and in the modern NBA that is more important unless a player is also a defensive anchor inside AND a top offensive player.
Bowie, Embiid, AD all had major injuries BEFORE they were drafted. Mobley, like Giannis and Bosh, has no such preexisting issues.
Green is all hype in my opinion. People are wanting to trade KPJ for a top 10 pick and he wiped the floor statistically with Green in the same League and then went for 50 and 10 in the NBA. I’m betting Suggs goes before Green. My prediction if Detroit takes Cade. Cleveland trades up with us or trades with us after we pick Mobley, then we take Suggs. Toronto might then take Green or decide that Barnes is the better pick. OKC or Detroit ends up with Green (Detroit getting a haul for Cade).
Nope, straight from the scouting reports. Mobley was a mediocre rebounder and consistently got pushed off his position. He was an elite defender in the NCAA due to his length, IQ, and quickness. I'm not saying Mobley wasn't elite defensively in college, but he wasn't elite in the traditional sense.
Mobley is more of a project because defense is his calling card and defense is much harder in the NBA. Being a good defender in the NCAA is NOT the same thing as the NBA and it takes work. Mobley will need to work on his body because many of the advantages he had in the NCAA will be lessened due to the talent and physicality of the NBA.
