I'm a believer in the upside of Nix. We have quite the fearsome foursome of guards right now, Porter, Green, Christopher and Nix. I think they all bring a little something different too. Nix measured 6'3" w/o shoes and 225 at the combine. Some guys are naturally thicc and he definitely carries a little extra with him but he does so pretty gracefully and uses his frame effectively. I think the quality that sticks out to me is his patience and handle on drives. He's kind of good at everything/not great at anything but if he develops that drive game and starts feeding shooters you have a potential court general. I'm okay with that being the guard rotation and quite honestly I think it would be a sin to pick up any guards in the draft. I guess if you want to justify a free agent veteran addition but we still have Gordon and Mathews too. Really want them to beef up the front court, the guard position seems quite loaded. At least with potential, I think you have to find out what they are made of next season.
Nix could be a good backup point, he probably needs to maintain a lower weight to maximize his quickness on the perimeter. His size does give him an advantage on the block against thinner players tho. As to drafting guards, at 17 if the best player is a guard they must take him. Definitely not a sin to take BPA.
They absolutely could take TyTy or Chandler, it would be beneficial to put some pressure on KPJ to see how he reacts before making an offer in RFA next year. Point guard depth is currently pretty weak.
Yeah, but the fear with Nix (well, at least me) was, he looked nothing like that in high school, so I wasn't sure if his weight issue would be a problem. And before anyone says "yeah, but that was back in high school", keep in mind that was only about 1-2 years ago. He was probably 30 pounds lighter then. Compare his physique now to then, and keep in mind he's in better shape now than when he was with Team Ignite. He was a solid, bigger pg. See spoiler below. I'm not knocking the kid. I always pull for the underdog and want him to succeed. And who knows, maybe he was going through some stuff, so I'm not going to judge. Spoiler
If he came in from the summer out of shape it would definitely be cause for concern. Maybe he could shed some of the extra but does that make him better at basketball? 11% body fat isn't crazy. It's above normal for NBA but average fat ass Americans sitting at home are like mid 20s. I think it's just his natural frame for the most part.
What I don't understand is, if they thought so highly of him, how come they couldn't manage to give him court time? He could have taken Schoder's minutes easily. The amount we played vets was really pointless, and these comments make it all the more puzzling.
Garbage time over the last few games is nothing for a player you consider to have the talent of a lottery pick. The season was already over and he was behind Schroder in the lineup. Why? I think many fans biggest frustration with Silas isn't his losing, but his coaching to win in a way that not only doesn't get us any wins, but limits the playing time of the very guys we need to see on the court, the rookies.
Feigen's argument was that Nix was a teenager putting up some pretty sexy stats in the G-Leauge last year, and likened it to a teenager joining the Ignite straight from highschool and having an identical season. If that were the case, the hypothetical player would likely be a top 10 pick. He is saying Nix is a de-facto 2022 lottery pick. That said, there's evidence of him playing minutes in the big leagues and looking absolutely unspectacular, so we can't just ignore that.
Perhaps the point was to give him court time this year? He signed for 3 more years, so doing the classic rookie garbage time thing while featuring others (for myriad reasons) last year makes some sense.
in a good portion, maybe all, of those unspectacular minutes he was being used as the defacto two-guard while KPJ or Jalen or Dennis ran the show. His momma even was saying that on Twitter. In the D-League he played the point and did so very, very well. I think the front office has seen a lot more of him than we have, and know the full context, so if they're saying they feel he's a lottery talent I am inclined to think they may be right
G-league (Ignite) and last year's combine/draft circuit were a somewhat rude awakening for Nix. But once he latched on with the Vipers, he did some conditioning work that he really needed to do. Then under Abdelfattahs leadership, Nix flourished as a scoring option--to the extent that he couldn't be overlooked. This offseason will be Nix's chance to prove he belongs.
All young players have talent. Question is how much. I sure don't see first rounder talent, don't even talk about lottery.
Just realized that he is younger than TyTy by about 3 months... I think he could make a leap this year if he loses some weight.
