OK. Kyrie Irving Eric Gordon Kyle Lowry Fred VanVleet Steph Curry JJ Barea JJ Reddick Damian Lilard Chris Paul Steve Nash Jason Kidd Kelvin Murphy Isiah Thomas Allen Iverson Kemba Walker Tim Hardaway Reggie Jackson Terry Rozier Norman Powell Marcus Smart Mike Conley And guess what, none of these has a +9 inch FREAKISH wingspan, making the height less of a concern. Besides, short guards tend to have a shorter pro life not because they are prone to injury, but because they are not good enough in general. There are quite a few exceptions to this, however, and they are all VERY GOOD; Mitchell is going to be one of them. Also I don't know why you used Beal as an example, he's not small. He's the same size as Jalen Green. Btw I'm still waiting for that advanced stat for Bradley Beal you mentioned. I'm still waiting for my mind to be changed.
Amen Thompson and Cam Whitmore not playing in the First Half of Season Amen Injury, Cam maybe behind in learning the offense. Tidjane Salaun I really believe should be the Pick and he is still growing. I believe he will grow into a Center. 6'9 to 6'11. Jump, Dunk, Switch, Lateral Quickness. 18.8 yrs old. Have him Develop at RGV and get called up.
I want them to draft Sheppard and I say let everyone battle it out in practice and let the best players get playing time. If Sheppard becomes a Rocket and can't beat the others in practice then he should not see the floor very much. The main x-factor will be how well Green starts off. If he starts off playing well it would limit how much time any guard we may draft sees the floor expecially when you factor in Cam. If Jalen starts off bad, which history indicates he may, then they should not waste much time (10 games max) trying to him going which would free up playing time for any guard they draft.
That is the company line for sure but you have to wonder how easy it was for guys like Jalen, Bari, Tari to get major minutes..... Not saying Sheppard cannot become very good, but he is certainly going to get benched a lot and for a very long time. That is very likely also the reason why the Rockets are not committing themselves to Sheppard with the 3rd pick because they do not want to obstruct a shooter like Sheppard......which is commendable if true.....and also ironic.
If they draft him only time will tell. I can easily see him becoming someone Ime really likes. It could oddly be his defense that earns him more playing time given Udoka's history.
A good resource to inform the lottery selections will be the in person workouts... A great link to bookmark is this HoopsHype workout tracker https://hoopshype.com/lists/2024-draft-workouts-tracker/ So far, the Rockets are shown working out Mark Sears. The highest ranked prospect to workout is Jared McClain for Golden State.
I *get* it, but if I could go on a rant, I'm kinda tired of the "just go BPA", "don't worry about fit, go BPA," "BPA BPA BPA", etc. The problem with this approach is that there is no clear BPA. IMO these guys are all roughly in the same tier (I might hear an argument for Sarr being 0.5 tier above the rest, but even that's debatable). Over the last year or so, I've seen mocks with Buzelis, Holland, Sarr, Topic, and Risacher at #1 (and that's without the mock really knowing who had the #1 pick to account for fit). Various prospects can show up as top 3 in one mock, and in the late lottery in another. A lot of teams have little interest in trading up because they feel pretty good about getting a guy with similar talent no matter who drops. On top of that, along with being in roughly the same tier, I also think the tier itself is lower than what is common at the top of a regular draft (i.e., most of our core 6 would likely go top 3, if not #1 overall in this draft IMO). So I think if you're saying just go BPA, you're not *really* saying much at all. Given that I don't think there is a clear BPA, then personally yes I'd probably start to look at fit and other things, which I think is appropriate in this unique situation. Now of course the Rockets have *much* more data than what is publicly available, so based on their metrics and evaluations, there probably is a clear(ish) BPA. And yes, they should go with that. If you want to just leave it up to the Rockets front office to figure out, I think that's a valid stance in this case. OK, rant over. Also I'm a idiot, so take everything I say with a grain of salt.
Amen and Cam did earn minutes as the season progressed. They took most of Tate's time, and some of Holiday's and Brooks's, even Jalen's. (To be fair, Tari's being hurt also gave them more opportunities.) So if the guy is good, he can and will crack the rotation. I don't think you can say definitively that whoever we draft won't see the floor much. The current rotation has some weaknesses that a good rookie may address.
"Just pick the BPA at 3 and move along." Great, who is the BPA at 3? ::gets nine different opinions::.
No, it is not that they have solely earned minutes. It is that they have earned minutes, in addiition those guys they replaced were benched, sucked or Udoka demoted them......all in unison. I mean ....yeah ....to each his own.....people laugh and some people cry.
That's exactly my point. They earned minutes because they were better than the guys in the original rotation. If a guy is good, Udoka will play him. Predicting whoever we draft won't get minutes without seeing the guy (whoever) play in the NBA is a bit premature. Cam spent some time in the G-league. But when he was given opportunity with the big boys and performed, he got to stick. But if he doesn't keep improving, he may fall behind a rookie who outperforms him.
I think in Tate's case, he played some of his best Defense against the Lakers early on.....that was a clear demotion not because he was bad but because his skillset is limited. Then he never saw the light at the end of the tunnel again, also basically because he was a poor man's Dillon Brooks and Dillon Brooks is already there.
