Yes, because nobody on the planet other than on this board had heard of the Twins, and we don't have a draft where they may go top-6 coming up. lol. The Twins are arguably 2 of the 3 or 4 most-talked-about players in this draft. He was bound to mention them at some point. But don't look now, Ben Dubose, Nathan Fogg, and Paulo Alves must've just heard about the Twins, too, because their latest podcast today is talking about them, as well. The nerve!
You know whose stats these are a college Freshman: G 34 PTS 14.6 TRB 5.4 AST 2.0 FG% 43.1 FG3% 29.4 FT% 65.4 This scouting report on Jaylen Brown kinda of sounds like Whitmore: http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/Jaylen-Brown-72912/ The guy a lot Rockets fans are clamoring for this off season has been used as a comp for Whitmore. Regarding Whitmore specifically, that Villanova team was pretty bad especially offensively. I think as a team they were ranked like 300 something in assists, so it wasn't just Whitmore. They only averaged 11 assists total as a team. The leading assist guy on their team averaged 3 per game. The college game spacing is already bad and there's was even worse. I don't even know if Cam played with another player that will play basketball anywhere after getting their degree, let alone be in the NBA. Amen and Ausar both had each other which means they each were playing with another top 8 or so pick I'm actually warming up to picking Amen, but that shooting scares me.
I'm going to stake my claim on Cam Boozer, Cooper Flagg, and Alex Sarr for the future. You heard it here first. And if they turn out to be flops, I said nothing.
I’m going by how he looked in the G-league vs how Scoot looked in the G-league. D.Nix was by far more dominant. Now add an year of big league experience to that, and yeah, I think D.Nix will kill Scoot for minutes, if you care about production. If you care about development, and start throwing the "19 yr Scoot vs 19yr Kobe" stats, then Scoot will get minutes, but I was hoping we’re over that.
I honestly do not understand this "Nix dominated the G-League so Scoot is unimpressive" thing. Every year there are players who dominate in D1 college ball then go on to be undrafted and never play in the NBA. Jayson Tatum was not in the top 10 in his conference in points per game, rebounds per game, assists per game, or true shooting percentage the year he was drafted. Was Tatum a worse prospect than guys like Michael Young (#1 in points per game, undrafted, never played in the NBA), Bonzie Colson (#1 in rebounds per game, signed as undrafted, played in 8 games, out of the league), or Dennis Smith (#1 in assists per game, picked #9, turned out to be a minor roleplayer)? You can't evaluate prospects just by comparing their stats with other guys and leaving it at that... you simply can't. No front office does it this way. Not even the most analytics-oriented ones. Can we just kill this argument entirely and stop using it?
we’re talking production next year, not prospects. Scoot is a prospect, and will likely be drafted top 3. Nix as a prospect went undrafted. so that’s that. But also I am 100% sure Nix will be a more productive player next season than Scoot. That was the point. So if we get Scoot, the question is do we play him because of potentialz and keep piling the Ls or do we play our better guards, like KPJ, Harden, and… yes, D.Nix if need arises
For all the not-inconsiderable talent, and I do agree that he has as much talent as anybody in this class, I think you are deluding yourself if you think he's going to put it all together next year. He's going to have to learn SO MUCH defensively in terms of both basic technique as well general team stuff just so he can stay on the floor for more than a few minutes. I don't see a hard-nosed defensive guy letting him play if he doesn't have the basic stuff down, and And once that is fixed, every team is going to play him on the perimeter like he's Andre Robinson sagging halfway back to the basket, daring him to shoot. IMO, the best-case scenario would be a Giannis-like trajectory. Rookie stats from Giannis was around 25 minutes/game and 7ish points and 4 rebounds. It took Giannis 4 years to become Giannis, he If they draft him, and he ends up playing sparingly - like rookie Giannis or rookie Sharpe, 1/3 of the board will be screaming that he's a bust, and 1/3 of the board will be screaming to fire the coach for sabotaging the rookie. For all the talent, I think if you expect him to get on the floor a ton next year - especially given that the Rockets don't have their own draft pick next year - I think you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Amen is a long-term investment with long-term potential, and he's basically a high-school kid - probably rookie Tracy McGrady with his 7pts and 18min/g would be another good comp. For all the talent that we know guys like McGrady and Antetokounmpo have/had as NBA players, it took both of them took 2-3 years to fully ramp it up. Both of them were "pretty disappointing" if you just look at rookie stats. I've been seeing some "expectation creep" where people are talking about him figuring it out after half a season. If they draft him, and you get more than a highlight reel and a bunch of up-and-down play, next year, I'd be a little shocked.
Of all fans, I don't think Rockets fans should be thinking he's going to put it together in a season. If you look at the past couple of drafts, you've seen Jalen, Jabari, Sengun, etc. all struggle. Even other teams' draft picks don't necessarily have everything clicking after a season. The reality is that nowadays, unless you're lucky, you're going to draft a player that's going to struggle because they're 19 years old. I wouldn't mind drafting Amen Thompson, but I won't have a verdict on him for 2-3 years minimum. Same with Jalen, Jabari, and Sengun. Then throw on that how they're going to look with Coach Udoka, and it may get interesting (or they may end up flops to bench players... lol).
I do think his rookie season has a very high chance of being rough. Especially early on. Going to be brutal going from OTE to NBA basketball. I wouldn't be surprised to see a Giannis-like trajectory where it takes a couple years to become a good starter, and a couple more to really start reaching his ceiling. But it could also potentially be a little faster than that, closer to De'Aaron Fox who was not-so-great as a rookie but was already a solid starter year 2 in the league. Giannis came into the league as a teenager--Amen will be 20. Physical development and just getting reps (even against bad competition) do matter a lot. But yeah, if the Rockets pick him there should definitely be realistic expectations about it being a process.
Cam is absolutely a longer term project. There are just too many TBD areas. He’s best used and developed in a simplified role in his first year(s). Really doubt Stone’s warm bum bum is able to swallow the optics and development paths that come along with selecting Cam.
The only sure thing imo are his first step and body strength. Almost everything else is TBD. He’s prone to be at least one step slower in making the right read. And his assist ratio is embarrassingly low. Can see him thrive next to Sengun eventually. But he’s years away from being a more complete player.
