I didn't like the pick at first, but after watching a few highlights, I really believe this guy will be an allstar in this league. Hope we don't trade him.
If this guy maxes out his potential, he still won't be close to Lebron James. That's why people are laughing at you.
it's not just about size. it's about athleticism and raw natrual ablity, if white had that, he would have a top 10, top 5, top 1 pick.
Royce White really can't be compared to just one player. He is mixture. It is true that he can pass like LBJ and has a high basketball IQ. But also he is strong like chuck hayes (strongest player ever in NBA combine history apparently). Has excellent ball handling skills. pretty quick first step. Good post moves. Lot of people have compared him to Diaw because he is a bit over weight and out of shape for an nba player (It can easily be fixed during training camp). Couple of weaknesses would be avg shooting (but barely attempted jump shots) and turnover prone since he handled the ball a lot in Iowa state. But as of now we all can hope he could become the next diaw, barkley, antoine walker or whoever. But if he stays committed he is going to be something to wreck with in the future.
I haven't seen much of him, but I'm definitely sure he's not in LeBron James's league. The vibe I get is a PF version of Terrence Williams in terms of skillset. Not a bad thing, actually.
I don't get where all this out of shape things about Royce comes from. He can bench a lot and he has a body fat percentage of less than 10%. He's fit. He's not Diaw.
Watch a lot of expert picks and listen to a lot of GMs. They put him top 10 talent. His overestimated "fear of flying" and outspoken anxiety issues is what dropped him.
I would estimate that at least 40% of his turnovers were passes that "Stone Hands" Ejim couldn't handle or wasn't even paying attention to. You have no idea how frustrating it was to watch a perfect pass that couldn't be handled.
Royce White will only become a LBJ if McHale gives him that opportunity to be LBJ (Dominate the ball 85% of the time) as well as him being productive with the time given. Don't pull worldly expectations on a guy's shoulders, especially when he hasnt played summer league, practiced with the team, and probably hasnt taken a flight yet (which he is scared to do). I wish this guy the best
Good points, and agree. He has the potential, but nothing is set in stone. It depends on a lot of things. One thing though, he's not that afraid to take a flight. It's more of the time leading up to it. He is just like a LOT of people in the world. I have a friend who's a VP of a major worldwide financial institution, who is scared as hell of flying, yet she flies all over the world every month. It's not like he's kicking and screaming. He just feels a little anxiety, like millions of people worldwide do about flying. The issue was completely blown out of the water. He probably flies more than most of us. 1) He flew to Italy and back last summer because ISU had a mini tournament and vacation there for a few weeks. No, they didn't sail there. They took flights. He actually took multiple flights. Des Moines-Minneapolis. Minneapolis-Rome and the same back. 2) He flew to all but 3 away games this year: First game he drove to: Had a monster game. I believe it was his triple double game. Second game he drove to: He and coaching staff superstitous. Wanted to see if driving again would yield another epic game. Third game he drove to: NCAA tournament. Grandfather couldn't afford a plane ticket so Royce told his grandfather, in Minneapolis, to drive down to Ames (Minneapolis and Ames are both on I-35 so it's an easy trek) and they could ride together to Louisville. Only one of the games he drove to was actually because he had some sort of anxiety about flying and didn't feel comfortable. The other one was because of superstition, and the last was because his grandfather couldn't afford a plane ticket. The whole "flying issue" is so completely overblown it's not even funny. Anybody around him will tell you that, including Royce himself.
I'm sure GMs and scouts noticed he's undersized, doesn't have a jump shot, is a poor ft shooter, doesn't defend well, and has a poor turnover rate for a guy whose playmaking is a skill teams would bank on for him to be elite in the NBA. Somehow I don't think they're basing their decisions on the media's story of the day.
1) He does have a jump shot, and it's not as bad as you think. It's not LeBron esque and it has to get better for the NBA, but he still has one. There's a reason why he didn't take jump shots last year, and it has almost nothing to do with him not being able to make it. 2) His turnover rate, most of that were passes that teammates couldn't handle (i.e. Melvin Ejim). Some were his own fault, but more often than not, the teammate couldn't handle it, probably 40% of the time at least. Then again, what do I know? I only saw every single game he's played in last season. I forgot that watching 20 minutes of highlights makes you an automatic expert about a subject.
