I thought the original question was where they thought he would be drafted, and not where we would draft him. 10-15 was a good estimate. He might have slipped into the top 10 like Dirk did(who was more proven than Monti). He would not have been drafted in the top 5. That said, I otherwise agree with your entire take. I've tried not to get my hope up, but I'm genuinely excited to see him in Rockets gear.
Now we just have to let him believe that we have a spot for him, some playing time. We're kinda logjammed with unspectacular power forwards.
That's an easy sell. We had a second round pick in our starting lineup within the first two months of the season. That's only the most prominent example of how McHale is more than willing to let players come in and earn significant playing time. Also seems to be more than a good chance that PPat is part of some trade package this offseason.
I think your wrong about Dirk being more proven than DMo. To the best of my knowledge Dirk played for DJK Würzburg which I believe is a youth pro league. Not on the same level as a club like FC Barcelona.
It's not on the same level, but he put up 29 a game, dominated the Nike Hoop Summit, and school Barkley in some exhibition. Is all of that make him the better prospect? Hell no, but it certainly garnered a lot of attention. The kind of attention Valanciunas, not Monti, gets. Valanciunas, who was the cusp of the top 5 in a draft class that had only 1 lock prospect.
I wouldn't mind it, but Ppat's getting that same---ankle?---operated on again, right after the season. Might put a crimp in trading him.
Why is it homerism? If there's homerism then there's anti-homerism from people like you. The NCAA isn't the 2nd best league in the world, you have guys like Hasheem Thabeet averaging 3 blocks a game. In fact, Thabeet worked out with Drummond last year and basically owned his ass. Jennings played internationally and averaged like 9 pts a game, if he was able to play in the NCAA he would probably have averaged 20 pts a game. If guys like Beasley can average 20-20 in college, what more someone like D-Mo who faced grown ass men night in and night out?
Having long arms are only important for securing boards and blocking shots, the last thing you want to have are dudes who only pumped their stats in college because they were taller than anyone else. D-Mo proved he can rebound with the big boys, rebs in Euro league are one of the most consistent stats that transfer in the NBA, good rebounders in the Euro league like Scola remain good rebounders in the NBA. Anyway, all that aside what has me excited about D-Mo is his work ethic. The biggest knock on him IMHO was that he wasn't that serious/passionate about competing in the highest level, he had a bit of a rep about being a head case and all that. However, he came into the draft last year looking extremely buff, and it seems he took it to another level this year. The desire to be assertive and expand your game is something this team sorely lacks, since we've had a lot of dudes who just seem to coast and not really improve year in and year out (PPat and C-Bud specifically).
With all do respect, Larry Sanders & Roy Hibbert were not, and still should not be considered "highly skilled."
No, I mean you get too down on the players we have and lose all objectivity. Let's put things in perspective, the Rockets right now aren't terrible, they're just "mediocre", basically in the average range. You don't become average if you don't have some good players in the squad, some posters here act like all we have are dleague rejects, like when Lowry was averaging near triple double numbers and DD kept calling him an "average pg" in the league.
he might be pissed when he gets brought over and we send him to rio grande. people in the league dont view the d-league as a minor. they view it as a jackie moon showcase.
Probably b/c we have constantly been trying to be the best as possible to win. And don't pretend we shipped them all there for the entire season and none of them got any nba play as rookies. Making statements without context is dangerous.
if you're talking about that Muitljenas or whatever he is, he just can't be that good as many here thinks he is. I'd simply heard of him before (as I did for Dirk, playing for Germany before nba), but I didn't and that's saying something. I hope for your own good I'm wrong cause it seems you put a lot of hopes/expectations on him. And to compared him with Dirk is just silly, he has done nothing yet to deserve that.
