I'm game with this pick...provided we trade away Scola, Patterson, Morris, Leuer, and Jones before camp. If White stays only to be stashed in the Valley for half the season, I'm going to be aggravated.
Weak man's Lebron. Or a weak man's Barkley. I do not know who he compares too. He has potential to be a stud. Morey claims he has a chance to be special.
Hey, another ISU Fan here (we are passionate about our players). Sorry for the long ass post coming. First off, let me say that you guys have a great player drafted in White. In only one playing year, he became one of the all-time favorites in the history of our program not only for his play on the court, but his work off the court. He had his issues back in Minnesota. He grew up there, and was still hanging around his childhood friends. Ones that didn't bring out the best in him. The dorm room laptop thing, he most likely didn't do that, but he did shoplift at the Mall of America back then and shove a rent a cop trying to catch him. Times change though. He basically came to us and everyone in the ISU community was skeptical about it. A ton of people didn't want him because they thought he was a thug and a ton of people said he'd never play for us, opting for the NBA draft instead. He became very good friends with our coach, Fred Hoiberg, who is a great role model. You won't find a more genuine human being anywhere in that guy. Not only that, but he played recently in the NBA for 10 seasons and was on the scout team/front office for another 5. It was really a completely different story in Ames than Minnesota. First off, he had a kid which as some of us know, makes you grow up very fast. Instead of going out and partying and acting like a BMOC, he was working on his game, class, and taking care of his kid. He actually taught himself piano and majored in Music and started a few music production companies while he was down there to get started. He started speaking about his anxiety because he completely believes in the cause and knows many people have the problem and will go untreated. He has helped the community in and around Ames greatly with this and other community work. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHJuG5fYBUE He also held his 21st birthday at a club in Ames, but instead he decided to make it non alcoholic and donate everything earned there to charity. The fear of flying thing is *completely* overblown. I want to say that first, a ton of people have a fear of flying, but they do it anyway. I have a friend who's a VP of a major financial institution who hates flying, but flies to Europe and Asia probably 1-3 times a month. She doesn't like it, but still does it and vacations all around the world too. None of us were even aware of Royce's "fear of flying" until the NCAA tournament story came out, which was unfortunate. 1) Our team had a pre-season tournament in *Italy*. Royce flew there and back and there were no problems. 2) He flew to every single away game but 3. What's the story? First off, I believe the first game he drove to, he had a triple double. He's superstitious, so he got the blessing of our staff to try it again to see if he'd have another epic game. Didn't happen, so he flew to the rest. The thing about driving the the NCAA tournament was blown out of proportion even more. The deal was that Royce's grandpa in Minneapolis couldn't afford the plane ticket, and Royce told his grandpa to drive to Ames and they could drive to the tournament together. As the user Cyclones has said, his fear of flying has more to do with the drive than the flying part. He really didn't have a problem this year. The coaching staff, except a few games, told him he had to fly, and he did. Character issues? Really a thing of the past. He has some streaks of weirdness, but overall not too much. He is a legitimately smart person, interested in numerous things in the world, and speaks very intelligently. Now, as far as his playing goes..absolutely great player. He is faster than he appears. Trust me on that. I thought he was slow-ish until I saw him in real life. He really does have handles of a decent PG which is amazing for someone his size. He's an amazing passer and probably one of the best you'll see in a long time for his size. He actually has a jump shot, but didn't take many of them this year for obvious reasons. We had about 5 guys who were shooting 36%+ from 3 point and could flat out shoot. There was no reason. We used him on the inside to open up the outside game. He would always get double and triple teamed in games, yet he still scored. A few things that haven't been mentioned: 1) He hadn't played an actual competitive game for almost 2 years (not counting the tournament in Italy and summer league games in Des Moines). In his first college game, and his first game in almost 2 years, he put up 25 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 assists against Lehigh, who beat Duke in the NCAA tournament. Stats against NCAA tournament teams: Lehigh: 25 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 assists @Michigan 22 points, 13 rebounds, 4 steals, 3 assists, Kansas: 18 points, 17 rebounds, 4 assists Texas: 15 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, Kansas: 18 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists Kansas State: 22 points, 8 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks Kansas State: 9 points, 12 rebounds, 7 assists Missouri: 20 points, 6 rebounds, 9 assists Baylor: 11 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists Texas: 17 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists UConn: 15 points, 13 rebounds Kentucky: 23 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals He also had a triple double against Texas A&M while he had the flu, and had other great games against non tournament teams. Now factor into it the fact he only shot 50% FT this year, and his numbers could have been even higher..and the turnover part which I'll get to in a little bit. 2)He is INSANELY strong. When Jay Billas said last night he has "terrific strength." That is an understatement. Before the season, he posted bench pressing 185 pounds 28 straight times. Our coach, who played in the NBA for 10 seasons and then was in the front office and on the scout team of the TWolves for 5 years after before coming to ISU and said that's the most he's ever seen ANYBODY in the NBA do..I think he said, out of any player too. If that was the NFL combine, he would be in the top 25. This was at the beginning of the season too, he was much stronger by the end of the season. He didn't do the workout at the combine because he had back spasms that day. He would have put up more than 30 reps though, guaranteed. If you watch games of him, he actually backs down other C/PF so much they move a few feet because he's so strong. Some players used that to their advantage and used some of the worst flops I've ever seen. 3) Turnovers. If you look at his stats, it looks like he's turnover proned, but the stats aren't the true story. He has made a few stupid mistakes, I'll say that, but a lot of the turnovers are on passes the receiving players couldn't catch, because their hands sucked. We have a guy named Melvin Ejim, which some of us call Stone Hands Ejim, because he can't catch worth a crap. Many turnovers were passes to him and some others who have average hands. 4) His hands are massive. He measured 11.5 inches at the combine, which was the largest. Actually the largest on record I believe in recent memory at the combine. It affects his shot, but he's been working on it with Fred Hoiberg (who was a very good NCAA and NBA shooter). He's made some tough fadeaways, mid range jumpers, and 3's this year for us. I haven't seen this posted..it's more of Iowa State 2012 top 10, than Royce White, but he pretty much dominates most of these plays: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLartVpSNo4 Jump shot, he did make some shots this year, some hard fadeaways and 3 pointers.
Thanks for the Analysis Maro. What Position do you think he should play in the NBA and which position will he be able to play?
Best pick of the entire draft. Royce White is the most physically gifted player in this draft. He can do it all! Time to let go of Scola, Patterson. I want to build around WHITE!
Technically, he has the IQ to play any position, but the ability part is different as of now. The guy is an extremely unique player and has VERY high ceiling. He has to work on his jumper, which he has been doing. He played a game in the summer league in Des Moines last week and was making jump shots, so it's a good sign to start. Right now, I think he could play SF. He's 6'8" and 260-270 pounds of muscle, so he's big. If you think about it, that's the same size of LeBron + 10-20 pounds. Thing about Royce is that he routinely took it at guys bigger than him. So while he doesn't have a jump shot, he is still strong and as strong, if not stronger, than a lot of PF in the NBA (no joke). He took it at the entire big front line of Baylor and K-State all year, and against Jeff Withey (although Withey did block his shots, but he's an excellent shot blocker), Anthony Davis, Terrence Jones, Thomas Robinson, etc. Really, if White gets a little faster for the NBA and develops a jump shot, he could legitimately be the next LeBron, but he is much, much stronger than LeBron and actually has post up moves. The scary part about all of this is, that you know how I mentioned White didn't play a real high level game for almost 2 years? Well first of all, he didn't even play basketball for a year after. He quit the game and focused on other things like himself, his life, and music. The funny thing is that after the Kentucky loss in the tournament, he said he basically was "finally" starting to get his game back. He didn't even think he did that well during the year even though he was putting up 18 and 17 against Thomas Robinson. It's scary when you think about it.
I can see how the Lebron comparisons come up, but he really is the hobo living in your local Walmart's Lebron. To me, he can be not-fat Boris Diaw, which is great value at 16. Now he just needs playing time...
I just had a crazy thought. I can imagine in some situations where we put White out at PG along side Parsons at the 3 and have Parson cover the PG on defense. I'm not saying we do this for crazy fast PG's where Parsons would get burned. Can you imagine the mismatch on offense? What PG can cover White. He would just run them over.
Here's some highlight videos from some games and you can see White. @Missouri http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydH9h7cEWUI Can see his 3 point shot here, no look pass, bullet passing, etc. Gets better as the video goes on. vs. Kansas http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7-hjkfkM20 Watch at 1:00 how he physically moves Jeff Withey with ease and gets an easy AND1. Reverse layup later and some good spin moves and fakes as well vs. UConn (NCAA Tournament) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inHrhMeOfAE
I forgot to point out that ISU played a pro-style offense last year, so White is probably used to the pro-style of play more than some others in the draft, even if players in the NBA are bigger, stronger, and faster than what he faced. And as stupid as this is going to sound, the Rockets' colors are almost the same as ISU's colors, so he'll feel comfortable I bet.
He looks pretty impressive!!! Just the highlight where he D's up #1 pick Unibrow, strips him, dribbles full length and throws it down= very Barkley-esque. I hated at first but its all love now for this pick.
Dunks vs. Texas A&M. Second dunk here he puts it between his defenders legs, goes around him, and dunks it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6k69KLQkGM
Actually reminds me of a poor man's Barkley more than anything (ok, very poor man's Barkley, haha). Uses his body very well offensively..can drive a little better than Barkley. But just a guy that can do a little of everything on the court and you can just give him the ball and let him go to work. Ordinarily, I'd be very excited about guys like White and Lamb. But going into the draft with expectations of finally having a foundation piece to build around just steals that away. Also the fact that there's a good chance that they won't get a good look on the court next year. I think White and Lamb could be very good but at the end of the day they aren't potential franchise changing players that we desperately need.
DieHard, I like the picks a lot, I just hope the team jettisons some of the chaffe in front of them on the roster to let them play. If they went young, that would be something to cheer for, but if they all get sent to the Rio Grande Valley as we chase the playoffs as an 8th seed, it will only r****d their growth and slow the Rockets future progress. Drives me nuts, in all honesty. DD
