No, they really aren't. The G league is a super weak level of competition, Tyty Washington put up 30/7/7 against that weak ass level of competition....and he was clearly not yet an NBA caliber player. I'm not saying there's no way Henderson will ever be good, but a lot of what he does is flash over substance.
The average age of a G-League player is 25 years old. A lot of these guys have already played in the NBA. Scoot was 18 years old with zero college or NBA experience and he didn't just hold his own, he played well. I swear, there is a whole group of posters here who just seem to struggle with the entire concept of adjusting for age when talking about prospects. DD and Bobby do this too. Age relative to the competition is extremely important when discussing young players like this.
TyTy is 21 years old, played a full year in college, and has actual NBA experience under his belt. He damn well better dominate. It's not even a comparison with Scoot age-wise who is ~2.5 years younger.
He's also a nobody....and people are trying to hype up Henderson like he's going to take the league by storm. You'd kind of hope he'd be able to perform at least as well as a random nobody, right?
On the age thing, yes to an extent, except next year is Rocket's pivot year. If we get #2, still take Henderson, but if Henderson is really 'raw'. Like first half of Jalen/Jabari's rookie season bad.., i'd seriously consider the Rockets to still get a vet point guard. Have Henderson learn behind a Harden, FVV, or whomever <insert name>. Next year will be Jalen's 3rd, and Jabari's 2nd. We can't have their growth impacted by bad PGs, or PGs who are still learning. The conventional belief is that if we get Henderson, to automatically start him, but I disagree. If new coach leans towards meritocracy; have Henderson earn it. And if he learns behind a vet, there's no shame in it. PG is the hardest position in the NBA we can't just be giving rookies automatic minutes because of their draft positions. It can't be growth of one player hindering other players; have to think about the whole team.
TyTy is a 21 year old NBA-caliber player with NBA experience who was a consensus first-round pick in the draft. He is not a "nobody". And no, I would not expect any 18-year-old, no matter how gifted, to be able to keep up with NBA-caliber players. That's just not how it works. Too much growth and development left to do at that age.
To give you an example: Kobe Bryant was one of the rare players to come into the league at age 18. His numbers that year: 7.6 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 1.3 assists on 41% shooting. Even the best just aren't ready yet when they're that young.
Im not sure you have me pegged properly there chief. If I'm going to gloat over a teenager I may prefer Amen Thompson and his measurables and better shooting ability over a player who is based on pure athleticism with a suspect shot. This team has plenty of bad shooters already.
I like Amen too. I think there's even an argument for him over Scoot due to his superior tools, although I think in the end G-League versus OTE is just too big of a gap. Anyway, sorry for venting at you, just getting tired of having to make the same points over and over to certain posters who, um... struggle with context.
I agree with that. Im not a fan of age restricted leagues with guys you expect to be professionals so I'd give the advantage to Scoot in the GLeague in that regard vs the OTE league full of 16-20 year olds. With that said you cant teach 6'7 with similar passing instincts and much more pure shot package (even though I can admit the raw stats for Amen dont look great from 3 currently). I like Scoots explosiveness, but for a guy that is as highly touted as him I would have expected his ability to score to be better even when playing against B level pros. Just an observation not an admonishment of him.
I see people doing things like this a lot when they hold non-falsifiable positions.....if a player does well, it proves their take, if a player performs poorly, it proves their take because another player once performed poorly too. It's not the best if I'm honest.
There are always outliers right? I mean both KD and Lebron hit the ground running as teenagers in the NBA.
I think what most people expect with a top tier NBA talent that is good enough to be taken in the top 3 is someone who will "hit the ground running" and make a positive impact from day one. They won't be as good at that point as they will be, but they won't suck. The past 2 years of underwhelming to outright bad rookie campaigns from top 3 draft picks I think has skewed that opinion to where now people are suggesting that top draft picks should suck when they are young.
Its a mixed bag and conundrum of sorts. Would Evan Mobleys defense first mindset have been a better pick than Jalen long term? In the short term sure it looks obvious. Last season I wasnt big on Jabari -- I was on the Banchero Bus and when the ship sailed what should have been the move -- Keegan Murray? With such a drastic demolition of a playoff team and subsequent rebuild I think some leeway in the expectations is warranted considering the edict to lose coming from the top. I do agree that both Jalen and Jabari were suspect at various times in their respective rookie campaigns, but when thinking long term they may wind up being the best picks for the team. Fingers crossed.
A lot of this is paywalled, but there's some interesting stuff before you hit the wall. https://theboxandone.substack.com/p/scoot-henderson-2023-nba-draft-scouting
Someone with time could take every red square from around 2003 and see what the overall average stats are and also by position. "a top draft pick expectations" are skewed by age obviously.
It would be something if this guy turns out to be the real deal and lifts this team into playoffs his first year putting kpj on his back lol.
I think its safe to say without needing to compile the data that most young players coming into the NBA dont start off as all stars. Im fine with that especially for our team. Even more so when you add the tank job to the equation. More structure and a veteran presence would have been nice though. Very few guys jump into the NBA as teenagers and dominate. Theme for us should have been patience, but you know how that goes around here. At the same time fans are also permitted to be concerned when one of our young guys defense is worst in league and the other had a hard time hitting open jumps shots when touted to be one of the best in that area. Hindsight is always 20/20 and for the options available to Stone in picking the "right" guys he did about as well as you could expect.
