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Following potential 2014 draftees

A lot of work to just disappear in games and not demand the ball.

really your just skewing the truth. there's many factors including playing time, foul trouble, bad coaching, poor spacing and distribution, ****ty teammates and he also had double teams sent at him while playing a new position..

great, no 20 point games. Its not like he cant score, is 17points per 40 minutes not good enough for a dominant rebounding 18 year old?

Nerlens Noel didnt have any 20 point games, neither did Steven Adams.. are they all similarly doomed by this pivotal indicator?

the fact of the matter is, he more than held his own vs NBA quality bigmen this season, he was the best big on the floor vs Syracuse, played one of his best games vs Kaminsky and Adrian Payne played like **** vs IU and Vonleh...

i dont really see the case against him, its not like he had a bad year and is declaring, this kid was at onepoint the #1 player in the 2014 class by some scouting services, he could have easily stayed and gone at the top of next years draft, he compares favorably to next years PF's IMO, his combine #'s sealed that argument.

in what world are freshman expected to take over or dominate ? is this how you hold all prospects feet to the fire?

vs washington in 24 mins he scored 18 on 11 shots, grabbed 9 boards had 2 blocks and 2 assists, in a blowout win looks like he was well on his way to 20 in this game, anyway you slice it, that game, in those minutes he dominated.

vs penn state in 27 mins he scored 19 on 9 shots and grabbed 6 boards, in the next matchup vs Penn state he got double teamed every time he touched the ball....

If you didnt watch IU you might make a, 'well if hes so talented he should demand the ball' argument. but thats off-base because thats how Yogi Farrell the point guard feels about himself, a Sophomore who was also a 5 star recruit and Mcdonalds all-american, IU was the #1 team in the nation while he was starting as a freshman, and judging by this season he picked up some bad hero ball habits.

also IU had a senior, Will Sheehey, Indiana fans and some mock draft websites which are quoted as gospel around here had Sheehey sneaking into the 2nd round of this draft, before the season started. IU was hell bent on getting him shots and having a big Senior year. their whole plan backfired, IU was bad, role players like Eric Gordons brother Evan was terrible, and the backup for Noah got a DUI in early february.

Every Indiana fan would have preferred Noah to have the most or 2nd most shots on the team, but that wasnt in Crean's plan. theres plenty of evidence that Noah did damn well in an adverse situation, i think 3 IU players to transfered elsewhere after this season, Crean would be waaaay gone if he wasnt owed over 10 mil.
 
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Vonleh is a great kid, it cant be repeated enough. Theres very little chance the $$ gets to his head, its deeply ingrained in him to be a hard worker. His family moved to the US from Liberia a year before he was born, parents divorced when he was 13 and he grew up watching his mom work 2 nursing jobs and from what i understand she kind of... on his case..

hes got 2 younger sisters and theres a story about his mom saving money for a year to take the family on a dream vacation to disneyland, he got there and didnt want to go on any rides and made his mom find a YMCA to drop him off at for 10 hours a day to play basketball, every day for the 5 day vacation.

thats just how much of a gym rat he is, if you check basketball related boards in the philly/ new england area you will see a thousand, 'holy **** i played this guy in a pickup game' posts. a total gym rat who played 1000's of pickup games to try to improve his game, his coach at IU said if he put a cot in the gym, Noah would never leave, hes very concerned with improving his game.

he finished over 50% of his bachelors this year at IU, also showed up on campus like 2 days after HS graduation, so he could start working right away, he was with Zeller and Oladipo while they were preparing for last years draft, and in the last year or so hes put on over 25lbs, at 18 hes just scratching the surface of his potential but he certainly has the work ethic to make it happen.

What a dick.
 
Vonleh never even scored 20 points in a game. Never was able to take a game over.

i think this is a fair point. i shudder at the thought of getting a guy based on purely potential. projecting is a dangerous game with this important a pick. doesnt mean we shouldnt draft Vonleh, but we better be damn sure he is the real deal if we take him at 5.
 
Does this concern anyone else??? I mean it was last year but....brick city

Yes its concerning

Luckily i think he will work hard at his shooting and his form isnt horrible
 
I'm really starting to think Gordon will bust. His only elite skill is defense, and he isn't that great at defense.
 
I'm really starting to think Gordon will bust. His only elite skill is defense, and he isn't that great at defense.


I agree with this. I don't think he's the defender people are saying he is. I think the hype is a smokescreen. DX has him mocked at #10 now. I could see him fall that low, tbh.

How many decent small forwards have you seen airball a free-throw.....like ever? I've never airballed a free-throw in my life. That's how far off his shooting touch is.

He might not be a total bust though. He might end up being Josh Smith eventually.
 
He's elite at defense but isn't that great at it?

wut

My point is, he is crazy athletic but isn't great at anything. So people assume crazy athleticism = great defender.

But, when you go back and look at his defense, he's isn't that special. He won't come in and shut down anyone year one.

So, if you don't know if he can shoot, you don't know if he can pass, you don't know what position he will play, you don't know if he can dominate a game, and you don't know if he can defend anyone...then what do you know?

He's young, athletic and teachable. That's a pretty big risk to take at #5 for a team like Utah.

I wouldn't touch him. I think at 5 you go Smart. Maybe Vonleh. Utah has to come away from this with an All Star. I don't ever see Gordon being an all star.

My wish list is:

Embiid
Parker
???????????
Smart/Wiggins/Exum (I'd have to be at the workouts to know better)

If there is any shot you can get Parker, you do it. I'd give up Burks, Kanter #5, the rest of this year's picks and a future first.

Without a star, you have nothing. We have nice pieces, but without a star they = nothing.
 
I agree with this. I don't think he's the defender people are saying he is. I think the hype is a smokescreen. DX has him mocked at #10 now. I could see him fall that low, tbh.

How many decent small forwards have you seen airball a free-throw.....like ever? I've never airballed a free-throw in my life. That's how far off his shooting touch is.

He might not be a total bust though. He might end up being Josh Smith eventually.

Some SF from the Heat did once. He managed to have a decent career in spite of it.
 
Some SF from the Heat did once. He managed to have a decent career in spite of it.

If you're talking about LeBron, I think LeBron brings more to the table that will allow you to overlook that.

What does Gordon do, that you think will allow him to come in and dominate one aspect of the game year one? Year three? Year five?

I don't see one trait that says, he dominate this: _______ in five years.

Embiid has defense.
Wiggins has defense.
Parker will score 25.
Smart will score 20 and has defense.

Those are the only for sure things in this draft. Everyone else has big time bust material. They might have high ceilings, but they also have loooooooow floors.
 
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