The thing with DP is there are many that watched him on the HA circuit where none of these things presented. I’m sure in today’s day and age, if an NBA team takes him it will be based on extensive due diligence.
Deliver at the next level? Remains to be seen but Dalton Knecht was another 23 year old dominating college hoops a couple of years ago and he can't get on the floor for the Lakers outside of garbage time or when the main guys are injured.
Knecht was such a different profile - he was a shooter. Yaxel is a very athletic do it all 6'9". It would seem his physical profile would translate really well, just not sure if there are any flags upstairs. There is no reason a kid with that level of talent should still be in college, so I'm guessing something is up.
I lost track of him. Didn't he get some run early on?
He was much more than just a shooter he was putting it on the floor, scoring off the dribble, and dunking on guys as well. Knecht was a PG who sprouted up several inches after he got to juco and his first stop at the lower D1 level. If a GM takes a guy in Yaxel who has spent 6 years in college over Peterson they will be in the same wing as Nico Harrison in the NBA front office hall of shame.
Yes, actually had some 30 balls early in his rookie year but his defense is atrocious and also think he lost confidence and felt indifferent about being a Laker after the botched trade to Charlotte.
Would NOT trade him and all that baggage for even one of our current walk-ons, don't care.
Other than Peterson - who is definitely dealing with some legitimate physical issues - who are the top guys who are slacking?
Would Hurley? Many thought that Bouknight was more than taking his time coming back from injury his last year, but the moment he determined he was ready to play he was in the lineup.
Wizards have been successful at avoiding this level of raw talent in the first instance.
The answer is actually quite easy. If a kid is good enough that the NBA (or any other pro league) is willing to pay him huge bucks right away, let him take it and not have to show up at a college for a year. Then, if a kid shows up at college, he has some motivation to increase his value in all manners since he didn’t yet have enough value that someone in the NBA was willing to pay him tens of millions for one year while he satisfies an arbitrary age criteria.
There are none - false narrative. With you that he’s dealing with something.
Who had more raw talent than John Wall? He outplayed Kemba in MSG.
Fully agree with you. But that was a long time ago, and when they had Wall before his injury and Beal they were actually pretty good.
Dybsanta will have a great, long NBA career. I think he’s the least likely to have something derail him of the big three (Boozer has an athleticism question and Peterson we’ve covered). I think it’s really unfair for anyone to criticize him, or anyone else, for selecting a one year opportunity based on money. If you’re ready to criticize him for that, you might want to consider a more socialistic country than this one, because most of America, given the opportunity, would disappoint you.
good listen, was surprising that neither Simmons/Frazier/Mann remembered that Ace Bailey was trying to manipulate the process to land with his preferred franchise with no star/face last year when Simmons brought it up with Peterson.
