I’m going off of more than just our 22 games. He has a fairly decent sample size beyond UConn, along with the eyeball test, along with his measurables. Uphill battle to develop him into something more than a spare part in his senior year, but if the staff is into it, of course I’m all for it. It doesn’t mean you just have to be “optimistic” for the hell of it. I’m in the camp of it’s ok to be skeptical. More than anything he is a chronically slow decision maker, a trait that I just don’t see translating to PG.
It’s not optimism “for the heck of it.” It’s choosing to have a positive outlook because I have found that it improves my quality of life, holistically. Obviously, other people figured that out already thousands of years ago, but now I also know it from my own life experience.
I am also healthily skeptical. That’s why I expressed doubt in my own prediction and endorsed the possibility you may have it right.
RE: “the eye test…”
Frankly, this is a meaningless translation for an individual’s personal impression of a guy. I didn’t know the Boneyard existed back then, but I’d be shocked if people weren’t piling on to say Thabeet didn’t pass the eye test as an uncoordinated freshman. I know his pro career clearly didn’t pan out as projected for a #2 pick, but he was undeniably the most valuable center in the country as a junior and deserved to be the early lottery pick that he was. All of that is to say “the eye test” talk always makes me think of the old-timers in the movie Moneyball collectively getting a ton of stuff wrong, pretty much believing in their own credibility on the basis of circle jerk style validation.
That being said, I spontaneously employ the eye test myself. It’s called intuition. Sometimes it’s right, sometimes it’s wrong. Other than people who go strictly by the analytics for their expectations, the rest of us are all just intuiting to highly variable levels of accuracy.
