OT: Scouting Hits and Misses

[AidanFan20]

Stanley Johnson. Went to Mater Dei in SoCal, led the team to four straight state Open-class titles. He seemed to be all-everything, smart, fast, huge hops, heck of a defender.

I was absolutely sure he'd get to the HOF. Um... Not even close. He did get into the league and stuck around for all or part of eight seasons, but in his best year, he started 50 games and scored 8.7 per game. Other years, not even that "good".

Pretty bad miss...

On the other hand, I correctly nailed Jason Kidd's future... I was telling everyone who would listen that he was a surefire first-year-eligible HOF'er. Before he ever even played in college. And that's exactly what happened.

Whenever I happen to mention this story to people, they tend to react with: "Wow, you must know a lot about basketball!"

My standard answer to that is... "Not really, I can just spot the obvious." Others were playing checkers and Kidd was playing 3D chess. He was just THAT good!

 

[david]

Stanley Johnson. Went to Mater Dei in SoCal, led the team to four straight state Open-class titles. He seemed to be all-everything, smart, fast, huge hops, heck of a defender.

I was absolutely sure he'd get to the HOF. Um... Not even close. He did get into the league and stuck around for all or part of eight seasons, but in his best year, he started 50 games and scored 8.7 per game. Other years, not even that "good".

Pretty bad miss...

On the other hand, I correctly nailed Jason Kidd's future... I was telling everyone who would listen that he was a surefire first-year-eligible HOF'er. Before he ever even played in college. And that's exactly what happened.

Whenever I happen to mention this story to people, they tend to react with: "Wow, you must know a lot about basketball!"

My standard answer to that is... "Not really, I can just spot the obvious." Others were playing checkers and Kidd was playing 3D chess. He was just THAT good!

LOL I remember when Jaylen Brown entered the league I thought he was a poor man's Stanley Johnson

 

[Mr. French]

Jaylen Brown and Luka are 2 good ones for me, I felt those 2 guys would be problems and they both are.

Funny, Stanley Johnson I’m on board there too, but all those AZ guys! Derrick Williams, SJ, Ayton, I thought they’d all be very good pros.

 

[Huskybass]

Bouk is my biggest miss ever. The talent was certainly there, but not the work ethic or focus. I hope he catches on somewhere overseas at a minimum.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Stanley Johnson. Went to Mater Dei in SoCal, led the team to four straight state Open-class titles. He seemed to be all-everything, smart, fast, huge hops, heck of a defender.

I was absolutely sure he'd get to the HOF. Um... Not even close. He did get into the league and stuck around for all or part of eight seasons, but in his best year, he started 50 games and scored 8.7 per game. Other years, not even that "good".

Pretty bad miss...

On the other hand, I correctly nailed Jason Kidd's future... I was telling everyone who would listen that he was a surefire first-year-eligible HOF'er. Before he ever even played in college. And that's exactly what happened.

Whenever I happen to mention this story to people, they tend to react with: "Wow, you must know a lot about basketball!"

My standard answer to that is... "Not really, I can just spot the obvious." Others were playing checkers and Kidd was playing 3D chess. He was just THAT good!

Stanley is a good one. The hype going into his freshman year carried into his draft cycle. I was a believer.

 

[Huskyforlife]

Jaylen Brown and Luka are 2 good ones for me, I felt those 2 guys would be problems and they both are.

Funny, Stanley Johnson I’m on board there too, but all those AZ guys! Derrick Williams, SJ, Ayton, I thought they’d all be very good pros.

I still can’t believe Derrick Williams wasn’t a good pro.

 

[Waquoit]

Finally came to me, Jerome Lane. He grabbed every rebound it seemed. I knew he was undersized, I guess it was too much to overcome.

 

[Husky68]

Stanley Johnson. Went to Mater Dei in SoCal, led the team to four straight state Open-class titles. He seemed to be all-everything, smart, fast, huge hops, heck of a defender.

I was absolutely sure he'd get to the HOF. Um... Not even close. He did get into the league and stuck around for all or part of eight seasons, but in his best year, he started 50 games and scored 8.7 per game. Other years, not even that "good".

Pretty bad miss...

On the other hand, I correctly nailed Jason Kidd's future... I was telling everyone who would listen that he was a surefire first-year-eligible HOF'er. Before he ever even played in college. And that's exactly what happened.

Whenever I happen to mention this story to people, they tend to react with: "Wow, you must know a lot about basketball!"

My standard answer to that is... "Not really, I can just spot the obvious." Others were playing checkers and Kidd was playing 3D chess. He was just THAT good!

I was living in California when Kidd was in high school and caught a state championship game on tv and this player kept beating everyone down court and making easy layups. He looked like he wasn't really trying that hard, I wondered "why don't they just guard this player"? That was Kidd! I missed how good he was, just thought other guys must be not that good.

 

[AidanFan20]

I was living in California when Kidd was in high school and caught a state championship game on tv and this player kept beating everyone down court and making easy layups. He looked like he wasn't really trying that hard, I wondered "why don't they just guard this player"? That was Kidd! I missed how good he was, just thought other guys must be not that good.

I was very lucky... Already a St. Joe's fan, I heard during the summer before his freshman year that they had this incredible point guard coming in.

I saw Jason's first game... Even as a freshman, he was ridiculously dominant. He was a no-doubt-er. So, I saw many, many, many more of his games in person. Should have gone to even more. As it was, I saw him play 70 HS games, and about 10 more at Cal.