I think this dude's ceiling might be a lot higher than people think. There are not many, if any, pressing flaws in his game, and purely from a conceptual standpoint, his skill set should stand to accentuate the overall efficiency of the offense in a way that it might not with other rosters. He has the look of a marksmen from deep, but he's not just that. He's proven to be able to put the ball on the floor and generate paint buckets. With Adams and Gilbert de-centralizing the help structure with their initial probes, Vital will likely find himself needing only to beat one or two layers of the defense (and one of those layers will be a sprawling defender closing out).
Essentially, he's a B+ driver who teams are going to have to defend as strictly a spot up shooter.
And here's the thing: basketball is a tricky game. It's tricky because, for all the negative stereotypes, it really is the ultimate team sport. It's not about finding five alphas, it's about finding one or two alphas and guys who can play with them. That sounds overly simplistic but it's really not. Take Shabazz as an example. Total maestro with the ball in his hands. But I'm not sure that any version of Bazz is capable of playing Vital's role like Vital is capable of playing Vital's role, just like I'm not sure Rudy Gay would have been capable of playing Giffey's role as well as Giffey played it. Such is to say that, it is possible to play a secondary role while being a primary asset. I'm not sure Vital will ever be thought of by this board as more than a role player, but my gut tells me he's going to be our second best player next year just like I think Giff might have been our second best player in '14.
