I'd disagree in that I think Doncic is a clear #1 v. the 2017 draft class. Specifically, I don't think Ainge would've traded the pick if Doncic were available. It's possible the Sixers and Lakers would've preferred the players they went with, but in that scenario, no trade gets made. I also think the Lakers and Sixers would have been very wrong to do so, but sometimes Euro players get undervalued.
Yeah, I was coming to post the same and I don't think it's really close. I'd go so far as to say there would be any one of 4 players from the 2018 class that go #1 over Fultz this past summer.......Doncic and Bagley for sure. We haven't seen enough of Porter and Ayton vs the next level of competition (the word from NBA players on Bagley from summer league/pick up games is that he's the real deal) but we have seen Doncic as a 17-year old vs Oklahoma City in the pre-season last year and in EuroBasket this summer. He's a flat out can't miss stud barring injury.
We haven't, but if Doncic is the third best prospect in this draft class, we're looking at another 2003.
We absolutely might be looking at a 1996 or 2003 with the exception of no all-time great like LeBron. I like Doncic and he gives me a bigger Manu Ginobili vibe. Will be very interesting to see if Ayton, Porter, and Bagley can dominate in college the way Doncic has dominated international competition. If they do, anyone in the top 5 is getting a future all-star.
Doncic is only a year younger and I think he has similar questions to Fultz fwiw. Tools to defend but not shown it really except in flashes, good athleticism but not elite.Good pnr handler and potentially elite pull up shooters. Doncic has the size and a more proven spot up shooter too, though both profile there. Bigger and younger would suggest Doncic but Fultz is a much better driver (better handle) and Doncic is a better upside as a passer but has major turnover issues.
You touch on it here but from what I've read Doncic is leaps and bounds better than Fultz as a passer and has a higher basketball IQ (Kevin O'Connor on twitter has been saying that Doncic is only a little below Lonzo in passing and BB IQ)
This was back when there was much less footage of European players with nearly all of the NBA teams adding a token "International scout" to their responsibilities without having a physical presence there or a focus on these players. There were the exceptions of course, Dallas and San Antonio for sure, but by and large teams didn't fully invest resources on evaluating European players until the past 5-10 years. Fast forward to today and you can see these guys all year round.....I posted either here or CelticsNuts that I have actually seen more of Doncic over the past 12 months than I have of Fultz while still spending more time than a sane person should watching U. of Washington blowouts.
And not just on any European team, but on the best team in the world outside of the NBA.
Two years ago do you mean? This time last year people were wondering if Giles was ever going to be able to play NBA ball after his second major reconstructive knee surgery.
That's an interesting statement. How would Real Madrid do against Duke or Kentucky?
This point is valid (ignoring that Giles problems were/are injury, not talent) for every player in the 2018 class except Doncic. The other guys haven't played against the level of competition where you can really have a true idea of who they are as NBA prospects. (The whispers about Bagely complicate this statement a little, and I don't intend to ignore them, but he's still mainly an unknown from where I sit.)
Maybe the kids get a game in a seven game series, but Real would beat them pretty easily. In 2016 they beat the Thunder by 5 in OT. The Thunder then edged out Barcelona by 3. In all of those games, the NBA teams' starters played big minutes. Barca also beat the Lakers in 2010 and is 3-5 all-time vs NBA teams. Real is 2-6, including a 15 point loss to the Celtics full squad in 2015.
With all due respect, I think Real Madrid as presently constituted would win 20 games in the NBA and they would beat Duke or Kentucky 9 times out of 10.
Even with Lull, who is out for the next year with a ruptured ACL, that is a truly awful NBA team as he projects as a role player at the NBA level. The games they were competitive versus NBA squads were games in which they treated them as their Super Bowl while OKC and others treated them as their first exhibition games of the year after having the summer off.
People consistently underrate the difference between 18-21 year old men and 27-30 year old men when evaluating questions like this. A team like Duke or Kentucky might be able to compete with European teams on talent, but they will be dominated by the superior strength, experience, and skill of pro players.
And instantly the Sixers leapfrog Doncic to the top of their board! (sorry London, couldn't resist the layup)
The kid has no interest whatsoever in being a student. He shouldn't be forced onto a campus just to satisfy the NBA's one-and-done rule, which may be going by the boards anyway. Let someone else bear the risk of his "draft prep", which is really all he is doing at school.
Whoa! Nobody is claiming the kid would ever be a candidate to graduate and he is bound to what the rules are right now.....not to what they "should" be in the future. My only point was that a large piece of a scouts evaluation has to do with how a player takes care of his business and responsibilities.
Absolutely agree with your second sentence, and apologies if my response came off as snarky, I didn't mean it to. My dislike is with the system the NBA has set up. I'd really like to see them change the draft rules for the NBA, to something like MLB or the NFL have (three years after HS graduation/enrollment). I think the one and done is just silly.
Not snarky at all I just wanted to make sure we were discussing the same thing. I agree with you that I'd also like to see the NBA go to something similar to the MLB draft rules.
I agree and I don't have a problem with it when a structured system in the form of a true minor league complete with staff employed by the parent team is in place.
Today's structure is already far different than it was in the late 90's and early 00's. With the advent of what will be a true minor league with parent club staff and systems in place the landscapes would barely be recognizable. Throwing McGrady to the men without a life vest isn't what having multiple 18-19's year olds in a structured system would resemble.
Doh! It is so good I forgot who wrote it. It does a great job examining each noted prospect and you can easily draw the lines between which players failed and which players made it. The players who landed on dysfunctional franchises that lacked a strong veteran presence didn't make it. The players who landed on franchises with strong ownership and laid out a real plan did. Also the respected attitudes of the talents is a key factor, and some of these guys have really sad backgrounds with adults taking advantage of them.
I said this back after the western exodus in July, there's a lot of variability on the Brooklyn pick now. With the Melo exit the bottom of the east is so bad that there's an outside chance that the Nets make the playoffs. Sadly three bad teams have to because there are only five legitimately good teams in the conference (Cleveland, Boston, Washington, Milwaukee, Toronto).
If George doesn't sign with LA, I don't think LeBron does either. So I'm really rooting for the Thunder this year, because it would be all kinds of hilarious if they kept their big three together and at year's end the Lakers were stuck with a "big three" of Ball, Zubac, and Ingram.
There's an outside chance, but it's a really slim one. There are basically 7 teams that are locks for the playoffs in the East. After those teams, there is a tier of 4 teams who will compete for the 8 seed. Those are Philly, Detroit, Indy, and Orlando. All those teams are bad, but none are truly awful. The next tier down is the Bulls, Nets, Hawks, and now Knicks. Those 4 teams have 3 teams generally in there ranks out West in LA, Sacramento, and Phoenix. I actually think LA is more like the teams who'll be fighting for the playoffs in the East, but I'm lumping them in since many here disagree. It's hard to see the Nets finishing outside this group.
