Where's the superstar like David Robinson or Blake Griffin or LeBron James or Damian Lillard? Look at what they did on their first game in the NBA. Lillard had 23 points and 11 assists. Wiggins got 6 points tonight. Parker 8 points. Randle breaks his leg. I don't see it.
I know it's tongue-in-cheek, but I'd say that there's still some significant potential for some really good players to make it a really good race. Even with Randle down.
This class was super overrated to begin with. Said that on here in May. No superstars. Jabari will probably be the best one. Or maybe embiid.
How did I know this thread would be made by Kingspeed. Give them more then 1 game before declaring anything, hell one of the top 3 picks won't even play a game until the allstar break.
It's too early to decide but Danny Ainge was a lone critic of this year's draft. He said that he didn't see any player who was a a sure thing. Take that for what it's worth.
Dante Exum has been disappointing. I think he was just overhyped coming in though, he wasn't playing anyone good in Australia.
I was just looking at the numbers. 2 for Elfrid. 4 for Gordon. 8 for Wiggins followed by 8 for him this evening. Jabari Parker only had 9 last niht. May not be a bust but they are getting off to a slow start.
No rookie is blowing it out of the water but the most NBA ready rookie, Parker, doesn't look NBA ready. Just looks like a really raw but extremely talented class. By the second half of the year no one will be saying this class sucked.
I don't know that I'd blame Wiggins' "slow start" on being a bust. NBA coaches are not necessarily known for their flexibility of thought, and one of the core tenets of mediocre coaching is "don't let rookies mess up the game". 14 points on 14 shots (in 2 games) isn't horrible (and he's missed 4FTs), and in the few plays of MIN I surfed on LP he didn't look Leonard-level lost or anything.
Well, I gave Wiggins one more game and he is still underwhelming. Not the next LeBron. Remember his first game? He was incredible.
So was his second game but his third and fourth were 8 and 7 points. Comparing a rookie to lebron isnt fair even if doing a rookie comparison.
I may be reading between the lines incorrectly, but I think KingSpeed's point is that this so called "best draft/lottery in a decade" that the Blazers so desperately needed to be be part of, even if it meant trading LMA......... was far from the best way to help the team make the necessary step towards a championship. I don't doubt that some stars will eventually come out of it.....but which ones are no sure bet. Trading stars for draft picks is a huge gamble.
I think it's a good class. Wait until Embiid comes back healthy and hopefully he stays that way. Think the Sixers might have something with him and Noel.