I don't have Chet as the #1 guy on my board. Wouldn't be upset if we took Banchero or Jabari over him. But the narratives are bullshit. Everything I've said is what you'll find on his scouting report and what scouts would tell you. Meanwhile, you have people out here who don't want to draft him based on the combination of his skin pigmentation and birthplace. You have people who don't want to draft him because he played in the WCC when our best player is from Weber State. You have people that can't get past the fact that he's skinny when we're the team that passed on Kevin Durant. You have people saying he fouled out all year when he fouled it in less then 10% of his games. You have people holding his tournament shooting addict him while ignoring that Jabari Smith went 3-for-16 in the 2nd round against a questionable Miami defense. You have people arguing that he can't stay in front of anyone when I watched him stay in front of guys all year long. I've never seen this much unreasonable criticism for a Top 5 in my life, and many people (not here) have come out and admitted or implied that it's because he's white.
1. I think you're conflating some criticism with false narratives. If anything, I think Chet's gotten a pass on some of his question marks. But you still find those concerns mentioned in a lot of his counting reports.
2. The questions aren't BS is you can't rebut them with anything other than "You're wrong."
3. No one is absolutely writing him off. I've called him a boom-or-bust prospect -- high ceiling but with high bust potential because of his frame, his offense, his reaction time, and his performance against the caliber of competition he'll face in the NBA.
4. Lillard was the sixth pick and faced a lot of the same questions and we both know that more often than not Dame and Ja are the exception, not the rule. It's fair to have a healthy dose of skepticism when a guy hasn't performed much or well against top competition.
5. Kevin Durant played an entire season at Texas AND he was 25 pounds heavier while 2 inches shorter than Chet coming into the NBA. Also, he was an exceptional offensive player and still NO ONE, not the Blazers, not anyone else was taking him over Oden at that time. And there still were concerns about his frame at the time.
6. The fouled out thing is a weird fixation for you. First, my post was about his issues getting into foul trouble against teams with quicker, bigger, stronger athletes. It was specific. It wasn't one game. It wasn't at one point in the year. It was 10 games spaced throughout the year and the trend was remarkably uniform.
7. See point 6 regarding and replace fouling with shooting. I'll add to that that the fact that he isn't getting a lot of shots is a concern for me, too. You can yell from the mountains that they didn't need to run plays for him, but I have trouble believing a Hall of Fame level coach has what I am told is such a mismatch weapon and he never takes advantage of it? That's fantastical.
8. You said I was cherry-picking but you've twice now mentioned Smith going 3-for-16 in an NCAA tourney game ... conveniently ignoring a superior body of work against a slew of teams filled with pro prospects. You write off Chet's last 3 weeks as a slump but try to equate Smith's poor shooting game with it.
9. This is where I think you go off the wagon. If I have stats and reason for criticism, it's not unreasonable. If you haven't seen a more scrutinized top 5 prospect in your life, you must have just been born. And he's a victim of reverse racism??? OMG. That's just ridiculous. If anything, he's gotten people overlooking his shortcomings than vice versa.
I don't know. You just posted a bunch of wild opinion and apples and orange comparisons, Bones, and it just makes it seem to me you're personally invested in Chet more than the Blazers. Maybe that's the wrong read on it, but that's how it looks to me reading this in the context of other posts I've seen you make on the topic.
