Rookie/sophomore watch thread

[Mori Chu]

As suggested in another thread, we need an ongoing thread to track all the awesome rookies and second-year guys in the league right now. There's a lot of great young talent across the league. Have at it!

[Cap]

Rookies are great because you can have fun with stats of small samples.

Devin Booker has career shooting percentages of .727 from the field and .667 from three-point range, but only .333 from the line!

[Superbone]

Rookies are great because you can have fun with stats of small samples.

Devin Booker has career shooting percentages of .727 from the field and .667 from three-point range, but only .333 from the line!

Whoa! Could we have the first ever 70/60/30 player?! Forget 50/40/90.

[Danimal]

Why thank you Mori for taking up my suggestion

[Ring_Wanted]

Stanley didn't do too much against us but has a nice flash with a crossover and a drive to the basket. Not many SF have ability to take people off the dribble.

[Split T]

I think his future could be as a small ball 4. With Drummond covering him as the 5 especially. He's got similar size to Draymond Green and similarly skilled. And I think he's a better athlete.

[pickle]

i watched the knicks bucks game today. porzingis is for real... if he can stay injury free, this kid is going to be absolutely amazing. he's not dirk, but he can shoot it from 3. he isn't really a post presence right now, but he sure can run and jump. i'm not sure who i would compare him to... he is listed as a PF but i think he has SF game, though maybe he's not quite fast enough for that position.

and the greek freak is amazing. he's no longer taking ill-advised 22 footers, and his length is just overwhelming. sigh.

[pickle]

on a separate note, and maybe i'm digressing a bit, but the games i watch online here sometimes come with english commentary, and it's always from the home team. the houston broadcast is really awful, very much a homer announcement crowd, with clyde drexler, for whom i've lost a lot of respect. new york's is very nice and balanced. i'm not sure who does the color commentary though? clyde frazier? whomever it is, he's very objective with the calls and he owns up to his mistakes. i'm super impressed.

[Mori Chu]

i watched the knicks bucks game today. porzingis is for real... if he can stay injury free, this kid is going to be absolutely amazing. he's not dirk, but he can shoot it from 3. he isn't really a post presence right now, but he sure can run and jump. i'm not sure who i would compare him to... he is listed as a PF but i think he has SF game, though maybe he's not quite fast enough for that position.

Maybe a lil bit of AK-47 in him?

[Mori Chu]

on a separate note, and maybe i'm digressing a bit, but the games i watch online here sometimes come with english commentary, and it's always from the home team. the houston broadcast is really awful, very much a homer announcement crowd, with clyde drexler, for whom i've lost a lot of respect. new york's is very nice and balanced. i'm not sure who does the color commentary though? clyde frazier? whomever it is, he's very objective with the calls and he owns up to his mistakes. i'm super impressed.

Houston and San Antonio have two of the worst homer announce crews in the whole league.

[Superbone]

on a separate note, and maybe i'm digressing a bit, but the games i watch online here sometimes come with english commentary, and it's always from the home team. the houston broadcast is really awful, very much a homer announcement crowd, with clyde drexler, for whom i've lost a lot of respect. new york's is very nice and balanced. i'm not sure who does the color commentary though? clyde frazier? whomever it is, he's very objective with the calls and he owns up to his mistakes. i'm super impressed.

Yep, with league pass, I listen to them all. Some are total homers and annoying, like Houston, and some are pretty good and balanced. The Knicks have Mike Breen and Walt "Clyde" Frazier. They're fun to listen to. A lot better than the Chinese, huh?

[Superbone]

on a separate note, and maybe i'm digressing a bit, but the games i watch online here sometimes come with english commentary, and it's always from the home team. the houston broadcast is really awful, very much a homer announcement crowd, with clyde drexler, for whom i've lost a lot of respect. new york's is very nice and balanced. i'm not sure who does the color commentary though? clyde frazier? whomever it is, he's very objective with the calls and he owns up to his mistakes. i'm super impressed.

Houston and San Antonio have two of the worst homer announce crews in the whole league.

Along with Boston and Portland.

[pickle]

on a separate note, and maybe i'm digressing a bit, but the games i watch online here sometimes come with english commentary, and it's always from the home team. the houston broadcast is really awful, very much a homer announcement crowd, with clyde drexler, for whom i've lost a lot of respect. new york's is very nice and balanced. i'm not sure who does the color commentary though? clyde frazier? whomever it is, he's very objective with the calls and he owns up to his mistakes. i'm super impressed.

Yep, with league pass, I listen to them all. Some are total homers and annoying, like Houston, and some are pretty good and balanced. The Knicks have Mike Breen and Walt "Clyde" Frazier. They're fun to listen to. A lot better than the Chinese, huh?

haha yeah you can see i have a pet peeve with these game announcers. i generally feel like they need to improve my watching experience, otherwise why do i waste time listening to them? i saw a couple of games with portland, and forgot if they were good or bad. the pelicans have a very good crew, imho. saw the haws pelicans game and either gentry has not reached that team or they are just too hard hit by injuries to respond, but something's broken there. that's about the least entertaining 40 point game i've seen in a long time by davis.

[pickle]

i watched the knicks bucks game today. porzingis is for real... if he can stay injury free, this kid is going to be absolutely amazing. he's not dirk, but he can shoot it from 3. he isn't really a post presence right now, but he sure can run and jump. i'm not sure who i would compare him to... he is listed as a PF but i think he has SF game, though maybe he's not quite fast enough for that position.

Maybe a lil bit of AK-47 in him?

i'm not sure... iirc, AK47 was known more as a lock down defender who could pass... when you are 7-3, it's just pretty damn easy to rise up a little and dunk over people. combine that with a sweet and very confident shooting stroke, and superior motors, porzingis looks to be more of an offensive superstar in the making, like a 7-3 marion who could seriously clean up. not saying he's not AK47, just never watched enough to know what AK was like on offense. porzingis doesn't seem to quite be disruptive on defense yet though.

[ShelC]

Porzingis won't be a perimeter defender or even a great 1on1 post defender (except maybe due to his height and wingspan) but he's already a legit shotblocking threat around the basket. Great timing and feel for things, great timing on rebounds and just seems to get his hands on a lot of loose balls in the paint. He may not get the board, but it just seems like he's always around the ball, even just to tip it around and keep it alive. I made the AK47 comparison in another thread but he'll be much better offensively than AK47 (and Marion for that matter). There just aren't a lot of 7+ guys who do what Porzingis can do right now.

[pickle]

agreed. he's far more confident in his shot than marion ever was. in retrospect i probably would not have been so upset to have moved bledsoe plus #13 for him. at the time the rumor was floated, i was against it, thinking that bledsoe alone was well worth a #4 pick. porzingis and the greek freak will be two very interesting guys to follow over the next couple of years.

[Mori Chu]

So envious of these teams that have young stud players. I love Booker and Warren and I like Len, but we don't have anybody who's going to go nuts like a Drummond, a Greek Freak, an Okafor.

[pickle]

i'm surprised more wasn't made of not picking noel with the len pick... i would love to have noel manning the lanes right about now.

[Ring_Wanted]

Len is a solid prospect and there were even more concerns regarding Noel's health. I had no problem with that pick, although I didn't follow the 2013 draft too closely and didn't have a fav pick.

Ennis, on the other hand, was a questionable selection and by the time the offseason ended, it was a waste. That one bothered me.

[Mori Chu]

Moral of the story: Never draft a player (Ennis) just to try to ransom him to another team (Toronto).