That's a good point. I wouldn't eliminate a guy because he didn't grow up playing basketball. It's more about their work ethic and whether or not they fell in love with the game or if they just started playing because they were tall. We don't really know where Chriss falls, he started playing basketball late, was he just not exposed to it or did he just get too tall for football. Does he love basketball now? How much work is he willing to put in? It seems like the suns have the same questions, I think Triano asked Chriss if he loved basketball. Hopefully Chriss figures out he loves it and is willing to work.Marty [Mori Chu] wrote:I generally agree with this thinking. But I don't think you can be too religious about such a rule. If you had this as a must-have quality in the draft, you'd have passed on the Greek Freak, who began playing relatively late in his life. And wasn't the same true for Joel Embiid? Again, I mostly agree with this mindset, just saying that there are some really good exceptions to it.ShelC wrote:Exactly. There are two kind of players in the league: Guys that play basketball and basketball players. Give me the basketball player every single time. And don't feed me BS about some kid's untapped potential because he just started playing at 16 and has so much more room to grow. Give me the kid who's been playing since he's 6 years old because he loves it.
Embiid, Giannis, Hakeem all grew up in countries where basketball wasn't as big. They got into basketball later not because they just outgrew soccer but because they loved basketball. You saw ridiculous development from those guys because they were athletic freaks that developed a love for basketball later and their skills grew like crazy compared to other prospects their age because most prospects had already started developing their skills.
