Posted by TMS:
Posted by Finestrg:
Posted by TMS:
Posted by Finestrg:
Decent quick interview - I would've liked to have seen him asked about being a pro PG but I've heard his take on it before, he knows he can do it.
TMS - what's different in Curry now from 2 years ago/halfway through last year is w/o question his ability to play the point. I was as skeptcal as anyone early on last year that he couldn't do it but he proved he could. It's not just my dumb opinion or conjecture - I mean he proved it on the court. Definitely changed my opinion of him as well as a lot of people.
Here's my take on this kid:
- Best pure shooter AND scorer in the draft. Clutch too. Check.
- Enough size at over 6'3" in shoes (his father wasn't lying). Check.
- Not a world class athlete but a good one. More than enough athletic ability to play in the NBA. Combine agility & strength #s were all very good across the board. Has probably the same if not more pure athletic ability than guys like Stockton, Nash and Mark Jackson in my mind. Check.
- Good handle. Adequate. Check.
- Excellent F/T shooter. Check.
- Jumped right in to the PG spot for Davidson and really flourished. Proved to a lot of people that he has the court awareness, vision and passing ability to play the point. BIG Check.
- The 'high IQ' thing's far from nonsense - you can tell right away that he actually does play the game with a good amount of calmness, smoothness, grace and intelligence. It's very apparent and those are good mature qualities. Check.
- No Defense huh? He averaged 2.5 steals a game last year (tied for 1st in the NCAA - 1ST!!) and just said on the ESPN News interview that he plans to make it as tough as possible on opposing players and doesn't want the perception to be, "OK Steph Curry tonight, I'm going for 30." I liked his answer there a lot. He'll play defense. Check.
Someone please tell me where the glaring weaknesses are??? Tell you what, kill me if you want to, but he might be the 2nd best player in this draft behind Griffin. I think he's gonna be an excellent pro. Knicks should stop at nothing to get this kid, even after the draft's over...
[Edited by - finestrg on 06-24-2009 5:17 PM]
after the NCAA's ended this year he was slotted to go in the early teens on most mock draft boards... now all of a sudden he's being talked about in the top 5? sorry, i just don't get it... he's the same player now that he was then... the only thing is you have all these news writers hyping up this prospect & downgrading that one, based on nothing but combine stats & private workouts... i don't get that at all... i would rather judge players based on how they look in real games that mean something... i'm not doubting his ability to run the point either, just don't know how his upside potential shot up 10 spots in the draft in the span of a few weeks when he hasn't played a meaningful game since.
[Edited by - TMS on 06-24-2009 3:29 PM]
Not sure I follow ya. Thing's change and basically every mock out there is adjusted on the fly closer to crunch time based exactly on the very factors you mentioned - Combine results, private workouts, GMs' interested, rumors... That's how the mocks change. Good example - strong rumor now that the Kings like Flynn and Draftexpress.com now has Flynn going 4th to Sac. last I looked. The guys that run these mocks are trying to get it as accurate as possible to how they think it'll go down based on all available information right up to draft time. That's just how they do it. They all start out with initial opinions and keep evolving into mocks that'll be as close to the real thing as possible.
I know I've liked Curry from the latter half of last season for us myself..
what i'm saying is that nothing's changed in terms of judging Curry's talent... it's the hype & the off the court stuff & combines that drives these mock draft fluctuations, but he's the same player he was at the end of the NCAA season... so whether u think he's a top 5 prospect now, IMO u should have thought similar of him at the end of the NCAA season if you watched him & the other prospects in action... i just don't see how u can call 1 prospect a guy who will go in the teens 1 month & then hype him up to top 5 the next when the season was already over during that time span... Blake Griffin was the consensus #1 from the middle of the NCAA season & nothing's changed on that... all these fluctuations after him just tells me there's a whole lotta misdirection going on w/these GM's & no one's overly in love with any 1 prospect 1 way or the other... that doesn't mean necessarily that Curry is the 5th best prospect in this draft or that he even belongs in the top 5... that's all i'm saying... for all i know he could end up being the 2nd best prospect to come out of this draft... only time will give us an answer.
I guess I just consider some of the factors involved here a little less 'hype' than you do. I mean the Combine, outside of the vitals, the drills and stuff were a joke, I agree there (and like an idiot I watched for hours, both days). However, I'd put at least some stock in these private workouts and Curry managed to shine in every one he had including ours. He flat out outplayed guys. I can see what you're saying though a little bit I guess. I mean I kinda get sucked into it all a little bit myself but it's only because I want him bad and know that he's the best fit for us (and plus there's the LeBron angle on the back burner here and if you ask me, ever little bit'll help. If this kid's friendship w/LeBron could possibly help lure the King to the Big Apple, fantastic. If not, hey, I'd be confident that we still got the best player to rebuild with in the draft after Griffin). When I first got the impression Curry wasn't gonna be there at 8 a few weeks ago, naturally I started thinking of ways to move up to get him. He's been my guy for awhile now and I don't wanna lose out on a good thing for us - make no mistake here, I think he's that good. If all I thought he was was a smaller shooter w/o a real position - and this was my impression at one point - I wouldn't even have him on my radar at the moment. I think he's shown the world that he's much more than that however and there's now a lot of interest by a good handful of teams picking before us..
IMHO I think we need a quality lead guard to run the ship here. I mean I wanted Jerryd Bayless last year for us for this role. I fell in love with Jeff Teague this year when he had his team undefeated halfway through the season, almost single-handedly beat UNC all by himself in a huge home win and was driving the lane dunking on guys routinely and hitting 3s all over the joint. Bayless and Teague are both similar and are very good prospects but there's a bit of a learning curve with both in terms of running a team. I just don't see that curve with Curry. He's ready to go right away. Very mature game. Middle of the season in, I took more & more notice of Curry running the point at Davidson and loved what I saw. I just feel he's gonna be special & I don't want to lose him. You gotta fight for what you want.
[Edited by - finestrg on 06-24-2009 8:58 PM]
6/24/2009 11:58 PM