I see shades of Luka in scoot’s game.
Maybe. If they had Wemby then of course. I’m not sure Scoot or Miller moves the price that much.
I’d love for them to draft Henderson. I’d love to take some pride in this team. But damn man, I don’t trust these guys at all.
I think having an extremely exciting, young player picked at #2 definitely adds value to a team for sale.
Those top 2-3 picks in the NBA draft are so coveted. And it’s insanely expensive to try to trade into the top 3.
It would cost teams multiple first round picks to trade for the 2 or 3 pick.
Didn’t the Mavs trade two first round picks to move from 5 to 3 in the swap of Trae for Luka? That’s heavy capital and plays a role in the value of a franchise.
My friend just texted me this, and I thought it was interesting. If the Celtics lose tonight, would you trade the #2 pick for Jaylen Brown. Not sure I’d do it, but I would listen.
Not a chance.
Absolutely not.
I would consider taking scoot then trading LaMelo for a package centered around jaylen brown
You would prefer to trade the 6’7 21 year old proven all star PG already on our team than the 6’2 prospect who’s only played in the G league and at his best projects to be a shorter Russel Westbrook?
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I think you think about it, but I think you say f it and just hope Scoot/Miller ends up being a better player even if it’s only a 10% chance. Brown was brutal this series, already on a massive deal. Think that makes way more sense for Portland than it does us if they’re serious about trying to ride Dame for one final stretch.
So legit question for ya’ll as I’m trying to visualize what it looks like if it goes bad for Brandon Miller.
Question is, what prospects in the mold of Miller (Wings with his size and athleticism who could play the 2 or 3) who have demonstrated the level of productivity that he has at this stage have become busts?
Chef mentioned that he gets Rudy Gay or Danny Granger vibes from Miller. While they both were really good players who averaged over 20pts at the peak of their careers and Granger was a one-time all-star before injuries derailed his career, neither of them had the production that Miller had in college. Gay played two years at UConn and averaged 13.6 points and 5.9 rebounds (11.8 and 5.4 his freshman year). Granger played four years between Bradley and New Mexico (not exactly top teams) and averaged 16.7 points and 8.2 rebounds over four years (only 11.1 and 7.1 his freshman year).
De’andre Hunter’s name was mentioned as a comp. He had a redshirt year then played two seasons at UVA averaging 9.6 points and 4.4 rebounds.
These are good players but they didn’t have near the impact and production that Miller had on one of the best teams in college basketball as just a Freshman one and done.
I concede and agree that it’s not fair to compare Miller to Durant but tell me this. What other prospect in their mold has demonstrated a level of production closer to Durant as a one and done than Miller? Maybe RJ Barrett if you squeeze him in that category.
Miller averaged 18.8 pts, 8.2 rbs shooting 38% from 3pr. Just skimming through recent drafts and looking at players in his mold (or close), the following players come to mind and none of them had his level of productivity in one year at college.
Jabari Smith – 16.9pts, 7.4rbs (2nd team all-rookie, bright future)
Keegan Murray – 7.2pts, 5.1 rbs (freshman year), 1st team all-rookie, bright future)
Jayson Tatum – 16.8pts, 7.3rbs (1st team all NBA, multi year all star, MVP contender)
Brandon Ingram – 17.3pts, 6.8rbs (all star)
Andrew Wiggins – 17.1pts, 5.9rbs (all star)
Harrison Barnes – 15.6pts, 5.8rbs (freshman year)
These are all really good to all-star (and potential all-star) level players. So to me it reinforces my thought that the floor for Miller is really high and the ceiling could be through the roof. But again, I’m interested to hear who ya’ll would say has been on his level and would consider a bust?
Serious question: how do you figure in pace and/or the fact that college players are now shooting way more three’s per game in those stats. I can’t help but notice how inflated stats like points and rebounds are now vs 20-25 years ago.
I don’t have an answer, but I’m with you that many of us could be discounting Miller, particularly because of the various off court things connected to him.
Obviously, an effective wing scorer is a useful piece and possibly game changing.
I think I could be talked into trading down to #3 for Lillard and then taking Miller…
I’m not sure how you would factor that in but I understand what you’re saying. most of the guys I listed are within the last 5 years or so and within this era of increased pace and 3s I think. I don’t know that players of this mold existed 20-25 years ago and it wasn’t the one and done era so it’s hard to compare but I’d still be interested to hear if you have someone who produced on an adjusted stat level for that era at such a young age and had that type of size and skill.
He just reminded me of the tim Thomas, Lamar Odom, Rudy gay type. Uber Uber talented. Size and game but when push comes to shove they become super highly paid 2nd or 3rs fiddles that don’t come through in big playoff series.
It’s more the vibe I got from watching him (total of 13 min 
) in March. I came away saying this dude shrinks when the heat gets turned up.
Other players who come to mind but aren’t positional comps: Richard Jefferson, vince carter, Carmelo
I’m sure this is no big news to you, Mr. Chef, but Sports reference, just like “basketball reference” for the nba, has stats “per 100 possessions” on every player. Pretty cool. I’m not sure if there is a fast way to do side by side comparisons of players from various eras.
Myself, I look at total points per official FG attempts first. I like to see that efficiency. Also I like to look at “rebounds per 100 possessions” and try to compare different guys. I feel like rebounding is a measure of many things: hustle, toughness, desire, athleticism, etc.
Yeah I get that but I guess my question is how do you actually compare eras. They games are very different. I get that we can say that player x in 90’s would have had an average of 15 more possessions and with a usage rate of 30% that means 5 would be his and with an average of 1.3 pts per possession his stats would be…
I guess my bigger question is doing all that, does it even capture the difference in eras?
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I think the poor tournament performance has heavily influenced peoples opinion on him and I get it. But he was supposedly playing thru a groin injury and I have to believe that’s the only explanation for such a steep fall off after such a productive season. Virtually nobody is watching g league games so how many people can say theyve seen Scoots strengths or “vibes” other than highlights. Or the one game against Wemby.
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Great point.
Yeah, and I’ve hated the “He had a poor tourney performance” argument ever since MKG had a great national championship run and Harrison Barnes had a crap tournament in the same year. It didn’t mean squat for their NBA arsenal of skills.
(Edit: And what did Ray Felton/Sean May’s great tournament result mean in the long run for NBA abilities? The NBA is practically the opposite of the NCAA tourney. It’s routine games, over and over. It’s a half-filled arena on a Tuesday night with a bobblehead giveaway to entice fans.)
I go back to "It's Miller Time!"’s 41 point clutch performance in a hostile arena the very day(?) all the “accomplice to murder” implications flooded the media. Talk about pressure. He delivered on the court all right.
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Miller is an excellent shooter. I think he would get great looks from Melo in the offense. He’s also decent on defense, a real two-way player. He can ease into his role with us given the vets still here and he won’t feel the typical #2 pick pressure to be the man immediately. For him, I think it’s good.
I think most importantly is who HE is as a person and a man. Public perception sucks and he’s going to have to show he’s about business and have some answers on how he’ll engage publicly with people because you can’t hide from what happened.
As far as a star, he’s shown some mid range skill and some ability to work off the dribble. I can see why teams highly rated him because if he develops those handles and mid range he already can shoot from deep and has awesome size.
I want to see his personality somehow, and if they think he’s right then I could accept Miller on this team.
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