Payton Pritchard was more skilled and polished than most NBA players when he was in high school. If Scoot really wants to improve, working out with Payton Pritchard would be a great idea. Payton Pritchard went to the same elementary school as my daughters. He was told by Oregon City high school that he was too small to play basketball for Oregon City. Dude literally woke up at 6am to work on his game before school every day. Would work handles with weighted balls until his fingers bled, go to school with bandaids on his fingers, then do practice with the team. Then train after. Every. Day. He moved across the river to West Linn and won four state championships, and most of you know the rest. Pritchard was gifted nothing of what Scoot has been gifted. Payton Pritchard took it by dedicated brute force. Anybody who wants to put in thousands of intentional hours can do what Payton Pritchard does. Scoot should 100% look into working out with Pritchard as often as possible.
I think the only thing they share is a strong family background. Payton's family is really a tight knit group. I think his aunt was a star at St Mary's too.
Yes, NBA players become who they are at a young age way before they enter the league. Thats why I always laugh at the people who say such and such player is only 23 years old or whatever. While that is young for an office job or construction or most our careers that isn't young for a basketball player. NBA players develop 90% of what they are at a younger age then just add a few small refinements or tweaks later on. Sharpe even though still not polished nor complete showed glimpses of who he was game 1 his rookie season. Same with Nic Batum, we saw glimpses right away and he started after training camp. Players don't just flip from being very bad to being very good - they show who they are as a rookie and then add a bit more each year after that.
According to this list (of course, there are many), Portland already has 3 of the top 5 all-time draft busts. Be lovely to add a 4th in the top 10...
The front office/coaching need to ACTUALLY come up with a development plan for not only Scoot, but Shaedon as well. They are absolutely destroying these players' development. They need to clear the runway for these guys NOW.
They don't appear to have had a plan the past couple of years and nothing has changed with either the front office or coaching (other than some assistants) so why would you expect anything to change now? Yes, maybe we trade some players and they get more playing time but I don't think that necessarily equates to a development plan, more of a tank-better plan.
Clingan splits time with Ayton and RWIII, and he's developed better than most expected, so it can't just be the front office and coaching staff lacking a plan for player development. Scoot and Sharpe have had less in the way, in terms of older players competing for minutes, than Clingan to start out. They simply haven't been as ready as him to establish themselves.
Well, Clingan had 2 years of coaching by a very good coaching staff in College. Shae and Scoot did not have that luxury...
For sure, but that has little to nothing to do with him developing as a pro much quicker than expected, so the team's approach to youth development isn't holding him back. Unless you're saying they can develop players from college systems only, which would be pretty tough to explain other than suggesting that the non-college guys are intellectually lacking.
The more minutes without other guys dominating the ball will definitely help with their development. While having a better coaching staff with a better plan would be ideal, just getting those guys out of the way will be a significant improvement, IMO.
Guys with more college typically are more polished or "NBA ready" than guys with less college. This is why I don't understand why the NBA doesn't mandate 2 years of college basketball or two years of international basketball before a player becomes eligible for the draft. Or to play in the NBA at all. I was going to say professional basketball, but the G-League is obviously not that much of an indicator either.
Correction, Shae and Scoot did not take advantage of the possibility of having a very good coaching staff to help them. They just went for the money on potential and almost seem to have stopped their development at this point. I've seen no real growth in either since their rookie year.
Any list that doesn’t have Fultz and the guy whose name we can’t even remember that went to Cleveland at #1 after Bron left to Miami…… isn’t a credible list. And I truly will never consider anybody a “bust” because of injury.
Anthony Bennett... but he wasn't a highly regarded #1 pick - it was kind of like Risacher a few months ago, not a big story nor unexpected if either is a bust. Cavs also had Kyrie finish his second year and at age 20 looked like a star. So the Cavs might have passed on Oladipo not wanting another short guard. That 2013 draft was pretty bad though you could legit make a case CJ at #10 was the best player in the top10. Scoot at #3 had much more hype than either one of those.
“Clear #1 pick in any other draft” “Clearly better than Brandon Miller” “Thank you Charlotte” Update: Scoot PER 10 Telfair second season 13