Austin Rivers fans where have you gone?

There was a lot Rivers fans before the draft, saying we should have drafted him. The guy has been awful as you can get this year.

A PER of 5.6, shooting under 30% from the field.

Butt.

Shitty.

 

Really? Was there? Remember people liking him but not many really pushing for him.

 

I love me some Lillard. But like any rook, let's not write Rivers off yet.


Okay, now lets do it.

 

Career over.

We'll never hear from HIM again.

 

Rivers has the "ME" mentality. He was never a good fit for a team that actually wants to be a team. Just like OJ Mayo. I still believe Rivers will eventually get it and become the volume scorer that was scouted; but he needs to learn the pace and timing in the NBA. But he will never be a leader. Just a volume streak shooter.

 

I liked him and hoped either him or Drummond would slip to 11. As it turned out I'm pretty happy with Meyers.

 

oops. I haven't watched him play at all in the NBA, but I figured he'd be decent.

 

I wanted him at #11. I called to draft a new young back court with Lillard and.........a SG. Rivers or Lamb. So far Lamb is looking like the better pick, but it is about a year too early to know anything for sure regarding the younger draft picks. Their bodies need to mature.

Plus they wasted too much of his development this summer and fall trying to make him a PG. We all knew that was never going to happen.

 

1) Austin Rivers by his own admission has never played PG in his life.
2) NOH drafted him to play PG.
3) After about 20 games AR has 5.6 PER and is shooting under 30%.

Where's the confusion? Why do people think he's a bust? He's certainly a bust as a PG,
but seriously I think everyone outside of NOH knew that ahead of time.

I don't know why teams do that sort of thing, as it's common knowledge that PG is the
hardest position to learn at the NBA level.

Later, Rivers will move to another team who will use his as an SG whose job it will
be to score and the world be somehow be surprised that he is a very good player -
perhaps even a 6th man of the year candidate.

 

Rivers is doing better than Adam Morrison.

 

I just watched the Blazer/Hornet game from last night that I had taped, and I would not count out Rivers just yet. He might be struggling right now, but from what I have seen the last two weeks he looks like he has a brighter future than the two SG taken in the top 4. I would not write him off yet.

 

Too early to write him off.

I'd expect you, MZ, more than most, to understand how early it is in dude's career.

 

Historically, at his draft slot, if he even becomes Mayo, he's done well for himself.

 

Wrong. Morrison had a better rookie year thus far.

 

It is early. But damn, those numbers are so bad its going to take a monumental comeback this season to even make them decent.

I never liked Rivers. He thinks he's a star, his game is weak. All style, no substance.

 

Agreed that Morrison was playing better at the start of the year, but...

I do like the Morrison comparison to the extent that both players' games were based on their confidence as scorers. Austin Rivers looks like he's completely lost his confidence, and that didn't start to hit Morrison to the end of his rookie year, at least. He couldn't handle the pressure, and he couldn't accept a complimentary role.

The thing is, Rivers is younger than Morrison was as a rookie, and he has a completely different skillset, so it's probably to early to label him as a "bust." He also has a head coach who is a Rivers family friend and will likely be very patient with him.

However, I will say that as a NCAA fan first, that he was just as much of a hacker for the Blue Devils as he is for the Hornets. The only difference is that in college, he made a few more. He was still a shoot-first, team-second player that couldn't handle running an offense in his one year at Duke though.

I have a couple of friends who are diehard Duke fans, and they kept telling after the Lehigh loss me that losing him would be addition by subtraction. I just laughed (because, well, who doesn't love it when Duke loses in the first round), but shit... look at Duke without him. That's more telling than anything.

You have the Colts without Manning, the Bulls without Jordan, the Saints without Payton, and on the other hand... the Duke Blue Devils without Rivers, who have knocked off four top 25 teams already en route to their #1 ranking.

 

I heard that Coach K told Rivers that he was NBA ready and that he should enter the draft because he wanted him away from his program. He didn't fit into the culture at Duke and never cared to try and by into the Defense they wanted to play. Rivers wanted to be an ISO player at Duke and Coach K doesn't teach ISO ball.

 

There were enough saying they wanted him that it still sticks in my memory. At the very least those who wanted him were pretty vocal and repetitive if I recall correctly?

 

Austin Rivers sucks. Anyone who wanted us to pick him at 6 is a legitimate idiot.

I'm not a big fan of Waiters or Beal, but there's no chance in hell Rivers will turn out better than them.

 

I would have taken Beal for sure at six.

Waiters? No.

Rivers? No.

I would have also liked to get TRob, and I still think he could have a very successful career. Lillard has definitely surprised me. I'm so so glad we got him.