Allen Crabbe

Progress.

I hope?

 

In the early 1950s, when few people went to college, the NBA drafted a few point guards who hadn't gone to college. Since then, only 4 Americans fit the bill:

year..pick..height..name
2004..13..6-0..Sebastian Telfair
2005..40..6-3..Monta Ellis
2005..45..6-1..Lou Williams
2009..10..6-1..Brandon Jennings

I was against the risky high schooler pick. It takes years to learn defense at that height, when you have only played against high school shorties. Also, all those guys are shooters except him. He did not belong in the first round.

 

Correction. Makes my point even more. In the early 1950s, the NBA did not draft any high school guards. For non-college players, it drafted only big men in the early 50s.

http://bkref.com/tiny/zPm2g

In 2004, the league had drafted a very few foreign PGs without college but with pro experience, but had never drafted a little American PG straight out of high school. Telfair was the first (imagine the above list with only his name on it at the time, not the other 3 players), and it seemed revolutionary and risky, especially since he wasn't a great shooter.

Also, as a bad team, we needed immediate help. A high school 6-footer should be drafted by a top team which can wait years.

 

I see you used the qualifier "little" America PG. I'm not sure if that was to intentionally exclude Shaun Livingston at 6'7, but he was the first American born PG to be drafted right out of high school by the NBA. He was selected 4th in the 2004, the same year as Telfair.

I was also against using a lottery pick on Telfair. My objection is he was a PG who set the high school scoring record for the state of New York. I knew he wouldn't be able to score at will against the grown men of the NBA like he did his fellow high scholl teeangers. I would have been more impressed, and in favor of the Telfair pick, if he'd set the NY state high school record for assists.

BNM

 

I don't think that's "lost" at all. It's THE reason his PER has crept up to 10.0.

BNM

 

Yes, I used the word "little" on purpose. But even if you include tall point guards, you see how short (pun intended) the list was in 2004. Also: In that link I gave, click on the age column to sort it. You see that besides setting records for height and inexperience, Telfair was doing the same for age. Even compared to now, 12 years later. In summary, it was a radical pick. We were desperate, but desperate for immediate help, not the teenage heart-throb Mickey Rooney.

(My father, working at the Salt Lake City airport in the 1930s, helping the actor's mother find him when his connecting flight came in, and finding him out in a snowfield cheerfully horsing around by himself with the same personality he had in the movies, is another story.)

 

If he can just do that in every game, he might actually be an average NBA player (PER = 15) by the trade deadline.

BNM

 

*cough 44% from three *cough