Dion proved himself on a much larger stage than Lillard. The BigSky and JuCo are on the same tier. You can't compare the two and what they did in college.
What conference a player comes from has never been a hangup for me. Did you use that same metric when comparing Nolan Smith and Faried last year?
----------------------------------------- -HoopsAnalyst But he has cool youtube videos so we should take him in the top-10. Yeah!
Waiters at 6 seems ridiculous. I don't put a ton of stock in NBAdraft.net prospect profiles, but these two comments on Waiters makes me puke: -Waiters definitely has a future in the NBA playing the same role he does in college ... He's a spark off the bench, can spell your point guard and spread the floor as a spot-up shooter ... -He's clearly not a point guard, so you wonder how he'll perform offensively against athletic 6'6 NBA 2-guards. I like Waiters, I really do. But just say no at 6.
http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-t...10/2012-nba-draft-evaluating-the-point-guards Pretty good write up:
There is just a disconnect IMO when it comes to Lillard vs other recruits...be it Rivers, Drummond, Teague etc.... Lillard gets credit for having a very good season, but it is his 4th year in college...and he is 2-3 years older than most of the other top prospects in the draft...and he played in a much weaker conference....He has to\should look better stats wise.... But then it appears to me that guys like Rivers, Waiters, Teague, Drummond etc are PENALIZED for thier youth....comparing stats of what they did in big conferences against top quality opponents at the age of 18-19 to that of Lillard....I mean, what would Rivers look like if he came out after reshirting a year and then playing 3 years at Duke? Do people really believe that he would not have improved at all, just as Lillard did? He (Rivers) averaged over 15pts a game at Duke as an 18yr old, yeah he was inefficient, but he was an 18yr old freshman thrust into a go-to role and carrying a much bigger scoring load than he should have had to do, and he progressed (got better) as the year went on.... It just seems like some of these kids are getting penalized b\c of thier youth here, when instead that should definitely be weighed into the equation (in thier favor I would add)...b\c in 3 years a kid like Rivers will be the age that Lillard is right now and with 3 years in the NBA under his belt...and where his game certainly seems more suited to the NBA than it was in college...
Faried dominated the Ohio States' and Florida's. Lillard was a big 'ol bag of Meh in the rare times he played outside the Big Sky.
Just look at these facts about Lillard Great jumper with elite athleticism. Idk about you guys, but I love that combo. A little polishing and you got yourself a really good player. Interesting note on Lillard - Got to the line 8 times a game last year
Your point is valid in the sense you don't always have your best 5 players starting. But it's not valid in that you ALWAYS have your best player starting.
We've already gone over this a hundred times. No he wasn't, with the exception of the Cal game. He lit up a team that was a 7 seed for 36 points.
Not a specific comparative basis, per player, just hsi mention of being in the 91st percentile with that number.
