He just seems very unprepared. That's on his camp and his trainers. He didn't know what he needed to prepare for.
"Here" might be the key word. There are a bunch of people/accounts on various platforms tearing this kid apart. Almost relishing in everything he does wrong and pointing out every bad play/game. It's getting pretty sickening at this point.
Wouldn't absolve our bball staff here either. Cronin foolishly characterized him as a precocious NBA ready prospect. He explicitly said Scoot is not like most other 19 yr old draftees after getting lambasted post draft for his inaction that night in putting veteran help around Dame.
On the other hand... If we had Scoot work out against our guys who don't play defense his speed and power probably did make him stand out. Still doesn't absolve us. I still think he can be a force in the league. But he needs skill work. He needs Payton Prichard's routine for a few years.
That said, i think he is obviously not fully healthy right now. He has no vertical burst. We all know he didn't have the Morant-esque athleticism, but he was closer to that than someone like Conley. He needs a good summer of health so he can train on everything.
ok...that very well may be. The guy I was responding too seemingly has made it his mission to trash people here for their takes. I don't do twitter or reddit or any of the social media places. Here and an occasional infrequent visits to RealGM. old-dog/new-tricks/fuck-that
Travis Outlaw couldn't shoot to save hi life. I watched him put up HUNDREDS of mid range Js for YEARS during shootarounds.....took awhile, but it finally stuck. Just can't give up on these players so fast.
Travis Outlaw didn't go to college. 500 per day will get you respectable within a year. IF you are getting up fundamentally sound reps, with intention.
I wouldn't even characterize myself as a Scoot fan. I'm a Scoot Hater... hater? It annoys the shit out of me how some people are so hard on the kid, and how some already want to call him a bust. He very well might be a bust. I thought he'd be NBA ready, he wasn't, so I adjusted my expectations very early on.
I fully expect Scoot to be as good as Travis Outlaw by the time he's done (if considerably less athletic).
I looked it up and Outlaw scored 15 points with five rebounds and two assists in 24 minutes in his last game in the NBA. It's also crazy he only started 26 games for the Blazers (if my quick math is right) and that he was out of the NBA before turning 30. The Kyle Lowery-Travis Outlaw argument is still one of the funniest things I can recall being a part of on this site
Exactly. I'm a fan of Scoots because he's a Blazer. I was hoping Scoot would go #2 so we could take Brandon Miller. But I was also happy we got Scoot. I think he'll be a fine PG in the league for a long time. Will he be an All Star? Unknown. Did we need to trade Dame because we were going to draft Scoot? No. Absolutely not. We needed to trade Dame because he demanded a trade. Scoot coming off the bench to Dame would have been ideal. But we'd have to deal Simons for sure then.
Scoot is a physical specimen. If he boxes it up and knows how to uses it to his advantage and spends hours honing the jumper he could become something special. Based on his attitude I’d say he has it in him to do so. He just doesn’t have the personality of a 5 years and out of the league bust. And desire is a big differentiator between the two.
The thing I wonder is how this affects his confidence. He looks so rattled out there. This is going to be a real test to see what he's made of, can he channel adversity, filter out the noise and take the steps that need to be made to get better. He's getting schooled by journeymen right now. This is why I broke with the "trade Brodgon and play him more than 30 minutes per game from Day 1" crowd. Brogdon clearly isn't a good enough talent on his own to affect the Blazers' record in any great way, but he could make the team more competitive in its losses and really give Scoot an example of what you need to do to be a good player in this league, then Scoot's athleticism would let him take steps Brogdon couldn't approach. Scoot could have had the opportunity to still play good minutes but most of them against lesser players to get accustomed to the speed and athleticism of the game at this level. He got his eyes opened so much now he's practically catatonic.
To be fair, he was presented that way by a lot of NBA beat writers, reporters and draft experts before the Blazers even had a sniff of him. And NBA-ready, at least in my mind, doesn't imply he's ready to be a star. It just means he can hold his own, that he won't be overmatched. But he's been completely overmatched so far.
Yeah... it's not like Scoot was a reach. Everyone I listened to said he was anywhere from a potential All-Star to a generational talent. These are scouts and analysts who are trusted in the media. I think people just grossly overestimated the G League.
Note: Game Score was created by John Hollinger to give a rough measure of a player's productivity for a single game. The formula is PTS + 0.4 * FG - 0.7 * FGA - 0.4*(FTA - FT) + 0.7 * ORB + 0.3 * DRB + STL + 0.7 * AST + 0.7 * BLK - 0.4 * PF - TOV. (40 is an outstanding performance, 10 is an average performance.) Henderson Rookie Class Rankings: - PPG: 3rd - APG: 1st - MP: 14th - WS: 54th - WS48: 46th - BPM: 40th - VORP: 54th - PER: 26th Keep that trend line going up, Scoot. I'm rooting for you.
