longstrangetrip wrote:TheFuture wrote:Q12543 wrote:It's funny how Tyus Jones has gone completely missing from all the chatter about Kris Dunn. It's also a little ironic that the folks claiming Rubio "isn't a winner" don't mention nary a word about Tyus Jones and his body of work in one year at Duke versus Dunn's multiple years at Providence, Jim Souhan included. Isn't Tyus Jones the very definition of a winner?
I was for drafting Dunn, but before we crown him the next Gary Payton or Russell Westbrook, perhaps we should see if he can first beat outplay our 2nd string PG, much less be an upgrade over Ricky Rubio.
One was a top 5 overall pick, the other was picked earlier than i think he would have been if not for the hometown aspect. Jones also played for one of the greatest college basketball coaches of all time, and had two top 10 picks on his team in Winslow and Okafor, who have proven to be real NBA players and 2 of the better players of that draft. Dunn has so much more potential given his athleticism and body type. I'd be shocked if he wasn't our 2nd PG by day one, but i'm not at all worried that this will happen.
I'm generally a defense over offense guy, future, so I'm hoping that Dunn is our 2nd PG by Day 1. But I think there are some apples and oranges in your post. Yes, Kris was drafted much higher than Tyus,
but he was drafted as a 22-year-old man coming off his senior season as opposed to a 19-year-old kid coming off his freshman year...
Kris never would have been considered as a draft pick after his freshman year, Despite his perceived lack of athleticism, Tyus ranked as the 7th best player in the country coming out of high school, while Dunn was ranked 16th. Dunn has become a much better basketball player over the past three years. Is it unrealistic to assume Tyus will also improve a lot by the time he is 22?
I think the main point of this thread is we are lucky to have three young PGs who bring different skills to the job, but who all have the potential to help this team. I'm looking forward to seeing how the competition makes them all better.
So we generally take players higher when they are younger, yet we use age against a player who was still picked high while being older? That's not consistent.
You say he would never have been picked as a freshman despite his athleticism. I can say he wouldve been picked based on his athleticism,size, and age, but neither matter.
Dunn is coming into the NBA with a physical skill set superior to probably half of the PGs in the NBA. Tyus will always be near the very bottom in physical skill set, there is no upward trajectory for him there. The difference in their potential couldn't be more extreme.
Flip traded up to get Tyus because he won a national championship and was a hometown kid. Flip was trying to rebuild a culture here, get fans in seats, etc. Look at bringing back KG, same kind of thing (KG also brought the famous mentoring). I think it's fair to say that Tyus would have been a 2nd round pick if it wasn't for these reasons.
I'm not concerned with how they ranked coming out of high school. Do you consider the same when you talk about Hield, Murray? Butler, Leonard, Thompson, etc.? People also do not consider the coaching/training players are receiving and the team around them. How much more did Tyus benefit by being a member of Duke? How many times have we seen a Duke player fail in the NBA? Can't we attribute a lot of the college success of Duke players to the greatness of Coach K?
I do believe Tyus can be a good backup PG in the league, but that's his ceiling in my opinion. On the other hand, Dunn's floor is a good backup PG in the NBA with a ceiling that goes to at least starting caliber. I'm not sure why this is much of a discussion.