Minnesota Sports Forum

Crazy you are my new favorite poster! I will gladly admit me and my friends used to watch Above the Rim after school all of the time then hit the playground for hours.

I think Shabazz likes to compare himself to James Harden (might be from the BS Report draft interviews) except we know he isn't much of a playmaker. So what we have to look forward to next season are alternating hurky jerky failed euro-steps from Derrick WIlliams and Shabazz.

I don't think you'll have to worry about seeing euro-steps from Shabazz. We are already 3-deep at the wing position (Martin, Bud and Brewer) with JJ and Shved looking for extra minutes at the 2, and Dante and D-Will looking for extra minutes at the 3. Shabazz would have to be pretty damn impressive to break into the regular rotation.

Dieng on the other hand, has a pretty good opportunity to see some minutes.

Can anyone actually name a player who has become a plus dribbler and creator when they didn't fit that role in college? Everyone said the same thing about Wes Johnson in learning to dribble. Dribbling is not something that develops in the NBA that much. Shabazz will be out of the league by the end of his rookie contract if he doesn't embrace his role of spot up shooter and defender who gets a few buckets at the rim off good cuts. The guy can't create, he's not quick enough to get by anybody on this level and is only a good shooter on the catch and shoot. The hardest thing to learn is becoming an effective shot creator and yet people talk like it is something that develops relatively quickly. I don't think many players ever develop that skill if they don't have some skill the first day they show up in the NBA. There's a reason he dropped to 14 and he's not going to be some steal that we found out of the draft. There are legitimate red flags with his game that don't just go away with an offseason or two of work. I think the worst thing he can do is try to become James Harden because he will never be close to that level of creator. Become a lethal spot up shooter and plus defender and it is a good pick, but I'm worried he's working on all the wrong parts of his game right now that won't result in him sticking in the league. The whole benefit of Ricky is that he finds you. Just be able to make more than you miss when he gets you the ball. Stop trying to learn to be a creator when we already have 3 guards that need the ball in their hands to be effective in Ricky, JJ and Shved. The lack of assists alone should curb the wanting for him to become a creator because he's just going to look for his own offense when he has the ball and he's not going to be looking for someone else's.

Oh hell yeah JD. How can you not be pumped after watching that. Especially when they finish the movie off with Warren Gs Regulate? I am getting pumped just writing about it.

LOL yeah, our middle school coaches always wondered where we got our physical play from. Owe it all to the movie haha.

That was the DraftNet site comparison--they said "Nick Young".

I only echoed it since both players are scorers and not much else, though Nick is a perimeter guy and Shabbaz likes to drive.

I'd rather have McCollom at 9 which is the pick we traded away for Shabbaz. I don't expect much out of him, so if he has any positive impact on the team, I'll be pleasantly surprised.

monsterpile wrote:I want to mention that a lot of these comparisons are being made to guys that played more than 1 year of college. What kind of skill improvement would Bazz have if he had stayed in school another year or maybe even 2 and came out? What kind of development will he make in his game over the next couple years? A year from now hopefully his game has developed more and we will see what he did in SL and be able to know more what he can do and make some more complete comparisons.

But he'll be 21 in November and so he's just as old or maybe older than many sophomores and juniors.

TeamRicky- I think your opinion that we should have taken CJ with the 9th pick is the prevailing opinion on this board, and a lot of guys whose takes I usually agree with would have taken CJ. I'm on the other side...as awful as Shabazz was in Summer League, he still shot better (although not as often!) as CJ, and I still like taking both Shabazz and Dieng over taking just CJ. It will be an interesting debate all season, I think (see Roy vs. Foye, Love vs Mayo, etc). I know we all hope that Flip was right, even if we don't all believe it (yet).