NBA 2K24 Summer League July 7-17

Tanking.

 

This will irritate me no end until Cam Whitmore turns into what the team think he is. But you take a flyer into that talent no matter what, that’s Sprewell type spring.

 

Yeah, but Sprewell was so beloved by coaching staffs around the League- especially P.J. Carlesimo’s.

 

That was the count against the kid( along with injury concerns)- one of the reasons as to why he wasn’t taken sooner in the draft. I don’t just make things up for the heck of it.
I know there are people who have discernment when it comes to judging one’s character. When it’s multiple GMs passing on a kid, I tend to believe at least one of them, or someone in their trusted group has discernment.
I’m not enamored with Fino either, but with their track record, I am not doubting our brilliant Scouting Department. They have far succeeded their worth for nearly a decade now.
You can be upset with the Lakers not picking Cam. I will remain patient and see what JHS looks like a year from now. I’m not claiming that he will be better than Whitmore. I don’t know that and neither does anyone else at this point.

 

Don't you recall a hoopla around his college coach not endorsing him?

 

I'm 100% with you on this. This smells a lot like Pierce and MPJ falling - yeah it's a risk but at 17 the chance of drafting an NBA all-star is minuscule. Most likely neither JHS or Whitmore will make one but JHS is fighting an uphill battle just based on physical attributes alone. Whitmore in terms of athleticism has it and that is a huge part of the NBA game. He looks like a rookie Anthony Edwards out there with his build and explosion: just not a lot of guys even in the regular NBA rotations who both have springs and are built like NFL linebacker. On top of that, he has a better 3 ball then JHS right now!

 

Like I said during draft day, I miss Doc Jerry Buss, he would have went big and gambled. Cam was there to gamble on, how many times do you get the chance to pick a consensus top 5 pick at 17?

 

JHS will be out of the league in 3 years

 

Wanna bet 100 bucks on that one? I'm up to it

 

yeah, and tbh, we've probably looked worse as we move UP the draft board. part of that is obviously expectations and number of opportunities.

to me, mpj falling made a lot of sense, and his red flag (injuries) has continued to be so. he also hasn't panned out as the hype (superstar) suggested, imo. but mpj HAD been injured, whereas whitmore had "bad medicals".

i remember watching pierce fall on draft night and being like...wtf is this?! and i was right to question it. we went 10th despite being the consensus #2 overall heading into that draft, iirc.

whitmore was the consensus #4-6 for months, i think, and he fell to 17th. another player who had a similar fall was kawhi leonard.

anyway, i'm veering off topic...today, it certainly looks like a mistake, but it takes time to sort things out.

i don't think it's this bad. the lakers were obviously betting on his character/work ethic, and despite not having any specific eye-popping attribute, he does have some things to work with (good size for position, already a strong ballhandler/decent passer). he just doesn't have a star-level ceiling like whitmore does.

ultimately, i'm guessing we tried to trade the pick when it was clear wallace and a few others weren't going to fall, but we couldn't find a deal, so we settled for jhs as the top guy on our board.

i think what bothers me is that if we were drafting for the future (which i think we were), there were a few guys taken right after that have higher upside (cam/clowney/whitehead), and if we were drafting for the present, there was jacquez, kris murray, and OMP. i also liked podziemski, taken a pick after ours by gs, who is also a big playmaking guard, but he can shoot.

anyway, it's going to be a while before we can see whose suspicions were correct. good news is that we're currently at least two-deep* at every position with solid nba players, so no rookie was going to play unless we had multiple injuries.

*well, not center, but there weren't any nba-ready centers in the draft anyway.

 

You saw the "wink" right?
In all seriousness though, i would have picked Cam (im a bit of a gambler though... might have ended up like POR and Oden or something).
On the other hand, it's damn tough to doubt our scouting dept. These guys proved themselves time and time again.

 

Oh you're such a darn kidder with the winks and anti jinxes!

 

Well deserved he was dominant, a man among boys

 

The kid has talent..shrug..sometimes folks get stuff wrong. That's why there are plenty lottery busts, walking around unemployed, while some undrafted kids are starting, or playing heavy minutes in this league. He's definitely a 1st round talent.