very much doubt he'll actually go top 5. i don't think he's a good enough prospect, he's benefiting from hype due to being an international prospect imo

So how many of these guys would have been the #1 pick last year? 8?

None. Cavs were #1 pick, Bennett was a lock.

Embiid looks ****ing ridiculous from what I've seen. Like a longer Dwight

the other thing is that andrew's skill set is currently in abundance whereas everybody needs a floor spacing wing. maybe their values will converge and they'll both end up going in the teens.

my impression was definitely wiggins + randle, probably parker and gordon. smart was a maybe, he was def in #1 talk last yr but some mocks had him in the 6-8 range so it's hard to peg him. embiid/exum/harrison not sure.

once we grant a full season for variance to vary and some of these guys to cement their reps or have their stock erode entirely, the answer is probably ~4

This class is so nice I'm actually looking forward to college basketball

Lets not get too crazy

Exum > Smart imo

Take a look at Smart's stats last year....he seems like an inefficient chucker, and PG defense has a lot more importance in college than in the pros(and doesn't always carry over).

Exum is a kinda a better version of MCW it seems(although obv nobody expected MCW to start off his NBA career so great).

Exum might join a NCAA team in January btw.

mcw was also an inefficient chucker that thrives on PG defense bro

Season	School	G	MP	PER	TS%	eFG%	ORB%	DRB%	TRB%	AST%	STL%	BLK%	TOV%	USG%	ORtg	DRtg
2012-13	Syracuse	40	1409	20.9	0.491	0.438	4	11.4	7.8	40.1	4.7	1.8	22.2	22.2	104.6	87.4
2012-13	Oklahoma State	33	1106	24	0.532	0.455	5.4	14.2	9.9	26.8	5.3	2.2	18.9	27.2	105.3	86.1

i get that mcw is more passing oriented, but other than that smart was overall better as a freshman than mcw was a soph.

there's more evidence that smart is a superior version of mcw than there is for exum.

MCW is like what Shaun Livingston was supposed to be.

im actually wanting college hoops to start too. i have watched wiggins highlights quite a bit, along with some of the other top guys...

this is how it was in the 80's, btw. mike jordan, ralph, patrick, akeem, worthy, mullen, pearl washington lol, mark price! lenny bias (RIP) bias was built like a taller 6'9'' jeff green and ran like him but he was a vicious rim attacker...the big east vs the acc was just awesome. guys who today would be 3 year nba vets were still in college and espn was just taking off so u know how kids are they knew about highlight dunks and were more creative that the pros.

I'm really not feeling Smart. Also the fact that he was dumb enough not to declare last year has to be a knock against his decision making.

Too many beastly physical specimens this season for him to go top 5 imo

Did anyone last year correctly predict MCW beasting?

you probably know this, but defensive stats for guards is next to useless for Syracuse players b/c STL% is jacked up and other such stuff. Though having a smaller STL% than Smart is lol b/c of that. (Rautins, McNamara 3.4)

yeah he's actually better at stealing the ball

I think you misread my post(or I failed to clearly communicate). I'm not comparing Smart to MCW at all. In fact, I know practically nothing about MCW in college. I'm comparing MCW in the NBA(so far, from a absurdly small sample size) to Exum as a prospect.

The furthest some of us got was not writing him off due to his elite athletic profile and creation ability.

I had him as a complete pathetic bust, but I never saw him play and always say that about Syracuse products.

yup. i never got the extreme hate for him. nice size/athleticism and great court vision. i always felt like even if he never developed a shot he cud still be a meh offensive pass first PG with a very high defensive ceiling. obviously didn't see this coming though.

dean, wat exactly was it that made you think he was such a lock to be a bust? can't say i watched much syracuse last year.

He couldn't dribble against any sort of pressure and would even defer to the other guard when facing full court.

Is this attributed to college never calling hand check fouls? Has anyone really pressured him so far in the NBA?

He also had trouble finishing at the rim and his noted shooting woes. NBA spacing definitely helps maximize his passing and play making ability.

I was always pretty high on him though in fairness never really actively watched him in college

No, i didn't misread it

You discounted Smart for the same reason why most people here (myself included) discounted MCW, and then you used MCW as a positive example to demonstrate why Exum is superior to Smart.

It's all incredibly self-contradictory. And it makes zero sense to compare MCW's 3 game pro sample to anybody who hasn't played in the pros yet, especially Exum who doesn't even have a sample in college or any league that we have any degree of familiarity with.

i didn't think he was a lock to be a bust around draft time.

i felt pretty meh about him as a prospect bc he has a horrible shot w/ high confidence which is a pretty bad mix. felt like his upside was roughly a PG version of smoove which is way less sexy than PF smoove. he clearly had good qualities that gave him potential to be a decent pro and i'm pretty sure in the draft thread i said he was the correct pick for philly at #11 overall.

I thought he was very likely to be a bust after he bricked every single shot he took in SL + pre-season. decided i felt like fading his first game since he seemed to have run good on 3's (4-6) and the 9 steals imo gave him way more open court opportunities to have good offensive stats since he's going to generally be a lot better in transition than halfcourt.

As a Bulls fan, should i be rooting for the Bobcats to finish 11th-to-last place this season? its top 10 protected in 2014, top 8 protected in 2015, and unprotected in 2016.