yup good post, really appreciate the effort. i'm frustrated by the lack of highlights of the top stars, i would've thought someone would have cut together like every wiggy/randle/parker play. might be a copyright issue?

anyway sounds like the prognosis is fairly good for wiggy, it will be interesting to see how his jumper develops

Glad I'm not the only one who thought this.

Nice post - excited to see Wiggins develop; also thought Randle looked pretty beastly

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I'm stupid or it's just my ADD but I can never follow along with posts of images pieced together like that. It's so hard to grasp the context of the play vs. a video or even a gif. People around the Internet need to start stepping it up and youtubing that ****.

wiggins seems to have an elite sense for the game. usually wings player this young have no idea how to play off ball. wiggins seems to be cutting, crashing the boards, just moving around without the ball extremely well.

it might just be a product of kansas because the whole kentucky team seems to have no idea how to move around the court but he is definitely living up to his potential. i expected him to be more ball dominant but was really surprised overall.

terrible stubborn sss read imo

randle was heralded as a recruit for his athleticism

worst comp yet

yeah look lemme go there

josh smith ldo

vitale comparing wiggins to secretariat was classic vitale

hes the WOAT

hoya with the really detailed insightful post amidst our dumb comparisons wins the thread obv

how about parker? keep reading paul pierce and it seems like a solid comp

You're right, I should put more stock in what he did against future accountants and grocery baggers than what I saw against a well coached team playing something far closer to the defense he'll see in the nba. I'M NOT SAYING HE'S BAD, I'm saying that he doesn't appear at the moment to be an above the rim player in the nba. Obviously, that's not a bar to very goodness (Zbo, Monroe, David West etc) or even near greatness (Love), but we're extrapolating here.

And btw, Corliss Williamson was national poty and a top 3ish recruit coming into Arkansas, so I stand by that comp to a degree - Randle appears to be a little bigger and certainly longer, but Willamson was a pretty good nbaer for a time, so it's not like I'm calling him a future scrub.

That was my instant read on him.

I think that is a very good comparison. Not gonna wow you with athleticism, but is very smooth and has a high basketball IQ. Defense needs to get better, but you could probably say that about the majority of freshman

Jennings
Caldwell-Pope
Wiggins
Monroe
Drummond

Gat damn

I don't get the Jabari-->Pierce comparison at all. Parker seems quite likable, but maybe I am just biased.

i went back and watched the duke/kansas game

i don't see any way parker not at least solid offensively in the nba, aggressiveness and bbiq are as advertised. if he can use his body to draw fouls like pierce can in the nba he's a lock good player. his d doesn't look too horrible, plenty of mediocre athletes in the nba can defend serviceably and parker is legit big. would help if he can improve his body obviously

wiggins is more 'shy' than passive imo, he doesn't just stand there like harden. he wants the ball, and moves to get it, as well as making strong cuts + crashing the boards. but he also gives it up too quickly and doesn't demand the ball enough. i think aggressiveness will come with time, his coaches better be hammering it into his skull because he just kind of randomly attacked a number of times this game, he needs some reps to improve his instincts

also massive lol at foul trouble paranoia and failure to make entry passes to wiggy


re: cphoyoa's post, agree with most of it but:

don't agree with the pro-wiggy tone of this, parker def overpowered wiggy here with a backdown even if it wasn't a real clean move. wiggins is obviously stronger than he looks (given that he's giving up 30lbs) but he was pushed off balance and clearly fouled parker imo

didn't look that bad to me

I'm kind of coming around on the shooting thing. It seems to me that lanky high school players usually show up with screwy shooting mechanics - that was a good point by someone earlier - that come around as they mature. I think his shooting is shaky now but it's not like I'm saying his shot is broken. It's just not sound.

I don't agree with you on the Parker play on the block. I watched that play a number of times. I do agree that Parker is stronger right now, but even with the strength advantage all he managed to do was flail into Wiggins twice before trying to get off a shot literally through both of Wiggins's arms. He's only getting around or over Wiggins if Wiggins makes a mistake imo, and if Wiggins did commit a foul it was after the initiation of contact by Parker, which didn't create any space anyway.

Also I think Parker is really really good, I'll try to do a similar Parker writeup soon.

EDIT: Also good points about his cutting and shyness. Several times he just dove to the hoop for easy baskets but on other plays he was more timid. I suspect that will stop happening.

You guys sound like old basbeall scouts when you start breaking down his shooting mechanics and stuff like that. He's going to have beastly production at the college level and at the pro level and he's 99.9% going to be the #1 overall pick. Just sit back and enjoy imo. WIGGINS.

Parker is also great. So is Randle. There's more of a gap after those three than previously realized coming into the season probably. Lolharrisons.

I need to have a look at Aaron Gordon but, hard to argue to hard with there being a gap after those three. (And based on my instant one night never gonna change eyetest test, it's more they are a top 3 in the same way that LBJ KD and CP3 are a top 3 even though the first 2 are a clear step up from the thrid)

Gordon seems like a wild card. I don't know a thing about Exum

IIRC, Gordon is a terrible FT shooter, which is a worry since he's a wing.

I've seen Gordon play live and he is an absolute beast anywhere near the basket. His FT mechanics are certainly wonky as hell, but apparently Miller is working on that with him though he is shooting sub 40% after 2 games so far.

Kid is an absolute athletic beast.

The worry (or my worry) would be that when he gets to the NBA, just being an athletic beast won't be enough if he can't shoot.

silly for them to make aaron gordon a wing. i am sure they could have made blake griffin into a wing too. its a lot easier to add 20-30 lbs of bulk than add a lot of skills.

3/4 tweener that can't shoot... what could go wrong? He has been rebounding though. And dat bounce