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Yeah I said this also awhile back. I mean take it with a grain of salt like all practice videos but watching WCS of all people drain 3s back to back to back was at least a little enticing.
Dont think hell ever be a shooter in the NBA but I do think he has more offensive potential than people give him credit for. He is raw as **** but it is good that he is just raw but he is still young and hasnt developed many bad habits. Even though he is 21, WCS didnt start playing bball really competitively until late in high school. His offesne is salvagable. The tools are all there.
He will NEVER be Shaq/Bynum/Pau offensively, but if we draft him and instill triangle principles in him from Day 1, IMO he can become a decent traingle offensive center. Offensively, he will be alot closer to the centers the Bulls used and less the Lakers, but IMO that is fine because the league is moving that way anyway as far as good offensive centers are concerned. IMO WCS can be comparable to what the Bulls had at center offensively. If we instill the principles in him from Day 1 it will make it easier for him to learn the offense and if he can develop a mid range game it would make him all the more valuable. But at the same time, we would not be reliant on him doing so. Anything he could give us offensively would be an added bonus. Because at the end of the day, WCS could do what the Bulls centers did offensively, but also turn into the best defensive center Phil has ever had. I would be fine with this outcome as well.
So yeah, in terms of skillset/tools, I think WCS is arguably the safest pick in the draft. His potential lies in his offensive game coming along, but even if it never does this dude should be an elite defensive center/rim protector from the moment he steps on the fooor for at least a decade after. You could do a lot worse than that. Fills a major need.
The only thing that scares the **** out of me as far as drafting WCS goes is his dedication to the game. I dont think he is a headcase and I dont think he is soft, but he has had a lot of warning signs regarding his passion to be an NBA basketball player. This could be just as dangerous as the rigors of the NBA are much more likely to make any doubts increase as opposed to decrease. Maybe he has put all that behind him but I would definitely be wary of using that #4 pick on WCS out of fear that he never really captures that desire you need to make it in this league, or worse pulls a Larry Sanders on us. If we do decide we want to draft WCS, I would be much more comfortable doing so if we traded back, at least giving us assets/another need to fall back on. This is one of the reasons I really like the idea of trading back, if we want to go with a player like WCS.
I said it before but it is AMAZING to me the stereotypes surrounding draft prospects. It isnt safe to ever generalize, but at the same time you have to be at least a little concerned with European players even if they say and do all the right things, given the amount that just never panned out.
But at the same time, you read **** and listen to Porzingis and this guy says all the right **** 100% of the time. He really seems to carry a chip on his shoulder and seems to have this "tough guy" NBA mentality that will have him stopping at nothing to prove the doubters wrong. He really seems to love playing basketball and wants more than anything to make it as an NBA player. That is why I would especially enjoy to have him be selected by the Knicks and hear the boo birds from the hometown crowd on draft night. I believe it would fuel him like nothing else can.
Whats amazing to me is that if Porzingis was EVER heard saying even a tenth of the **** that WCS has said in the past about his dedication to the game, teams in the lottery wouldnt touch him with a 10 foot pole. If WCS had the same outward desire that Porzingis seems to have, he would be an EASY top 5 selection, as he is already being considered. Amazing really, and this is all with Porzingis being younger, more versatile, and haven competed at a higher level... With better #s I might even add, something you rarely see from Euro prospects because of the limited action they often see in Europe's top leagues, but in this case it is comparable because Kentucky players only played around 20 mpg this season.
