Who says Greg Oden isn't ready for the NBA?

How can you unequivicably declare that Conley will not improve his shot? Once he is in the NBA, he won't have to worry about attending the classes he does now (note: I didn't say study for). This leaves him tons of free time to work on his game. Let us not forget the trainers and the rest that can be purchased with the money he will be making.

How anyone can say that people will not improve when they are put up to a challenge not only suprises me but it flies in the face of every foundation of knowledge.

 

Many do improve. However, there are many more who are passed along like a worn out whore. There's nothing special about Conley. He's a 6-1 guard. He's not the quickest guard in college basketball. He's not the best ball handler in college basketball. If he came out, he would be fortunate to be a late first-round pick. 6-1 guards used to be a commodity 30 years ago. Not any more.

 

The discussion isn't over Conley's quality. It is over the announcement that there is no way in which a player improves when put up against superior players.

That is like saying someone will continue to improve their reading skills by reading the same Hardy Boys books year after year.

 

Boots, how do you equate Oden with Joe Barely Cares?

 

Wow. This is just 40 kinds of wrong.
Throw Florida into the Olympics and see how many games they win.

 

I'm arguing that the NBA game - the way it's played - is so remarkably inferior that most of the best players either schooled themselves in college (Duncan, Nash) or they were simply freakishly talented to begin with. But few of them actually become better basketball players.

How can you? I mean, watch the NBA. They run, what, two plays? I've seen teams run a pick and roll 15 straight times. Teams rarely trap or press. Spirited defense is saved for the game's last two minutes. No league is more apathetic - it's like the teams have a gentleman's agreement to loaf while the team's stars gun up deep 3s and throw down big dunks.

I think they play way too many games in the NBA, but that's not going to change. It's horrible stuff to watch. Even in the playoffs. I wish it weren't.

 

I didn't say that. I said the style of the NBA is inferior. Basketball is most intelligently played in college. NBA is basketball for dummies anymore, and it's played as such.

 

If the style is inferior, by default the teams would lose. However, if you put Florida up against any NBA team and their bound to get run out of the building.

Also, the oversimplification and stereotyping of NBA offenses is rather baseless.

Has LeBron James improved since entering the NBA? How about Jordan? Did he improve after leaving college and going to the NBA?

The college game has inferior players to the NBA. This goes from all five starting positions and on down to the bench depth. As such, because of the inferior players, the style of play in college is inferior. You cannot have better style of play when you don't have better players.

 

Considering I watched OSU spend three hours trying -- and failing -- to run a simple pick-and-roll, I tend to disagree.
Basketball is most intelligently played in college?
UCLA?
Again, wow.

 

Bullshit, Magic Johnson had virtually no outside shot when he entered the NBA, neither did Jason Kidd, Kevin Johnson or Gary Payton, ALL developed into outside shooters after they entered the league. Stockton, Isiah and Nash were also erratic outside shooters when they entered the league but developed very good outside jumpers years later. Indeed, although its true his outside J is Conley's one weakness, I'd venture that its no worse than those guys were at the same age (he's only 18, remember). There's absolutely no reason Conley can't improve his outside jumper after entering the league, just like countless other point guards have before him.

 

In my opinion, Oden is like JBC in college. JBC was an outstanding college player. I don't see Oden being a big impact player at this time.

 

If Oden is as physically mature as he seems, he has nothing to gain by remaining in college for a year. There's an argument to be made for a player like Spencer Hawes, who needs to bulk up and doesn't need the grind of an NBA travel schedule while he's doing it, to hang on for another year before turning pro. Plus he won't have to compete with (and lose to) Oden in the draft.

Oden, like Herschel Walker before him, appears to be a walking testosterone factory.