Woj nails it (NBA draft age requirements)

Jesus. And this is from the guy who accuses others of using their personal opinion as authority. GB points out that ESPN projected Hibbert as a Top 10 pick at this time last year. As did, btw, virtually all mock drafts, it was the prevailing view. Yet you say they're all "morons" because... because... well because you just "know damn well" he wouldn't have. Hypocrisy anyone?

And McRoberts was not being widely projected as a lottery pick a year ago. You're flinging bullshit with that one. Most thought he'd be lucky to squeeze into the late 1st Round.

McRoberts was, however, being projected as a sure lottery pick if he'd gone pro after his senior year of HS, when he was chosen as the Gatorade national HS player of the year. His pro stock did not get better in college, it steadily declined the longer he was there.

The idea of a player's stock declining in college obviously doesn't jibe with your notions of how things ought to be. But, relying on the available objective evidence instead of just our personal wishes, it often appears to be how it is.

 

No, I'm not.
You're guilty of inventing this stuff as you go along, although you're certainly not alone.
When McRoberts declared, the mocks were listing him late lottery to just outside.
By June, after he'd done workouts and the scouts got the chance to see what a schmoe he was, the mocks were showing him starting to fall. But none had him out of the first round. So they were wrong all along. But the hindsight says "his year at Duke cost him." Well, the mocks were telling you after that year that he still was a mid-first rounder. So it wasn't his season that hurt as much as his workouts and the chance for teams to inspect him close-up.
Who's to say that if teams had gotten a look at McRoberts in workouts out of HS that they wouldn't have figured out the same thing? It is unknowable. Just as it is now with Hibbert. We don't know for sure where he'd have landed last year because he didn't go through the draft (but go ahead and look at the first 12 picks and tell me who he beats out). We don't know where he'll go this year because he hasn't even had his first workout -- and won't for another 5-6 weeks.
This is the most disingenuous pile of crap in the American sports media. Since there's nothing concrete out there, the folks who want to push this particular agenda just keep twisting the facts to suit their position. And the ammunition they use -- mock drafts????? -- is mostly nonsense.

 

McRoberts played TWO seasons at Duke, not one. After his freshman year he was less highly regarded than he was out of high school. After his sophomore year he was less highly regarded than he was after his freshman season. The longer he stayed the more his standing dropped. He went from a lottery pick to a late 2d rounder during those two years.

 

But he would have been picked apart at the draft workouts. No matter what his age was at the time.

 

OK. I surrender. You want to live in Fantasy land, I'll leave you alone.

 

Like Kwame Brown was?

I agree McRoberts would've been exposed if he'd gone pro out of HS but the difference is it wouldn't have happened until after he'd signed a 1st round guaranteed contract. It's debatable where he would've gone, but there's no way he would've been a 2d rounder like he ended up being after his two seasons at Duke.

Both Kwame and McRoberts have been exposed as frauds. But the difference is Kwame is insanely rich and set for life anyways, McRoberts is not. So who made the wiser choice there?

 

Bottom line, we don't know. What we do know is results on the court, things we can see, like six teams in this decade alone that had one or more key components (Kobe, Parker, Ginobili) who didn't play one minute in college. If those three had gone to college, maybe they're more refined players, but maybe that hampers what they would need to become good pros. Again, bottom line, we don't know.

What we do know that it is possible to be a leader on a championship team without college experience.

 

Sorry Oz, but the history of the NBA is this: There still has not be a single NBA champion whose central component either went directly from high school into the NBA or was trained in international academies.
Zero.
I still believe that says something.
Perhaps LeBron changes that eventually. Perhaps KG this year. Perhaps not.

 

Moses Malone was the leading scorer and rebounder on the 1982-83 NBA Champion 76ers.

End of argument.

The "argument" is complete fucking bullshit anyway; the argument is not whether a player coming out of high school can be the dominant player on an NBA championship team, the argument is whether a player coming out of high school can be better than a replacement-level player on an NBA roster (i.e., the 10th-12th man), and thus entitled on performance to compete for that spot.

And only an utter imbecile would argue that there aren't dozens of high school players, each and every year, who are better than replacement-level NBA players.

 

Moses is right on.
And I love how Twoback and 93Devil just completely ignore the Kobe Bryant stats I put up.
They don't even deserve to be replied to, really.

By their logic, Tyler Hansbrough (per today's announcement) is going to be a better pro than Kobe Bryant.

 

I never said anything like that, and all you have to do is read my posts on this subject to know that.
But you don't wish to deal in logic or truth.
And, once again for a little history lesson kiddies, Moses Malone did not go directly into the NBA. He went to the ABA, a comparative minor league.
You make your argument and I'll make mine -- which simply says that college makes players better than they would be otherwise. I'm not saying college could turn any old player into an NBA superstar. Don't be ridiculous.

 

If the key is college, why do you keep dismissing Moses Malone because he played in the ABA? He never went to college.