In my first post back, the NBA finals have already begun so I'm going to focus on the NBA draft that is coming up on June 27th. This is one of the least exciting NBA drafts of all time as there are no clear players to go number 1 even though everyone has Noel going first, he is not that HUGE of a talent in my opinion. I think that after this draft the most successful player will be a player that no one expected to be as good as they turned out to be. From my point of view there are two specific players that are not getting the credit they deserve in this draft at all, Minnesota PF Trevor Mbakwe and Virginia Tech G Erick Green. Both players are amazing talents and both being projected second round picks or in Mbakwe's case not even drafted at all. You never really know what a player can do unless you give him a shot and these two players deserve a decent shot.
I personally got to go and see a good chunk of Erick Green's games this season and last and the jump he made from last season to this season is quite phenomenal. He has built his game in every aspect from where he was at, which shows that he is willing to put in the work to become better and better no matter the situation he is put in. Green is an excellent scorer and knows how to get himself in good positions to score, proving this by being the nations leading scorer averaging 25.0 points a game. He brought his average points per game up 10 points from the previous season while still having roughly the same number of minutes. Not to mention that Erick Green played in the ACC one of the top basketball conferences in the nation! He did not score twenty-one points in only four games out of 32. He had four games where he scored over 30 points, one of those against this years #2 seeded Miami. The really impressive thing is he did not just chuck up a bunch of shots at random as he ended his season with an average of 47.5% field goal percentage. He is also an excellent free throw shooter shooting 81% from the line and that was with a lot of free throws too averaging 8 per game. He had a pretty high point guard rebounding average with 4 per game in his senior season and also has a pretty solid nose for the ball grabbing a steal a game. He is also very smart and stayed out of foul trouble and only sat around 4 minutes a game. He is however not your typical point guard, he does not have the worlds greatest handles but they are workable and you could develop them to be really good. Also he does not have the best passing ability, and he only averaged 3.8 assists a game his senior season. However I think that part of the reason for the low assist number was because his teammates were not always playing at the same level as he was.
When I look at everything about how Erick Green plays I cannot help but see him as a young James Harden, and I think that he is a player that could develop into the same exact type of player. Bring him off the bench as a role player to be an instant scoring threat and energizer. He can play the two guard, even though he is undersized, and come in to play the point guard if needed. He can draw fouls on the opposing team and get some easy points at the line. You give him minutes off the bench and a team gets better. Eventually he could turn into a player that gets starter minutes and have a career that resembles James Harden to the tee. I do think that his career also really depends on which team he ends up on. If he is drafted by a top tier team he could be the James Harden type of player but if its a lower ranked team they may over use him or under use him and then he would end up wrongly used and not reach his full potential. However I think either way he will be more successful then most people are realizing. His scoring ability is just too good to pass up for almost any team, an instant arena energizer in my opinion.
One of the most exciting players for me to watch this season was Trevor Mbakwe from Minnesota. One game I watched him play in and really saw his major potential, was Minnesota's upset win against Indiana. In the Indiana game, Indiana was ranked #1 in the nation and Mbakwe was dominating on the floor, ended the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds and it seemed as if no player could stop him. He did not have the biggest numbers he has had in his career in his senior season but he had a lot less minutes then the two previous years, with 4 less minutes he only averaged 4 less points and not even a whole rebound less. Mbakwe is a hustle player to its finest. He gets rebounds with power and decisiveness, having 17 games with double digit rebounds and leading the Big 10 with 8.7 per game. Also he takes good shots when they come to him, shooting 56.5% his senior year and 60.4 his junior year. He is also good for at least one to two blocks a game but he has a good chance every night to get more then that. He has a very solid chance at a double double almost every night, having 10 double double games and 4 more that were only one shot away. Some of his strongest games this year were also against highly ranked teams with his best game arguably against at the time #5 ranked Michigan, with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks.
When I add up all the stuff about Trevor Mbakwe he seems to compare to Kenneth Faried on a lot of levels. Both played at smaller schools rather then bigger names, both are a little undersized for there PF position but somehow seem to be top rebounders. Some of the differences between the two is Faried is a much better jumper, but Mbakwe has better low post moves so it evens it out. When you see how much Faried improves the Denver Nuggets with his hustle I cannot help but think that Mbakwe could do the exact same thing for a team. He could come off the bench and prove himself, grab some boards, and help to get a rhythm going or help cause a momentum shift. His value on the boards and his 7'4" wing span are two things that you could develop into a tremendous player and I think that he could end up having one of the highest +/- ratings in the entire NBA.
Trevor Mbakwe and Erick Green are two players with tremendous, undervalued talents. They both compare well to very successful players in the NBA, and could develop into very successful players themselves. Erick Green's instant scoring could help any team in the entire league and same with Mbakwe's rebounding. Both players played four full years in college, so they do not have the "instant star" light on them which I think is one reason for them to be so low on peoples draft boards. As I stated earlier in the post I believe that this drafts most successful player will be an unexpected player and I think it has a good chance to be one of these two players, only time will tell.
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When I look at everything about how Erick Green plays I cannot help but see him as a young James Harden, and I think that he is a player that could develop into the same exact type of player. Bring him off the bench as a role player to be an instant scoring threat and energizer. He can play the two guard, even though he is undersized, and come in to play the point guard if needed. He can draw fouls on the opposing team and get some easy points at the line. You give him minutes off the bench and a team gets better. Eventually he could turn into a player that gets starter minutes and have a career that resembles James Harden to the tee. I do think that his career also really depends on which team he ends up on. If he is drafted by a top tier team he could be the James Harden type of player but if its a lower ranked team they may over use him or under use him and then he would end up wrongly used and not reach his full potential. However I think either way he will be more successful then most people are realizing. His scoring ability is just too good to pass up for almost any team, an instant arena energizer in my opinion.
One of the most exciting players for me to watch this season was Trevor Mbakwe from Minnesota. One game I watched him play in and really saw his major potential, was Minnesota's upset win against Indiana. In the Indiana game, Indiana was ranked #1 in the nation and Mbakwe was dominating on the floor, ended the game with 21 points and 12 rebounds and it seemed as if no player could stop him. He did not have the biggest numbers he has had in his career in his senior season but he had a lot less minutes then the two previous years, with 4 less minutes he only averaged 4 less points and not even a whole rebound less. Mbakwe is a hustle player to its finest. He gets rebounds with power and decisiveness, having 17 games with double digit rebounds and leading the Big 10 with 8.7 per game. Also he takes good shots when they come to him, shooting 56.5% his senior year and 60.4 his junior year. He is also good for at least one to two blocks a game but he has a good chance every night to get more then that. He has a very solid chance at a double double almost every night, having 10 double double games and 4 more that were only one shot away. Some of his strongest games this year were also against highly ranked teams with his best game arguably against at the time #5 ranked Michigan, with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and 5 blocks.
When I add up all the stuff about Trevor Mbakwe he seems to compare to Kenneth Faried on a lot of levels. Both played at smaller schools rather then bigger names, both are a little undersized for there PF position but somehow seem to be top rebounders. Some of the differences between the two is Faried is a much better jumper, but Mbakwe has better low post moves so it evens it out. When you see how much Faried improves the Denver Nuggets with his hustle I cannot help but think that Mbakwe could do the exact same thing for a team. He could come off the bench and prove himself, grab some boards, and help to get a rhythm going or help cause a momentum shift. His value on the boards and his 7'4" wing span are two things that you could develop into a tremendous player and I think that he could end up having one of the highest +/- ratings in the entire NBA.
Trevor Mbakwe and Erick Green are two players with tremendous, undervalued talents. They both compare well to very successful players in the NBA, and could develop into very successful players themselves. Erick Green's instant scoring could help any team in the entire league and same with Mbakwe's rebounding. Both players played four full years in college, so they do not have the "instant star" light on them which I think is one reason for them to be so low on peoples draft boards. As I stated earlier in the post I believe that this drafts most successful player will be an unexpected player and I think it has a good chance to be one of these two players, only time will tell.
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