Saric already better than Smart and has a higher ceiling. What pick was he by Philly?
No, he isn't. He's having a hot game, but Smart is far superior on D, and they're both below average on O.
He was #12 overall
I think for this system Saric is a better fit. Call me crazy, but it's true
Another over reaction to a player who has a good game against us but is having a below average season.
This is his first season n the NBA right? You don't see his skills for a player his size?
He's played professionally for years over in Europe... He's not getting any better - this is what you get with him.
What?!?? How does this make sense? So European players don't improve?
No, not when they have that type of background. Look at Mirotic who had a pretty similar context to Saric with his background and age coming into the NBA - he's not getting any better either.
American college players develop for years after coming in because they get older/stronger and they learn the professional game, which is much, much different than college ball. The same can't be said for European players who come here at age 22 and have already been playing professional ball for years.
Mirotic was picked in the same draft as Lamarcus Aldridge. He came into the league at like 25/26 there is no comparison between the two besides that they are both European and they shoot 3s. Saric is a better playmaker, shooter, and for now a better rebounder. He fits today's NBA a lot better as a playmaking 4. Saric is 22. To say that is ridiculous. Yeah Giannis never improved even though he's been playing basketball since he was like 8 at least. Dirk never improved. Europeans don't improve once they get into the NBA.
?
LMA was drafted in 2006 draft. 5 years before even Mirotic got drafted.
Saric can still improve at 23 yet, Smart, a year younger than him already reached his ceiling?
I never said that, but players that have reached the league and have had 3 years to just slightly improve over time show it or max out at the player they are. Smart will improve, but I don't believe he has the same ceiling as Saric based on the fact that Smart has shown minimal improvement at all thus far in his career. People were making this same argument for James Young by the way
Some people are late bloomers. You can't really judge young players until they reach the age of 25-27. Just look at Bradley. Does anyone really expected him to average 17PPG this season? No, and he was way worse than Smart when he first came in the league. Took him 6 years to develop his game.
Star players that bloomed later in their careers:
Kyle Lowry
Hassan Whiteside
Chauncey Billups
Jermaine O'neal
Paul Millsap
Im not saying Smart will be a star, but never count that out as a possibility. Whether he reach it or not, as long as he makes All-Defensive team on regular basis, I think the pick is well used. Hell, we may even see Bradley as an All-Star this year if he keep up his stats up to February. Even guys like Jamaal Magloire and Kyle Korver managed to get a nod for an All-Star appearance.
There are also players who became stars without a shooting like Rondo or John Wall.
See I comletely agree with this!! I'm not disputing this. I'm disputing the fact that European player can't ever improve on what he is after coming over at the ripe age of 22. I'll paint it this way. Saric has played top tier level European Basketball for about 2 years with Anadolu Efes in Israel which by far is not even close to as good as NBA basketball. Smart has played 3 years in the NBA and hasn't had any massive improvements in his game. So according to your boy experience in lesser competition, in his example college, doesn't mean as much as experience in Europe? Wouldn't that mean experience in even the best European leagues doesn't mean as much as Smart's experience in the pros because it's a worse league. And therefore according to his logic that means Saric can improve because he was playing in a lesser league and has plenty to learn in the NBA and plenty of skills to build off of? And also by his logic that means Smart is maxed out because he's played more years with better competition.
I see that we're really twisting and stretching the evidence to fit our narrative.
We're not even into a quarter of the third year since Smart was drafted, who has only played a total of 144 games - not even two full seasons worth, yet Smart has three full years of experience? Further, Saric has played professional ball since 2012 in the Adriatic League before Anadolu Efes, so you can't just discount that to try and fit your narrative... And professional ball is not the same as American college ball, so trying to equate the two is a major false analogy.
Look, all I'm saying is that Saric is not a regular rookie - he's much older and much more experienced. People expecting him to make some sort of major improvement with time are just kidding themselves, because he's largely already developed due to his experience in professional ball. Sure, he'll improve some as he gets more acclimated to the NBA game, and there's no doubt about that. But for the most part these types of players do not make the types of jumps that rookies from college make. They're already physically developed and have developed their games in years of professional play already, so there's just not much more that they can do to develop.
Nice job of going back and editting your post to make it sound better
.
You originally said that he won't improve because he's fully developed from playing Euro ball. You can compare the quality of basketball of college to overseas and even then it's tough to tell which is better in some cases. If the quality of basketball was that much better overseas for foreign players then why wouldn't foreign players get drafted higher more often? Because clearly if you are a standout with dramatically better competition than you theoretically should go above the American prospects and their weak college game right?
He's older than the average rookie, but how is he old comparatively? He's just as old as Smart and if you are willing to state the fact that Smart has plenty of time to get dramatically better at 22 than I don't know how you can completely discount Saric getting dramatically better? He played pro so what? He's still young and has plenty of deficiencies in his game that he can improve on. Smart has had all the resources at his disposal to improve as a player in both the collegiate basketball and NBA scenes. If he still can't shoot after playing roughly 12+ years of basketball than I find it hard to believe that he will get much better than league average.
There is no, if any, statistic correlation with the age of European rookies and how they develop over time. Unless of course you are mentioning like Prigioni and MArcelo Huertas which are clearly different stories. Playing pro ball overseas meand yes you are more developed, but how in any logical/statistical way does it mean that you are fully developed by a player and won't dramatically improve at all?