they don't know what they're talking about.
If Danny Ainge took Tatum over Fultz me and thousands of other Celtics fans would hunt him down with pitchforks and fire and make him pay.
In other words, there is zero chance that Ainge drafts anyone over Fultz in this draft, letalone drafting Tatum over Fultz.
CBS and Vitale are just out of touch.
I agree.... But then again when you look at plays like below... You pause for a sec... If Tatum was just a little more aggressive he would of had a better freshman year
https://youtu.be/z8fXpxx-aCY
Fultz would still be way ahead of Tatum because of his 3 point shooting and pick and roll ability. They are the 2 most important skills for an NBA guard to master and Fultz has mastered BOTH at age 18. Then we talk about another critical part of his game that he has mastered-the mid range/ pull up game.
Fultz has potential as a top 5 scorer in the NBA.
Chris Mannix (i think it was) said on toucher and rich that most NBA GMs see Fultz as the clear #1 pick in his own tier because of how advanced/complete his moves are and his understanding in the pick and roll.
What about defense?
What about vs stiff competition?
You make it sound like Fultz did this against superior talent...and that was not the case (half the time). Look at the game vs Ball...it was pretty even. Some say Ball played better
I like Fultz but its not like he had a karl towns/duncan like performance (stats plus winning games against the best)...so its a little harder to come to an absolute conclusion imo
Perspective: Fultz had to play against good teams like Arizona and UCLA. Ball, conversely, got to play against crap teams like Washington ...
The good GMs don't really give that much credence to NCAA team performance. NCAA team performance tends to correlate most with how many talented upperclassmen the coach can convince to stay around. It has far less to do with how individually talented a given freshman player is.
History is littered with March Madness superstars who ended up doing nothing in the NBA.
I disagree on some of the things you are saying
Ideally if the prospect plays to their capabilities and the team wins/dominates... You got the undisputed top prospect
This is what happened with Lebron... He won 3-4 consecutive hs titles + stats... Teams knew he was for real
If James got the stats but no hs titles.. maybe he doesnt go 1 or cavs may think to trade the pick
And this is what is going on with Fultz... If it was absolute/he was the next great... There would be zero talks about trading him for Butler, pg13 but the conversation exist
No. Basketball is a team game. Even Lebron did not win titles until he got super talented help. Neither did MJ.
(Also, Lebron was drafted out of high school so he never won a single NCAA game. So I'm not sure why you are even talking about him.)
Markelle is great, but no one is claiming he is the next Larry Bird. He declared early for Washington expecting to play with Marquis Chriss and Dejounte Murray. Instead, those guys declared for the NBA and Markell was basically playing with the equivalent of a junior varsity team around him.
If you really think those team results are at all any reflection of his individual talent then you are just being willfully superficial about the situation. Good GMs do not look at things so superficially. You have to look at the player in detail as an individual and project how HE is going to be in the NBA over the next 4 - 10 years. You aren't drafting his college teammates.