Ben McLemore: Worth the risk?

[Nathan S]

The extent to which athleticism gets overrated at draft time is absurd. A guy throws down a couple big transition dunks and all of a sudden he's shown more than Kyrie in college and he has superstar potential. Ridiculous.

 

[Akron83]

That's not true at all. If anything it was the other way around.

Beal was the alpha and the leader of his Florida team. McLemore was the leading scorer, but Kansas had Seniors in Johnson and Releford that ran that team and ultimately had the ball in crunch time of important games.

Beal was never the leader of that UF team. Never. Beal sort of blended in for the first 80% of the season and started to play better over the last few games.

 

[Akron83]

This is probably ban worthy, right?

LoL what? Have some perspective...Kyrie played how many games in college? Wow...

 

[Just Checkin]

There was quite a bit of chatter at the time that duke was just as good with out Irving. It led to the conclusion that Irving was overrated, and not deserving of the number one pick. Noel on the other hand saw his team go from in the tournament to out of the tournament with his departure, demonstating he impacted his teams success significantly, moving him up draft boards. As Kyrie showed though, college can be deceiving.

Those aren't even similar situations.

The Duke program had upperclassmen who played together for years and to have a dynamic ball handler to just enter and take over and change the offense completely would trouble most teams on both ends of the court. Kyrie also only played 11 games and in his absence, a lot of the ball movement the upperclassmen were used to for years returned. People saying Kyrie made the team worse were just being prisoners of the moment. Kyrie had excellent numbers and production on pretty much every metric, and it was obvious that his game was built for the NBA rather than NCAA ball.

Noel's team, well Calipari thinks it's cool to field a team of 8th graders (young guys) every year and this was probably the first year in recent memory that his recruits seemed to "bust" in their first season outside of Noel. Noel's numbers were excellent though and his impact made the team better on both ends obviously, but if Calipari ever fields a team with a few rotation players that can legally drink you probably wouldn't see an NIT tourney team that loses to the likes of Robert Morris.

Benny Mac had a good season but he had more college experience than both Kyrie and Noel. The Kansas team also features more offensive structure and involves players who aren't all elite athletes trying to hop to the draft before Final exams. Still, Mac displayed an ability to dominate but he never really put his stamp on the game often enough. He reminded me of Rudy Gay with a lot of people begging him to develop that mindset to use his skill set to its maximum potential. To say that McLemore showed more than Kyrie in college is ridiculous though, the guy can barely dribble and create his own shot on the college level - that doesn't scream NBA ability at his position immediately.

Paired next to a good ball handler, McLemore will look pretty good like Beal. I just hope he doesn't take all of that begging for a killer instinct to heart like Rudy Gay did and develop into a inefficient chucker like Rudy has.

 

[Nathan S]

LoL what? Have some perspective...Kyrie played how many games in college? Wow...

McLemore showed the ability to make 3's and jump high. How you think that's more than Kyrie showed in college is beyond me...

 

[CleveRocks]

Ok, I watched the video. Very smooth three point set shot. Otherwise a less skilled dion clone. How he is in the top 3 conversation is a puzzle to me.

 

[pl4tinum]

There are reasons why you see some people have him ranked in the teens.

 

[Amherstcavsfan]

The guy would be perfect if he could finish in the lane and create his own shot. Unfortunately, he doesnt do either well, at all.

 

[ChicagoCavFan]

Have to disagree with the importance Nathan places on age. Situations are always different. Compare Kobe's 19 yr old stats to Beal's. By your standards, you take Beal 8 days a week. Situations dictate success...at any level.

 

[cavsfanclanman]

So hard to read this guy. He definitely has some major bust potential (at least as a number 1, or even 5 pick). I also only see it messing with the chemistry of the team (in particular Dion), not sure if that's a good move at this point, but obviously, like everyone has stated, if he's by far and away the best talent, you take him. He just doesn't seem to be that guy.

 

[hud11]

I have to admit I am coming around on McLemore as an viable option. At first I didn't like the idea given how Waiters might react, but if they have him as the best player then he should be the pick. All these teams are playing 3 small guys - the Spurs often have Neal, Parker, Green on the floor together. The Heat with Wade, Chalmers, Allen. So I don't think its a huge deal, I actually like the idea of seeing KI, Dion and BM, on the floor together. McLemore, whether you like him or not is a perfect fit with either Irving or Waiters, his shooting complements the other well. It would be a great situation for him too, he'd be the #1 pick, yes, but I think he'd be able to blend in well with what we have.

I still think Noel is my #1, but I'm not going to be upset if McLemore is the guy. In a perfect world, if they could somehow come away with Noel and McLemore or Porter, that would be incredible.

 

[Nathan S]

Have to disagree with the importance Nathan places on age. Situations are always different. Compare Kobe's 19 yr old stats to Beal's. By your standards, you take Beal 8 days a week. Situations dictate success...at any level.

Sure, not all players improve the same amount. That's why it's also important to take into account work ethic and drive, which Kobe had in spades. But on average, 19 year olds improve more than 20 year olds, 20 year olds improve more than 21 year olds, and so on. It has to be that way. If 20 year olds improved the same amount as 19 year olds after coming into the NBA, all 19 year olds would be better off staying in college another year until age 20 and then coming into the NBA...and that doesn't add up.

 

[Derek]

Beal was never the leader of that UF team. Never. Beal sort of blended in for the first 80% of the season and started to play better over the last few games.

He was the leader from very early on. Just because he wasn't taking all the shots doesn't mean he was blending in.

Also, just read your post saying that Beal benefited from getting hurt because his shooting percentages would have dropped off... Please

 

[Lumthemad]

I see a lot of Brandon Rush to McLemore's game and it scares me to death in terms of us taking him. Brandon has all the tools in his belt and just doesn't seem to get it done consistently on the pro level. (and the Cavs were enamored with his back when he was drafted as well)

I can see why scouts are interested because he's clearly a skilled kid but i rank my concerns on him to be greater than any of the other top five prospects.

 

[getBUCKED]

He was the leader from very early on. Just because he wasn't taking all the shots doesn't mean he was blending in.

Also, just read your post saying that Beal benefited from getting hurt because his shooting percentages would have dropped off... Please

Lol was definitely not the leader. Throughout te season he was quoted on trying to become more aggressive because his team needed him to be. Boykin & the rest of the upperclassman definitely led that team until te end of the season where Beal started to show he could be the #1 option (like March Madness late).