Shabazz Muhammad is a 2 at the next level.
He's been playing out of shape and overweight and he's been relying more on his jumper than anything through UCLA's early season. His athleticism while overweight has been average for NCAA standards, and below average for NBA standards.
As conference play kicks in and as McLemore keeps getting shine at Kansas for playing and delivering like we expected Shabazz to be doing, I fully expect Shabazz to kick it into gear. They said that he lost/is losing 20lbs to get into playing shape... sounds more like Waiters coming off Summer League than a guy who is looking to adjust to a heavier weight so he can be a horribly undersized 3 with average athleticism.
His style of play is more grounded, like a Harden type of 2 guard without the same level of playmaking.
I am not really sure how you could say that when I just showed with objective, undeniable stats that Shabazz is not undersized for the 3.
There also seems to be a misunderstanding concerning his weight.
His weight was 225 back in April of this year when he was still playing basketball. He had been playing at that weight all his senior year of high school. This was before he got out of shape, meaning he weighed in at 225 in shape at the Nike Hoop Summit. Shabazz weighed in at 235 coming into UCLA. Now he is down to 222, roughly his playing weight from high school and still above average weight for a small forward. Who said that Shabazz was planning on losing 20 lbs? I'll believe it when I read it or see it.
Also, shooting guards are generally more agile and quicker than 3s, so, if Shabazz doesn't have the athleticism for the 3, then how would he have the athleticism to guard the 2? If you're referring to strength and size, see above. He also used his body well all throughout high school as a physical player. Now that he's back in shape, we'll likely see more of that.
And Birdy, you know height doesn't weigh in as much as standing reach and wingspan, both of which Shabazz excels in. 6'11.25" wingspan is above average and his standing reach is only .3" lower than average. Again, see above on how his playing weight is at 225.
Also, who does shut down those guys? What SF weighs 270 other than LeBron? What SF has a standing reach of 9'2" other than Durant? No one. No one is going to stop those guys from getting their points. If Shabazz's ideal playing weight is in the 225 range, then it looks a lot better than 205. You can play SF at 225. That's just ridiculous. He already dropped down to 222 from 235, and he had been playing at that weight all his senior year. He wasn't playing 30 lbs overweight up until now.
It may very well end up being that he plays SG in the NBA, but he'd be one big-ass shooting guard, and that's great. But his talent may be too much to pass up. What then? Keeping Waiters at back-up minutes at the 1 and 2 would give him 24 minutes a game, which would be a waste. That, and do we really want to bench Waiters? I'm just putting out the argument that he is by no means undersized at the SF position so that, if we did draft him, we could use him as a small forward.