Pro-Suggs
USA Basketball Member 2: Nothing against Jalen Green, but I love Jalen Suggs. That football mentality that he brought to basketball, his toughness, I think is a real separator. Jalen Green is a freak athlete, but Jalen Green also has that smooth west coast game that can sometimes be misconstrued as soft or lazy because he does things so effortlessly. But I would go to war with Suggs every day. He’s tough. He can play. He talks. He leads. His mentality is just different, and I loved it. Loved it. Suggs brought it every day. You knew what you were going to get with him. Part of leading is leading by example. You never had to question whether or not you were getting his best effort. You never had to question whether or not he was locked in. He wanted to win. Winning, sometimes, can get lost in the shuffle. Never with him. If he had to do something that wasn’t glamorous, or wasn’t going to get all the attention, so be it. He was going to be right there doing it. He’s a winner. That’ll translate.Guys have to be able to play with other really good players. They can’t be that ball dominant. If you get drafted by the Mavericks, Luka Dončić is going to have the ball 90 percent of the time. So if all you can do is be productive when you have the ball, you’re going to have a problem. You go to the Lakers, LeBron’s going to have the ball. If you go to Atlanta, Trae Young’s going to have the ball. That’s just reality. There’s very few guys who are gonna be picked where a team says ‘here’s the ball; it’s your team now.’ That just isn’t gonna happen.Jalen Suggs, to me, has proved that he can play with other good players and that he’s going to do things that aren’t the most glamorous jobs. He can sacrifice. ’Cause he’s all about winning. If I were picking No. 1 — and no offense to Cade Cunningham, he’s a totally different beast, he’s a 6-8 point guard — but it would take a lot for me to pass up on picking Jalen Suggs. He’s one of my favorites. He’s it, man. …Jalen Suggs’ game just translates so much easier. His size is going to help him (defensively), both his height and his physicality. He’ll be allowed to be a little bit more physical, as long as he keeps his hands off. Anything inside the 3-point line, he’s going to be allowed to use his chest and his hips. Again, he’s a football player.
Western Conference executive 2: Shot’s not broken. He just needs reps. Everyone wants Ben (Simmons) to become a shooter. So does the defense. That’s what they want him to do. If Suggs can get it to 36, 37 percent, that will be great because he’s really good. The football shows up. He’s got some of that blue-collar shit in him.
USA Basketball member 1: He is ultra competitive. He loves to compete. Any time we played three-on-three, cutthroat, where there’s a winner or loser, he’d play for a couple of hours. He’s a good athlete, but not as good as Green. Playing football helps his vision. He’s got great vision. From a quarterback standpoint, he knows where people are at. He knows how to make a tough pass. Suggs is certainly, his learning curve will be really low in how to play defense, where he should be. Understands spacing. Reacts really well. Moving when the ball is in the air. He made up a lot of ground when the ball was in the air. Really good on-ball defender.
Eastern Conference executive 2: I’ve seen him work through adversity. I’ve seen him take a step back to fit in with the team, and step in when they needed him to score. I’ve seen him start off bad in a game and come back the second half and turn it on. I have more faith in him coming in. … a lot of times, players are limited in how they’re able to read (plays) — not only offensively, but defensively, too. That’s a player being able to know, “OK, if this happens, then this is going to happen.” You’ve got to have that creativity to be a step ahead of a play.That’s another reason I like Suggs, because I’ve seen that with him. He’s able to anticipate, not only defensively, but offensively. “If I make this pass, or I come off this screen, I can read that this defense is going to do this, and I’ll have these options to make reads off of.” … Jalen can manipulate the play. I’ve seen LeBron manipulate the play because he knows two steps ahead and what reads to make.
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