How good is George if you take away his elite defense and athleticism, though?
George is not an elite athlete. He declined athletic testing at the combine. No elite athlete declines athletic testing. Is he an elite defender? Sure. But he uses length, lateral movement and good instincts. I think Cade has those things.
Cade has the tools to be a good defender. It shows up in all his metrics IMO. I think Cade is a good but not great athlete......but laterally, there is a lot to like on defense. Again, he's not elite there but at 6'8", he moves well. He plays hard, he does a good job using his length to re-route players.
94.8 DRTG, 3.7 BLK/STL per 100, 3.1 DPM. Those are good numbers across the spectrum of wings. I also think we tend to fall in to this trap with wings specifically, that we think they won't improve. When some of these guys improve a lot.
To me, his value assessment is honestly singularly tied to his turnovers because that is what would keep him from being able to explore / develop becoming a more dynamic playmaker. Is that a result of less than ideal spacing? Fewer transition plays? Being guarded by 6'1" inch guys that try at 100% effort?
My struggle with evaluating him as the season has gone on is the turnover thing has been a constant. It has actually been worse in conference play. One coaching critique I would have, relative to his turnovers specifically is I think he is just sucking up too much dribble action in their offense. Obviously, he has unique skills for a guy his size but he should be moved around far move, especially relative to his size, ability to draw fouls and his 3PT shooter to this point. It is just a lot of standing around, a lot of dribbling and I really don't think it resembles what an NBA team would do or should do with him.
I think at this point, he's probably not going to go #1, just my personal opinion.......but I also think he's a guy who could go 5-6 in the draft and still be the best player. That is kind of the tough thing for me. Green is the most exciting combination of skill / athleticism........I like Mobley a lot, although he has pulled back here. But guys like Suggs, Kuminga.....I don't know, they just don't do it for me. Will Suggs be good? Probably, yes.......will he be a star? He just tends to not look that way statistically.......but even he is in a situation where things like his AST numbers are probably inflated relative to his team......but his scoring volume is severely diminished for that same reason.
I kind of don't envy the GM that picks 1 or 2 in this draft. I think it is a year where there are a lot of good choices but no great one.......and those types of drafts are ones where the best players go in entirely random spots.
