They are closer to 5 months older. If GG returned next year and was as good as them, it would be a massive improvement. They said this stuff about Emoni too, and turns out you can't just project one of the greatest individual improvements onto any player. These types of improvements do happen, but understand how great of a improvement it would take. I do think we are at the point where we are babying a prospect too much when we present the idea that we should throw out conference play because it was too hard.
I can buy into the idea that GG would have been better in a much different role and that different role is how he can succeed in the NBA. Like if you swapped Clowney and GG, Clowney is just awful in a number one option type role and GG is a really good player in a smaller role like Clowney was. I just don't buy into this idea that GG is this super talented scorer with potential to do that at the NBA level.
The thing is that when we're doing this hypothetical swap, I know with certainty that Noah Clowney was good in that smaller role and was good at it. There's no guarantee that translates, of course, but I feel good about it his chances and that's why I have him ranked 15th on my board.