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Jazz at Trailblazers 4/11 @8 PM Mountain Time

fishonjazz said:
Just because there was not a better option does not mean no one should be able to complain.

If someone gave me the choice of cutting my hand off or just a finger I would choose the better option of the two (finger) but I still would not be happy to lose my finger and would probably complain
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But, isn't Dante what we knew he would be coming in? Every report said that it would take Dante a couple of years to get up to speed. Every scout said crazy high ceiling, but will take a couple of years to get any sort of production out of him. Dante's defense is a couple years ahead of schedule. His offense falls in line with the whole "will take a couple years to get there" mantra.

How he is playing shouldn't be surprising...Well, I take that back. His defense has been very surprising. His offense is what was expected.

I think the problem most fans have is they hear "his ceiling is Kobe" and stop listening. They don't listen to the rest of the sentence that says "will take a couple of years to get there" part.

I've said this 100 times (and this isn't directed to you). This is Exum's redshirt year. Forget it. He isn't playing this year. What happens this year will be 100% irrelevant in 2-3 years.
 
Scouting reports on Exum:

"His handle is loose at times – has the ball poked away too often and occasionally fumbles when changing hands or directions"

"Settles for long-distance threes too often … Not vertically explosive and struggles to finish with authority."

"Can he develop his body and become a tough player capable of finishing with contact?"

"We have seen enough of Exum to know that he is one of the best under-20 players in the world, but he still has quite a ways to go before becoming a star in the NBA… The areas that he needs to focus on are his ball-handling, decision-making, and outside shooting, especially if he wants to reach his goal of being a Derek Rose-like point guard… The potential is there, so much so, that he will likely be drafted ahead of a number of players who are more NBA-ready."

https://www.nbadraft.net/players/dante-exum

"Needs to improve shooting efficiency especially from distance
Needs to get stronger
Very inexperienced with no time playing in college"

That was from NBA.com

Couldn't find too much without paying, but everyone talked about how Exum has the skills, but is years away from realizing them.

This is his Redshirt year. His "rookie" year is next year. This summer league he will be at "rookie" level. Patience everyone. Patience.
 
green said:
But, isn't Dante what we knew he would be coming in?
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I thought he would get to the line and get to the rim.
I kept hearing about his speed and athleticism and his ability to finish and score.
Figured he would struggle with his outside shot.
 
I expected lots of mistakes and lots of awesomeness. I expected him to attack a lot more, turn the ball over a lot, get swatted a lot, knocked to the ground a lot, and miss a few games due to injury.
I also expected him to score at the rim a lot too, and get to the line a lot.
Instead I have seen very few mistakes and very little awesomeness

I never saw any pre draft scouting reports saying that exum would be the biggest ***** (wussy) on the offensive end of the court that we would ever see.
Or
Defenses should sag off exum on the perimeter and also sag off him when he is five feet from the hoop because he won't even look at the basket so give him an open path to the hoop and don't guard him.

I'm not willing to declare exum a bust in his rookie year.... I wouldn't declare him a bust as a rookie even if he had played 4 years of college and still looked this bad.
 
Wow at all the downers on Exum.

Relax. He is a 19 year old rookie that played inferior competition and is suddenly playing full grown men. Some of which are extremely strong, fast and athletic.

Let's give him some time to see what he has. Like all rookies he can bust sure. But it is way, way to early to be worrying about that yet. From all reports he has a big work ethic. Let's see what condition he shows up to trainign camp in. Let us see if he adds anything to his game.
 
KD's Framily said:
I said, multiple times, that I think he'll end up being decent, but that, given how he's putting up the worst numbers of almost any 19 year old rookie in NBA history, and given that no 19 year old rookie has ever has as bad or as worse of a season than Dante and gone on to be an all-star, I think it's a reach to believe he'll be an all-star.

I'm not sure how expressing doubt that Dante will be the first player in NBA history to buck that trend is in any way "stupid".

I see a lot of responses rehashing the same thing: "He's 19, it's a huge jump in competition, etc...". I guess I need to make this even clearer: I am not comparing him to other rookies who came into the league with more experience - I am comparing him to other previous 19 year old rookies.

I also see a lot of people bringing up players who had "awful" rookie campaigns and ended up being all-stars. Every player mentioned that became a star had a significantly better rookie season than Dante. Using examples of other players who were as bad as Dante their rookie season and became an all-star isn't going to work because literally ZERO players in NBA history have had as bad of a rookie season as Dante and went on to become an all-star.

Again, I think he'll be decent. But if he's going to become a star, that'll mean becoming the first ever player in NBA history to do so after having as bad of a rookie season as he's had. And yes, that pool includes a ton of other raw 19 year old rookies. I just don't think it's unreasonable at all to doubt he'll be the first ever player to buck that trend and become a star.

I might be wrong, and maybe he develops into an all-star, but I think it's pretty damn harsh to call it "stupid" to think that Dante won't become the first ever player in NBA history to buck the trend.
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But you have to look at why he is not playing like he "should". He has the physical tools, its his head/experience that is not ready, and arguably maybe never will be. For example, compare him to Trey and driving hard and dunking it. Neither one does it, but Trey never will be able, he just does not have the physical ability and never will. Dante does have that ability so he could get it going. I am a bit worried too, but I can see a lot of physical ability and court vision that is stellar.
 
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