Rivals Thinks Darius Morris Productive 2nd Rounder
Article I saw on Rivals homepage about the draft. Two of their analyists think Darius Morris is going to be one of the most productive 2nd Round draft picks of the draft. One principally highlights Morris focusing on LA being a good place for him, while the other also mentions Morris.
http://collegebasketball.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1234996
Good luck to him and I think he will do fine.
They also, seem to think the Pistons didn't do to badly in the draft: Singler was picked as one of the most likely 2nd rounders to contribute and Knight was picked as one of the top picks most ready to contribute next season.
At first I thought rivals was predicting the 2017 nfl draft
a second rounder? My 2017 draft projections have him going between 5-10 depending on how he does at the combine.
I would be shocked if Darius doesn't have a long successful career in the NBA. Once he gets the jumper down, he will be a key component to a team for years
As much as I hate comparisons, I also believe Morris will be successful NBA pro. I look back to Jason Kidd when he came out of Cal. Very similar to Morris, big guard, great passer, seems to have ability to defend point or 2 guard. Now if he can develop a reasonable jump shot like Kidd has done over his career, Morris should be very successful.
Andre Miller than J-Kidd.
he will be productive. he lucked into a good situation too. but he has to work on his shot this summer. a good jumper makes him deadly.
Well, the timing of a coaching change and a potential blow-up of some of the teams' core is good for him. D Fisher is still under contract for 1 or 2 years and while he's old they aren't likely to just tell him to sit there on the bench and get his money, plus Kobe loves him. They also have Blake who got 20 minutes per game, but given the smallish size of his contract I wouldn't be surprised if he's included in a trade before the season, whenever teams can start doing that stuff do to the labor situation.
If Morris can be #2 on the depth chart by the start pf the season I think he can have a good season. His scoring numbers will probably be modest, 6 or 7 points, but he could have 5 or 6 assists to go with that if they allow the offense to go through him and don't have it in Kobe's hands all the time.
Best case scenario for Morris would be if the Lakers can send Blake, Odom, and Artest/Peace to Washington for Rashard Lewis. That opens up playing time and surrounds him with scorers that just need someone with court vision to get the ball to them.
He may be a good pro-but I don't understand where the guidence of these Michigan players leaving early is coming from-you can't tell me that being drafted 41st is that beneficial to his career and his life is going to be better because he left school a year early.
Ask Donovan Warren about that as well. I think kids are fed poor information and they act on it to their detriment. Though to be fair, I'm not sure Morris would have ever been a top draft selection. He's not uber-athletic, has good-but-not-great size, and has some holes offensively. When you are drafting early on, you are either going for potential or for a sure thing, and Morris just doesn't jump out on the page in those respects. I still think being selected by the Lakers in the 2nd round will be beneficial, and I could see him being a solid PG on a championship-level team. He's a heady player with good court vision and could definitely grow into a competent shooter with some practice. I wish him luck.
I think a big difference is that for basketball, staying in school doesn't necessarily improve one's draft stock, unlike football (usually). Basketball is often drafted on potential and size/athletic ability. With only 2 rounds in the draft and the 1st round only having guaranteed money, I can't exactly blame Darius for trying to get drafted in the 1st round when he had a shot at it. There is a good chance he would not have been drafted in the 1st round over the next two years.
I wonder how happy he would be if he went one spot earlier to Milwaukee?
It would seem he has a decent game for the NBA, but there have been a bunch of players rated much higher then Darius who have bombed. Hard to project with all that talent in the league.
The NBA cares mostly about potential, not production. If it didn't 8 Euros who play 15 minutes a game wouldn't go in the first round, and the 1st pick wouldn't have been a kid with 12 games in his college career.
The NBA looked at Morris and saw a big guard with solid passing skills, relatively poor athleticism, and limited range.
Unfortunately, there is nothing that one, or two additional years in college would have done to cure his most glaring weakness (limited athleticism). I suppose he felt he may as well start getting paid ASAP.