———here is what I said in February as everybody was bitching and moaning about NAW not playing like Michael Jordan and saying that he needs to come back for his junior year etc etc etc

Guys, NAW is not Kevin Durant, he’s probably not a hall of famer.
Does that mean he can’t play in the NBA? Of course not.
There are very few “can’t miss prospects” every year, everybody else is drafted based on what they “could be”.
Not to mention, the game of basketball is incredibly different at the Nba level from a spacing perspective, because defenses can’t run a Pack Line with the defensive 3 second rules, and shorter shot clocks speed the game up. NAW will look better in the NBA because he will most likely have a damn good point guard on his side to get him the ball like a Jrob. NAW isn’t really an iso 1 on 1 guy that you see from traditional NBA superstars, I get it, but I commend NAW for having the discipline to stay within the offensive system and not go rogue just so he can fill up the stat sheet.

There is a guy named Ja Morant that pretty much drops a triple double every other night for Murray State and he is now projected to be a top 5 pick, maybe even challenge Zion for the number 1 spot
I’m fairly confident if Naw was going up against garbage competition night in night out, he’d dominate, but he plays in the best conference in America where every team is trying to take away NAW first and foremost. (NOT saying NAW is better than Morant just FYI). And teams play zone. Zone is pretty much impossible to play in the NBA because you can’t just stick your big man in the lane to protect the rim with the defensive 3 seconds rules. It opens up the floor.

In the NBA, NAW is gonna spot up in a corner, shoot wide open 3’s that get dished off to him from a pick and roll between PG and forward. or he will pump fake and take it to the rim. and if he plays average defense, he’ll have a 10 year NBA career

That’s it. That’s all he has to do. I’m sorry that people don’t want to see him leave VT or that you don’t think he’s good enough but it is what it is.

The fact is plenty of quality NBA guys did not “dominate” night in night out in college, and a lot of it can just be attributed to the difference in style of play, IMO
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——-in conclusion, the NBA is much more spread out, BUT, I did not see NAW playing this well from a primary ball handler standpoint. Kid just has a high basketball IQ and continues to get better and better.

It is also just summer league. He’s obviously not gonna go into the NBA regular season dropping 25 a night, but he should be a decent role player this year as the season goes along and folks suffer injuries at his position etc

[Post edited by HokieHoopz at 07/14/2019 08:24AM]