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| Marshon Brooks is anything but a high risk high reward pick |
As I have talked about before, the Timberwolves need a shooting guard. Currently in the NBA draft there are two players I would love the Timberwolves to draft with the 20th pick overall. The first is Alec Burks and the second is Marshon Brooks. However the likelihood of Burks being available at the 20th pick is as likely as Keith Olberman making a guest appearance on ESPN. So, basically impossible, luckily the likelihood of Brooks being available with the 20th pick is as likely as Bill Simmons saying something salacious about his employer, ESPN. So highly probable. That being said, I found this article on nbadraft.net that called Marshon Brooks a high risk high reward pick that infatuated me because only an absolute idiot would put Marshon Brooks on the list of high risk high reward picks . Anyway let’s check out what the article has to say before I give you my reaction.
The biggest concern for any team looking at drafting Brooks has to be whether they can rein him in and develop him into a player who can do things besides score. Last season, he had no conscience when it came to shot selection, leading him to take a lot of ill-advised shots. He obviously didn’t trust his teammates to make things happen offensively, and it remains to be seen if that will change once he is surrounded by NBA level players. If he’s willing to defer more to his teammates at the next level he could have a great career as a wing scorer, but if he can’t take a step back from the way he played last season, he could find himself being viewed as the next J.R. Smith.My reaction to this writing is what I would say to refs when I was playing in a basketball game and became really effing pissed off at them over a stupid call they made, but was able to control my anger enough to say the following: “Sir, I sincerely disagree with your assessment on the call. May you explain what thou eyes beheld to blow thy whistle?” Which under the hint of sarcasm translated into the following: “You big $%^&*#@ idiot godforsaken piece of $#!^. Do you even look, think or process what you have just seen before you take your whistle and blow it? Or are you like a crack addicted prostitute that blows just about anything that walks? Oh and FYI: If you ask me I’d go with the latter.”
So nbadraft.net as I said in a post on the Timberwolves Blog Spot, when you are on a crappy team why the heck would you trust your teammates who obviously suck. Also to say he is a player that only scores is ignorant and obviously nbadraft.net didn’t look at his rebounding abilities, where as a two guard he used his freakish 7-1 wingspan to grab down 7 rebounds a game. Now obviously everyone is impressed by his scoring ability - dude was second in the nation, averaging 24.6 ppg in the Big East and dropped a whopping 43 points on George Town (So as far as I am concerned he was the true scoring champ last year in College Bball. The only guy ahead of him was a Mormon named Jimmer, who played in the Mountain West Conference. Meanwhile Brooks played in the Big East arguably the toughest conference in College Basketball!) – but to label him as a one dimensional player that only scores is unfair to his game, as evident by his rebounding and defensive toughness as a two guard where he averaged 1.5 steals per game and even more impressively, averaged 1.2 blocks per game, which is basically unheard of for a guard to do.
That being said I have a few other gripes with this ridicules article on nbadraft.net and they are the following:
1. MARSHON BROOKS SHOULDN’T EVEN BE ON THE LIST!!!!!!!!!
2. How in the world is the 20th overall pick a high risk pick? Is it just me, or, I would think it would make complete sense to take a player with questionable ability or sketchy character problems in the 20’s?
3. Also how can you say he took “ill-advised shots” when as two guard he had a 48% field goal percentage! That kind of percentage is unheard of for a two guard! He took “ill-advised shots.” Pssh, please. When you shoot 48% from the field that tells me he was taking shots he could make. Do you even look at stats before you write nbadraft.net? Obviously not. Oh and for your information he also put up an adequate three point percentage at 34% (higher than Kobe’s last year.)
4. I am sorry nbadraft.net I was unaware that JR Smith was a bad basketball player. Sure did he have the potential to be great? Yeah, he did. But he will never reach that peak. That being said he has created a fine career for himself as an energy guy who when needed can light up the scoreboard on any given night. I would happily trade the 20th overall pick for JR Smith simply because I think it would be awesome to have Michael Beasley and JR Smith on the same team. (Ok I wouldn’t actually do that, but imagine JR Smith and Beasley on the same team? The Timberwolves Locke room would be blowing more smoke than Snoop Dogg’s dressing room.)
One last thing nbadraft.net, if you are going to compare Marshon Brooks to JR Smith be sure to be a bit more accurate and say the following: He is a slightly less athletic JR Smith that plays defense and rebounds.
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