Poll: Smart will end up being top two player in his draft class.

[aingeforthree]

I like Parker.  He's going to be the best in the class.  But Smart is right there, top 4 or 5 at least.  Great pick

[Smokeeye123]

There was no option for just straight No, so I didnt vote. It's Wiggins, then Parker and everyone else

[Moranis]

If you did a re-draft right now

1. Wiggins
2. Parker
3. Nurkic
4. Exum
5. Embiid (yes I still think he goes 5 as there is just too much potential there)
6. Payton
7. Smart
8. Randle
9. Vonleh
10. Gordon
11. Clarkson
12. Lavine

I think 6-12 could be altered a bit, as I think they are all pretty close.  Saric is still on the radar, Hood just on the outside looking in, and guys like McDermott, Capela, etc. could still be really good (just haven't seen enough). 

[Atzar]

I expect Wiggins, Parker and Gordon to be better going forward.  Exum is a hard one to read.  I'll believe Embiid can stay healthy when he actually does it.

I figure he'll pass one or both of Exum and Embiid, but at the same time a player or two selected behind him will likely blossom.  So 6 still sounds about right to me. 

[aingeforthree]

If you did a re-draft right now

1. Wiggins
2. Parker
3. Nurkic
4. Exum
5. Embiid (yes I still think he goes 5 as there is just too much potential there)
6. Payton
7. Smart
8. Randle
9. Vonleh
10. Gordon
11. Clarkson
12. Lavine

I think 6-12 could be altered a bit, as I think they are all pretty close.  Saric is still on the radar, Hood just on the outside looking in, and guys like McDermott, Capela, etc. could still be really good (just haven't seen enough).

I don't think so.

1. Wiggins
2. Parker
3. Smart
4. Payton
5. Nurkic

Maybe Embiid goes top 10 still....again, talking today after the results are known for that Yao Ming foot he's got.

[PhoSita]

I really don't see why Exum would still get drafted higher than Smart, and while Peyton showed some nice things in his rookie year, I think Smart was a better player overall and still has higher upside.

Wiggins, Parker, Embiid, Gordon woulds till get drafted higher, in my opinion.  Nurkic is interesting, but I'm not sure he'd get taken in the top 5.

[GratefulCs]

Well he's already got a leg up on embiid


..

Or foot


..

Oh   OH!

[PhoSita]

Well he's already got a leg up on embiid


..

Or foot


..

Oh   OH!

Nice.

[D.o.s.]

Came for the Zings. Was not left wanting.

The points have already been made but I think a lot of it depends on what happens with Parker, Exum and Gordon.

[BDeCosta26]

Nah, Lavine will be better

He already is.  Don't forget about Vonleh, either, and what - no James Young option (sarcasm), lol ?

No he's not. Not even close. Decent player with a very high ceiling and supreme athleticism. But he's not better than Smart right now, or likely going forward.

I like Vonleh's potential more than Lavine's, only because I think it will be easier for him to reach it. (Especially now that he's in Portland). But I think some of you folks are underestimating Smart and his potential. Players of his calibre defensively don't come along every day, and with his improving jump shot and ability to generate FT's, he could certainly become an 18-20/7/5 kinda guy to go with that elite defense. Top two? Probably not. But deff a chance to be top 5.

[droopdog7]

bizarre poll... "Parker and Lavine"... strange. 

No, I don't think he will not be a top 2 player from his draft class.  Not sure why you referenced those two players specifically.

His summer league performance gettin people hyped up.  He wasn't even in the top 60 statistically.   Aaron Gordon was #1, though.  Dante Exum was top 10, though he only played a single game.  There's always sleeper candidates... I wouldn't bet money on Smart being top 2 just based on Parker and Wiggins alone... the chance that nobody else surpasses Smart is unlikely.

A partial list of 2014 draftees who statistically outperformed Marcus Smart in this summer league:  Aaron Gordon, Dante Exum, Dwight Powell, Rodney Hood, Noah Vonleh, Russ Smith, Kyle Anderson, Furkan Aldemir, Eric Green, TJ Warren, Adreian Payne, Mitch McGary, Zach Lavine, Lmar Patterson ..  That doesn't include Wiggins, Parker, Nurkic, Stauskas and (obviously) Embiid who didn't play... it doesn't include Julius Randle who was on a minute restriction having only been cleared to play ball a couple weeks prior...   

Clearly not all of those guys will end up better than Smart.  CLEARLY.   But I wouldn't put money on Smart being the second best player in this draft term.  Bad bet.  Too many variables.

Smart had two great games that were both better than Exum's one great game -and one of those was in the same game.

I disagree with that.  He shot 30% in his first game and was outplayed by Exum.  Smart was really good in one of his games.  He was brutal in another one of his games.   Overall, he shot under 35% for the entire summer league and showed mild improvement over his stats from last year.   His performance was greatly overhyped.  I expect his stats this season to be similar to his stats over the second half of last season.

He wasn't out played by Exum. Exum did a bulk of his scoring with Smart on the bench. Before that Smart shut him down and was completely out playing him. Smart had just come back in when Exum hurt his ankle, so we don't really know if Smart could have cooled him off.

People use numbers too much to evaluate how some one effects a game. Watch the game and the flow instead of box scores. I could give two $#$#'s if Smart's percentage was 30% or less, but if he wins the game for them because he does all the other things that don't show up, I'm completely fine with that.

Plus Smart was taking some shot's he wouldn't in the regular season, so I wouldn't really look to hard at the numbers.

I wouldn't evaluate the game based solely on how they did against each other.  That said, saw exum blow by Smart on a couple of occasions (something I'm not sure I've ever seen Smart do against anyone).  And if you don't give a %&#)$ that Smart shoots 30%, I am guessing you are probably alone.  If he's going to shoot that badly then he should not shoot...ever.  And as far as winning games, let's not forget that the Jazz, led by Exum, actually won that game.

[Big333223]

I don't know why anyone would count out Parker, who was the favorite for rookie of the year before he went down, just because of 1 injury. All indications are he's coming back healthy. Wiggins and Parker are still favorites to have the best career from this draft class.

I think Smart is a strong #3.

[Beat LA]

Nah, Lavine will be better

He already is.  Don't forget about Vonleh, either, and what - no James Young option (sarcasm), lol ?

No he's not. Not even close. Decent player with a very high ceiling and supreme athleticism. But he's not better than Smart right now, or likely going forward.

I like Vonleh's potential more than Lavine's, only because I think it will be easier for him to reach it. (Especially now that he's in Portland). But I think some of you folks are underestimating Smart and his potential. Players of his calibre defensively don't come along every day, and with his improving jump shot and ability to generate FT's, he could certainly become an 18-20/7/5 kinda guy to go with that elite defense. Top two? Probably not. But deff a chance to be top 5.

Really, because aside from the obvious athletic advantage that Lavine has over Smart (which I'm not factoring in here when comparing them, btw), he's also younger with better size, can actually shoot, and is a better passer than Smart, but again, that's only my opinion. 

In Smart's defense, though, I'm going to echo LarBrd33's comment a while back which said that Smart would probably put up much better numbers on a different team, where, to me, he would be allowed to play to his strengths instead of just chucking 3s all day.  Defense can only do so much - at some point you have to be able to score, and Smart just looked awful on that end for most of the season.  His must have been the worst ankle injury of all time (sarcasm) if he struggled so mightily to finish at the rim all year . I'm not knocking the fact that he was injured, but it didn't seem like he was able to get to the basket before he hurt it, iirc.     

[Boris Badenov]

With the Parker injury that rookie class is basically Wiggins, then a bunch of 10-12 guys who showed some promise but haven't really established star potential.

Smart's in that group, at least....probably toward the high end of it.

He needs to take better shots this year, and become a better playmaker. It's really that simple for him in my opinion. If summer league is any guide he's made progress on the second thing but not the first.

Maybe Stevens can help by developing one or two offensive sets designed to get Smart a high-percentage look from somewhere. If I were Marcus I'd be working on a couple of post moves...seems like he'd have an edge down there against many PGs.

[oldtype]

Let's note for a moment that statistically Zach Lavine was one of the worst players in the NBA last year. I understand he has freak physical gifts, but we probably would have got similar numbers from James Young if he was forced to start all season.