I am also intrigued by Jeremy Tyler for the same reason. There are certainly a lot of questions about him, but the talent is there, and that pick is just a good time to take a flyer on a kid who could be a really good big man if he gets his head on straight.
I agree. If I'm Danny this is my target. 2 years ago, he was projected to be a top 5 pick. This was the kid who was the #1 junior in the country in a class with Harrison Barnes, Kyrie Erving, Enes Kanter, Sullinger, guys who were all projected to go at the top of the draft. With a late first rounder, I think we need to take a chance, especially in a weak draft like this year.
Hmmm. This sounds vaguely reminiscent of what was said about Bradley. Top of his class talent, etc.
What happened to Taylor to make his stock drop so much?
I havn't been up on him as much as when he first left the USA, but initially he was just too immature to handle playing overseas. He went from being the best hs player in the country to being an average player in his league and had issues dealing with that. I know he has gotten better as of late.
Yeah, basically, his time overseas has been a bit of a nightmare. Although, much like with Jennings, that does not necessarily mean it is completely representative.
I think his stock dropped a lot just from his original decision to skip his senior year of highschool to play in Europe. I think a lot of people questioned that decision, and wondered if it was a sign of overall immaturity (of course it was, he was Junior in Highschool).
In Europe, it just didn't work out at all. I am not sure about the specifics, but he left his team shortly after getting there. I don't know if it was a cultural thing, or a basketball issue (He barely played, and I have heard that some of these European coaches hate playing these guys, when they know they are just using them as a springboard to the NBA), but either way, it left more questions about his maturity and mental makeup, and he lost a lot of development time.
Then, this year he has been playing in Japan (under former NBA coach Bob Hill). Unfortunately, it is hard to find much information about how he has actually done there, which I think is a big reason he is not very high on most mock drafts. Plus, they cancelled the end of the season due to the Earthquake in Japan.
So, he is just a huge question mark. Basically, drafting him would be similar to drafting a high school kid, because he simply had not had the high level experience to get a better grasp on what he can do. So, the individual workouts, and particularly the interviews are going to be huge for him being drafted.
