My take on him is that he looks like he can really play when he has the ball and is doing his moves and dribbling. At the same time, when it comes to Xs and Os and where he should be on the floor, he looks like a lost little fawn, all alone in the world. He does hit threes and he does have elite size for an SF, with the agility to go along with it, so that's huge right out the gate. It also does seem like if anybody could get this guy going, it would be Stevens.
The two questions for me are:
1.) how much did he play when he was a kid / how was he coached? Because the whole lost on offense thing looks really weird with the fully developed other skills he has. It's like he just stayed in his backyard practicing moves and never played in games or even watched them on TV. It's just kind of odd...
2.) Are there any character issues here? I'm asking because he drifts in and out of PT - and yeah, a lot of that is due to injuries - but he doesn't seem to be working as hard as he could. He is in great shape though so he's obviously hustling there, it's just that again, something seems off.
I live in San Diego and am on campus at SDSU all the time and this guy is intriguing, but yeah something is just kind of off. I can't even say his situation is like other high ceiling enigmas.
I also found this great article from Bright Side of the Sun - a great Phoenix blog - that's a good read.
http://www.brightsideofthesun.com/2015/2/27/8105127/phoenix-suns-draft-preview-the-mysterious-malik-popeHe's a crazy project with the tools, intellect and skill to be successful, but he needs to put it altogether and become a complete player. I don't think that's very likely, but it's certainly possible given what I've seen.
