Most overrated rookie

[Hatertots]

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Best rookie

Kevin Durant, Seattle SuperSonics

If he gets hurt or struggles dramatically, it will have proven to be the most over-hyped draft in NBA history. Since top overall pick Greg Oden is out for the year after microfracture knee surgery, there's no choice but Durant, who was the best freshman college basketball player since Lew Alcindor. He moves like Tracy McGrady, but plays bigger. And yet, he is just 19 and very skinny. On such a young team with nobody to take their share of the load, it could be rough. Nonetheless, he is incredibly gifted. Should Durant suffer, Al Horford (Atlanta) and Corey Brewer (Minnesota) will both have ample opportunity to excel on bad teams.

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It's ironic that in a column about overrated players, he lists Kevin Durant as the best rookie. He may move like Tracy McGrady, but so far he hits shots like Eric Snow.

[exodus]

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It's ironic that in a column about overrated players, he lists Kevin Durant as the best rookie. He may move like Tracy McGrady, but so far he hits shots like Eric Snow

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Please. Granted Durant shot 40% from the field which looks bad but 4.5 of his attempts were threes and he shot 40.7% on those.

[MemphisX]

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I would have to say that Conley Jr. is the most overrated Rookie.

I would have to say the most overrated player is Paul Pierce.

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How could Conley be most overrated when the NBA ready, college PG of the year can't even start?

[Plastic Man]

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How could Conley be most overrated when the NBA ready, college PG of the year can't even start?

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[Hatertots]

Looking at his numbers, Ex, I can't think of a case to be made that he's actually been a good player through six preseason games.

He hasn't contributed much (rebounds,assists,etc) other than his 18 ppg, and those points are coming on sub-40% shooting from the field and sub-70% shooting from the line, which doesn't just look bad, it is bad.

He's probably gonna be a great player one day when he's not a 19 year old kid who weighs 97 lbs, but I don't think that day is today.

[AtLaS]

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Please. Granted Durant shot 40% from the field which looks bad but 4.5 of his attempts were threes and he shot 40.7% on those.

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Exactly, FG% means absolutely NOTHING for a player who takes alot of threes. NOTHING. It's funny seeing how many people don't realize that.

[AlHorford]

Me.

[mudderfudder77]

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Please. Granted Durant shot 40% from the field which looks bad but 4.5 of his attempts were threes and he shot 40.7% on those.

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Exactly, FG% means absolutely NOTHING for a player who takes alot of threes. NOTHING. It's funny seeing how many people don't realize that.

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Thats why TS% is a beautiful thing.

[Hatertots]

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Exactly, FG% means absolutely NOTHING for a player who takes alot of threes. NOTHING. It's funny seeing how many people don't realize that.

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By 'NOTHING', I assume you mean shooting .333 from 3 is as good as shooting .500 from 2 from a points per shot perspective, and I do realize that. I agree that Durant is an above average 3 point shooter so far.

At everything else, however, he's been below average, and therefore, he's been a below average player to this point. He doesn't score efficiently (even with his 3s) and he hasn't rebounded well (in preseason or summer league). Did anyone expect a raw 19 year old rookie to be anything more than a volume scorer?

Well, yes, based on his pre-draft hype, people did expect more out of Kevin but he hasn't produced. Listening to sports journalists talk about how great he's been, though, I get the impression that they're just seeing what they want to see. He's been great for a skinny rookie. Which would be fine if it had been a 3 player draft and the only other rookies were Brandan Wright and Spencer Hawes. In the category of teenagers who need protein shakes and more college experience, he makes those two guys look like bums. No one is going to mistake Durant for Lebron in the near future, however, because in the category of NBA players, Durant still needs some work to get up to par.

He'll probably end up winning Rookie of the Year, though the NBA should change it to 'Highest Scoring Rookie' since that is pretty much what determines who wins the award, and that's apparent looking at any 'RoY' standings, where KD is almost universally #1 and 'points!' (and nothing else) is given as support for Durant's supreme rookie awesomnicity.

Again, Kevin Durant will probably be a great player some day, and it may be that many years from now we'll be talking about the times we saw Kevin put up 'points! and rebound, steals, and assists!' But this year, Durant will shoot his way into a nice trophy for his case at home and a top 5 pick in next year's draft for the Sonics.

[TexasPete]

Durant can't guard a door...the NBA "experts" don't seem to remember that defense is still a fairly important part of basketball.

Which is another reason Yi is a crap player.

[Vol4ever]

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I would have to say that Conley Jr. is the most overrated Rookie.

I would have to say the most overrated player is Paul Pierce.

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How in the world can you make a statement that a rookie is overrated because they haven't even played the season yet. Now he has been hyped on draft day and we are homers for the Hawks Acie Law, but that is just a silly statement.

[AtLaS]

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I agree that Durant is an above average 3 point shooter so far.

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Which is why I don't understand why you used his FG% since he was taking over 4 threes per game. FG% is irrelevant for someone like that.

I do, however, agree with most of what you said. I also expect KD to be an inefficient scorer this year. I'm VERY surprised he's been able to shoot 40% from three, but I don't expect him to keep that up.