Room check: Kobe Bufkin

[NBASupes]

1 hour ago, terrell said:

This guy was going to make us all forget about CP3 in yr 2 SL.. Remember? lol

https://www.espn.com/nba/news/story?id=2526765

 

Dominating SL in year 2 is what you suppose to do to be a rotational player

[terrell]

3 minutes ago, NBASupes said:

Dominating SL in year 2 is what you suppose to do to be a rotational player

We might as well give up on AJ then...

Edited July 17, 2023 by terrell

[NBASupes]

1 minute ago, terrell said:

We might as well give up on AJ then...

AJ didn't try on offense. He was ass on offense. Idk why he didn't play harder 

[Spud2nique]

2 hours ago, NBASupes said:

AJ didn't try on offense. He was ass on offense. Idk why he didn't play harder 

Because he’s already proved himself he doesn’t need to get injured or prove anything in the summer, not my boy AJ.. THAT’S WHY!

[Final_quest]

Bufkin is the next Justin Jefferson!  

[terrell]

Just saw Bufkin was the 2nd slowest(11.71) of all PG/SG/SF at the combine in agility test..

A 7'4 center was more agile than Bufkin...

 

 

[MarylandHawk]

If he takes the Murray approach, he will be just fine. He has to play the long game and really learn from Trae and DJ. His ceiling is murray, his floor is Delon Wright. 

[bleachkit]

1 hour ago, terrell said:

Just saw Bufkin was the 2nd slowest(11.71) of all PG/SG/SF at the combine in agility test..

A 7'4 center was more agile than Bufkin...

 

 

Kevin Durant was weak and slow, just saying. 

[thecampster]

From Bleacher Report - Winners/Losers Summer League

 

Loser: Atlanta Hawks

2 OF 5

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10082690-biggest-winners-and-losers-from-nba-las-vegas-summer-league

"For a Hawks team showcasing some of its best young talent, the overall performances from AJ Griffin and rookie Kobe Bufkin were underwhelming.

While Bufkin hit a game-winning shot against the Philadelphia 76ers and had some of the best passes of summer league, the 19-year-old guard looked out of control at times, averaging 4.6 turnovers and 3.4 fouls per game.

"Kobe (Bufkin) needs to settle down a little," one Hawks personnel member told Spotrac.com's Keith Smith. It'll come for him. We're deep, but not in ball-handlers. Kobe could find a rotation role this year."

Overall, Bufkin shot only 33.3 percent from the field and a miserable 13.8 percent from three. The No. 15 overall pick from this year's draft will need to cut down on his turnovers and start hitting more shots for an Atlanta team that's in danger of suffering a first-round playoff exit yet again.

Griffin, the No. 16 pick in 2022, was supposed to be the alpha of the group given his strong rookie season for the Hawks. Instead, he ended up as the team's sixth-leading scorer in summer league, averaging only 9.0 points on 27.3 percent shooting overall.

If the Hawks want to take another big swing in the trade market for someone like Pascal Siakam, young players such as Bufkin and Griffin are some of their best trade assets. Getting some big performances from both could have helped convince executives in Toronto to part with Siakam. Instead, there's likely more hesitancy for a deal, which could force the Hawks to include even more picks and players in trade talks"

Edited July 18, 2023 by thecampster

[shakes]

14 hours ago, NBASupes said:

AJ didn't try on offense.

 

huh?  If anything he was trying too hard.

 

Also saying someone wasn't even trying is a massive indictment of their character and a huge red flag for any so called athlete who claims they love to compete and hate to lose.  so you're not doing AJ any favors putting out this nonsense excuse for his crappy play.

[shakes]

Hawks GM could end up looking like one of the huge dummies of the draft if Keyonte George blows up and Bufkin flounders.  Picked one pick after Bufkin and plays the same position.  No excuse other than horrible drafting if George becomes a player and Bufkin becomes Bumkin.

 

Even worse than teams passing on Whitmore who at least had injury and attitude concerns...and wasn't replaced by someone who plays the exact same position.

[AHF]

9 minutes ago, shakes said:

Also saying someone wasn't even trying is a massive indictment of their character and a huge red flag for any so called athlete who claims they love to compete and hate to lose.  so you're not doing AJ any favors putting out this nonsense excuse for his crappy play.

To me it depends on what the coaches asked him to do.  I can see a scenario where they told him to go in and not focus on his offense but to focus on the defense instead perhaps even specifically telling him to take a back seat on offense so the other guys could have the spotlight on that end.

Now if he did simply blow it off because he considered it to be a meaningless exhibition then that isn't great.  But these are exhibitions against largely G-League talent so he isn't totally wrong.  I'd call it a mistake but a "massive indictment of [his] character and huge red flag" is stretching it.  I'd pull him aside and wrap his knuckles and tell him to always bring his best effort when he is on the court and move on.  What the coaches see from AJ as far as development work he puts in on his own, in practices, and in games means so much more than if he blew two summer league games off thinking they were a waste of his time given the competition.

In short, I don't take much away from this for AJ.  I would have liked to have seen better from him but don't really care much about SL in general or for him specifically.

[kg01]

34 minutes ago, shakes said:

Hawks GM could end up looking like one of the huge dummies of the draft if Keyonte George blows up and Bufkin flounders.  Picked one pick after Bufkin and plays the same position.  No excuse other than horrible drafting if George becomes a player and Bufkin becomes Bumkin.

 

Even worse than teams passing on Whitmore who at least had injury and attitude concerns...and wasn't replaced by someone who plays the exact same position.

I think both Bufk and George will have similar careers despite the massive gap in their 1st SL experiences.  Whitmore will be fine, but I contend it's more likely he'll remind folks why they passed on him than it is he'll make people regret taking him. 

Hoping for the best for him though.  Thoughts and prayers and all that. 

All in all, we're putting wayyyy too much on SL.  Your extreme anti-homer takes are just as egregious as the homer takes you're responding to, btw.  JMEO 

[terrell]

4 hours ago, shakes said:

Hawks GM could end up looking like one of the huge dummies of the draft if Keyonte George blows up and Bufkin flounders.  Picked one pick after Bufkin and plays the same position.  No excuse other than horrible drafting if George becomes a player and Bufkin becomes Bumkin.

 

Even worse than teams passing on Whitmore who at least had injury and attitude concerns...and wasn't replaced by someone who plays the exact same position.

What were his injury concerns? All I remember is a thumb injury at Villanova..

[terrell]

12 hours ago, bleachkit said:

Kevin Durant was weak and slow, just saying. 

Yeah I was just sayin. Bufkin being 2nd slowest of all PG/SG/SF's surprised me though.. 

Edited July 18, 2023 by terrell

[bleachkit]

16 minutes ago, terrell said:

Yeah I was just sayin. Bufkin being 2nd slowest of all PG/SG/SF's surprised me though.. 

It is surprising, you're right.

[shakes]

ESPN named Bufkin the worst rookie in Summer League.

 

 

Keyonte George named top 3 rookie.  He evidently lost 25 pounds since he finished his season at Baylor.  That's massive.  I guess Hawks scouting staff didn't know about that.

[shakes]

29 minutes ago, terrell said:

What were his injury concerns? All I remember is a thumb injury at Villanova..

knees I think.

[kg01]

11 minutes ago, shakes said:

ESPN named Bufkin the worst rookie in Summer League.

Keyonte George named top 3 rookie.  He evidently lost 25 pounds since he finished his season at Baylor.  That's massive.  I guess Hawks scouting staff didn't know about that.

Theirs will be some epic gleague battles in the coming years. 

7 minutes ago, shakes said:

knees I think.

I saw where a poster on fakegm, so take it for what it's worth (which is not much), said he's thought to have similar degenerative knee issues that Brandon Roy had.  That's a scathing thing to say so I hope it can be conformed or denied by someone. 

[AHF]

10 minutes ago, kg01 said:

I saw where a poster on fakegm, so take it for what it's worth (which is not much), said he's thought to have similar degenerative knee issues that Brandon Roy had.  That's a scathing thing to say so I hope it can be conformed or denied by someone. 

I think teams can overthink themselves sometimes on injury issues when there is a glaring gap in talent.  Brandon Roy is the #9 ranked player from his class by career win shares.  Combine this with the fact that many teams don't get more than 7 or so years from a player before they are gone for whatever reason.  Using that 2006 as an example, here is how the players rank by WS with the team that drafted (for this purpose, Trae is drafted by the Hawks) them in the 2006 draft for the top 6 players (the next guys suck) and the top 5 other players  by career win shares:

#1 Bargnani / TOR: 16.4 WS

#2 Aldridge / POR: 69.3 WS

#3 Morrison / CHA: -1.4 WS

#4 Thomas / CHI: 10.6 WS

#5 Williams / ATL:  2.7 WS

#6 Roy / POR: 37.4 WS

JJ Redick / ORL: 23.9 WS

Paul Millsap / UTA: 47.9 WS

Kyle Lowry / MEM: 5.7 WS

Rajon Rondo / BOS:  38.6 WS

Rudy Gay / MEM: 29.4 WS

 

You can make the case that even knowing that his career would prematurely end that Roy was the 4th most valuable player in the entire draft class for the team that drafted him:

#1 Aldridge 69.3 WS

#2 Millsap 47.9 WS

#3 Rondo 38.6 WS

#4 Roy 37.4 WS

 

Just making the point that even if a guy has a more limited career, that still doesn't mean you necessarily want to pass him up in the draft.  Someone like Millsap does Utah no more good once he leaves as an UFA so who really cares how much longer his career was?  And obviously trying to predict a guy's medicals for his career does not have the benefit of hindsight like this.  A guy like Embiid might look like he has huge risk versus a guy like Oden or Bowie and it is Embiid who has the longer, healthier career.  Medicals need to be a factor but certainly not the only factor.