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So much for staying in school, getting your degree and winning a national championship.
All these resume boosters would make any player a hot commodity, but apparently not in the NBA. It’s a bitter pill Duke’s Kyle Singler is having a hard time swallowing with the 2011 NBA Draft scheduled for Thursday night.
The versatile forward entered Durham as one of the top high school recruits, and was a projected lottery pick for the majority of his NCAA career. Singler’s stock plummeted like pumpkin shares after Halloween, dropping the once-ballyhooed small forward from lottery to late first-rounder to second-round scrub. He’s currently ranked as the ninth-best small forward in the draft field.
The biggest shot against Singler is his lack of athleticism. In a league were small forwards like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony rule the world, Singler just doesn’t have the tools to compete against those guys.
He’s 6-foot-9 and has good touch around the basket and perimeter. But is only 225 pounds and going up against small forwards that can back you down as easy as blow past you off the dribble.
Some mocks have Singler staying in the first round, perhaps to Chicago at No. 28 or No. 30. Others have the Dukie dropping to the No. 33 picks held by Detroit. One optimistic mock, probably done by the Blue Devils fan, had Singler going No. 19 to the Bobcats, in what could only be viewed as a Carolina pity pick.
The Fayetteville Observer quoted one scout as saying, “Even if Kyle Singler is drafted in the middle of the second round, it would not surprise me at all if eight or 10 years from now, he's still playing in the NBA and the vast majority of the guys picked ahead of him are not. The NBA Draft, with the calculus that it is now, guys who have exceptional athletic potential get picked ahead of other guys like Kyle. That doesn't mean it's fair. It's just the way it is."
Singler could turn out to be the steal of the draft or perhaps just follow in the footsteps of many of the Duke alums before him, and fade into role player obscurity.
I think many teams are betting on the latter. We'll see who's right in eight to 10 years.
All these resume boosters would make any player a hot commodity, but apparently not in the NBA. It’s a bitter pill Duke’s Kyle Singler is having a hard time swallowing with the 2011 NBA Draft scheduled for Thursday night.
The versatile forward entered Durham as one of the top high school recruits, and was a projected lottery pick for the majority of his NCAA career. Singler’s stock plummeted like pumpkin shares after Halloween, dropping the once-ballyhooed small forward from lottery to late first-rounder to second-round scrub. He’s currently ranked as the ninth-best small forward in the draft field.
The biggest shot against Singler is his lack of athleticism. In a league were small forwards like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony rule the world, Singler just doesn’t have the tools to compete against those guys.
He’s 6-foot-9 and has good touch around the basket and perimeter. But is only 225 pounds and going up against small forwards that can back you down as easy as blow past you off the dribble.
Some mocks have Singler staying in the first round, perhaps to Chicago at No. 28 or No. 30. Others have the Dukie dropping to the No. 33 picks held by Detroit. One optimistic mock, probably done by the Blue Devils fan, had Singler going No. 19 to the Bobcats, in what could only be viewed as a Carolina pity pick.
The Fayetteville Observer quoted one scout as saying, “Even if Kyle Singler is drafted in the middle of the second round, it would not surprise me at all if eight or 10 years from now, he's still playing in the NBA and the vast majority of the guys picked ahead of him are not. The NBA Draft, with the calculus that it is now, guys who have exceptional athletic potential get picked ahead of other guys like Kyle. That doesn't mean it's fair. It's just the way it is."
Singler could turn out to be the steal of the draft or perhaps just follow in the footsteps of many of the Duke alums before him, and fade into role player obscurity.
I think many teams are betting on the latter. We'll see who's right in eight to 10 years.
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