LiAngelo would be, out of all NBA wings, something like bottom 10% in both foot speed and athleticism. He will be unable to defend any NBA wing-- even if he exerts maximum effort and plays the highest IQ team defense imaginable, he has physical limitations that are insanely tough to overcome. Like, Joe Harris simply can't defend NBA players either. But he's one of the best shooters in the NBA.

LiAngelo is a good, if streaky, shooter. But to stick as an end-of-rotation NBA player, I genuinely think he has to be, like, a 43%+ shooter consistently from 3. And even then, there are plenty of guys who shoot well in the G-League who just never stick as pros due to limitations.

I think there's a reason, to date, why LiAngelo hasn't even been able to make it into a G-League game, let alone an NBA game. And it's not because he doesn't work hard. He's just got to work that much harder than even other NBA players to make it work here. It's going to be a really tough road for him. And I don't think anyone expressing skepticism that he can make it is being unfairly judgmental-- they're just being practical. Exceedingly few players with his limitations become NBA players.