Frank Longo Member since Nov 18th 2003 86672 posts
Thu Jun-30-22 01:52 PM
68. "It's also just really hard projecting a freshman as a pro." In response to In response to 66
Like, Bates simply has athletic limitations that are hard to project when a player is a freshman. His short arms, lack of leaping ability, etc... when a kid is 14/15, it's easy to say, "well, he'll keep growing/developing/etc.," when sometimes that just isn't true.
But yeah, the dad *absolutely* didn't help him in terms of skill development. If he was a subpar NBA athlete but could shoot, played good defense, etc., he'd still be getting plenty of looks. But the lack of tangible translatable skill, combined with the subpar NBA body, combined with the controlling dad? Yeah, red flags all over.