(03-12-2021, 02:54 PM)SwisherPrice Wrote: No panic, these rookies are not going to be worth much right now anyway. Best-case is to just give them this freebie season and see where they are at next year.Good take. My benchmarks for Green are Lonnie Walker(SA), Keldon Johnson (SA) and Mikal Bridges (PHX). That may be high expectations and he may not reach them but I think Green is similar athlete to those three. Bridges took about a year and a half to really make a jump. And that happened after three years at Villanova. As you mention, the San Antonio players took some time too. Johnson was playing in the G-league until he made some noise in the bubble. And Walker has made a jump in year three. All three of Green, Johnson and Walker were 5 star-ish recruits who came out after their freshman year. The Spurs track record of developing young players is much better than the Mavs though.
They are trying to do what the Spurs have done the last 5 years. SA has had a mostly veteran roster with some prospects added every year via non-lottery picks. Djounte Murray, Derrick White, Lonnie Walker took 1-2 seasons before Pop could rely on them. Based on where they were drafted, none of those players really had star potential but now they are all rotation-caliber NBA players.
I think that's what you have to hope the plan is for our rookies. It's not easy to break through in year 1 unless you are playing on a bad team, which was the case for DFS and Brunson's rookie seasons, which gave them the chance to get minutes.
Green and Terry were both future investments. The Mavs needed to know that. The draft pick that became both was more valuable than either of them now. But giving up on both now for pennies is the wrong move. If neither can play, the Mavs need to re-evaluate how they scout prospects.
I also think Hinton is someone I want to watch closely. I assume he needs another year in the G-league, but I will be watching his development progress closely.