As for my comments about Tyler being hearsay and speculation, I just went off a Nytimes article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/sports/basketball/08tyler.html?ref=sports

A couple of quotes that caught my eye:

“Asked about his reluctance to work and listen to his coaches, he said he was skeptical of their knowledge and methods.”

“During a practice in late October, Ashkenazi ejected Tyler from a drill. Tyler turned away from the court and said, in colorful language, that his coach did not know anything about basketball.”

Directly from the horse’s mouth, he didn’t respect his coaches and their methods, which makes me wonder why he went over there in the first place. If it was to better himself, unconventionally, against grown men, why do it if you have so little respect for foreign basketball. It leads me to speculate whether he was just sick of high school and wanted to make some money, thinking it was going to be easy in some way. Since he would have been a senior at the time, a year younger than Jennings, I cut him some slack but come on, the quotes are just ridiculous. Less is known about his time in Japan but from the sounds of it, he worked harder and at least didn’t piss off his coach.

Since his jumper looks okay and he can finish around the basket and he’s huge, it’s possible to dream on him and visualize ways he can make an impact. But personally, from articles and a video interview, hardly extensive material I know, he just sounds like a guy who twenty years from who is going to blame everyone else for why he failed. The great phenomenon turned into the great victim.

A lot of that on Tyler is hearsay and the rest is speculation. It raises questions about Tyler’s character… but if you actually read my comment you’ll notice that I also raised those questions. I simply said that a young person can mature and that it showed some desire to go pro… he could have also just taken money to play in HS and NCAA like most other top recruits. I never said he was some visionary with a great work ethic. I said basically the opposite, and feel you misrepresented my comment.

Jennings almost quit Rome… your narrative about each individual is a bit too neat and tidy. Jennings has his flaws, just as Tyler has his strengths. You can be a lazy NBA bigman who never realizes nearly his potential and still be a solid #17 pick by putting in just enough effort… especially in a weak draft class like this one.

Everyone matures at different rates and different skill sets come throw in different ways. The Knicks don’t need Tyler to be a high volume scorer, so a more complete scouting report on his trip to Japan is necessary than “he’s not dominating.” Guys who dominate in Europe do not always translate to the NBA game, while sometimes lesser players’ skills do translate.

I don’t know if it’s mental but I think a large part of why he hasn’t met expectations is because he doesn’t want to take the pounding. In college he went to the line 8.5 times a game, a great number but in three seasons as a pro, he’s only gone to the line 3.0, 3.1 and 4.0 times a game. It’s not a matter of him not being able to get by his man because he can, he just goes out of his way to avoid contact around the rim when he isn’t pulling up for a jumper. If he was willing to take the punishment that Melo does, that Lebron and Wade and all the other top scorers do, he would be at least a 25 point game scorer with the variety of shots he has. But for whatever reason, maybe because basketball isn’t important enough to him, he hasn’t shown the physicality he showed at KSU.

As for Derrick Williams, I’m not feeling the Pierce comparison. To me, he’s a PF all the way. First of all, his jumper his way too slow to get it off comfortably against wings and he hasn’t demonstrated the ability to shoot off the bounce. I can’t see him handling it on picks or juking guys on the perimeter and hitting stepback jumpers. His lateral agility to guard wings also looked suspect. As a PF though, he profiles really well as a pick and pop player who can take his man off the dribble and also rebound and fight in the post. I really liked his physicality and strength and with his skill level, I think he’s a pretty safe, borderline all-star player. I’ve read a Granger comp (ridiculous), a Jamison with physicality (pretty good) and even a Shareef Abdur-Rahim one. I like the Shareef one myself.

I wouldn’t give him props for thinking outside the box. If he had handled the experience like he wanted the challenge of going up against grown men and treating basketball like a profession, he should be lauded but he didn’t. He acted like a kid who just wanted to get away from his parents, get paid and live with his girlfriend because that’s basically all he did. He lived in an apartment with his girlfriend, pissed off his neighbors, didn’t listen or apparently even respect his coaches, failed to impress in games and got cut. I think he thought he would dominate from day 1 because Israeli basketball had never seen anything like him, a top American big man prospect. Man was he wrong.

Compare him to Jennings’ Euro experience and it’s night and day. Jennings went over with his mom and younger brother, went to practice everyday on time, complained a bit towards the end but for the most part kept his mouth shut about not playing and by most accounts, was a standout in practice. He handled his time in Italy about as well as one could expect him to except for actually playing well.

It’s promising that Tyler comported himself better in Japan and that his coach has good words for him. But still, it was the Japanese league, a very inferior league and he didn’t dominate. A future NBA top 3 big with his gifts should dominate over there despite his youth.

Nearly every recruiting class there is always talented, highly ranked big men who amount to nothing. He has the look of one.

As much as I doubt that will ever happen, I think he’d still do alright. If his coach chose to marginalize him by making him a pure jump-shooter… no, he wouldn’t do alright. He’d probably stink, IMO, because he has poor shot selection and is a mediocre shooter. Shawn Marion played with Nash and Amare for D’Antoni in Phoenix, though, and was not marginalized into a jump shooter. He did get kick-out looks, but D’Antoni also played him to his strengths as a slasher. Melo’s strengths aren’t exactly the same as Marion’s were, but I could see D’Antoni fitting his strengths in between a PG and big just like he did for Marion. If you played those 3 with two strong jump shooters Melo might actually benefit by finally stopping his chucker ways.

Truitt: How do people feel about Jeremy Tyler

I’ve heard a first hand account that his work ethic was crap when he was still in the US… A 16, 17 year old (at the time of that report) can certainly mature and he at least had the ambition to turn pro and go overseas in an unconventional but smart move… Failing out in Israel and ending up in Tokyo doesn’t really help his case. I couldn’t really fault the Knicks for taking a shot on him #17 in a weak draft class if their first choices are off the board, but I would be a bit apprehensive if that was their pick.

Good points about the Knicks needing defense and I am also a big Justin Holliday fan.

In terms of “pure PGs”… Isiah was pretty set on Marbury as his PG, and there just aren’t always that many “pure PGs” coming out of college. A lot of times PG draft prospects are the best scorer on their college team and have to show off their scoring skills more than PG skills, and it’s not that easy to see PG skills in an empty gym or even pick-up game at a workout/combine. The Jordan Hill pick seems to be the only one where Walsh really passed on a PG. Gallo over Augustin, maybe, but Augstin is a bit of a combo-guard.