Can an average player in college become solid in the NBA? And vice versa? Troy Weaver, who is about to recover a young hope with the 5th choice of the Draft for the Pistons, has a good experience in this area.
More than ten years ago, he had participated in the “scouting” of steven adams, who was then playing for the Pittsburgh Panthers. Without doing monstrous damage since he was shooting at 7 points, 6 rebounds and 2 blocks on average. Enough to recruit him high in the Draft?
” You can’t come in and say, ‘He can take 18 rebounds and break the house. No, we’re not going to take that risk. But if a guy is averaging seven points because he plays 16 minutes (note: 23 in reality), the perfect example is Steven Adams. I took my best friend to a game, Pittsburgh was playing Georgetown and I was in DC scouting, and I took him to the game. Adams scored two points and I said to him, ‘We want to draft this guy to be our center. He looked at me and said, ‘What?’ And Steven Adams turned out very good », recalls the leader of the Pistons.
Drafted 12th by the Thunder in 2013, the pivot quickly established itself in the Thunder’s five and has become, year after year, one of the best defensive pivots in the league. ” All I’m saying is he was shooting six or seven points and five rebounds in college. It could be considered a risk, but it wasn’t a risk. It was just the judgment of others “continues Troy Weaver.
An unpredictable Draft behind Victor Wembanyama
This is why the latter attaches so much importance to this 5th “pick”, which will not allow the Pistons to recover Victor Wembanyama.
But rather to target Amen and Ausar Thompson (Overtime Elite), Cam Whitmore (Villanova), Jarace Walker (Houston), Taylor Hendricks (UCF) or Anthony Black (Arkansas), all six tested by the Michigan franchise.
” We are always ready to improve the team. Do we like the players tested in this group? Absolutely. We are also open to other opportunities, we always are. We are studying all possible options. The first five or seven picks are valuable because it’s unpredictable after the first one. We are convinced of the value of the 5th choice », Displays the decision-maker, who will favor a player who integrates well into the group.
