The Next Big Thing In The NBA!!!!

[PlaystationFan]

If your an NBA fan you obviously know about Lebron. So what are your thougts on another high school ball player going #1 in the NBA draft?

All I can say is the guy is a freak. I watched him on ESPN in one of his high school games and he is an awesome talent. And then seeing his Dunk contest performance on ESPN2, I was flat out amazed.

[lue]

I think he's going to be a great addition to the NBA, he sure will boost some TV ratings, with everyone wanting to see how he stacks up to the NBA's best. I just hope he doesn't turn out like Kobe: a lot of great talent, but just so full of himself that I won't be able to stand him (that's what Kobe's like to me, anyways). I can't wait to see him pull off some crazy dunks!

[PlaystationFan]

I swear in that dunk contest he was getting 2 1/2 - 3 feet above the rim. He has some bad ass ups.

[Kaged]

Well I think that Darko and Anthony will have greater impacts in the league their first couple of years than James. He will bring a lot of attention to the Cav's...but honestly I just think he has been overhyped and will never be able to live up to the potential. He will be a star in the league, but I don't see him ever being what people WANT him to be.

Personally Im not really phased by anything he has done. When he developes his jumper more, then I will be impressed. I mean you do have to remember that he was playing against other high school kids. It wasn't like he was already playing NBA talent. But we will see come next season.

[Cowboy22]

I think that he'll get out-performed his first year by guys who are a bit more polished like Anthony (not sure about Darko as I haven't seen him play, but from what I hear he's very good). He can drive and is already among the best leapers in the game, but he definatly needs to work on his jumper. If you watched any of his high school games or the McDonalds game, you see that while he could drive at will, he missed a lot of his jump shots, and thats a concern, it'll be interesting to see if he's willing to work on that. He also has to work a lot on his defense, becuase in his games on TV he look flat out lazy and uninterested on D. It's also gonna be a big adjustment for him because he will no longer be the best player on the floor, something he has never experienced.

One thing that he does have that I think can really save him is his passing ability and court vision. He has the rare gift of being able to see everyone on the court and being able to get them the ball in a posistion to score, something you definatly don't see much today. Watching him play, I can see him as a tall point guard in the Magic Johnson mold, which would be good for the Cavs since they already have both the 2 and 3 posistions filled with Ricky Davis and Dajaun Wagner.

Either way, its going to be interesting to see how his rookie season plays out and how he responds to all the pressure on him. He's got potential to be great, we'll see if he can live up to it.

[Antonio]

For the Cavs, he's going to be instant offense, period. They already have a pretty good squad, they just need better plays if they're going to go to the PO next season. Of course, he may not live up to the hype surrounding him because most of it is unreasonable, unfounded (HS games?! come on now!), and just stupid. He's not going to be the second coming, but as far as the L is concerned, he's $money$.

Tickets will be sold. The Cavs will get nationally televised games and James will get more Humvees and $. Nike has already bought his soul for $80Mil, usurping Adidas, who gave him custom-made Adidas ProModels his entire HS basketball tenure even before he went pro. It's like that.

[Cowboy22]

The Nike deal was actually 90 mil. And there is no doubt that he's gonna sell a shit load of tickets, drafting him is the bust business decision that anyone could make.

However he is going to a pretty bad team with a lot of head cases and such (see Ricky Davis, who I'm embarrassed to say, is also from Iowa...). If people expect him to suddenly lead that team to the playoffs in his first year they're going to be in for a shock. I see him going the route that Kobe, T-mac, and KG went; decent his first year, great (although maybe not as great as people will expect him to be) by about year 3. Unfortunatly that's not gonna be good enough for some fans, that will unfairly want him to be Jordan right out of the blocks....

[svosen]

I agree with the Kobe comments. There's a guy with loads of talent and not much in the way of team concept (or so it would appear). And I'm a die-hard Laker fan...

These high-school-to-NBA-players have a tough row to hoe, I think. Who knows how he'll turn out. I imagine he has the potential to be very good. However, if he turns out to be only mediocre, he'll be seen as a failure (due to all the press he's gotten), which is sort of a shame. Just to make it there at all is pretty impressive, in my opinion.

[Kaged]

Originally posted by Cowboy22
Unfortunatly that's not gonna be good enough for some fans, that will unfairly want him to be Jordan right out of the blocks....

EXCELLANT point. I think the Kobe was milked into the league the correct way. He came off the bench, and actually didn't play much his rookie year. Avg like 13 pts a game. Unfortunatly, James is gonna be thrown into the starting line up right away. Its going to be interesting how he handles the pressure. If he lets it get to him and all the heckleing, all the calls he wont get (or maybe he will), and even how he deals with the headcases that are the Cavs.

Honestly I hope the NBA decides to use that age limit rule. It would do a couple things. It would make a lot of people that should stay in college, stay in college at least one more year. But still, if people wanted to come out early, or skip college, they would spend time in the DL league, making the transformation to the NBA much easier...and it would also produce a more consistant string of players. You wouldn't have this only the top three pics are important type years...

[Cowboy22]

Kobe actually averaged less than 10 as a rookie, but that's not important. And compared to then, he's the greatest team player in the world these days. Remember the 3 straight air ball threes he put up against the Jazz (which, as a huge Jazz fan, and a hater of the Lakers, was one of the greatest sports moments in my life, I'm not kidding either...)? He also got more press and attention than he deserved early, making the All-Star game as a starter his second year based almost solely on the fact that he could dunk well, as he wasn't all that good at the time. Still he's obviously developed well and is now among the 5 best players in the league.

And I too hope that the NBA puts in an age limit. It would help both the quality of players in the NBA, and the quality of College Basketball a ton. However they may not be able to do it since it could easily be beaten in court were a player to want to enter before he was 20. The NFL has had one for years, but thats becuase there has never been anyone that has attempted to challenge it.