[Johnny KilroyParticipant]

a guys potential

or

a guys athletic ability?

Some people get carried away with how much potential a player has and what his ceiling could be – some people get to carried away with how athletic a guy is.

case in point from last year’s draft

Hasheem Thabeet- potential
DeMar DeRozan- athletic ability

[QUINCEY]

not sure how thabeet’s potential is overrated.. hes a rookie you wont find out his potential till years down the road. and potenial has been to be a good shot blocker and rebounder in the mold of mutombo. i, not seeing the overrated part in that. and derozen is very athletic. may not be the most creative dunker but he is very atlhletic. only way i can say his athletic ability is overrated is when somesaid he could jump/dunk like vince carter

[Johnny KilroyParticipant]

Thabeet or Derozen our overrated- just using them as examples from last years draft.

Thabeet was drafted on potential and Derozen was a athletic freak.

Wondering if potential or athletic ability is more overrated.

[QUINCEY]

ohhhhh ok my bad. yeah the word potenial is much more overrated but so is athletic ability because most people on here and even not on here see’s a guy who is athletic and think they have all the potenial int he word. And in a way they are right because you can always learn to get better youre not gonna learn to get more athletic. but people tend to take it a lil too far. if you dont have a certain amount of skills at a certain point in youre career then chances are yopu are never gonna have a max amount of skills. alot of players that are considered raw in college dont end up being much better then a sometime allstar yet some say they have the potential to be great

[Im Your FatherParticipant]

I think the issue is that people automatically think that athleticism=potential. Just because a player is athletic doesn’t mean they have great potential. Likewise, players who aren’t great athletes can still have vast potential to improve.

[QUINCEY]

^^^exactly

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

Yea, but a player with freak athleticism can dominate this game if he’s taught the right way to play. You just can’t teach the athleticism of a LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, John Wall, etc. If you come accross that kind of athleticism in a player and he has the hunger to improve his game, you have to take him.

It’s all about having that hunger to improve the rest of his game though and it’s a GM’s job to find out if he has that.

[IndianaBasketballParticipant]

I think potential is the most overrated because it’s no guarantee a player will reach it. It’s all based on IF…

At least a player that’s a freak athlete has those qualities right in front of your eyes… It’s unfair lol, but players with freak athleticism have an advantage. They can impact games, without really perfecting the fundamentals of the game.

[the I in winParticipant]

a guys athletic ability, Demar Derozan was said to have a lot of potential because he was so athletic. people fall to in love with youtube highlights. You could make a highlight reel of me and i would look great.

[knicksfan7Participant]

I think it all depends on a guy’s work ethic. If the guy drafted on potential and the guy drafted on athletic prowess both have strong work ethic’s to getting better at playing the game of basketball, then no problem with drafting either one. I think the problem is a lot of these players are so used to being the best all of there lives that when they hit that wall it’s how they react, and if they don’t react well they just won’t last long in the league. Now both are great of the two options, but I would probably draft the guy who is the athletic freak because the abilities are there, and they just need to learn the set skills necessary in order to succeed. Though, I am not saying I wouldn’t draft a potential guy over a athletic freak guy.

[lalailaParticipant]

yeaah i hate when ppl thinks that potential=athleticism..
it’s wrong, athleticism gives you alot of potential but potential has much more pieces..
FOR EXAMPLE:i like DeMarcus from that point of the season when he was late first rounder..all people said Davis Favors were the guys with most potential(not included Wall) but i like guys like Cousins or Monroe more, Cousins *has nice soft touch and already have made some threes(so there is potential to be a good shooter) *nice footwork and already good post moves and he can get alot better there also *he could be as good rebounder and shot-blocker as anyone..this is also potential..and very similar things with Monroe…

so it’s not just athleticism, it’s how much better you could get.

[Author]

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