[OhCanada-Participant]

 I cant help but notice that people are just now starting to come around and believe in Dennis Smith Jr. Before his freshman campaign at NC State he had spent 1 and a half years rehabbing from an acl injury he suffered in August 2015. His hype has jumped since setting a career high in points against Duke where he played fellow elite freshman Harry Giles who suffered the same injury in the fall of 2015 and is taking alot longer to get back into form. 

Smith recovered from his injury by this summer which is crazy. He was dunking on people and warming up in the preseason. I have reason to believe he has an epic work ethic for returning so fast and having regained most of his athletisism which he says isnt at 100%. Now everyone seems to cut Giles some slack and say "be patient" or "he just got back from an acl injury". This is defenitely a fair statement but the same should be said for Smith. Dennis is just starting to pick up where he left off and as for Giles he is in the same form as when Smith Jr. started off in preseason. I expect Harry to start hitting his form sometime around postseason play.

By no means am I bashing Giles. Ive had the same injury and understand there are many different severities to this injury which are simply labled as "torn acl" no matter what by the media. In reality your acl is like a pantyhose in the way it stretches when injured. One severity is stretching it too far thus loosening it which isnt too bad and you can recover from within a few months. When it stretches too much you can eventually rip/tear/rupture your legiment which it is safe to say happened to.both of these kids. From my experience the rehab is extensive and the injury stays with you for a long time and I never got my athletisism back, not even close. Even now 7 years later everytime I go to elevate I feel like a bird with no wings. For these kids to be where they are now is amazing but they still need so much time until they reach 100%.

[Anton123Participant]

Tall players seem to come back slower from leg injuries, we have Ben Simmons and Cameron Payne come down we basically the same injury at the same time, and we see Cameron has already been playing a while, but Simmons is still a month away.

[Taylor Gang MikeParticipant]

 Feel bad for Giles. Dude looks like a regular guy out there. Lost all his confidence and athletic ability. He looks soft smh. I know he had the injury but this isn’t HS. He needs to play like the monster he was or he better stay 4 years at duke and get gos degree

[TopShottaParticipant]

 Giles shouldn’t have even played this season. He should have just focused on rehabbing and tested the draft waters when the time came

 

[princejamesParticipant]

I don’t know if you guys realize that Harry Giles had major potential career threatening injuries to his knees in the past. He tore cartilage, tore the acl, and tore the mcl in one knee in 2014 when he was 15, and he tore the acl on the other knee in 2016 when he was 17. He has had some serious knee injuries that he is trying to come back from. And it’s obvious that he lost the freakish athleticism that he once possesed. But he has been lucky, because he is still a good athlete, who has a solid and good quality level of quickness, speed, agility, and jumping ability. For the most part, he is still a good athlete, which says alot about the way science and surgical treatments to treat knee injuries have improved over the years

I think expectations for him have to be lower, because he missed about 2 years of development because he couldn’t play basketball since he was trying to recover from his injuries.

He still has the potential to develop into a very good pro, if he continues to develop the skill set needed for him to play at a high level. I still have him as a 1st round pick, and think he will develop into a Joe Smith type of player

He should stay in college to develop, but because he is talented, I won’t be surprised if a team drafts him this year just to patiently develop him 

[EndlessknightParticipant]

Unless Giles has a monster tournament he should consider returning to Duke for his sophomore season.

[D7H7NParticipant]

 No way he comes back to Duke to get risk getting injured again. He’s going to get drafted in the lottery no matter what this year so he’s probably just playing it safe to guarantee his big fat rookie contract. If anything coming back hurts his draft stock more if he doesn’t play up to his hype from high school. Tons of the same cases in recent years.

[binetParticipant]

 Drafting injured guys has worked well recently (Noel, Embiid, Levert) so I expect both to get drafted high despite the injury.

On Giles specifically, his draft stock will remain high because he is still worth a late lottery as a bet. Kid has plenty of untapped potential and clearly has not recovered fully, yet he is competing decently on his limited minutes. With his size and rebounding ability plus the "what if…?" concerning his elite athleticism/motor recovery and feel for the game, he deserves a bet for any team not really convinced by the talent still available.

 

 

 

 

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