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If this is true, Marquese Chriss will be selling the couch
Chris at 14 on Chad Ford's Big Board
(pay link).
Chriss is the fastest riser on our Big Board 5.0. The 18-year-old forward has been on a tear lately, averaging nearly 20 points per game over his past four Pac-12 contests, including an impressive 24 points against Utah on Wednesday.
He's very raw still. But his length, athleticism and versatility have scouts drooling. If he can keep up this play the rest of the year, he should be a surprise lottery pick.
Murray's at 28.
Murray can be a wild man on the court. But that would be a 6-foot-5, athletic, aggressive wild man who, when he's on, can wow you.
He's shooting 28 percent on his 2-point jumpers and just 30 percent from 3-point range, so there are major things to work on. But the raw talent really excites scouts.
If these ranks are anything close to how scouts see them come decision time, I'd advise Chriss to jump and Murray to come back.
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Comments
Might be interesting to see how these things affect Chriss and Murray
I can totally see why we had to keep Romar.
1) Ben McLemore - was a national superstar on one of the nations best teams in college, now struggling to develop in Sacramento
2) Moe Harkless - average, nothing more than a rotational player for the Blazers
3) Zach Lavine - everyone was baffled when he left early... does great in dunk contests but is an average at best player for the wolves
Then there are many guys who were 5* studs who have busted hard in the pros, and probably should've waited to leave. Josh Selby, Marquis Teague, Quincy Miller, Grant Jarrett just to name a few.
I'm not saying Chriss won't be successful if he leaves early, just that history is definitely against him if he wants to be a one-and-done.
That's a glaring hole considering the guys he'd have to create against at that level.
Murray could use some bulk still. And for a shooting guard, his outside shooting is streaky at best.
That being said, both guys could probably leave now and secure a few million and hope the rest develops in the league over 2-3 years.
I agree with CuntWaffle that he could be a D-League guy. It's not really an indictment of his ability, but he can hardly stay on the court in college. He's actually logged a lot of minutes the past few games. Before then, he fouled out or was in foul trouble every single game. He averages 4.1 fouls per game. I wouldn't be shocked if that was the highest in the country. He won't be able to guard anyone in the NBA.
That said, he's a stretch 4 in the NBA who also brings you shot blocking ability which is a bonus over a lot of stretch 4's. Jones is a good comp skills wise, but he's definitely more athletic than Jones. And obviously lighter.
If he could stay on the court he'd be a rotational guy at worst right now. Since he can't he's probably a deep bench guy or a guy who'll play as many rotational minutes as foul trouble will allow. This is where I break from Roadie's analysis. I don't see him ever going to the D league. Even with the foul trouble issue he's too damn good.
NESnake's historical analysis is really interesting. Chriss wasn't even a particularly high 4 star (like Murray), if you broke the 4 stars into 5 equal groups based on overall ranking, 4A, 4B, 4C, etc, Chriss would be towards the bottom of the B group or top of the C group.
I do think his late growth spurt gives some explanation for him being an extreme outlier. Playing on the same team as Murray, a guy scouts were very aware of coming in doesn't hurt either. I'm sure a lot of guys earlier in the year came to see Murray but were shocked by Chriss' raw talents. Hell, that's pretty much how the year has been for me.
The idea of Chriss being a modern stretch 4 makes a lot of sense to me. In some ways, I see a lot of Chris Bosh in him in the ability to go both inside and out with the potential to be a very flexible and unique defender that can guard multiple positions (once he learns how to play without fouling).
I know most don't agree with this, but the reality is that if you leave to the NBA too early it can stunt your development and you pretty much won't hit your ceiling. The fallacy is that there's a lot of player development in the NBA. When you're busy traveling from city to city you aren't getting full practices or whatnot.
Murray needs to be able to develop a consistent jump shot and mid range game. Right now, it's fairly easy for defenders to take about 3-4 steps off of him to size up and plan the help defense around his penetration because he can't consistently make a mid range jump shot. On top of that, he needs incremental variety in his penetration/isolation game because there's not a ton of mid range that I see in it ... it's pretty much get all the way to the basket. Moreover, he needs additional poise and seasoning when it comes to picking and choosing his spots better for making the fundamental play/pass versus going for the jugular. Too often (and not unexpectedly because of his youth) he tries to make the spectacular play and leaves points on the court as a result.
Chriss has a very nice mid range game and some very nice post moves. Obviously, the ability to stay on the court by being able to play consistent positional defense goes without saying. Offensively, he can stand to not only improve his ball handling, but also his passing ability as one of the areas where he can be the most effective going forward in the NBA will be by being able to punish teams for going small by posting up (creating mismatches) or by allowing his own team to go small and his ability to pull bigs away from the hoop. That also leads into the need to be able to develop a consistent and reliable outside shot where he can space the court.
Between both Murray and Chriss, they would have a tremendous opportunity to develop a very strong 2 man game if they allow it to develop.
There's a lot of pressure when it comes to playing for money. The results matter more than the process. In college, while results matter, the pressure is less and you're able to more consistently be able to go get your work in without anybody watching or paying attention. Going into one of the many back gyms at Hec Ed and shooting 1,000 jumpers a day would be beneficial to both of these guys. Drills drills drills.
Both of these guys have the chance to not only be strong NBA players some day, but I could also see these guys as potential All Stars (particularly Chriss). Let it come though and develop. Don't push it and put yourself in a bad position, with either a bad organization that can't develop players or with a good organization where the opportunities to develop on the court becomes limited. You can do all the drills that you want behind closed doors but ultimately you have to take those drills onto the court and execute them during a game to reinforce the confidence. Taking big time reps in college are the training wheels for taking big time reps in the NBA.
Between his foul trouble and the string of big men that just pushed UW's shit in the past few games, I don't see it.
Unless he plays on a team that runs a small lineup like Golden State, I see him as a 3 like Rashard Lewis was or Harrison Barnes is.