Brad Beal’s set to blow up in The District
Andy G and I are starting a series on players you’ll be watching for one reason or another this season on League Pass.
Here’s the first installation: Rookies you’ll want to watch on League Pass, and why you/I will be watching them. The first team is below the fold.
PG – Alexey Schved: Did you see the Olympics?
SG – Bradley Beal: Plays for my local team, perfect pick, will be great next to Wall. The interesting question is, how much better does Beal make Wall? Imagine passing to Nick Young or Jordan Crawford and knowing that you just wasted a possession. Beal’s gonna change all that and help Wall a ton.
SF – Michael Kidd-Gilchrist: I thought picking a long, defensive specialist at #7 was a reach when the Wolves picked Corey Brewer. Imagine having taken Brew at #2. That may be the world the Bobcats are in. Or it might not. Depends on what you believe! I wish there were a bizarro David Kahn in Charlotte we could plant there to say, “You’re gonna hate watching Michael play.”
PF – Royce White: White’s the most interesting player in the draft. Given the latitude, he could be an 11/8/6.5 guy. For the advanced stats guys, I say he’s the odds-on favorite to lead the league in John Lennon solos/48.
C – Anthony Davis: He’ll be best player in the draft. We already know that, and since Kentucky was televised at the rate of an NBA playoff team last year (wait, were they an NBA playoff team last year?), I feel like I’m already familiar enough with this guy not to be that intrigued. I’m pretty sure I’ve seen him play more times by now than Roy Hibbert. And Roy Hibbert was an all-star. Last year. Ant Davis will be great, but he won’t be my HIGHEST PRIORITY to watch on League Pass.
6th man – Dion Waiters: Lots of style, little substance. Sort of like JR Rider, except JR had plenty of substances both on and off the court.
Punch-Drunk Wolves 
That’s a solid team. My honorable mentions would be Harrison Barnes and Jonas Valanciunas. Barnes because he’s an interesting test case (though hardly the first) of a player with a great physical profile and hype whose metrics fall WAY below others drafted behind him (or so I’ve read, at least.) Some expect Barnes to be out of pro basketball in a few years, ala Wes Johnson’s likely path, while others expect fringe stardom. I’m in between, but closer to the latter.
Jonas just sounds like a beast, Olympic struggles notwithstanding. If this post were purely about who is the best basketball player, Jonas takes Waiters’ spot, if not all the rest.
@Andy G: I’ll want to watch Jonas after I hear of him having a good game – he stunk up the Olympics and apparently the five guys in Toronto who still care about the Raptors are (only three are affiliated with the organization) are getting worried. Wait, maybe that’s reason enough to be curious about the possible train-wreck in slow motion.
Barnes? See the Davis comment above, except the parts where I congratulate him for being a good player. Still, I’ll watch with some interest to see if he can get over the NBA hurdle, sort of like I did for other top preps like Felipe Lopez and OJ Mayo (admittedly, I still like Mayo a lot). Snark aside, I think Barnes’ worst-case is as an extremely solid role player (think Ronnie Brewer), but likely he’ll be significantly better than that.
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