Elan’s quote is interesting. He wasn’t even born yet when Toni Kukoc was 18 and lighting up LJ, Stacey Augmon, and Gary Payton for 37 in the US worlds.
Unless those scouts saw a 17 year old Larry Bird play…and refresh their mind on that stuff to not have recency bias…hard to really take that with any sort of truth.
Bird had a lot of weird things going on in the home/family life that affected him mentally in school and college. But skill wise. He went everywhere and dominated every step of the way. High school, college, NBA. Arguably a top 10 player ever on most anyone’s list who’s been a student of the game for awhile.
I’ve only seen 3 full games of Doncic (at age 18). Reminds me more of Kukoc than Turkolu tbh. Athleticism is a real question tho. I wonder how much not being good defensively is a thing as much in this “new NBA” than earlier eras? Elan’s quote on polarizing is definitely be true. Will be a very interesting year. Already seeing it from much of “NBA Draft Twitter” (of which I am a part of, take that for what it’s worth).
