Straw poll finds NBA executives would rather build around Luka Doncic than Zion Williamson

https://sports.yahoo.com/straw-poll-finds-nba-executives-130052459.html

Zion Williamson entered the NBA with unreasonable hype piled on his shoulders — and then he exceeded that hype. Williamson averaged 23.6 points a game on 58.9 percent shooting, plus pulled down 6.8 rebounds a game.

In the 19 games he played. He missed 45 games due to injury.

That, and the fact that Luka Doncic is playing at a level that will earn him MVP votes at age 20, has the Mavericks star on top of a straw poll conducted by ESPN. Tim Bontemps asked 20 people — executives, scouts, and coaches — who they would build around between Williamson, Doncic, Ja Morant, and Trae Young, and Doncic was the runaway winner.

“Luka is a known quantity as a total stud,” one Eastern Conference scout said, “so you have to take the sure thing.”

“Luka has size and elite playmaking and shooting right this second,” a Western Conference executive said. “He impacts winning. I believe his game is not only sustainable, but has the ability to continue to get better.”

“I’m only taking Luka because of health concerns about Zion,” said one Western Conference coach who had Doncic and Williamson first and second, respectively. “If [Zion’s] healthy, I think he’ll win an MVP. That’s how good I think he is.”

Interestingly, a number of the executives had Morant in front of Williamson and even Doncic, seeing upside as the Memphis point guard gets stronger and improves his shot.

Again, the concern with Williamson is health — was last season’s injury issues a fluke, or should there be a lingering concern about chronic health issues? It is those risks that had executives taking Doncic or even Morant ahead of him.

Young was a relatively distant fourth and the reason was his defense — he is currently one of the worst defenders in the league. While Young’s offensive skill is unquestioned, it is a challenge to build a title team around him because he hurts the team so much on one end of the floor.

Most teams, however, would love to have any one of the four of them. They are the future of the league.

My comments:  I made it a poll and included the other two players that were mentioned in the article.  What do you think and why?

I went with Zion.

In my opinion; Zion is a transformative player. If he stays healthy, and I think from here forward he will, he has the potential to elevate to the game-changer level of Jabbar, James or Jordan. After less than half a season of play, I believe he has shown the ability to score in multiple ways not seen in one player before. His athleticism, quickness, defense and rebounding make him a top-tier stopper.

Doncic is another player with incredible potential, but he's a point guard. The poll asks who would you build around, and play-making point guards are plentiful. If I'm building a team from the ground up, I go with a weapon like Zion first, and work backwards to who gets him the ball.

I’ll go with Jayson Tatum

cowens/oldschool wrote:I’ll go with Jayson Tatum

Cow,

Valid answer, but JT wasn't included in the original NBA executive poll discussed in the article. I considered including the option "Other, please explain", but I decided to only keep the four choices given to the executives for this poll.

So, not counting JT, who do you like in the options given?

I will pick Luka Doncic. It's all about longevity for me and I'm thinking long term. Williamson depends too much on his athleticism and an injury could limit his skills down the road.

NYCelt,

IMO, at 6'-7" and with almost 29 points per game, Luka Doncic is more than a typical point guard. Perhaps time will prove you to be right and the chance taken on the potential of Zion will be best.

gyso,

The best part of these games of choice we get to play is that proven right or wrong down the road, the answer is the same;

'I'm not an NBA GM.'

The attitude and delivery on that response changes somewhere between defensive and triumphant depending on how close we get to being right!

Regards

Give me Luka 8 days a week! I feel he can influence a game the most, and we haven’t seen the best Luka yet wait a couple more years. (True of all four)

I’d be quite happy though with Zion, and wouldn’t be crushed with Ja or Trae. The NBA must be quite happy with a plethora of young stars.

NYCelt wrote:I went with Zion.

In my opinion; Zion is a transformative player. If he stays healthy, and I think from here forward he will, he has the potential to elevate to the game-changer level of Jabbar, James or Jordan. After less than half a season of play, I believe he has shown the ability to score in multiple ways not seen in one player before. His athleticism, quickness, defense and rebounding make him a top-tier stopper.

Doncic is another player with incredible potential, but he's a point guard. The poll asks who would you build around, and play-making point guards are plentiful. If I'm building a team from the ground up, I go with a weapon like Zion first, and work backwards to who gets him the ball.

Doncic is more a wing in size who’s so good/talented/vision you want to put the ball in his hands as much as possible, better shooter and scorer than Magic and much faster than Bird. Okay maybe he’s a point, some players don’t really have a position, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Lebron all just played, Kobe doesn’t quite get there IMHO, to me he was more a volume scoring 2.

cowens/oldschool wrote:

NYCelt wrote:I went with Zion.

In my opinion; Zion is a transformative player. If he stays healthy, and I think from here forward he will, he has the potential to elevate to the game-changer level of Jabbar, James or Jordan. After less than half a season of play, I believe he has shown the ability to score in multiple ways not seen in one player before. His athleticism, quickness, defense and rebounding make him a top-tier stopper.

Doncic is another player with incredible potential, but he's a point guard. The poll asks who would you build around, and play-making point guards are plentiful. If I'm building a team from the ground up, I go with a weapon like Zion first, and work backwards to who gets him the ball.

Doncic is more a wing in size who’s so good/talented/vision you want to put the ball in his hands as much as possible, better shooter and scorer than Magic and much faster than Bird. Okay maybe he’s a point, some players don’t really have a position, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Lebron all just played, Kobe doesn’t quite get there IMHO, to me he was more a volume scoring 2.

Everybody was much faster than Bird!

Bird may have been the slowest great player in any major sport. Yogi Berra, Luis Tiant, The Fridge and Shaq might have all been faster

El Tiante was NOT faster than The Legend!!

We used to imitate his windup but it didn't help us:



Tiant to Yaz, 1985:



Why he didn't make it into the hall of fame is beyond me.

GetYourSoxOn

gyso,

You got my sarcasm on that one.

Yes, Tiant should be in Cooperstown.

Regards

(Side note to my Sox-loving partner in the forum tower offices: It's almost May and my Orioles are not in last place! One silver-lining anyway.)

If Zion stays healthy he is likely to become a dominant player.  He has a lot of work to do as does Doncic.

I agree with Cow.  JT would be my choice.  

All three of these players are ballers.

Earlier in the year I was blown away with Doncic’s numbers, game, responsibilities, poise all at such an early age, but as the year has gone on and since the all star game Tatum has just as equally blown me away. Especially the way he hit so many big shots with such high degree of difficulty, with great defenders on him, kind of Kobesqe and he’s got more length than Kobe who was more a 2, Tatum is a hybrid 3-4. So right now his defense and his 3 point game is definitely superior to Doncic and his ability to go right at the best of the best both ends has really been breathtaking....sub any words/praise you want.

Show me a player who outplayed Kawhi, Lebron and AD like the way Tatum just did? Put 39 on Kawhi and 41 on Lakers with Lebron staying away and a lot of it right in the face of Anthony Davis, no problem, who does that to 2 of the top defenders in the league...???

I went with Luka, for a guy his size his ball handling skills are absolutely terrific.  I know Zion was the flavor of the month before the rug got pulled out of the NBA, but from watching Luka, when he is healthy he is deadly on the floor

Luka is a very skilled player.  Most surprised by his ability to rebound.  He is very effective off the bounce.  Things for him to work on include improving his under 32% shooting from deep which also has a lot to do with shot selection.  Also he needs to reduce those turnovers.  Most notably his defense is poor.

Zion also needs to work on his shooting from deep.  He has the potential to be a top rebounder and defender in this league.  He only played a few games so we only caught a glimpse of what he can do.

JT. Literally went up two levels this season.  He is looking like a guy that will be scoring in the mid to high twenties next year.  He needs to work on his play making and finishing at the rim.  He is a terrific player that has a lot of upside.

I am partial to my guys so I would take JT over the rest of them.

cowens/old school,

Always remember our perception by the rest of the league as it has been from the late 50's until now and that explains why Tatum is not on the list.  The league (and media) will continue to push us to the back burner until we host the O'Brien Trophy and even then it will be on the back page.  

Now the Lakers should be in about the same boat as we are yet they are the media darlings.  Thank they're closeness to Hollywood for that.  Blue collar, hard-working, fundamental basketball just doesn't sell the league like "flash" does.  

That being said, the first person I thought of before I saw the executive list was Tatum.  

Was Doncic injured this past season for about a month with all his bouncing around as well?  Yet no mention anywhere in the execs responses about him being injured and it being a problem.  

This is America, by God.  Never settle for/choose just one when you can have both!  Why drag out the process?! That's not the new NBA!! I'll take both Zion and Doncic! Or Tatum and either one if he makes the short list!

db

Yet somehow, we still lead the league in championships after all these years. Go figure.

db

Okay, by popular demand, I have added Jason Tatum as a choice in the poll.

You can cancel your vote if you've already voted or if you haven't voted yet, you can pick JT.

Above it says, "Tim Bontemps asked 20 people — executives, scouts, and coaches — who they would build around . . . "  It seems like Tim Bontemps is showing extreme anti-Celtics bias by not including Jason Tatum in the first place.  He's probably a Knicks fan.  

Also shaking my head at those 20 people — executives, scouts, and coaches, who took part in the original poll.  Bandwaggoners all!  

Okay, then, I am going with JT. His upside is so good, we have really yet to hit the tip of the iceberg with him.

So JT it is

BTW, I cancelled my prior vote and then picked Jason Tatum.

IMO, if Jason Tatum played on a crappy team and didn't have such great teammates, his stats would be off the charts. You cannot teach length and his skillset is phenomenal.

He has a Kobe like skill to hit shots with high degree of difficulty, Kobe did it more from mid range, when he was in his zone could obviously do it from 3. Tatum may already have a better 3 point game then Kobe, the numbers don’t lie and can get those shots off with defenders on him. Tatum also has more length than Kobe and may be faster end to end on the break. As he gets stronger, his finishing is only going to get better and better, he’s 22. A great game worth re watching is the clinic he put on the Lakers, he gets past the first defender easily, then finishes right over Dwight Howard numerous times, he shoots shots right in the face of AD a bunch. On defense AD tries going right at Tatum a few times and gets stopped cold.

I voted and I went with, drum roll...Jayson Tatum.

I’m sticking with Luka! Though I do like JT being added to the mix.

NYCelt wrote:

cowens/oldschool wrote:

NYCelt wrote:I went with Zion.

In my opinion; Zion is a transformative player. If he stays healthy, and I think from here forward he will, he has the potential to elevate to the game-changer level of Jabbar, James or Jordan. After less than half a season of play, I believe he has shown the ability to score in multiple ways not seen in one player before. His athleticism, quickness, defense and rebounding make him a top-tier stopper.

Doncic is another player with incredible potential, but he's a point guard. The poll asks who would you build around, and play-making point guards are plentiful. If I'm building a team from the ground up, I go with a weapon like Zion first, and work backwards to who gets him the ball.

Doncic is more a wing in size who’s so good/talented/vision you want to put the ball in his hands as much as possible, better shooter and scorer than Magic and much faster than Bird. Okay maybe he’s a point, some players don’t really have a position, Bird, Magic, Jordan, Lebron all just played, Kobe doesn’t quite get there IMHO, to me he was more a volume scoring 2.

Everybody was much faster than Bird!

Bird may have been the slowest great player in any major sport. Yogi Berra, Luis Tiant, The Fridge and Shaq might have all been faster

That’s what also made him special, we marvel at these kids like Tatum and Brown that have already dunked right over Lebron in a way that the great Paul Pierce never did. Jabbar, Dr J, Jordan, Lebron, now maybe Zion, all players with unique size or athleticism that sets the bar for that generation/era. And here’s a slow white guy that dominates with fundamentals, grit and vision, can carry a team on his back and make others better, deadly in the clutch, overall with his limitations he was much greater than Dr J, owned Jordan in his early years and is debatable who’s better between him and Lebron. To be able to dominate the game to that degree with average at best athleticism is as or more remarkable than the other greats, because he could still will himself to do it without those advantages in size or athleticism the other greats had that made them so great.

And to make it even more entertaining, according to the legion of players in his era, he was the greatest trash talker there was too, he never backed off from a challenge and stuck it to them right in their face.