Jeez, much ado about nothing. They basically gave the kid the money they were going to give Lebron anyways.
Kid is a project. He was a highly ranked prospect coming out of High School and suffered a Health Crisis his 1st year in college.
NBA teams draft "projects" all the time. Especially in the 2nd round, but also very often in the first. Of the 60 or so players taken in the draft, only a handful are going to become true impact players.
There's been Top 10 guys who have barely sniffed the floor.
He'll be at the end of the bench taking up garbage minutes or down in the G League getting seasoning. If he's not ready to even warm the end of the bench or they need roster flexibility for some reason, you can bet your ass he'll be in the G League.
If he does play in the NBA...at 2 Mill a year, he'll likely take the place of a much more expensive 4th or 5th year veteran sitting at the end of the bench eating up garbage minutes.
He's not Lebron, he'll never be Lebron. He doesn't have the size, and he hasn't shown to be any sort of an offensive juggernaut. Most scouts see him as more of a defensive spark-plug in the future. His ceiling is as a Patrick Beverley type. Which if that's the case, it will be money well spent if he's even close to that. If not, they basically got him for free to try him out.
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