Predicting how recruits will pan out is notoriously difficult. There are a million factors from character to talent to injuries to unforeseen health complications to competitive desire and on and on.
If you're going to shop Amazon please start here and help DBR |
---|
Drop us a line at our new address |
A guy who played at Cal-State Bakersfield told us once that we'd be amazed how many big guys play without really loving the game. They're in it for their own reasons, and that's fine.
That was the case with Duke's Taymon Domzalski, who had a passionate desire to be a doctor. It seems to have worked out well for him.
Most of the elite high school players though are focused on an NBA career and this year's ACC class is going to be pretty good, not least of all in the Triangle.
As Caulton Tudor points out, if you go back to 1993-94, you'll see these freshmen: Tim Duncan, Jerry Stackhouse, Rasheed Wallace, Joe Smith and Harold Deane.
Joe Smith was the #1 pick in 1995. Stackhouse was the 3rd pick; Wallace was the 4th pick in that year.
Deane never had an NBA career to speak of but Tim Duncan is widely considered the best power forward of all time and was the first pick in 1997 (and as of now, still playing for the team that drafted him, the San Antonio Spurs).
It's a lot to live up to. But it's worth mentioning that Duncan was typically seen as the second-best big man Wake had that year (Makhtar Ndiaye, who started at Wake, was thought to be more promising) and Joe Smith had a long but unspectacular NBA career.
It's just impossible to know how things will work out.
That said, there is a lot of hope and excitement over guys like Harry Giles, Jayson Tatum, Dennis Smith and Omer Yurtseven.
But they still have to prove themselves.