Marvin Bagley NBA 2018 Draft Profile

Marvin Bagley’s biggest problem is one he can’t do anything about anytime soon: he’s just young.

A year ahead of his high school class, he came to Duke as a thin 6-11 pogo stick. People eventually figured out they could beat him up and limit him but he still averaged 21 ppg and 11.1 rpg.

More importantly, he can get his own food. He doesn’t necessarily need someone to feed him. Bagley has perhaps the best second jump we’ve ever seen. Coach K, who has a way with words, could only describe it with a rapid double pat of his hand in the air.

The criticisms of Bagley are that he’s not a great shot blocker and not a great defender in general.

As far as shot block goes, big whoop. Most guys just throw the ball out of bounds and back to the other team anyway. It’s just a delay, not a turnover, much less a fast break.

And as far as his defense goes, his main problem, again, is that he’s young. In high school, of course he played center and for some reason, people still think he is one.

But he’s not.

People say, well, he’s not really a power forward. Okay, he’s not. And to save time, he’s not a small forward either.

Can we just say something here? Isn’t the NBA supposed to be positionless? So what do you all a guy who is 6-11, who runs like a dream, who rebounds spectacularly well, especially on offense, who can hit three pointers, who can run a break from start to finish?

Point guard? No. Wing guard? No.

Marvin Bagley is a player. And his greatest asset honestly is his desire to be great. Lots of guys have that and lots of guys (more than you’d think) have NBA talent.

Not many guys have NBA talent and a clear desire to be great. Well, Bagley does.

When he’s been on a weight program for three years and he’s filled out, who’s going to stop him?

The honest answer is the only guy who can stop Bagley is Bagley. Having watched him for a year, we’d probably take him over DeAndre Ayton (good thing Portland doesn't have the first pick. Ayton could go to sleep with nightmares of Bill Walton, Sam Bowie and Greg Oden). Ayton clearly has a brilliant future.

Bagley has something that we really don’t see very often and, as we said in the beginning, he’s still so young. You’d have to be nuts not to imagine where he’ll be in a few years.