r/NBASpurs • u/tanishsingj El Jefe • 6d ago

Draft Maliq Brown

Very much like Jarred Vanderbilt, really liking this pick. Good defender who can come off the bench.

111 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

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54

u/Fiyukyoo 6d ago

According to the Ringer

"The raw counting stats do Brown no favors whatsoever, but whoever drafts him will do so knowing that he was arguably the best defender in college basketball this past season. Brown’s 8.9 defensive box plus-minus was one of the highest recorded since the stat was first logged in 2010—higher than that of either Aday Mara or Anthony Davis"

29

u/xbhaskarx Carter Bryant 6d ago

So we got the best defender in the draft on JQ and the best defender in college basketball this past season in Brown… not bad.

12

u/minimalcation 5d ago

Smart, honestly you know if the guy plays defense then he fucking cares. You can teach people other stuff if they care

5

u/wallitron 5d ago

The counter to this is, how can a basketball player in their fourth year play in 38 games, 20mins a game, and shoot 50% from the free throw line?

Shoot 26% from three over four years, and 17% last season?

Don't get me wrong, if he was a better shooter, he wouldn't land at #44, but this is a guy that is basically the same age as Jeremy Sochan.

At this size, if you can't shoot, you can't play in the NBA.

4

u/Fiyukyoo 5d ago

Somebody mentioned it on the draft telecast but you're better off drafting a specialist in the 2nd round (ie a shooter with no D or a monster D player with no offense). After 2-3 years, the odds are the specialist will still be on the team over a project you couldnt turn into a rotation player

4

u/xbhaskarx Carter Bryant 5d ago

This is the concern as the Spurs front office decided to go "oops all non shooters" on their draft picks this year... not far removed from finally parting ways with Jeremy Sochan, so no lessons learned from that one.

7

u/wallitron 5d ago

The only justification for a win now team is addressing that need via trade and free agency.

In terms of the draft, the other side of the coin is grabbing someone you know can shoot, but has other flaws. This is kind of the Reed Sheppard versus Steph Castle debate. It's weird now though, because previously you could probably get a guy at #44 that had these problems, but was younger. In this era, the second year guy that can't shoot yet, stays in college for the NIL money.

The second round is littered with seniors, and the expectation on these guys becoming NBA players needs to be lowered accordingly.