Greg Monroe and DeMarcus Cousins: The Two Biggest Steals of the 2010 NBA Draft

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Peter_Gibbons said:
"Standing at 6'11", DeMarcus Cousins and Greg Monroe were two of the top talents in the 2010 draft.
Both slipped into the middle of the lottery when they should have been in the top three."


http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...sins-the-two-biggest-steals-of-the-2010-draft



A decent article with some real insights on both players.
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I'm sorry but there is absolutely Monroe is in the top 3 of the draft. DeMarcus? Yes. But I'd be hardpressed to say that Monroe is better than Turner, Favors, or even Wes Johnson.
 
Tetsujin said:
I'm sorry but there is absolutely Monroe is in the top 3 of the draft. DeMarcus? Yes. But I'd be hardpressed to say that Monroe is better than Turner, Favors, or even Wes Johnson.
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Depends on how big an impact he has in games won vs. the other guys. But I agree with you. Cousins, yes. Monroe, jury is still out.
 
Tetsujin said:
I'm sorry but there is absolutely Monroe is in the top 3 of the draft. DeMarcus? Yes. But I'd be hardpressed to say that Monroe is better than Turner, Favors, or even Wes Johnson.
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I like Monroe a lot, but he is not top 3. Possibly he might prove he should've been top 5 a few yrs from now. I can understand why some people don't think he is better than Favors or Wes, especially before they played any real NBA games yet.

For Favors, he has a world of potential. But I don't know how much of it will be tapped. For WJ, I don't think he can be a great player, just a good starter type guy down the line. I think he was #4 because the Wolves had no other choice, granted they did like him.
 
I could see Monroe being one of the better players from this draft. Wes Johnson and Evan Turner (IMO) will end up being role players - Turner because he lacks physical gifts and Johnson because of style of play and willingness to defer and Favors has a very high ceiling but also high bust potential. Actually, I think bust is overstating it because I don't see him being a Stromile Swift type player, but he's far from a sure thing as the #2 pick.

Monroe is the opposite in that he's a high floor player. If he doesn't develop any further he'll be an above average big man. I see him as a rich man's Brad Miller (better rebounder, better defensive potential) and if Miller was an all-star then Monroe certainly could be at some point.

That said, "steal" might be a bit much. He's not a game changer and if he were actually drafted in the top 5 I'd be upset as a fan of the team that took him for going the safe route when a bad team needs a pick that high to be a homerun and not a solid single.

Cousins on the other hand CAN be a game changer. Depending on his drive, effort and conditioning he could be an absolute force. We'll see.
 
Monroe is not a top 3 pick. That being said, he's right about DeMarcus hopefully being a "steal" if he can get it all together in a couple of years. I do look forward to watching some of the rookies this year, there will always be one that should have gone early in the draft but just slipped.
 
kingsboi said:
Monroe is not a top 3 pick. That being said, he's right about DeMarcus hopefully being a "steal" if he can get it all together in a couple of years. I do look forward to watching some of the rookies this year, there will always be one that should have gone early in the draft but just slipped.
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Yeah, and his name is Hassan Whiteside.
 
WAY too early to tell, we can discuss this at the all-star break again and see if thats the case.
 
Tetsujin said:
I'm sorry but there is absolutely Monroe is in the top 3 of the draft. DeMarcus? Yes. But I'd be hardpressed to say that Monroe is better than Turner, Favors, or even Wes Johnson.
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I would say that right at this moment in time, that Monroe is a more skilled player than Favors. However, I would still take Favors higher in the draft than Monroe, because I think he'll be the better player in the long run. I think everyone knows how I feel about Turner, and I'd certainly take Johnson over Monroe, unless I was desperate for a big man.
 
Kingsguy881 said:
Yeah, and his name is Hassan Whiteside.
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I agree! Whiteside never should have slipped to 33 in the draft. At the same time I don't think he should have been a top 10 pick either. Personally I thought he would go somewhere between 15 and 25, depending on the team needs of those picking. He suffered to some extent because of having the Head Case label put on him, similarly to Cousins.
 
bajaden said:
I agree! Whiteside never should have slipped to 33 in the draft. At the same time I don't think he should have been a top 10 pick either. Personally I thought he would go somewhere between 15 and 25, depending on the team needs of those picking. He suffered to some extent because of having the Head Case label put on him, similarly to Cousins.
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I think Whiteside should have been a 12-14 pick based on his potential and size/leaping ability. Those are things that you just can't teach. He has a decent midrange shot, needs to learn moves around the hoop, and needs to lear to play better man defense but his knack for rocking folks world from the weakside is only going to help him earn PT in this league. So yeah, a buncha teams slept on him and I'm glad they did!
 
Peter_Gibbons;772064[B said:
]I like Monroe a lot, but he is not top 3. [/B] Possibly he might prove he should've been top 5 a few yrs from now. I can understand why some people don't think he is better than Favors or Wes, especially before they played any real NBA games yet.
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I believe the same. I really wanted to see Monroe on our team but in no way wanted to use our #5 on him.

IMO #7 was a good spot for him.
 
Lol
Monroe - 10 pts 3 rebs...on 2-6 shooting

COUSINS - 16 pts 16 rebs...on 8-13 shooting

I think we made the right choice :)
 
The Hammer said:
I'd rather have Whiteside over Monroe. And not only because he compliments Cousins better.
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Would you still feel the same if we didn't have Cousins already? I mean for a team that has no big man and can choose only between Whiteside or Monroe, would you still choose Whiteside?

Don't get me wrong, I'm probably one of the biggest Hassan fans ever since before the draft. But it would be a hard decision because Monroe can help right away which means a lot for a team that has no real big man center. Hassan has huge potential, but he will need up to 2 yrs before he can contribute as much as Monroe.
 
Peter_Gibbons said:
Would you still feel the same if we didn't have Cousins already? I mean for a team that has no big man and can choose only between Whiteside or Monroe, would you still choose Whiteside?

Don't get me wrong, I'm probably one of the biggest Hassan fans ever since before the draft. But it would be a hard decision because Monroe can help right away which means a lot for a team that has no real big man center. Hassan has huge potential, but he will need up to 2 yrs before he can contribute as much as Monroe.
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Eh. Good question. Don't know. But after the weight Hassan has put on so quickly this summer.... it's tempting.
 
Peter_Gibbons said:
Would you still feel the same if we didn't have Cousins already? I mean for a team that has no big man and can choose only between Whiteside or Monroe, would you still choose Whiteside?

Don't get me wrong, I'm probably one of the biggest Hassan fans ever since before the draft. But it would be a hard decision because Monroe can help right away which means a lot for a team that has no real big man center. Hassan has huge potential, but he will need up to 2 yrs before he can contribute as much as Monroe.
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Presumably we'd still have Daly, so Daly/Thompson/Landry + then...you could make a case for Whiteside there, but who knows. Presumably in that scenario we might have been more aggressive about keeping Brockness too. It was revealing after the draft when we said that we had taken a look at Whiteside as high as our #5. Means we considered him vis a vis Monroe in all liklihood. The front office has obviously turned a major corner in its thinking vis a vis defenders, toughness, physicality etc., but Cousins and Whiteside were also fairly obvious value picks at their positions. Do we now beleive so strongly in the toughness/defense kick that we would reach for a player who fits those bills over a potentially more talented player who does not/ That I'm not sure about.
 
The thing with Whiteside is that for all intents and purposes, the kid looks to have the potential to be a once in a generation shot-blocker, and his "downsides" were partly "mental" and we now know that there was no such thing as the add issue, he also appears to have a great attitude, to be very coachable, and to be an extremely hard worker in the weight room, something we needed to see and he has now shown us in spades in seemingly record time. Most of his "issues" have seemingly disappeared or appeared to never be there in the first place.

All that taken into account, and add to that his off the charts defensive potential, and I do think I pull the trigger on him over Monroe. So the only thing really is then passing. Passing. You have two big men. One is a very good passer. The other is a once in a generation shot blocker. You take the latter. And he has a decent jumper too. I do think you take the latter.
 
The Hammer said:
The thing with Whiteside is that for all intents and purposes, the kid looks to have the potential to be a once in a generation shot-blocker, and his "downsides" were partly "mental" and we now know that there was no such thing as the add issue, he also appears to have a great attitude, to be very coachable, and to be an extremely hard worker in the weight room, something we needed to see and he has now shown us in spades in seemingly record time. Most of his "issues" have seemingly disappeared or appeared to never be there in the first place.

All that taken into account, and add to that his off the charts defensive potential, and I do think I pull the trigger on him over Monroe. So the only thing really is then passing. Passing. You have two big men. One is a very good passer. The other is a once in a generation shot blocker. You take the latter. And he has a decent jumper too. I do think you take the latter.
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What really makes me happy (and I am sure with Whiteside) is he got a 1st round deal as a 2nd rounder. Shows the team has confidence in him, and he's wanted.
 
The Hammer said:
The thing with Whiteside is that for all intents and purposes, the kid looks to have the potential to be a once in a generation shot-blocker, and his "downsides" were partly "mental" and we now know that there was no such thing as the add issue, he also appears to have a great attitude, to be very coachable, and to be an extremely hard worker in the weight room, something we needed to see and he has now shown us in spades in seemingly record time. Most of his "issues" have seemingly disappeared or appeared to never be there in the first place.

All that taken into account, and add to that his off the charts defensive potential, and I do think I pull the trigger on him over Monroe. So the only thing really is then passing. Passing. You have two big men. One is a very good passer. The other is a once in a generation shot blocker. You take the latter. And he has a decent jumper too. I do think you take the latter.
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It would have been a tough choice. And believe me, I'm not a big Monroe fan. And I don't mean that on a personal level. I tried really, really hard to like his game, and I just couldn't do it. Don't get me wrong, he's a very skilled big man. But there was just always something missing there. Call it the WOW factor for lack of a better term.

When watching Whiteside play, and I didn't have as many opportunities as with Monroe, it was obvious that he lacked a lot of necessary skills and to a degree, basketball IQ. But! At times he did have the WOW factor. My biggest problem with him wasn't just poor passing skills, but no passing skills at all. And I think some of that comes with lack of basketball IQ.

Bricky put it in prespective, by framing it with us still having Dalembert, Thompson, and Landry. Actually we would still have Jackson as well. From that prespective, it would have been very temptiing to take Whiteside. However, if it had come to that, then I would have tried to trade down to get him. Fortunately we didn't have to make that choice, and we have him anyway. Life is good!!
 
funkykingston said:
I could see Monroe being one of the better players from this draft. Wes Johnson and Evan Turner (IMO) will end up being role players - Turner because he lacks physical gifts and Johnson because of style of play and willingness to defer and Favors has a very high ceiling but also high bust potential. Actually, I think bust is overstating it because I don't see him being a Stromile Swift type player, but he's far from a sure thing as the #2 pick.

Monroe is the opposite in that he's a high floor player. If he doesn't develop any further he'll be an above average big man. I see him as a rich man's Brad Miller (better rebounder, better defensive potential) and if Miller was an all-star then Monroe certainly could be at some point.

That said, "steal" might be a bit much. He's not a game changer and if he were actually drafted in the top 5 I'd be upset as a fan of the team that took him for going the safe route when a bad team needs a pick that high to be a homerun and not a solid single.

Cousins on the other hand CAN be a game changer. Depending on his drive, effort and conditioning he could be an absolute force. We'll see.
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This is about as accurate as you can get lol funny looking back on that draft how teams did not want to draft DMC because of his "maturity"
 
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Tetsujin said:
I'm sorry but there is absolutely Monroe is in the top 3 of the draft. DeMarcus? Yes. But I'd be hardpressed to say that Monroe is better than Turner, Favors, or even Wes Johnson.
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Er...no.

Monroe is quite good. Take Favors over him for his defense. But Moose is a load. Highly skilled too, just no Boogie skilled.
 
Bricklayer said:
Er...no.

Monroe is quite good. Take Favors over him for his defense. But Moose is a load. Highly skilled too, just no Boogie skilled.
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Brick you realize Tetsujin's comment was from five years ago before any of these dudes played an NBA game right?

EDIT: Ninja'd by twslam07 and Bricklayer. Damn you, slow typing skills
 
Bricklayer said:
oops :p

Sorry Tet! I'm calling out 5 year younger you -- he was a foolish man. :p

Don't like zombie threads. Why was this kicked back up?
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well it gives us something to talk about during TDOS lol I was just curiously wondering what us Kings fans thought of DMC during this time, I was stationed overseas and didn't get many chances to watch NBA basketball!
 
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