Point Forward on Rookies

SI has an article up on rookies not named Davis and Lillard.

Rivers review is under the Concerning heading and isn't terribly complimentary.

LINK

quote:

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Austin Rivers, New Orleans Hornets Rivers has had a miserable first month to his NBA career, to the point that the Hornets — who are already missing Eric Gordon and Anthony Davis and relying heavily on Greivis Vasquez, mind you — are actually better with Rivers off the floor. He’s an all-offense player who frankly doesn’t look comfortable when participating in an orchestrated effort. The problem isn’t that Rivers is inherently selfish, or flawed by personality; his game is simply isolation-driven, and far too inefficient for NBA dependency. Some can get by with a similar approach given their physical advantages or exemplary shooting, but Rivers has neither working in his favor. He’s physically unremarkable by NBA standards, only a decent shooter and can’t create enough off the bounce to warrant investing a considerable number of possessions in his game.

There was plenty of hand-wringing when the Hornets selected the positionally redundant Rivers with the 10th pick in the draft, and the headache of balancing Rivers and Gordon is yet to come. But for now, Rivers and Hornets head coach Monty Williams still have plenty to figure out, as they rummage for ways to stretch and contort a bundle of inefficiency into a useful basketball player

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Obviously a lot of the things everyone knew about Rivers before the draft. And his play for most of the season has been wretched.

On the bright side, this was most assuredly written before Tuesday's good showing for Rivers. A long way for him to go, but the $64,000 question still stands: can he shoot, create, and avoid turnovers that well on a consistent basis?