re: Outkick's take on LSU basketball

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Passing- he's no Magic Johnson, as I said, and I saw Magic kill LSU in the tourney. Magic controlled the ball and made passes that killed the opponent. Simmons makes pretty passes at times, but they are meaningless; he's not dissecting the defense, he's throwing a skip pass to someone wide open who often isn't a shooter.

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How much of that is on Simmons. Do you watch the LSU games? No one moves away from the ball. It's pretty damn easy to defend someone when they are just standing there. On the rare occasion someone flashes to to the basket or an open spot when Simmons has the ball he finds them 99% of the time. Gray and Hornsby seem to be the only two who even remotely know how to move away from the ball. There is a game coming up tomorrow. There is going to be a point where Simmons gets the ball in the post and will be double-teamed. He will be desperate to get someone a good look and all 4 of his teammates will stand there and just watch him>

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Rebounding- he's getting a lot of rebounds, but he's doing it against undersized guys, he's not dominating the glass (the Rodman comment). That, and he's fielding a lot of long rebounds that just as easily would filter out to our guards. He really is just giving totals you'd expect of an athletic, 6'10 guy playing in the SEC (a subpar conference); he hasn't shown that he will continue that against NBA frontcourt talent.

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There are several athletic big guys in the SEC. None, other than Simmons, are averaging double-digit rebounds. He's averaging two more rebounds per game that both Mickey and Martin did at LSU last season. He's 6th in the NATION in RPG, and there isn't another guy from a power-conf in the top 10 with him. He's currently averaging almost two more rebounds per game than ANYONE in the SEC has for at least the last 10 years! That includes such other overrated players as Anthony Davis, Bobby Portis, Jarnell Stokes, Demarcus Cousins, Al Horford.

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His claim to fame currently is his passing ability, and his rebound numbers

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And yet he's still averaging more points per game than any Forward in the SEC since Shan Foster (if you want to consider him a forward) in 2008. He's doing it without the ability to consistently hit jumpshots or 3 pointers AND while putting up big numbers in rebounds, assist and steals.

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The point of my comments is this: if his shooting ability is subpar, his defense is maybe average, his passing ability is "merely" solid for a guy his height, and NOT worthy of comparison to an all-time great, and his rebounding is also just solid, and not incredible... then quit saying he's a once-in-a-generation talent.

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Literally no one who hailed him as the next great player billed him as a great shooter. And to say his passing ability is "merely solid" for a guy his size is maybe the most absurd thing I've ever read on this site. He's only one of two Forwards in the top 100 assist leaders in the nation (the other forward is #86 and is 6'4")

You expectations are beyond absurd. At 6'10, his scoring, rebound, and assist abilities are at numbers rarely seen at the college level. When your overall numbers can only be compared to players like Magic Johnson and Oscar Robinson, you're doing something pretty goddamn special. His only downfall is that he plays for a coach who would not have ever be considered a for power conf. job other than at the place he played college ball. If he were putting up those numbers at Duke, UNC, Kansas, we'd be talking about it being one of the greatest college seasons of all time.

You might want to send your eval out to all 30 NBA teams, because the people that get paid to make such evaluations completely disagree with yours. Evidently those NBA teams are pissing away a lot of money.

"Simmons is garbage. Let me know when the guy who has Magic Johnson's passing ability AND Dennis Rodman' rebounding ability AND Chris Jackson's scoring ability comes around. Then we can talk about a good player!"