With Ben Simmons and Brandon Ingram almost assuredly going first and second, respectively, in Thursday’s NBA Draft, things start to get interesting right around Pick No. 3 – especially if the Boston Celtics swing and whiff on an overhyped prospect.
Someone such as, say, Marquese Chriss, who averaged 13.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game last year for a Washington squad that didn’t even make the NCAA Tournament.
“I would say (one of most overrated players in the draft is) probably Marquese Chriss, who is being considered all the way at No. 3 and 4 with Boston and Phoenix,” CBSSports.com draft insider Sam Vecenie said on CBS Sports Radio’s The DA Show. “I have him more in the late lottery range on my board right now. He’s a guy that might be the best athlete in the draft at 6-10, 230 pounds. Solid wing span, can really shoot it and can attack a close-out when teams come at him on the perimeter. But the problem I have is he doesn’t really know who to play basketball yet in the way that you would like at the professional level. He’s not a good defender. He really struggles with fouling and really struggles with being in the right place at the right time. I think that NBA coaches are going to have their hands full in a lot of ways.”
Imagine if Chriss, 18, goes fifth overall to Minnesota.
“I don’t think Tom Thibodeau would really get along all that well with him early in his career,” Vecenie said. “There are so many issues with the way that he defends and how he kind of comes out out of control and doesn’t really give effort all the time on that end of the floor. So I would say that Chriss is a really big question mark – and I know that this 2016 draft is relatively weak and full of question marks, but he’s a little bit too much of a question mark to end up selecting.”
