College, NBA Draft / Feb 22, 2012 / 1:00 pm

3 Potential Hit Or Miss Prospects In The 2012 NBA Draft

By

Andre Drummond

ESPN recruiting analyst Dave Telep wrote a blog on Perry Jones a few weeks ago, saying he’s not the player most expect him to be.

Telep wrote:

Throughout Jones’ basketball career — at least since high school — he’s been the kid with the expectations. Every now and then he’d hang 25 and 10 blocks in an AAU game just to let you know he was capable of doing it. However, he never struck me as a guy who was committed to doing it each time out or even wanted to do it at that level. I’ve always believed that his personality was that of a supporting actor, not a leading man.

Telep makes a great point about Jones’ personality. He does not have a killer mentality. Kevin Garnett has all of the same tools as Jones but when you watch Garnett play, you see that superstar DNA and intangibles immediately. That side of Jones has yet to be seen.

Fans and critics should try to ease on the criticism of all three of these guys. The expectations set upon each are nearly impossible to reach. None of these guys are likely to push their squads deep in March or be the face of an NBA franchise. The viewers have to adjust expectations and look at what they are right now and not what they could be. It is frustrating to us mere humans to see a player standing at 6-11 with all of the tools of an NBA player struggle on the college basketball scene, but none of these guys are quite at the point in their development where they are capable of accomplishing much.

We know that an NBA team is going to take a chance on each of these guys and it is likely going to be pretty high in the draft. It is also quite possible that all three will be labeled “busts” because of the high expectations following them.

[RELATED: Top 25 Breakout Players & Teams To Watch In The NBA, College & High School This Season]

At this point, the best thing for Jones, Drummond and Leonard would be for their draft stock to fall. Just look at DeAndre Jordan. He had a great deal of hype going to Texas A&M and fell to the second round for the Clippers after a mediocre freshman year. Now he is the starting center for a good NBA team. There are numerous factors that helped Jordan get to this point (Chris Paul being traded to Los Angeles certainly did not hurt) and perhaps if Jordan had landed on a different team, he would have been a bust.

At the end of the day, all three have a great deal of potential as well as a plethora of question marks surrounding them. The key when looking at these three is to look at what they are right now, not at what they could be.

Which of these three do you think should go highest in the draft?

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  • K Dizzle

    I haven’t seen enough of Drummond, I only seen Leonard cryin after a loss, and everytime I see Jones, I think of Jonathan Bender…

  • King

    Drummond looks lost on the court

  • moneymakingmojo

    I use to believe in Perry Jones until I seen Thomas Robinson destroy him twice and I just always think of Anthony Randolph when I see him play.

  • First & Foremost

    I don’t watch a lot of college basketball but last night I just so happened to see Jerry Jones III taking up space on the tv. Glance away from the screen, turn back, Perry Jones catches the ball under the basket, point blank dunk… straight up missed it and his team had to scrable to save it from going out of bounds… on the sideline. Aight, fine, whatever, chalk that one up as a fluke. Then he just proceeds to have a horrible stretch of playing basketball. “Is this the guy that Dime is always talking about?”

  • Celts Fan

    Ummm, pretty sure CP3 had nothing to do w/ Deandre’s development since they’d just broken him off to the tune of $40M+ BEFORE he ever got there. He just wasn’t ready at 18 to be what people thought he could be.

    -The guy screaming at the TV to draft Deandre in the late 1st that year as we grab JR Giddens

  • http://www.bettlejuiceXs3.com Chicagorilla

    @Celtsfan

    agreed. DJ was going to be a player before CP3 got there. And CP3 ain’t the one blocking shots for him or grabbing those rebounds. DJ should be a top 5 center with all his athletic ability. But with Blake and CP3 there, it looks like he’ll settle for being another Tyson Chandler/Marcus Camby type.

    Andre Drummond has the size and physical ability to be a monster. But he has no skill whatsoever. The guy doesn’t have post moves and can’t shoot. I want so bad for him to be good because the NBA needs more big men, but I think chances are slim with him if he comes outta college early.

    Perry Jones needs to stay in college. But he also needs to transfer to Georgetown or maybe go play ball there in the summer. If he comes back, Baylor should bring in the G-Town old school bigs (Ewing, Zo, Deke) to show him the game. Kid is looking like another Tyrus Thomas right now.

    I believe in Myers Leonard (I may be a little biased on him because he’s from IL and plays at U of I. But the kid has grown so much since his Jr. year in HS. That shows me that he is working on his game. He is a lot like Perry Jones (and Sr. in HS Mitch McGary) in that they have no idea how to use their size and play with their back to the basket. They insist on trying to be Kevin Garnetts. Trying to face up and shoot and dribble. Instead of putting their back to the basket and making the simple moves.
    We need another big man camp like the one Pete Newell used to have.

  • matt

    Perry Jones plays for the Minnesota Timberwolves :P

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