Morning Sixers – Monday, May 1st, 2017

“Brett Brown talks a lot about players having an elite skill.  Which draft prospects would you say have at least 1 elite skill?  Does having more than one elite skill make up for some bad flaws that a player might have?”

— Tyler

A lot of that depends on what the 1 elite skill is, and what the flaws it has to overcome are.

There are some flaws that are very hard to overcome. If you’ve been following me for some time you know that a lack of rim protection and defensive awareness at the center position is one that I think is difficult to overcome. That position just has too much potential to impact a defense, and the opportunity cost of losing out on that is pretty severe.

A similarly poor defender on the perimeter, while frustrating, isn’t quite the same anchor. Not because there’s no consequence to him being continually beat (there is), but because that opportunity cost of *not* helping his teammates isn’t quite as severe. So while this might be a big red flag for me, it might not be the death sentence other flaws are.

How improvable of a skill it is also plays an obviously big role in whether it’s a fatal flaw or not. Shooting, for example, is of prime importance. There are guys who you don’t have confidence will ever become shooters, then there are guys who simply haven’t made it a focal point in their development yet. Figuring out the difference between this is sometimes hard, but critical.

Get the rest of this answer, as well as a collection of Sixers links over the past 24 hours, over at patreon.com (subscribers only).