Originally Posted by
nolaslim213
I'm not comparing River and Gordon to Wade and James. I was comparing your notion that Rivers and EJ can't co-exist because they are both penetrators. Wade and James are 2 of the best penetrators in the game, and they co-exist perfectly. That was the point I was trying to make.
Who at Duke can give him some help, offensively? Nobody. The Plumlees suck. They are just big athletes who can't do anything but jump and rebound. The opposing defenses focused solely on him, and he could get to the rim whenever he wanted to. That is elite. That is a rare gift.
Also, while at Duke, he played SG - not PG. His job wasn't to get others involved. It was to score.
I'd say he was an elite scorer for his age. I'll give you 2 stat lines:
Player A - 33 minutes, 15.5 points and 2.1 assists on 43.3% from the field and 36.5% from 3
Player B - 34 minutes, 14.6 points and 2.2 assists on 44.5% from the field and 33.9% from 3
Player A is Rivers, and Player B is Beal. Now, I'm not one for stats. I like to identify tools, so I won't harp on the stats, but Beal is widely considered a top-3 player in the draft. He is considered a "great shooter" and an elite offensive prospect with "Ray Allen" potential, yet Rivers dribbles better, gets to the hole easier, shoots the 3 better, is more clutch, and passes the same.
I'm just saying...