Originally Posted by
CDu
With the exception of the last sentence. McRoberts was a very gifted role player.
I'm just presenting an argument that McRoberts is unfairly bashed. He was forced into a role that he wasn't suited for (go-to scorer). He was, ideally, a third option. When he was paired with Conley, Eric Gordon, Daequan Cook, and Greg Oden (one of the better AAU teams one could imagine), McRoberts put up amazing numbers. But, as you said, they were inflated by teams having to worry about two shooters (Cook and Gordon), a post scorer (Oden), and a great PG (Conley). His game fit so seemlessly with those guys: running the floor, blocking shots, handling the ball and passing well, finishing alley-oops. His deficiencies as a post player were just very much masked by playing with a nearly perfect team for him.
I'm not in any way suggesting that that he was some star that Duke screwed up. I am saying that he has been treated very unfairly by many Duke fans. The reality is that he was a great high school player, a very good (but not quite elite) college player, and a role player in the NBA. Had he played on a different college team (or this team in different years), he might have continued to have his limitations masked and gotten drafted in the lottery. But he just got caught in the wrong year.
But McRoberts was, unquestionably, the best player on that 2007 Duke team. And as you said, he was really a role player. Duke's lack of success that year was not because of him, it's because we didn't have anyone as good as (or better than) him. When your best player is a role player, that's a problem.
Had McRoberts waited until 2008? Then he'd have had Singler and Smith along with a more ready Scheyer and Henderson and a senior-year Nelson. And I'd bet his draft stock would have gone back up (not to the lottery, but into the mid/late-first round).