Rasheed Sulaimon - is he the next Russell Westbrook?

[coot]

Nolan Smith is my favorite comparison to Rasheed, as stated. But I do agree that Sheed has got to step up big to match Nolan's JR year.

If he does have a Nolan-like JR year a final four run is highly probable.

[jipops]

I think Sheed is more like 2 cups Vernon Maxwell, 3 tablespoons Derrick McKey, and a dash of Shawn Kemp.

Oh, and then throw in some Chris Dudley for the heck of it.

[kAzE]

I don't know how you can say that. When Ginobili was Rasheed's age, he played for Estudiantes Bahia Blanco in Argentina and was so unimpressive that he went at the bottom of the NBA draft (57th) when he was 21 and had already been a Europro for 4 years. Rasheed will be that age at the end of next season. I'd say Rasheed is at least as well-regarded for his age as Ginobili was at the same stage in his career. We know how Ginobili turned out. To say that Rasheed "will never touch" that level is silly speculation. Who projected Ginobili's success when he was Rasheed's age? Clearly not NBA scouts.

To make such a categorical statement that Rasheed "will never touch Manu's career" is at least a decade premature and, therefore, irresponsible in my opinion.

Well, okay, you're right, it's much too early to close the book on Rasheed's career. I think when I typed that, it came out wrong. Rasheed has a lot of potential. A lot of things could happen. He could really improve over his final 2 years at Duke.

All I'm saying is, there's not a whole lot of precedent for undersized guards who can't play the point achieving hall of fame-level status in the NBA. Also, Here's Manu's list of accomplishments:

4× NBA champion (2003, 2005, 2007, 2014)
2× NBA All-Star (2005, 2011)
2× All-NBA Third Team (2008, 2011)
NBA Sixth Man of the Year (2008)
NBA All-Rookie Second Team (2003)
FIBA Americas Championship MVP (2001)
Euroleague champion (2001)
Euroleague Finals MVP (2001)
All-Euroleague First Team (2002)
Italian Cup MVP (2002)
2× Italian League MVP (2001–2002)
2× Olimpia de Oro (2003–2004)
Diamond Konex Award (2010)
50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors (2008)

You're totally underrating Manu. Just because he was drafted 57th doesn't mean he was "unimpressive." He was only the best player in Europe 2 years straight. Just because every team other than the Spurs had bad international scouting doesn't mean he wasn't damn good.

Manu is one of the most decorated basketball players ever, and a top 5 international player ever. I definitely take back my unconditional statement about Rasheed. That was absolutely not the right thing to say, but it's a long, long road to achieve the level of success that Manu has enjoyed. If Rasheed achieves half of what Manu has achieved in his career, I'd call it a pretty awesome career. Heck, I hope he DOES become the next Manu. We sure could use a player like that the next 2 seasons.

[niveklaen]

I think that Sheed's best comp is Demarcus Nelson - their games seem very similar to me as do their body types - I don't think that sheed is as athletic as demarcus was, but he also hasn't had the injury problems that plagued demarcus - I like sheed (and demarcus), but I think he is much more likely to have a cup of coffee career than a HOF career

[Kedsy]

All I'm saying is, there's not a whole lot of precedent for undersized guards who can't play the point achieving hall of fame-level status in the NBA.

Frankly, forget about HOF status, there's not a lot of precedent for undersized guards having decent NBA careers. Ginobili is a 6'6 shooting guard. We shouldn't even be talking about a comp with a 6'3/6'4 shooting guard. Period.

NBA SGs who are 6'3/6'4 are either combo guards or amazing shooters. Right now, Rasheed is neither. With his form, it's unlikely he'll develop into an elite shooter, though of course not impossible (see, e.g., Reggie Miller, though Reggie measured out at 6'7, so he's not a legit comp for Rasheed, either). And, though Rasheed possibly has the potential to be a combo guard in the NBA, most of those guys (e.g., Kemba Walker, Jason Terry, Jerryd Bayless, Kirk Hinrich, Reggie Jackson, Jarrett Jack) are/were much better distributors than Rasheed has shown so far.

Rasheed has two years to improve to an NBA level SG. It's possible he'll make that jump this year, but more likely he won't. But even if he does, comparisons to guys like Ginobili or Westbrook are just plain silly.

[kAzE]

Frankly, forget about HOF status, there's not a lot of precedent for undersized guards having decent NBA careers. Ginobili is a 6'6 shooting guard. We shouldn't even be talking about a comp with a 6'3/6'4 shooting guard. Period.

NBA SGs who are 6'3/6'4 are either combo guards or amazing shooters. Right now, Rasheed is neither. With his form, it's unlikely he'll develop into an elite shooter, though of course not impossible (see, e.g., Reggie Miller, though Reggie measured out at 6'7, so he's not a legit comp for Rasheed, either). And, though Rasheed possibly has the potential to be a combo guard in the NBA, most of those guys (e.g., Kemba Walker, Jason Terry, Jerryd Bayless, Kirk Hinrich, Reggie Jackson, Jarrett Jack) are/were much better distributors than Rasheed has shown so far.

Rasheed has two years to improve to an NBA level SG. It's possible he'll make that jump this year, but more likely he won't. But even if he does, comparisons to guys like Ginobili or Westbrook are just plain silly.

Well, there's always Allen Iverson, the dream of every undersized shooting guard in the world. But yeah, my original point was that Manu isn't a good comparison at all. I still think Cuttino Mobley is Rasheed's best case scenario, and that's no knock on Rasheed at all, Mobley was a hell of a shooting guard standing at just 6'4".

I'm actually astounded this thread has gone 3 pages. The original source article was a piece of crap.

[Kedsy]

Well, there's always Allen Iverson, the dream of every undersized shooting guard in the world.

Yeah, but look at Iverson's assist numbers -- for a guy who never passed, he still put up assist numbers that Rasheed will never sniff. Also, he had an astonishing quickness that Rasheed just doesn't have.

Ultimately, I doubt anyone can find a decent comp between Rasheed and an all-star SG, much less a HOF SG. He just isn't there yet, and more likely than not will never get there. That's not a knock on Rasheed, it's just life.

Oh, and it's neither here nor there, but Cuttino Mobley's son attended the same middle school as my son.

[_Gary]

Frankly, forget about HOF status, there's not a lot of precedent for undersized guards having decent NBA careers. Ginobili is a 6'6 shooting guard. We shouldn't even be talking about a comp with a 6'3/6'4 shooting guard. Period.

NBA SGs who are 6'3/6'4 are either combo guards or amazing shooters. Right now, Rasheed is neither. With his form, it's unlikely he'll develop into an elite shooter, though of course not impossible (see, e.g., Reggie Miller, though Reggie measured out at 6'7, so he's not a legit comp for Rasheed, either). And, though Rasheed possibly has the potential to be a combo guard in the NBA, most of those guys (e.g., Kemba Walker, Jason Terry, Jerryd Bayless, Kirk Hinrich, Reggie Jackson, Jarrett Jack) are/were much better distributors than Rasheed has shown so far.

Rasheed has two years to improve to an NBA level SG. It's possible he'll make that jump this year, but more likely he won't. But even if he does, comparisons to guys like Ginobili or Westbrook are just plain silly.

Finally, a voice of sanity.

In all seriousness, as much as I love Sheed he's simply no where close to being a Westbrook. Unfortunately, everything Kedsy said is correct. At his height, Sheed would have to be lightning quick, a fantastic outside shooter, and a great distributor. He's none of those things right now, and I can't really see his skill set rising to the level where he'd play serious minutes in the Association. If he works really, really hard he might be able to be a utility bench guy. But I just don't see his ceiling being any higher than that. And boy do I hope I'm wrong, because I want all of our guys to play at the next level - and do it very well.

[Freethrw33]

For Duke comparisons, I view Sheed as a cross between DMarc (similar builds, with Sheed an inch or two taller but not nearly as strong), and Austin Rivers (both have the ability to get by the first defender almost every time, but too often have difficulties in finishing or kicking out to the right person; Sheed is the stronger defender).

Sheed has better shooting form than both DMarc or Rivers (though sometimes his shot is too flat), so has the potential to become a much better shooter than those two.

Expecting big things from him this year!

[CDu]

Frankly, forget about HOF status, there's not a lot of precedent for undersized guards having decent NBA careers. Ginobili is a 6'6 shooting guard. We shouldn't even be talking about a comp with a 6'3/6'4 shooting guard. Period.

NBA SGs who are 6'3/6'4 are either combo guards or amazing shooters. Right now, Rasheed is neither. With his form, it's unlikely he'll develop into an elite shooter, though of course not impossible (see, e.g., Reggie Miller, though Reggie measured out at 6'7, so he's not a legit comp for Rasheed, either). And, though Rasheed possibly has the potential to be a combo guard in the NBA, most of those guys (e.g., Kemba Walker, Jason Terry, Jerryd Bayless, Kirk Hinrich, Reggie Jackson, Jarrett Jack) are/were much better distributors than Rasheed has shown so far.

Rasheed has two years to improve to an NBA level SG. It's possible he'll make that jump this year, but more likely he won't. But even if he does, comparisons to guys like Ginobili or Westbrook are just plain silly.

Totally agree. However, I'd go a different route with the last paragraph. I'd say that it is all but a given that he won't make it as a SG. I'd say Sulaimon's best hope for NBA success is to REALLY improve as a ballhandler/distributor and become a combo guard. I don't think it's likely that he'll do that, but I think it is more likely he'll be a combo guard than it is that he'll be a successful SG in the NBA.

That being said, he can absolutely become a star SG at Duke. At 6'3"-6'4" and with long arms, he's a very good size for the college SG position. And he's a capable ballhandler, so he can get his own shot. Hopefully this year he spends more time at SG and less time at SF. And hopefully he'll finally find that consistency and rebound from a disappointing sophomore year.

I think I was one of the first to push the Nolan Smith comparisons back when Sulaimon was playing high school all-star games. I still hold out hope that he develops the way Smith did. But that's the type of player that I see Sulaimon most like in terms of Duke players. I just hope he gets there.

[JNort]

Yes he is . . . Manu is all of 6 foot 6. (1.98m), and Rasheed is 6 foot 4 (1.93m) he's almost 2 inches (1.96 inches) taller than Rasheed. And as I mentioned before, Manu Ginobili was a top 10 offensive player in his prime in the NBA, and is a lock to join the hall of fame. Even the most wildly optimistic projection for Rasheed will never touch Manu's career.

Manu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manu_Gin%C3%B3bili
Rasheed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rasheed_Sulaimon

Well what ever site I was on said Manu was 6'5" to Sheeds 6'4". I did some further digging and found that Sheed is listed at 6ft 4.5 inches in shoes so he's only an inch and a half shorter plus it says closer to 6'5" and that was over a year ago. However I till think your missing the point. I am in no way saying his production or career up to this point is like Manu. That's not even the poit of this post. It's who does he remind you of an frankly the only one that come close for me is Manu. Their style is almost exact, Sheed is just not on Manu's lvl