The thing is we don’t have to compare Begarin’s league to see what we have in him as we all got a great look at him this summer. The kid would be at worst a late lottery pick in this summers draft regardless of the competition he’s playing against this winter.
While I agree with this I'd also point out that this year's draft is pretty weak on starpower, although I think it's pretty deep in roleplayer talent. Put another way, Jabari Smith Jr's most likely outcome is
high end 3 & D F and he's likely a top 3 pick. If you squint
really hard you can can see a top 50 player there (JSJ). Begarin's similar, you can see the physical tools necessary to be a top 50 guy. He's at least aggressive on both ends of the floor, which sets him aside from Langford and Nesmith who are both extremely timid offensive players.
I liked him and Murray at 3. Feeling pretty good about that POV. Found the Bender love funny. Still do.
I liked Murray for Boston, and when the Brown rumors began popping up openly hoped that Boston would trade back with someone that wanted Murray to pick up extra draft capital.
I remember liking Rocket Roddy,
after he got to the NBA. Back in those days there was no game tape of European players on YouTube, just those awful DX scouting videos. So back then I always used to say that I wasn't competent to offer opinions on European prospects.
I've been racking my brain to think of who he could be talking about, as it's really only been the last three or four years that YT has been amply flooded with game tape of overseas guys. I remember talking about Paul Eboua with someone here (maybe one of the Danny Darwins?), but we were discussing him as a second round swing. An undersized C with the sort of length and athleticism you can't teach who might turn into a Daniel Theis level player if he could develop a three point shot.
The only other French players I can think of are Killian Hayes and Theo Maledon, who I really liked as 16 and 17 year olds. But by the year of their drafting I'd largely cooled on them because neither guy ever developed their off hands (I think I even joked that if you could combine them into a single player you'd have a heck of a PG).
The G League is pretty bad. I would lable Begarin’s league no more than a notch below and that is likely pushing it……maybe a half notch is more accurate.
The top tier players are decent as these are guys who turned down good euro deals to be one step closer to the NBA. Most of the bench guys are there bc they didn’t receive interest from the top euro leagues.
I think that describes most of the starters too. They couldn't secure good overseas offers and need to show European scouts something. The ACB is pretty clearly better than the G League. The G would be in that next group of leagues (Russian Super League, Turkish Super, Italian A, French A, Greek). Perhaps near the top of it, but I'm not sure that it's any better than any of them.