But there is more to me that just flashy passing. You can tell from my statline above that I'm not your typical player who wants to score tons of points. My job is to run the offense, and I believe I do that better than anyone in this draft. I have an unbelievable ability to find passing lanes and get my teammates the ball. Sometimes there are no passing lanes available, and if I don't have a passing lane available to me, I'll find a way to create one and get the ball to my teammates for an easier opportunity to score the basketball. I believe I've been pretty successful at doing this over my four years of playing pro ball, and think I will only improve as my competition level gets tougher.

Speaking of competition level, that is another thing that truly sets me apart from most anyone else in this draft. Not to take anything away from the great college basketball system in America, but playing ball professionally in other countries, like I have, definitely puts me up against greater competition with much more crafty and skilled players on a nightly basis. On the flipside, these guys who are considered high draft choices like myself have mismatches to exploit nearly each and every game they play in college, and aren't often fully tested. So while they are all adjusting the major difference in competition between college ball and the NBA, I'll only be adjusting to the differences of the international game and the NBA, and not nearly as much as the competition difference, although the NBA is the most talented league in the world.

At only 18 years old, I also have the unique situation of bringing many years of professional experience with me that these other guys just don't. So not only am I younger, with more years ahead of me professionally, but I've also already got four years of professional experience behind me. That's not even mentioning that I played in the Olympics last year and fared very well against NBA players during the tournament as I helped lead my team to a medal. My game is developed to a very high level, but at the same time, I'm still young enough to improve my game by leaps and bounds as I learn and grow in the NBA over the next few years. So for a team like the Thunder, I'll be able to learn and grow along with some other really great young players like Durant, Green, and Westbrook. By the time we are all hitting our stride, I believe we could be a championship caliber team as long as the front office continues to add talent where needed along the way.

I do have some work to do on my shooting, but the stats above don't tell the whole story as I missed part of the season due to a wrist injury. Even after I returned from the injury, the wrist hampered my ability to be an accurate shooter. I'm not going to make any excuses for it, but I do realize that I have a major opportunity to grow this area of my game, and I believe I can over the next few years become more accurate on mid-range, and long range shooting. I realize scoring is important, which is why I will work hard to get better at it, but my main job is to run the offense and create opportunities which is what I do best. So if the Thunder draft me, there will be plenty of opportunities for the scorers on this team, and I won't be taking away any possessions from them in that regard, unless I turn the ball over of course, which has been a problem at times as well. Taking better care of the ball is another large aspect of my game that I need to work on.

But overall, I'm the man for the job. I'm young, I'm flashy, I'm an exciting player, and will do an extremely good job getting the ball to the scorers on this team one way or another. Winning is very important to me, and playing with a young, up and coming group like they've put together in Oklahoma City is an exciting situation for me to be involved in, and if I'm  not drafted by the Grizzlies at the #2 overall spot, then I think there is no one better for the Thunder to draft than me, Ricky Rubio. Thank you so much for reading, and I can't wait to see where I end up in the draft later this month!

 

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