A little background: Austin Rivers was one of the most highly recruited HS players for the class of 2011, went to Duke, and had a pretty good freshman season. Hit a shot to beat Carolina you probably saw. Scored 15.5 points and showed a nice little 3-point stroke despite seeing constant double teams and being really the only Dukie on this particular team that was anything special.
Yet from the minute the college season started, most draft experts started moving Austin Rivers down their board, for reasons that don't really pass the smell test. People complain that he hogs the ball too much for a point guard, but, uhm, no one with a brain thinks he's a point guard. Those who even acknowledge that fact seem to think he's neither athletic nor tall enough to play shooting guard in the NBA, but as my man Basa at fiyastarter points out, he's taller than Bradley Beal, who all the draft geeks love.
The reason that I'm riding for Austin Rivers comes from the most mystifying criticism of his game, which is that he's a miserable, awful person. I'm not kidding. That seems to be the biggest knock on his game. Just read this sht that Ford wrote on ESPN's blog. The language from the Simmons article has typified Ford's approach to Rivers and is just about as irrational and unprofessional as a major columnist can get. If you're going to say a dude is an arrogant ballhog who will never pass, you at least better provide some evidence. Don't give me last year at Duke, because, again, his teammates were sorry.
Also, since when is it a bad thing for a scorer to be confident, and even a little cocky? Don't some of you want to put Michael Jordan on Mount Rushmore because of his competitive urge, which is really just a polite way of saying the Michael Jordan is a misanthropic asshole? Rivers thinks that he can score on everyone because he HAS scored on everyone to this point in his career. That confidence is going to help him in the league, because it will keep him from getting down after a bad game.
It's true he's going to find the limitations to his approach pretty quickly, but why are we so sure that he won't adjust? What, a 19 year old coach's son isn't going to be able to adjust his game? All these prospects have flaws to their game. With everyone else, they get the benefit of the doubt. People like Ford say they have stuff they need to work on. But for some reason, Austin Rivers isn't going to get any better, because Austin Rivers is too much of an arrogant piece of sht to fix what needs fixing? Nah, man.
In lieu of specific evidence, I've concluded that Rivers rubbed some people the wrong way, which is unfairly clouding evaluations of him. There's no doubt in my mind that Rivers will stick in the league for a long time. At worst, he's instant scoring off the bench a la Jason Terry or Lou Williams, and those guys have demonstrated value in the league. There's a very good chance he develops into a 20 point per game scorer, and that's incredibly valuable, even if he doesn't get them in the most efficient way. And, again, I refuse to believe this bullshit narrative that he will never, ever adjust or grow his game.
Austin Rivers, welcome to the Shelly House. I shall provide you shelter from the unfair criticism that morons heap upon you. There's soda in the fridge.
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