D'Angelo Russell or Emmanuel Mudiay

[Fowl]

Identical height, weight.
Identical numbers. (Russell in NCAA/Mudiay in China)

Who will have the better career?

[fiddy]

Russell

[midatlantic09]

Russell.

Mudiay will likely be mediocre in the league unless he gets that jumper together.

[KiiiiNG]

mudiay cant shoot

poor mans mcw

[PP34Deuce]

Both players will be NBA starters but the potential defense of Mudiay makes me feel he could be better.

Russell is so skilled his liability on defense will be negated by the points he generates. Mudiay is built to defend and play the uber athletic PG's of the league today.

Drafting on potential, I believe I would take Mudiay.

[MP.Trey]

Russell is legit. Future multiple time All Star. Mudiay's a question mark for me.

[Cold soul]

Russell.

[smoovegittar]

I just have a feeling that Mudiay is gonna be a great player.

[RedBlackAttack]

mudiay cant shoot

poor mans mcw
Mudiay struggles with his jumper at times, but he's a hell of a lot better than MCW. Carter-Williams shot sub-30% from three in his last year at Syracuse. And he has been even worse in the NBA with that broken jumper.

Mudiay will probably shoot on the wrong side of 35% from three in the NBA. That's not great for a guard in today's NBA, but it also isn't horrendous like MCW. He'll be good enough that you can't just go under every pick and completely back off of him.


This is a really tough call. Russell reminds me of Manu Ginobili in a lot of respects. He takes crazy risks with some of his passes, but he has that Manu innate ability to put the right spin on it so that it goes bounces the right direction.

He can shoot, has a pretty good handle, can rebound... there isn't much offensively that Russell can't do.

But, his athleticism or lack thereof concerns me a little on the next level. I'm not sure his first step is explosive enough to keep a defense on its heels and, while he's a good shooter, he isn't a great shooter.

I think he could go either way in the NBA depending on where he lands and the pieces around him. If he lands in the wrong kind of situation where there's too much weight put on his shoulders to score and playmake consistently, there's some bust potential.


Mudiay, to me, would fit in with any team in the league and it isn't quite as imperative that he lands in the right place. He is explosive enough athletically and could be really good defensively (Russell's biggest weakness). He has the higher ceiling.

If pushed, I'd probably pick Mudiay but again... if I'm -- say Boston, who already has an athletic, defensive minded PG... I'm going Russell for sure. Also, Russell would be awesome in a San Antonio style system. But, no team at the high end of the draft board has a system like that.


Tough call.

[PP34Deuce]

Identical height, weight.
Identical numbers. (Russell in NCAA/Mudiay in China)

Who will have the better career?

Their sizes are different.

Mudiay has a pretty sturdy build. I believe he will fill out and be a legit 215-220 and still be very athletic. Mudiay plays stronger going to the basket.

Brandon Roy and Russell are eeerily similar in skill. you can't go wrong with that.

[midatlantic09]

Both players will be NBA starters but the potential defense of Mudiay makes me feel he could be better.

Russell is so skilled his liability on defense will be negated by the points he generates. Mudiay is built to defend and play the uber athletic PG's of the league today.

Drafting on potential, I believe I would take Mudiay.

To be fair, 90% of guys in the league barely play any defense.