[Taraz]

With regard to the college vs. straight-to-the-NBA debate:

1. Assani, how can you not see how playing in college against inferior competetion would boost your confidence? You are destroying your competition, so you feel like you are the best player on the court. Your first game in the NBA you get destroyed and think, "wow, I suck."

2. I could be completely talking out of my ass on this next point, but I would assume you get more team-oriented coaching and skillwork in college. Once the regular season starts in the NBA you have a game every other day and it would seem that you have to spend most of the time tailoring your practices to a specific opponent. In college you only have two or three games a week and probably have more time to improve on how to play within the team concept.

I'm sure you get more individual skillwork coaching in the NBA, but it's one on one with a coach. The rest of the team isn't going to hang out to get your skills up to speed. Learning how to take that pullup jumper or make that dropstep doesn't necessarily translate over to game situations where there is help defense. I would also imagine that you might not learn how to screen and cut effectively. In college practices you have the whole team on the court and can work on how and where to shape up, when to make certain cuts, how to play against a zone, etc.

3. There are probably several reasons why you don't see PG prospects jump to the pros. PG's are usually smaller and aren't the freakish athletes that you could see playing against humongous men. Scouts want to see that you can manage a game as a PG and might not be sold when you are playing against HS competition.