Larry Brown: D'Angelo Russell Is Not A 'True Point Guard'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Emmanuel Mudiay was once upon a time the second best high school player in the country, expected to go play for Larry Brown at Southern Methodist University (SMU).
Instead, Mudiay signed a one-year, $1.2 million contract to play for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association in July of 2014. After one season in China, the 6'5" explosive guard is one of the top players entering the 2015 NBA Draft.
"Emmanuel Mudiay is going to make everyone on his team better," Brown told The 4 Quarters podcast earlier this week.
The Sixers, one of the nine NBA teams that Brown formerly coached, holds the third overall pick in the draft and many foresee Philadelphia selecting a guard to go along with their two young bigs, in Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid. One of the most contentious NBA Draft debates is which point-guard is better: Mudiay or D'Angelo Russell, from Ohio State.
Brown says, not so fast.
"Emmanuel is a point guard, I don't think D'Angelo Russell is a point guard," Brown said. "But I think D'Angelo Russell is a great player. He can pass the hell out of the ball, he can shoot it with range. I don't think he'll ever be the defender that Emmanuel is and I don't think he'll ever run a team the way Emmanuel does but he also doesn't need to do that the way he plays."