Tag: Colorado Buffaloes basktball

How would Jabari Walker’s skills translate to the NBA?

How do you see Jabari Walker’s skills translating to the NBA?

As Walker and the rest of Buff nation wait for Thursday’s NBA draft to begin, The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie released his top-100 draft prospects. Colorado’s star forward was at No. 49, which would get him safely into the second round.

Jabari Walker, while still young, has his work cut out for him to be a reliable NBA player, especially on the offensive end. But with his size and spot-up shooting ability that I’ve seen Walker display, to go along with what looks to be a well-rounded defensive game, he can buy himself some time to refine himself.

His talent is certainly plentiful, but work remains for him and almost any college player looking to get drafted.

Here’s what Vecenie wrote regarding how Walker would be received into the NBA (h/t The Athletic):

What role can Walker fill on offense? That’s ultimately the big question. He’s a good shooter, but he’s streaky enough to where
he’s not a good enough shooter to not do anything else on that end and make it. Essentially, you have to buy into him being able
to add some further functional ability as a driver or finisher. He’s much more interesting if you felt like he could be a versatile
roll man off pick-and-rolls or pick-and-pops. Or if he could make short-roll passing reads. Or if he could functionally attack
closeouts to where he can either drive to kick or drive to score. He can’t do any of that right now. He’s still a teenager, so there
is some real time for him to add these skills. And his defensive versatility mixed with his size and potential to shoot it only off
the catch could give him enough time to figure the rest of it out. There’s a chance Walker is a useful forward defender who can
knock down shots at some point. But it’s very theoretical until he becomes more comfortable on offense. He’s on the borderline
of being a guarantee guy or a two-way for me.

Walker finished his Colorado career as a 39.9% 3-point shooter with a respectable .783 mark from the stripe. The shooting ability is definitely there and could go a long way towards convincing an NBA GM to take a chance on him. I see Walker contributing as an intriguing 3-and-D type prospect while he grows into the NBA game.

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Everything we know following Colorado’s third Pac-12 win

Colorado beat Washington handily on Sunday

The CU men’s basketball team just keeps getting better, and that’s really all you can ask for. But just how good can this team get?

After being considered a bubble team for most of the season, the Buffs’ performance over the weekend proved that they’re all that and then some. Yes, neither Washington State nor Washington are amongst the Pac-12’s best, but the Buffs should take pride in how they handled both teams this weekend. These were both wins the Buffs needed and they got them.

Against Washington on Sunday, the Buffs were clicking just about everywhere for most of their 78-64 win. Here’s what else we learned:

Colorado and Oregon agree upon new meeting date of Jan. 3

Colorado and Oregon have a new date

The clouds have parted, at least somewhat, for the Buffaloes.

Colorado’s Pac-12 regular season opener at Oregon, which was originally set for Dec. 30 before it was postponed on Sunday due to continuing COVID-19 issues within the Buffaloes’ program, was rescheduled on Tuesday for Jan. 3.

Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. MT at Matthew Knight Arena. The Pac-12 Networks have the broadcast.

In what was supposed to be a two-game swing against the Oregon schools, the Buffs were also forced to postpone their Jan. 1 game at Oregon State, but the two programs have yet to arrange a new date.

Tad Boyle’s Buffs, who last played a game on Dec. 18, have been hit hard by COVID-19 this holiday season. They were forced to cancel against Kansas on Dec. 21 and then had to postpone this Oregon road trip. Fortunately, the Buffs and Ducks were quickly able to reschedule.

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George King inks 10-day deal with Dallas Mavericks

The Mavs have signed George King to a contract.

The NBA is just another sports league ravaged by COVID-19 lately. The NFL, NHL and college sports have been impacted severely over the past couple of weeks as the virus has broken out.

With all of the teams bothered by COVID-19 issues, the NBA announced a new rule to allow more players to be signed, as reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

With these changes taking place, NBA teams flocked to sign players to 10-day deals to give them more flexibility.

In turn, former Colorado Buffaloes star George King signed a 10-day contract with the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, as reported by Charania.

King has bounced around quite a bit, including a summer league contract with the Portland Trail Blazers and then a preseason run with the Los Angeles Clippers before eventually being released.

After a successful run in Colorado, King was drafted by the Phoenix Suns with the 59th pick in the 2018 NBA Draft and played in just one NBA game for the Suns. Instead, he was primarily used in the G League.

King then bounced around in the international world of hoops for some time before making his way back to the states.

Reggie Bullock and Josh Green tested positive for Dallas, and with the way things have gone down in the NBA, there could be more positive results coming soon.

King could get a chance to get some decent run during his 10-day deal with games on Tuesday, Thursday and a Christmas Day matchup against the Utah Jazz.