Vince Ellis of the Detroit Free Press asked Joe Dumars about having two young players in the Futures Game this weekend:
"“It’s a nice carrot for them to be in the atmosphere down there, to be in an atmosphere where the best players in the world have been chosen — just to be in that atmosphere,” Dumars said last week. “It’s a great carrot for those guys. If they want to continue to be invited to that weekend, they are going to have to continue to get better.”"
Dumars isn’t wrong at all here, but I have to say, I don’t like Monroe and Knight continually lumped together as future cornerstones/potential All-Stars. Monroe certainly is a cornerstone player and he’s damn close to being an All-Star right now. Knight has a long, long ways to go yet. I love his upside, love his attitude, love the fact that he seems to be a really hard worker, but he and Monroe aren’t in the same conversation yet when it comes to being impact players. Just feel like it’s important to continually make that distinction.