This Just In: Daniel Orton Effed Up

Daniel Orton: get ready for the NBA...D-League

It's easy to criticize a person when you aren't in their shoes. It's easy to criticize a person when they do something that you totally and utterly disagree with. And it's really easy to criticize a person when they fall flat on their face. This is the case with Daniel Orton. Orton, as we all know by now, went against better judgement and opted to go into the NBA despite the fact that he barely even played as a freshman at Kentucky. He now is playing with the Orlando Magic in the NBA summer league and he is playing terribly.

Here are his stats through 2 games:

5 points

4 rebounds

1 block

4 turnovers

5 fouls

Ejected from one game

One of his coaches, the great Patrick Ewing, had this to say about Orton, "He has to pick up his energy, in my opinion. He has to act like he wants to ball down there. He's a big man. He has a big body. You've got to demand the ball, demand it with your presence, demand it with your mouth. If the guys are missing him then say something to them. We need for him to dominate."

This comes down to his maturity. Orton has shown nothing but lack of maturity since he decided to leave Kentucky by dropping out of school, bad mouthing his teammates and bad mouthing the fans. He even made a quote (he said he was taken out of context) saying he should have gone to Kansas. He did attempt a mea culpa by writing the longest tweet ever to Kentucky fans.

Orton is in way over his head. He lacks the ability and the maturity to be in the position of an NBA player. He has a lot of work to do but I just don't see it happening, at least not in Orlando where he is playing behind the league's best center and the league's best back up center. Orton would have done himself a service by staying a Wildcat, improving his game and becoming a top 10 draft pick for 2011.