I've been consistently saying that D'angelo wouldn't be an NBA player.. but lately I've had a change of heart.
Consider this: find me a noticeable talent gap between Austin Rivers and D'angelo? Aside from Rivers's nba-pedigree, I see two players of nearly equal size who played similar minutes and put up almost identical numbers. The competition they faced was fairly equivalent, and in terms of an eye ball test... I just don't see a big enough difference where Rivers is a lottery pick and D'angelo doesn't get a sniff after any of the next three seasons. There's an argument to be made that Rivers might have a slight edge in terms of speed or agility; but I don't think it's overwhelming. And while you could say Rivers played on a more talented team and therefore didn't have to put up the numbers D'angelo did; that should mean Rivers would have a better shooting % (having to force less shots), more assists because of the talent around him, and probably less turnovers because, again, the offense wasn't forced to run through him. Problem is none of that was true.
Here are their lines as freshmen
MIN FGM-FGA FG% 3PM-3PA 3P% FTM-FTA FT% REB AST STL TO PTS
Harrison 35.4 4.9-13.0 .374 2.3-6.4 .362 4.8-6.0 .799 3.9 2.0 1.6 2.3 16.8
Rivers 33.2 5.1-11.8 .433 1.7-4.7 .365 3.6-5.4 .658 3.4 2.1 1.0 2.3 15.5
Now I'm not saying this is conclusive that Harrisons a better prospect than Rivers. (although you could certainly argue that). But there's not a lot that shows Rivers is so far superior that he goes lotto after his fresh year and D'angelo never gets drafted. Keep in mind one is 6'3 1/2 and the other is 6'4.