This article is part of our The Prospect Post series.
Last week I profiled the world team that will play in the game that was formerly known as the rookie/sophomore challenge. Team USA is significantly worse, and my grades this week are therefore significantly more depressing. Trey Burke's family members should probably stop reading now...
TEAM USA
Trey Burke, PG 
My distaste of Burke's game is well-documented, and it's really a crime against nouns and logic that he gets to defend his "title" in the "skills" challenge at All-Star weekend again this year. He is a CAREER 37.8 percent shooter. One's field-goal percentage should not resemble a good batting average. Even I wouldn't have predicted Burke to fall back from his 38 percent field-goal percentage as a rookie, but he's shooting 37.5 percent in his second year, prompting most reasonable people to wonder what exactly he would have to do to be removed from a featured role on the Jazz.
Grade: F
A poor man's Anthony Morrow? That may be what KCP is at this point, and the truth hurts. Actually that might be a little kind. He has yet to shoot better than 40 percent from the field as a pro, and even though he is a better defender than scorer, he doesn't D up enough to make up for the fact that he's a shooting guard who isn't that great at shooting. When almost half of a player's attempts are from behind the arc, that player should either be a great
Last week I profiled the world team that will play in the game that was formerly known as the rookie/sophomore challenge. Team USA is significantly worse, and my grades this week are therefore significantly more depressing. Trey Burke's family members should probably stop reading now...
TEAM USA
Trey Burke, PG
My distaste of Burke's game is well-documented, and it's really a crime against nouns and logic that he gets to defend his "title" in the "skills" challenge at All-Star weekend again this year. He is a CAREER 37.8 percent shooter. One's field-goal percentage should not resemble a good batting average. Even I wouldn't have predicted Burke to fall back from his 38 percent field-goal percentage as a rookie, but he's shooting 37.5 percent in his second year, prompting most reasonable people to wonder what exactly he would have to do to be removed from a featured role on the Jazz.
Grade: F
A poor man's Anthony Morrow? That may be what KCP is at this point, and the truth hurts. Actually that might be a little kind. He has yet to shoot better than 40 percent from the field as a pro, and even though he is a better defender than scorer, he doesn't D up enough to make up for the fact that he's a shooting guard who isn't that great at shooting. When almost half of a player's attempts are from behind the arc, that player should either be a great three-point shooter, or not play very much. KCP doesn't check either box, as he's shooting just 35.1 percent from long range, and he is playing 31 minutes per game.
Grade: D
Carter-Williams' fantasy grade and real-life grade are quite different, as he has been one of the best contributors in counting stats out of the past two draft classes, yet lacks the offensive efficiency to be viewed as an above-average point guard. It's also very difficult to grade a guy who has played on the worst team in basketball since entering the league, as his teammates have been terrible. Had Carter-Williams entered the league on Portland, for instance, he may be viewed as a winner and one of the better point guards in the league. Hopefully his best days are ahead of him, but that is certainly not guaranteed. He feels like a guy who can be a starting point guard, but never a top-15 point guard. A team can win with him, but not because of him.
Grade: B-
Zach LaVine, PG 
It is not fair to judge LaVine on his numbers, as he should have barely played during his rookie season. He is a major project. An organization without injury issues at point guard may have opted to send him to the D-League for a good chunk of this season, but instead he has been a starter in 23 games. We won't know what kind of player LaVine is for a couple years, but there are reasons to be optimistic.
Grade: C
Shabazz Muhammad, SF
An abdominal injury put a halt to what was one of the better breakout seasons in the league through two months. He was shooting 48.8 percent from the field and 41.3 percent from three-point range prior to the oblique injury, which is borderline elite from a guy who can play the two and the three. The advanced stats don't love his defense, but if he shoots like this for the rest of his career, Muhammad will be in the league for a long time.
Grade: A-
Nerlens Noel, PF/C 
Is Noel a power forward or a center? This is an honest question. He might be a power forward, but he is an abysmal shooter, and in today's game, you need to be able to hit open jumpers if you play the four. He might be a center, but in that case, he is a center who weighs less than 230 pounds and shoots 44.2 percent from the field, which means he should be a backup center. Yes, Noel is an outstanding shot-blocker, but how many rim protectors can make that their living without other skills? There is a chance Noel is the player we hoped Larry Sanders would be, but that is not what the Sixers thought they were getting for Jrue Holiday.
Grade: C-
Victor Oladipo, SG 
Oladipo may be a better fantasy player than he is in reality, but he's still a perfectly fine fourth or fifth option on an NBA team. The problem is he might be the best player on the Magic, which is not the situation he should be in. He is a better three-point shooter than guys like Trey Burke and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, both of whom think of themselves as shooters, yet Oladipo shooting does not define him. A shooting guard who averages almost four rebounds and four assists while offering 1.6 steals per game is a valuable player in fantasy, and he should only get better in future seasons, presumably playing for a competent head coach.
Grade: A-
Elfrid Payton, PG
The biggest knock on Payton going into the draft was that he couldn't shoot, but he actually makes more of his shots than several of his Team USA teammates. Still, he is a well-below average distributor among starting point guards (7.5 assists per-36 minutes), and he does not score enough to sufficiently make up for his lack of passing skills.
Grade: C
Mason Plumlee, PF/C 
I've always liked Plumlee more than his brother, and more than most of the other big men selected in his draft class. Minutes have been very difficult for him to come by, for reasons that remain unknown. He has averaged 16.1 points, 10.6 rebounds, 1.2 steals and 1.4 blocks per-36 minutes this season, yet he only sees 23.3 minutes per game. The advanced stats don't hate him defensively, and it seems that if he was on a more forward-thinking team, fantasy owners could profit greatly off Plumlee's all-around game.
Grade: B+
Cody Zeller, PF 
Zeller is "meh" in a bad way. A seven-footer who does not average a double-double per-36 minutes and shoots below 50 percent from the field (well below 50 percent in Zeller's case) is pretty useless. He is on this team to fill space and round out a roster, because nothing he has done as a pro justifies his selection with the fourth overall pick in the 2013 draft.
Grade: D
