Could '13 draft re-establish centers as focal points in NBA?

[ManualRam]

. Most of these guys are all far too slight to be C's in the NBA nor do they have frames to fill out. These prospects are role players and aren't even on the level of Drummond, Leonard as C prospects.

Likely true for austin, zeller, noel.

zeller has a pretty strong base for a kid his age, i think he's more advanced in that area than, say, his brother tyler.
i think he's more of a PF than a C anyways.

[Ruzious]

Nerlens Noel seems like another Dwight. Maybe he can develop a better offensive skill set better than what Howard has shown and become special.

he has more in common with sam dalembert than he has with dwight.

Well I was looking more of what kind of ceiling he could have. I watched Howard in high school(still upset swac won it all that year) and I see Noel do a lot of the same things. I think the Dally comparison is spot on. What do you think about Adams, Len, and Austin?

I don't know about Adams and Austin, but Len is so weak at this point, it's hard to project him being more than a backup in the NBA - even if he gains 30 lbs. He's a poor man's Tyler Zeller. How poor depends on how well he develops, but he'll never be as good, imo. Then again, when Henson was a freshman, I thought there was no way he'd get strong enough for the NBA, so I could be wrong. And Len does have a very good coach in Mark Turgeon.

[WallabyPie]

7'1” 280 Przemek Karnowski will be the next big thing in the NBA.

[ManualRam]

7'1” 280 Przemek Karnowski will be the next big thing in the NBA.

i dunno about all that, but he is big and skilled. i also dont think he's gonna be a 1 and done player at gonzaga.
interesting player though. i've read that marc gasol comparison before, but karnowski doesnt play with that same ruggedness and physicality that marc does. he's very much a giant finesse player. i also dont think he'll ever be much of a factor defensively. his lateral quicks arent great and neither is his length.
he gets knocked for being unathletic, but i wouldnt consider him a stiff. once he loses some of that excess baggage he'll look more athletic.

[Dr Positivity]

Noel, Austin and Zeller look like better fits at PF to me

[Dr Positivity]

Nerlens Noel seems like another Dwight. Maybe he can develop a better offensive skill set better than what Howard has shown and become special.

he has more in common with sam dalembert than he has with dwight.

Next John Henson? Has the athletic tools and energy to block a lot of shots but lacks great positional IQ, has some guard skills but isn't nearly as good offensively as he thinks

[ManualRam]

Nerlens Noel seems like another Dwight. Maybe he can develop a better offensive skill set better than what Howard has shown and become special.

he has more in common with sam dalembert than he has with dwight.

Next John Henson? Has the athletic tools and energy to block a lot of shots but lacks great positional IQ, has some guard skills but isn't nearly as good offensively as he thinks

i never thought of henson as someone who lacked bball IQ. henson was more advanced from a defensive standpoint as far as fundamentals and not biting on fakes, but he was way behind noel physically. noel is skinny, but henson was SEVERELY underweight for a big.
im not sure about noel having guard skills either, he just thinks he has some.

[nolang1]

I think even if the talent in this draft and last year's is weighted towards big men, the role of the center is irrevocably altered (barring rule changes). Look at how the Pacers-Heat series changed once Miami decided to go small and force Hibbert out on the perimeter. The prototypical 5 in today's NBA is someone who can protect the rim while still doing an acceptable job of staying in front of pick-and-roll ball handlers. That's what has made some of these guys in the 2013 such attractive prospects, despite the fact that they don't have the bulk to bang with a Bynum or Gasol.

[TDJacksonville]

i agree most of the centers in this Potential class seem to me to Undersized to Play center right now(they could put on the weight but im not gonna speculate on that). the Only Center Prospect that i would take early would be adams because of the Potential(i mean you could draft him and have him play overseas to develop over the NCAA.

a guy whos interesting to me would be Joshua Moore from UCLA who has No Lack of Size and Probably could stand to lose 20 pounds and improve his Stamina and the only real knock has been conditioning.

[sportscrazy]

For some reason, I think Patric Young will move up to the lottery area of the draft by the time the 2013 draft comes around as well.

[re49gb_2gho32fp]

Austin played and dominated offensively in just 17 mins, how did he look?

Looks like he got injured though.

[Dr Positivity]

Len also had a huge night. Could be an extremely prominent part of this draft

[RockwellTV]

Zeller had 18 and 10. Looked great, except for getting stuffed by the rim on one attempt.

Even though the team has more talent, he'll put up better numbers than last year just because the team will have Yogi Ferrell running the point, who had 10 points and 7 assists in his first game.

[ManualRam]

Len also had a huge night. Could be an extremely prominent part of this draft

the added weight really helped len. those kentucky bigs, especially noel were clueless how to defend him man to man and they sucked at boxing him out so he got a bunch of o-boards.
unlike last yr, len should get more touches with stoglin gone. we'll see if len will be able to build off of this performance.

i said he might have to make a meyers leonard-like leap in order to live up to to expectations and be a high draft pick because he didn't look good last yr at all. he looked physically weak, lacking confidence and skill. he's off to a great start this yr though.

[ManualRam]

Even though the team has more talent, he'll put up better numbers than last year just because the team will have Yogi Ferrell running the point, who had 10 points and 7 assists in his first game.

yogi is a bad man. he might be tiny but he's jet quick and built like a fire hydrant. he's really skilled too. he doesn't have the greatest tools for a pg in his class, but he's the best frosh pg imo.