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.

[RockwellTV]

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.

He wasn't like that 2 years ago. He looked like a 10 or 11 year old. Somebody probably told him if he wanted to make a name for himself at the higher levels he would have to get much stronger. He's built like a tiny LeBron now.

[ManualRam]

btw, steven adams STARTED for jamie dixon and looked great. dude is jacked (he already looks a good 250 lbs) with a very solid base and he's not afraid to throw his weight around. he did basically what was expected. controlled the paint on defense, worked the glass. took advantage of the few touches he got. showed some patience when he did get his touches. showed some good mobility on hedges. even flashed some court awareness, diving for an o-board going out of bounds and in one motion dishing it to a guy in the paint for an easy bucket.

this kid's rebounding area is massive and his hands are huge so it looks like he's plucking grapefruits. what i'd like to see him do more often going forward is to just straight go for the rebound. he's block out conscious, almost to a fault, kinda like meyers leonard. sometimes you just have to read the ball off the rim and go and get it, like what rodman and barkley used to do. boxing out is the fundamental thing to do, but if a player's apex is as high and their rebounding area is as wide, then he just needs to read it and go get it off the rim.

[re49gb_2gho32fp]

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

Watched the whole game for the most part, Len seemed to be playing amongst boys. The immediate comparison i would draw after one game is Jason Smith, playing hard on both ends with a solid little jumper. Didn't see much of a post-up game. Givony went to draw analogies with Valanciunas, something i pointed out a few weeks ago in a thread around here (FIBA u-18 champ., where they had comparable stats )
The Maryland guards were a bit too selfish at times and could've assisted Len for a few extra easy points, as well.
If a single game is any indicator, there is a significant class discrepancy between Len and Noel.
Noel looks to be years away from a contributing role in the NBA.

Also watched Pitsburgh roughly 10mins,
As big and dominant as Len was, Adams appeared even bigger. As ManualR perceptively noted, Adams covers a lot of ground. Didn't look that much slimmer than Drummond is quite frankly.
He ought to be featured a lot more in Pitt offense.

Withey did a nice job defensively, going by the stats.

Never thought college basketball would even remotely interest me to the point of watching, especially being overseas, but this year's center crop is too enticing and elusive.

[princeofpalace]

Andre has about 30lbs on Adams, Id imagine Adams is around 240-245, he's got a much better NBA body than his counterparts in this draft class but he's got nothing on Drummond. As athletic specimens, it really is not close between them at all. Look at Drummond legs and then go look at Adams'. Adams also looks lighter than Meyers Leonard as well.

Again, Adams is easily the best physical specimen out of Noel/Gobert/Zeller/Austin but he's certainly not anything extradinary as far as size is concerned. I think Drummond and even Leonard put the 2013 C's to shame as far as NBA bodies are concerned.

[ManualRam]

Andre has about 30lbs on Adams, Id imagine Adams is around 240-245, he's got a much better NBA body than his counterparts in this draft class but he's got nothing on Drummond. As athletic specimens, it really is not close between them at all. Look at Drummond legs and then go look at Adams'. Adams also looks lighter than Meyers Leonard as well.

Again, Adams is easily the best physical specimen out of Noel/Gobert/Zeller/Austin but he's certainly not anything extradinary as far as size is concerned. I think Drummond and even Leonard put the 2013 C's to shame as far as NBA bodies are concerned.

adams doesn't have drummond's overall bulk, but he too has a strong lower body and at the same age has a more defined, stronger upperbody. the natural lower body strength is what both he and drummond have over a kid like leonard. he's working with a stronger base than leonard, who had to hit the weight room hard to get to where he's at physically. it's like adams already had a year of college weight training under his belt, but in reality has only just started lifting for real. adams just looks like a guy with natural body strength, which if you're familiar with his family history isn't a surprise.
his starting point is better than leonard's, but he's not quite drummond as a physical specimen. this is him this summer before he hit a college weight room.