Aschburner: Al Awarded "Offensive" Defensive POY

[JMillott]

What people fail to give proper weight to with that Thabeet/Blair matchup is that Blair is a very underrated prospect in his own right.

If Craig Smith was a great rebounder and had a 7'3 wingspan then Craig Smith would be a very good starting NBA PF right now for the Wolves and we wouldn't be talking about the Wolves need for a bigman.

Blair is likely to be the steal of this draft in my opinion. I think players like Smith, Millsapp, Powe, Glen Davis, Maxiell, etc have proven that height has become over-valued in this league lately.

I think these players have been more successful in recent years then they were ten years ago for a very simple reason....Where 10 years ago all the 6'9-6'11 PF's in this league were also still just as tall they were also still by and large physical bangers with strength.

Now the vast majority of 6'9-6'11 PF's in this league are thin jump shooters not to many big bangers left at PF right now and a good deal of the ones that are play mostly at center. Ten years ago Al Jefferson, Emeka Okafor, Al Horford, etc would still be PF's fulltime.

Asking these shorter physical bigman to succeed despite being shorter then most PF's is no big deal now because most of the taller ones are jump shooters like Rashard Lewis, Dirk, etc who really can't handle the physical dominance and interior based games.

Blair will be able to physically dominate these soft perimeter PF's in the paint and he'll likely defend the other teams C to hide him from the pick and roll game at the other end.

[mandurugo]

Watching the wolves the last couple of years makes me think that height is not over-rated. Not to say that individual players might not be successful despite their height, but a short team is at a huge disadvantage. Which is why Al shouldn't play center. And if he can't play PF next to a center he should be traded.

[Krapinsky]

I've got plenty.
]

[GopherIt!]

Brian Westbrook >>>>>> Adrian Peterson

Foolishness!!!!!!!!!