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I wanted to get some peoples impressions of Lawal. Please comment if you saw him play in college or the Summer league. Even though he is very rough at the moment (he fouls ALOT), givin a year or maybe 2 does anyone here think he may have it in him to be the Suns starting power forward of the future? A few things to look at-

He really impressed people in the summer league. True it is just the summer league but if you extrapolate his stats from his 27 minutes and tune them to starter minutes at 36 mpg, his averages were 21 points 10 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game. He plays with a tremendous amount of energy (think of a younger Lou with a better scoring touch) but that is also getting him alot of ticky tack fouls which could be easily avoided once he has a year or 2 under his belt. He also seems to have a very good attitude and not a very large ego.

I'm really excited to see this kid develope over the next few years because if he does learn to control his fouls like Robin did last year then a Lopez/Lawal big man tandem could be in the Suns future. He will never be the scorer that Amare is but i think he can still be good enough and his rebounding and energy is top notch and exactly what the Suns are always seem to be lacking. If he never gets to the point where he can control his fouls then he would still be a great backup PF for us in the future and that is a worst case scenario.


All of this leads to my biggest question- How in the hell did this kid fall all the way to late in the second round??

Yes. I certainly do see Gani as a starting Power Forward for the Suns in a few years. He plays with alot of heart and hustle, and is very tough. He suits the Suns system perfectly, as he can run the floor extremely well too.

The main thing for him is to gain experience and keep working hard and getting stronger and fitter. I think he also needs to extend the range onhis shot too, if he is to be our Pf of the future.

He may not get many minutes this season, but his oppotunity will come soon.

As for your last question, I honestly have no idea either. He was projected late 1st, early second.

Irregular shaped head

In early mocks, he was projected as a late first round pick.

But generally speaking, as the actual draft approaches, everyone becomes enthralled with the "potential" in certain picks. Unfortunately, everything you described about Lawal (i.e. heart, hustle, etc.) seems to matter less to some teams on draft day. Those guys usually end up being 2nd rounders or go undrafted.

Raja Bell anyone?

Every mock said "he'll drop because of poor guard play and having to share the court with Favors." So he didn't get a whole lot of hype cause people didn't want to see him to do anything, they wanted those touches to be going to Favors. And when your perimeter sucks the defense can collapse on you pretty darn easy. All in all, worst case scenario, he'll get 20 glorious bruising minutes a night in a couple years. The kid's got the mentality of a line backer. I've been watching the training camp highlights every day and he's in both of them mostly for offensive rebounds where he's in a crowd of like 3 guys, and then the second he hits the ground he's back up for the score... He just needs to be consistent at free throws and have some semblance of a 15 footer. We very likely got another 2nd round steal

He'd been a favourite of mine going into the draft but I never thought we'd get him - but as stated above, happens every year. The Spurs scored last year

I'm really on board with the whole idea that most first round picks are a bad deal, outside the earliest ones. I see why the league can't allow teams to just say "pass" or trade their picks away most years, but still ....

The other thing is the 'combine" approach - I really think a lot of good players get screwed there. It's all wingspan and vertical jump and body fat calipers - i think you need to see a player play

Yes, you see them in college, but at a camp with only the best of the college players you'd really see who they are

In the videos posted on Suns.com, Lawal has looked quite good. Not Amare good, by any means, but good. good knack for the ball around the basket, great putbacks, and can run very well. His heaight may be a concern since his arms don't look like they are that long (could just be viewing angles), but he shows hustle, heart, and will to put the ball in the hole and hold his ground on defense.

SideSwipe wrote:In the videos posted on Suns.com, Lawal has looked quite good. Not Amare good, by any means, but good. good knack for the ball around the basket, great putbacks, and can run very well. His heaight may be a concern since his arms don't look like they are that long (could just be viewing angles), but he shows hustle, heart, and will to put the ball in the hole and hold his ground on defense.

I think it's just the angle. He's got a 7'2 wingspan and he's 6'9, which is only an inch under the average power forward. There are plenty of good pf's who are 6'9, I'm not worried about his size or scoring in the direct vicinity of the basket. He needs to add a midrange shot and better free throw shooting though and I think minimum he'd be solid for 20 minutes a night and fill a Paul Millsap kind of role

From the training camp videos I've seen, he seems to be a good hustler. He can rebound, he can get it in around the rim, but he needs to work on shooting, conditioning, and even his personality.

SUN wrote:From the training camp videos I've seen, he seems to be a good hustler. He can rebound, he can get it in around the rim, but he needs to work on shooting, conditioning, and even his personality.

Personality? In what way?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZgIS_87430[/youtube]

I don't see any personality problems.

Sun what dont you like about his personality? He seems to have alot of spunk and has a good sense of humor. I can see him fitting in with our crew no problem.

mybloodisorange wrote:Sun what dont you like about his personality? He seems to have alot of spunk and has a good sense of humor. I can see him fitting in with our crew no problem.

I agree. Seems funny enough while putting in all sorts of work this summer. Seems like a guy who knows when it's time to have fun and knows when it's time to put in the work and be mean