RealGM

Udoka? Will he be good or bad.

Translatable skills:

He is a big fella. 7-7 reach
NBA body.....strong, cannot be pushed around....muscles and fast.
Fast with huge vertical for a big man.......reportably can touch then 12 foot mark on the backboard.
He must be able to rebound in the NBA.
He must be great defensively.
75% field goal percentage......highest in college history.....averaged 6-8 shooting all season.
Pick and roll.
Grew up poor.....he has strong desire for success....will likely try as hard as possible.

The worst thing about Udoka and the Jazz' off-season moves is that we most likely won't even know if he's good or not for the next 3 years....

stitches wrote:The worst thing about Udoka and the Jazz' off-season moves is that we most likely won't even know if he's good or not for the next 3 years....

Yup...Whether he's good or bad, it really doesn't matter. He won't have a path to play unless there's injury or Gobert leaves.

I actually think he's a good prospect for a late first rounder, but we won't get a chance to find out.

That is the most frustrating part about the Udoka situation. The jazz said they had him the 2nd rated prospect in the entire draft yet they go out of there way a couple days later to make him our 3rd string center. No team in their right mind puts that type of grade on a player and then makes a move to guarantee he doesn't play. I could understand it a tiny bit if we were talking about a raw freshman but we are talking about a 4yr senior that should be ready to play. The only thing that makes sense to me now is that the front office thinks there a good chance Rudy doesn't stick around and if that is the case then you have trade him. You can't afford another Hayward situation where all the signals were saying that he is gone yet you didn't listen. If that happens again then everyone in the front office has to go because you can't have that type of incompetence leading your team.

Sent from my SM-G988U using RealGM mobile app

Udoka will probably get 2/3rds as many minutes as Gobert got his first season (adjusted for games played). And he is going to get time playing against Gobert and Favs in practice (assuming they have practice). I am not too worried about this first season. Rookies are going to have a hard time adjusting to this season anyways.

Personally I think he will be a decent player. All the Jazz ask of bigmen is defense, dunks, and rebounds. He is in a perfect environment for his skill set.

Bogdanovic was saying that Udoka looked good in practice, that he's athletic and that he was going at Rudy really hard.

Catchall wrote:Bogdanovic was saying that Udoka looked good in practice, that he's athletic and that he was going at Rudy really hard.

Fantastic news.

I worry that all he'll ever be able to do is block shots and make dunks and put backs. Could be a decent rebounder given his size.

He is foul prone, and has absolutely no shot or shooting touch. His free throw shooting is sub-40%. I question whether he'll be able to defend more than 5-10 feet from the basket.

I like this pick up a lot and he’s still relatively young, a lot more polished then Rudy was coming into the league, I see a lot of Shaquille O’Neale in the guy.

GobertReport wrote:I like this pick up a lot and he’s still relatively young, a lot more polished then Rudy was coming into the league, I see a lot of Shaquille O’Neale in the guy.

No you don't see a lot of Shaq in this guy. The only Shaq part of his game is that he dunks but Shaq was exceptional when it came to touch around the basket and his feet were unreal for a player his size.

Sent from my SM-G988U using RealGM mobile app

sip wrote:

GobertReport wrote:I like this pick up a lot and he’s still relatively young, a lot more polished then Rudy was coming into the league, I see a lot of Shaquille O’Neale in the guy.

No you don't see a lot of Shaq in this guy. The only Shaq part of his game is that he dunks but Shaq was exceptional when it came to touch around the basket and his feet were unreal for a player his size.

Sent from my SM-G988U using RealGM mobile app

I see Shaqs power in this guy and his footwork is not bad either.

Shaq was a top 5 player in the league at age 21/22...come on now

Daddy 801 wrote:

Catchall wrote:Bogdanovic was saying that Udoka looked good in practice, that he's athletic and that he was going at Rudy really hard.

Fantastic news.

He is a big, tough bastard. Dude has muscles....I hope he has a mean streak and becomes more talented.

KqWIN wrote:Shaq was a top 5 player in the league at age 21/22...come on now

If Udoka was drafted 25 years ago he would be a top 5 pick.

GobertReport wrote:

KqWIN wrote:Shaq was a top 5 player in the league at age 21/22...come on now

If Udoka was drafted 25 years ago he would be a top 5 pick.

I'm trying to think who best to compare Udoka to from past eras of the nba. I can't compare him to Shaq, but a player of Udoka's size and athleticism has always had an impact in the league. Andrew Bynum, before his knee injury, eventually became a 19p/12r/2b for the Lakers. Brendan Haywood was similar in size, but not quite as vertically explosive. Haywood became a 10p/10r/2b starter eventually.

Catchall wrote:

GobertReport wrote:

KqWIN wrote:Shaq was a top 5 player in the league at age 21/22...come on now

If Udoka was drafted 25 years ago he would be a top 5 pick.

I'm trying to think who best to compare Udoka to from past eras of the nba. I can't compare him to Shaq, but a player of Udoka's size and athleticism has always had an impact in the league. Andrew Bynum, before his knee injury, eventually became a 19p/12r/2b for the Lakers. Brendan Haywood was similar in size, but not quite as vertically explosive. Haywood became a 10p/10r/2b starter eventually.

Andrew Bynum seems like a decent comp.

Udoka played well tonight. He ran the floor well, set good picks in the pick-and-roll, sucked in rebounds, got off the floor to contest shots, and went at the rim on offense. There's a lot to like there. He could be a beast. He's surprisingly bouncy for a guy that big.

Doke practice your free throws.

FYI, Udoka was measured at the 2018 NBA Combine. He actually has about a 9'5" standing reach, rather than the 9'1" that was measured at this year's Combine. He might have a 37" max vertical. He doesn't have a 41" vertical. He's quick at getting off the floor though.

A 9'5" standing reach, plus a 37" vertical, still gets him up to 12'6." That's plenty. His combination of standing reach, plus vertical jump, is 3 inches more than Javale McGee.

So think of Udoka as basically being like Javale McGee, but with more strength, more bounce, and better IQ and coachability.

I watched Udoka in college, as I live about 70 miles from Lawrence. I wasn't a fan of the pick - felt like there were other prospects out there that were a better fit. I think whoever said "he would be a top five pick 25 years ago" was spot on. In today's game, I'm not sure it will translate well. In the 90s? Absolutely, but spending a first rounder to be a 2nd or 3rd stringer doesn't seem like a good strategy.

That being said, I hope he does well! I'll be pulling for him.