will arthur contribute this year?

Canomad · Post #1 » by **Canomad** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 9:17 am

what are your expectations of him and do you think he can potentially be your power forward of the future?

M-Town's Finest · Post #2 » by **M-Town's Finest** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 12:49 pm

If he can't rebound and play defense better than what we've seen so far, he won't ever get playing time ahead of Warrick.

grizzleGM · Post #3 » by **grizzleGM** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 4:41 pm

It doesn't take much to do either one of those things better than Warrick! I expect to see him starting ahead of Warrick at least by late Feb.

M-Town's Finest · Post #4 » by **M-Town's Finest** » Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:28 pm

The early prognosis is not good. It appears he is at least as good offensively as Warrick, at least, though. He's racked up tons of fouls in summer league, hasn't put up many blocks, and his rebounding numbers have been pathetic for his position. I hope he learns what he needs to do to stay on the floor quickly because it seems like he has some nice skills for the position offensively.

ecuhus1981 · Post #5 » by **ecuhus1981** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 5:26 pm

He's not a huge upgrade over Warrick in terms of rebounding, but he can defend the PF position much better. I expect the minutes distribution at the forward spots to be as such for Memphis:

Gay (37), Arthur (21)
Warrick (8), Warrick (18)
Buckner (3), Walker (9)

I see Hakim getting more minutes overall than Arthur, but Darrell would be better at setting the tone defensively at the start of games.

Jaric "could" see some SF minutes with his size, but he has languished at that spot whenever he has not been a primary ball-handler in an offense. IMO, Marko will rot on the bench, since he's not going to take the ball out of OJ's or Mike's (or even Kyle's) hands.

Greg will also pick up some backup SG minutes, and Iavaroni might even be crazy enough to experiment with a Darko-Marc PF-C combination.

I'm unsure how much 'Toine still has left in him, but as a shooter with his size, he might catch Iavaroni's eye. It'll be interesting to see how all of this shakes out.

Downtown · Post #6 » by **Downtown** » Thu Jul 24, 2008 7:02 pm

Arthur could contribute some but the Grizzlies have enough players to cover the power forward position if he struggles. Only time will tell. The golden rule still applies about don't read too much into summer league play with regards to big men.

I can envision the power forward by committee this season. It might not be that bad of an idea either. The Grizzlies don't have that one dominant big man for the season so giving playing time to Warrick, Arthur, Darko, and Walker accomplishes a couple things. It more or less keeps the players happy with playing time. It allows the players who will play power forward to be as aggressive as they want since there's plenty of fouls to give. And it also gets the opposing coach thinking about matchups more often.

There's enough firepower on offence without running the offence through the power forward. The real key is how Gasol and Darko adapt to different partners for inside play.

I've said before that I think they go into the season with what they have and evaluate up to the trade deadline. But if Crittenton can fetch the same value as Marcus Williams did with a first round pick I would take it and dangle that, along with a player such as Warrick to get something good if it makes sense.

Of current young NBA power forwards I like both Josh Boone and Sean Williams from New Jersey. But they just traded for Dooling. But I don't expect alot of wins this season no matter what deals they come up with so I am setting my sights on Blake Griffin already for next years draft, with no one else besides him.

Sorry to stray a little off topic, but it all ties into how I see Arthur's role for next season. I mean really, how much can you expect from a rookie taken at the bottom of the first round, even with the issues that may have dropped him that far?