The Future(Wall) at The Past(Nash) Game Thread: 2/20 9et

[Nivek]

Man, since no one else is even taking a crack at the quiz above, the mystery rookie whose numbers are similar to Faried's -- Kevin Love.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

I know you're not a big fan of his, ccj...but don't sleep on Harrison Barnes. I think his talent, especially offensively, gets overlooked because he does things so effortlessly and sometimes just seems to be going through the motions. Barnes will be a big time scorer and a clutch player at the next level, imo.

And for the Zards, given that they already have Booker and right now need good shooting and scoring more than anything, I'd take Barnes over Faried in a heartbeat.

We will see, DCZ. IIRC, you liked Tyreke Evans when I couldn't stand him. He went for 20-5-5 as a rookie. Barnes, clutch and a big-time scorer in the NBA? It is possible. For the record, I like Doug McDermott, Creighton U., and Barnes' HS teammate more than Harrison Barnes. McDermott will be a good NBA SF.

As for Faried, per-36 minutes: 16.6 points, 13.3 rebounds, 2.6 blocks, 1.1 steals and only 1.7 turnover. He shoots .549 FG%, and .722 FT. His PER is currently 22.5. His WS/48 is .222.

Here is a list of players with WS/48>.220 and minutes played >195.

1. Lebron James, 2. Manu Ginobili, 3. Ryan Anderson, 4. Chris Paul, 5. Dwyane Wade, 6. Tyson Chandler, 7. Kevin Love, 8. Derrick Rose, 9. Kevin Durant, 10. James Harden, 11. Kenneth Faried.

And, another list of players with PER >22.5 and minutes >195.

(Omit Chandler and Harden from above ...)

... 9. Kenneth Faried, 10. LaMarcus Aldridge, 11. Paul Millsap, 12. Dwight Howard, 13. Jeremy Lin, 14. Blake Griffith, 15. Steve Nash, 16. Russell Westbrook, 17. Al Jefferson, 18. Greg Monroe, 19. Kobe Bryant.

DCZards, Kenneth Faried is already a top-20 player in the NBA, IMO. He is better than Wall and 22 years old. I would get him and trade Booker or keep him as a quality sub.

Here are Booker's stats, if you care to compare:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... etr01.html

Don't sleep on Kennet Faried.

[DCZards]

CCJ, it's hard not to be impressed by what Faried has done thus far. But it's a little early to declare him a top 20 NBA player. You have to excel for more than a couple of weeks to earn that distinction.

And, since he's only been playing regularly for about 2 weeks, right now Faried probably has much fresher legs than most of the guys he's going up against. Not saying the kid ain't awfully good, just saying let's hold off before we put him in the Hall of Fame.

As for Faried being better than Wall, comparing a PF and PG is comparing apples and oranges. Was KG in his prime better than J Kidd in his prime? Is Dirk better than Chris Paul?

I would also point out that the young John Wall is learning to play probably the most difficult position in basketball...and that Faried has a much better supporting cast than Wall. Faried is maybe the 4th or 5th option on the Nuggets, while Wall is being asked to be "the man."

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tSd6E5A-Vs[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTLqOAaTtU0&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLqpGJbSbxg&feature=related[/youtube]

Imagine Wall's assists to Faried. Faried, according to Denver's announcer, is the quickest floor-to-rim jumper he has ever seen. I agree. His game is not just style.

Kenneth Faried is the Nuggets game-changer

As a member of the Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Tim Duncan collected 1,570 career rebounds in his four seasons at the school. The 1996-97 campaign marked Duncan's senior season where he set the rebounding mark (that has been tracked since 1973) that stood until Faried shattered it during his senior season (2010-11).

Faried's new record sits at 1,673 and with the rarity of players staying four seasons in college; his record could last longer than the 14-year stretch of Duncan's.

Blessed with off-the-charts athleticism and a nose for the ball, it wasn't going to be the hustle columns where Faried was lacking. His offensive game needs development, but he has been better than advertised. Faried has shown some moves in the post that have impressed and shown some maturity as he's shooting 50% from the field. Sure, he hasn't taken a lot of shots outside of the paint, but that's where he should be playing. His free throw shooting has been decent for a young big man at 70.5% (24-34) on the season (an improvement over the 57.7% he shot in his final season at Morehead).

It took awhile for Karl to find consistent minutes for Faried, and it's no secret that injuries to Danilo Gallinari, Nene, and Mozgov forced the Coach's hand.

Faried at last!

It takes a long time to saw off his chains and let him out of his cage, but the Manimal is off the island and climbing buildings. He also fittingly killed Love after Valentine’s day. Kenneth Faried looks to be the new hometown hero, he’s probably eating free Chipotle somewhere right now.

He’s a highly efficient player, the best rebounder in NCAA history, and has a developing inside game. In fact he has the highest PER rating on the Nuggets at 21.45, above even Danilo Galinari at 20.05 whom I consider to be the best free-throwite in the league. Surprise, he also led the NCAA in PER last season at 34.77.

The main hack against his collegiate play was that he played at Morehead State, while this little college might not be any Harvard, at least we won’t have ESPN taking cheap shots at his ethnicity. Not to mention that the best stat to translate from college to NBA is rebounding. The other hack is that his offense is non-existent, which doesn’t matter in the Nuggets system. We are trying to score points in transition, which means rebounding and then running. This kid runs like a meth-head with a plasma and gets dunks like a witch in Salem. Also, people are wrong, his offensive game is good even in half-court, he has a nice finish around the rim. He’s not a volume scorer, (see: shoots stupid shots until they fall) but an efficient scorer like Nene and Lawson. I would rather get 12 points on 6-8 shooting than 20 on 10-20. They teach common sense at Morehead and Harvard