sipclip wrote:MojoPharoah wrote:sipclip wrote:The guy is a lot more athletic than some of you are making him out to be. He is obviously not high flyer but he can move his feet and his shooting ability will open up his driving game.
Not enough to play the 3 or 4 in the NBA. Teams will put him on an island and destroy him on the regular on D. Offensively, most NBA forwards have the athleticism to easily press up on his jumper and recover to snuff his drive. Then what? He's forced to take an awkward shot over a longer defender or to pass it out for a reset.
Not exactly the stuff of legit NBA scorers there.
You really love to exaggerate. He will get beat up on D but not to the extent that you claim and offensively he will not be easy to guard like you claim. He knows how to move without the ball and guys will have to close out hard on him because of his jmper which will open up other aspects of his game.
Offensively, what you seem to not realize is that using a show & go against hard closeouts only have solid value if the defender cannot recover in time to really challenge the drive and contest any shot. Many NBA starters at forward have the length to press up and contest his shots with the quickness to challenge the drive if he tries to pump fake and go. He'd be better served as a reserve, where he could attack better matchups, but the idea that he's starter-quality is just off.
I'm hard-pressed to name 10 starting forwards at either spot he could defend adequately, w/o compromising the D.
Most wings can take him off the dribble or off a curl/handoff, while most 4s can post him and shoot over him with ease. And, by playing the 4, he offers a tempting target for teams to attack in PnR scenarios, because he lacks the foot speed or lateral quickness to hedge or trap and also lacks the length to drop and contest.
Again, he's 6'7", slow-footed with subpar wingspan and poor rebounding & stl/blk stats. His wingspan is the same length as such prime defenders like Ben Gordon and Luke Walton.