cupcakesnake wrote:babyjax13 wrote:cupcakesnake wrote:Came here to see if I could learn more about Izan, after watching some of the Perth games. Instead there's a long debate on Juan Carlos Navarro's height!
Anyways... I'm high on Almansa. I'm starting him at the top of my board (this isn't saying much, I'm just getting acquainted with this years batch of prospects). I totally get why he's a lot less sexy of a prospect compared to Holland and Buzelis, but watching him I see a super mobile 6'10" guy with no obvious limitations. His touch and feel are elite. He shows all kind of little things in his skill set, and gives fans a reason to believe he could be a very good shooter, passer, ball handler. He's super active and decisive. While I don't think he has the length or athleticism to be an Anthony Davis type, he reminds a little of college AD, and also a little bit of young Pascal Siakam or Pau Gasol. There's a pretty immense potential skill set lurking inside a 6'10" frame (7'1" wingspan?) with ton of mobility and motor.
I kind of see pre-jumper Al Horford. He's very fun to watch, excited to see more of him as the season goes.
I was thinking of comparing him to Al Horford's college teammate. He reminds me a bit of Joakim Noah, if Noah had way nicer touch. He's a couple inches shorter than Noah (but with similar length). He has that same frenetic motor and ability to cover ground horizontally and north/south. He also has the passing gene.
Noah's ceiling was capped because he really couldn't shoot and was a below average finisher, but we're talking about a guy who, at his peak, was getting on MVP ballots in his final year before the injuries sapped him.
Someone who could be like Noah but also be a versatile scoring threat is a pretty exciting player.
I think you guys are relying on comps too much. Horford and Noah were elite defenders in their prime. They were both 2 of the best defenders in all of college basketball. Almansa is not an elite defender. At this point, he is better on offense than he is on defense. His defense right now seems to be ok, decent. Definitely not elite.
Saying he is like Horford before the jumper. Well, these past few years, the outside shooting has been a HUGE part of Horford's game. Without that, he may have been out of the league a few years ago. So if you're saying Almansa is Horford without the jumper, well that doesn't sound like a very good prospect - especially since Almansa is not nearly the defender that Horford was. I mean, sure, Horford was an all-star before he started to shoot 3's. But that was in 2010 and 2011. It's a very different league now, in 2023. A league that is much more reliant on teams going small, playing with pace and shooting more 3's.
If Noah was still playing now, he probably wouldn't be nearly as good if he didn't develop an outside shot..it's really unfair to Almansa to just be like "oh, Noah was nearly an MVP and he was a big who didn't shoot, so Almansa can be just that good too". First off, Almansa is not nearly the defender that Noah is. Secondly, that was a long time ago, and Noah probably wouldn't have been nearly as good if he wasn't able to develop shooting. Thirdly, there is a ton of context and things that fell into place (some like work ethic were within Noah's control but other things like teammates he had, teams he was on, the way the league was at the time, the coaches he had, the role he had, the way he was used, injuries to various players, lack of injuries for Noah) allowed for him to be an all-star player, even without the shooting. We can't project (or even most) of those same things to fall into place for Almansa.
Lastly, Horford and Noah (at least when they were younger) were more athletic and more mobile than Almansa is.
With that being said, I do ave Almansa 4th overall on my board. So he's a very good prospect who could end up being an all-star. But I'm just saying the analysis here of over-relying on comps and just saying a guy can be as good as some other guy from a long time ago simply because he kind of plays like that player is really flawed.
