jpatrick wrote:He may be close to Bam as an athlete, not sure if he has the same agility. Bam is an incredible athlete.
Vanderbilt’s biggest issue is he doesn’t have the bulk or length (8’10” reach) of a center or the skills of a PF. It’ll be fun to see what kind of development he can make with some minutes though. So far, his minutes have been the most enjoyable thing with the 2020 wolves.
I mean Bam’s standing reach is only 9 feet. The heigh/length/verticality/movement similarities along with the better than average passing feel for a big man and lack of perimeter shot was the reason for the similarities.
Bam also hardly played his first 2 years and only starting 28 games or so as a 21 year old 3rd year player—another similarity and reason for making the comparison. Bam has a larger frame and is a better free throw shooter.
Defense and rim protection is mostly about instincts and timing provided you’re an elite athlete which Vanderbilt is especially with his verticality. Post offense, even from the most efficient post scorers in the game, is a pretty inefficient shot and that’s the best guys taking them.
Vanderbilt may get beat a few times by larger players in the post, but with his rebounding ability, defensive instincts, athleticism, and compete level... I would be fine with teams choosing to try to beat us posting him up.
The post wasn’t made to say that he’s as good as Bam. It was more highlighting the similarities both in their length, athleticism, and their skill set in terms of the ways they try to inpact and can impact the game on both offensive and defense as well as their limitations.
Further, I think there are similarities in trajectory from raw non-rotation NBA player/g league development player to showing that they are a legit rotation player in their year 3 21 year old seasons... Bam obviously has taken additional steps from there and also has an even better foundation than Vanderbilt.. . But it’s not impossible to see Vanderbilt taking additional leaps as well.