I like this year’s crop of centers. There isn’t the star power we had last year with Oden, but there are enough good prospects that watching this bunch develop over the next few years should be interesting. This year one of the questions will be whether to go for potential or immediate help. Roy Hibbert is available and offers any team a useful defensive presence on the inside immediately. I don’t think there’s a team in the NBA that couldn’t use that. But there are also some young players out there with legitimate promise who are a couple years away from making an impact.Centers used to be the hottest item out there and remain highly valued. But the days of drafting a Sam Bowie, Steve Stipanovich or William Bedford just because they’re big and moderately talented are over. We saw that last season when Aaron Gray fell deep into the 2nd round. But center remains the single most important position on the court. The champion Celtics are the only team other than the 90s Bulls to win a title without a center who at the very least was considered an all-star candidate. Because of this, it’s never a bad idea to draft a young center in the hopes that they’ll develop into something good.
The stats I look at for centers are 2-point pct, points, rebounds and blocks, all per 40 minutes. I also look at FTA/PF, which simply shows their ability to draw fouls as opposed to fouling.
|
Player |
fgpct | 2 pct | P40 | R40 | A40 | B40 | TO40 | A/TO | pps | FT/PF |
| Maric, Alecks |
0.575 |
0.583 |
21.88 |
14.12 |
2.70 |
2.40 |
3.33 |
0.81 |
1.56 |
2.59 |
| Butch, Brian |
0.448 |
0.482 |
20.99 |
11.46 |
1.45 |
1.51 |
2.53 |
0.57 |
1.25 |
2.13 |
| Lopez, Robin |
0.534 |
0.533 |
16.63 |
9.15 |
1.00 |
3.76 |
2.85 |
0.35 |
1.40 |
1.40 |
| Plaisted, Trent |
0.542 |
0.542 |
22.53 |
11.12 |
2.23 |
1.41 |
3.47 |
0.64 |
1.46 |
3.17 |
| Thompson, Jason |
0.560 |
0.578 |
23.11 |
13.72 |
3.10 |
3.03 |
3.30 |
0.94 |
1.41 |
2.29 |
| James, Shawn |
0.548 |
0.594 |
19.80 |
10.85 |
1.68 |
6.21 |
3.19 |
0.53 |
1.40 |
1.15 |
| Gransberry, K |
0.518 |
0.518 |
19.70 |
13.24 |
1.89 |
1.77 |
2.84 |
0.67 |
1.36 |
2.59 |
| Lopez, Brook |
0.468 |
0.475 |
25.08 |
10.64 |
1.78 |
2.70 |
2.79 |
0.64 |
1.33 |
2.94 |
| Hardin, Devon |
0.554 |
0.554 |
15.53 |
12.26 |
1.11 |
2.05 |
2.38 |
0.47 |
1.58 |
1.78 |
| Hibbert, Roy |
0.609 |
0.605 |
21.33 |
10.15 |
2.96 |
3.52 |
2.68 |
1.11 |
1.54 |
1.57 |
| Jordan, Deandre |
0.617 |
0.617 |
15.82 |
11.95 |
0.85 |
2.50 |
3.24 |
0.26 |
1.52 |
1.78 |
| McGee, JaVale |
0.529 |
0.556 |
20.46 |
10.62 |
0.88 |
4.04 |
3.51 |
0.25 |
1.31 |
1.72 |
| Koufus, Kosta |
0.508 |
0.535 |
22.15 |
10.24 |
0.79 |
2.78 |
2.28 |
0.35 |
1.22 |
1.23 |
| Daniels, Chris |
0.506 |
0.580 |
17.57 |
8.81 |
2.30 |
2.40 |
2.89 |
0.80 |
1.40 |
1.10 |
| NCAA Freshmen Centers | 2 pt. pct. | P40 | R40 | B40 | FT/PF | A/TO | PPS |
| All-Star |
.544 |
15.3 |
12.4 |
4.3 |
1.2 |
0.6 |
1.40 |
| DeAndre Jordan |
.617 |
15.8 |
12.0 |
2.5 |
1.8 |
0.3 |
1.52 |
| Starter/Rotation Regular |
.543 |
15.3 |
10.6 |
3.9 |
1.1 |
0.4 |
1.38 |
| Kosta Koufos |
.535 |
22.2 |
10.2 |
2.8 |
1.2 |
0.4 |
1.22 |
| Journeyman |
.528 |
14.7 |
9.7 |
2.8 |
1.1 |
0.4 |
1.36 |
| Never made it |
.509 |
15.3 |
10.4 |
2.1 |
0.9 |
0.5 |
1.29 |
| NCAA Sophomore Centers | 2 pt. pct. | P40 | R40 | B40 | FT/PF | A/TO | PPS |
| All-Star |
.589 |
18.9 |
12.4 |
4.1 |
1.6 |
0.5 |
1.52 |
| Brook Lopez |
.475 |
25.1 |
10.6 |
2.7 |
2.9 |
0.6 |
1.33 |
| JaVale McGee |
.556 |
20.5 |
10.6 |
4.0 |
1.7 |
0.3 |
1.31 |
| Starter/Rotation Regular |
.556 |
18.2 |
11.6 |
3.4 |
1.5 |
0.4 |
1.43 |
| Journeyman |
.535 |
17.1 |
10.0 |
2.7 |
1.4 |
0.5 |
1.40 |
| Robin Lopez |
.533 |
16.6 |
9.2 |
3.8 |
1.4 |
0.4 |
1.40 |
| Never made it |
.526 |
16.0 |
10.3 |
2.7 |
1.1 |
0.4 |
1.32 |
| NCAA Junior Centers | FG Pct. | P40 | R40 | B40 | FT/PF | A/TO | PPS |
| All-Star |
.552 |
21.2 |
11.6 |
4.3 |
2.2 |
0.9 |
1.46 |
| Starter/Rotation Regular |
.565 |
20.6 |
12.1 |
3.4 |
2.0 |
0.9 |
1.48 |
| Trent Plaisted |
.542 |
22.5 |
11.1 |
1.4 |
3.2 |
0.6 |
1.46 |
| Journeyman |
.538 |
17.4 |
11.3 |
2.7 |
1.7 |
0.9 |
1.44 |
| Never made it |
.541 |
17.6 |
10.3 |
2.6 |
1.4 |
1.0 |
1.37 |
| NCAA Senior Centers | FG Pct. | P40 | R40 | B40 | FT/PF | A/TO | PPS |
| All-Star |
.565 |
19.6 |
12.8 |
4.0 |
2.5 |
0.7 |
1.56 |
| Alecks Maric |
.583 |
21.9 |
14.1 |
2.4 |
2.6 |
0.8 |
1.56 |
| Starter/Rotation Regular |
.564 |
19.3 |
11.6 |
2.9 |
1.9 |
1.0 |
1.48 |
| Shawn James |
.594 |
19.8 |
10.9 |
6.2 |
1.2 |
0.5 |
1.40 |
| Kentrell Gransberry |
.513 |
19.7 |
13.2 |
1.8 |
2.6 |
0.7 |
1.36 |
| Roy Hibbert |
.605 |
21.3 |
10.2 |
3.5 |
1.6 |
1.1 |
1.54 |
| Journeyman |
.542 |
19.5 |
10.9 |
3.2 |
1.9 |
1.0 |
1.47 |
| Devon Hardin |
.554 |
15.5 |
12.3 |
2.1 |
1.8 |
0.5 |
1.58 |
| Brian Butch |
.482 |
20.1 |
11.5 |
1.5 |
2.1 |
0.2 |
1.25 |
| Never made it |
.545 |
18.1 |
10.9 |
2.3 |
1.6 |
0.9 |
1.42 |
1. DeAndre Jordan, Texas A&M: A strange season. Jordan had some wild highs at the start, specifically he hit 29 of his first 33 shots in his first 6 games against a pretty decent non-conference schedule. He started to fade as the conference schedule started and by the end of the year he wasn’t playing much at all. The monthly breakdown shows a player who was unstoppable at times and erratic at other times. By seasons’ end he had clearly improved some parts of his game, but had a ways to go on others:
| DeAndre Jordan |
FG pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
A/TO |
| Nov-Dec. |
.780 |
20.4 |
14.0 |
2.5 |
0.13 |
| January |
.469 |
11.5 |
10.0 |
1.8 |
0.25 |
| February |
.478 |
16.2 |
10.9 |
2.5 |
0.30 |
| March |
.522 |
10.1 |
10.7 |
3.3 |
0.55 |
As solid as his offense was in the early part of the schedule, his defense was weak and he had way too many TOs. After a fast fade in Jan. and Feb. he got his blocks, FG pct. and TOs back to where they needed to be. In March he looked like a player who was ready to burst out as a sophomore.
I do like his chances for success. The fact that he fell so far during the season probably looks worse than it is. With younger players it’s best to focus on the positive and the fact that Jordan was so dominant for a stretch against good competition and improved weak parts of his game during the same season is a good sign for his future. When all was said and done he stacked up pretty well compared to freshmen centers of the past. Saying I would take him 1st of this group all other things being equal basically means if I were starting a team from scratch, he’s the player I’d take first. I feel Jordan will have more value down the road than the rest of this group. I acknowledge that he’s a developmental pick who won’t be a factor for at least another year and probably 2. There’s really only one center prospect this year who has a chance to eventually become a dominant player and that’s DeAndre Jordan.
2. Roy Hibbert, Georgetown: From the ultimate developmental pick to the ultimate immediate help pick. Hibbert really should be more of a hot item. His defense has always been stellar. He’s a smart player who has no problems doing the little things that help a team win. Last year I remember looking at individual games and noticing that Hibbert would destroy opponents, especially fellow prospects. This year he wasn’t as dominant, but generally outplayed other prospects.
His biggest negative is he’s foul prone. That’s almost certain to continue, at least for his first few seasons and will limit him to part-time duty. His rebounding and shotbocking are good enough, but could be better. I got the impression that playing in Georgetown’s defense hurt his numbers some. They seemed to play a lot of man-to-man defense too and I’d think a player like Hibbert could be more effective in a zone. He seemed to spend a lot of time chasing his man around the perimeter when he should have been patrolling the paint. He almost always guarded the opponents best inside player and held him below his averages. Hibbert is a solid pick and a player who can help any team right now, if for only 15-20 minutes per game. While competent centers aren’t the draft gold they used to be, they are still by far the scarcest commodity in the league. A good one like Hibbert should be getting more respect.
3. Kosta Koufos, Ohio State: Did some good things as a freshman, enough that he’s worth a mid-first round flyer. He’s a scorer first, but needs to turn up the efficiency a notch. He’s been good enough as a freshman, that I doubt this will become a problem. In fact, a look at his splits shows he may have corrected it during the season:
| Kosta Koufos |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
| Nov-Dec |
.522 |
25.3 |
11.5 |
3.2 |
| January |
.508 |
17.7 |
10.2 |
2.8 |
| February |
.500 |
19.6 |
10.7 |
2.6 |
| March |
.604 |
24.5 |
8.3 |
2.4 |
By March Koufos was hitting over 60% of his shots from inside. His rebounding and blocks slipped, but looking at the entire season they were OK. Not too many freshmen centers average more than 20 P40, and those who did have a pretty decent success rate. Koufos has some work to do, but he has good size and his numbers are pretty strong for a freshman. Like Jordan there will be a time investment before he hits his prime, but the patience should payoff nicely down the road.
4. Brook Lopez, Stanford: He got some good buzz early in the year, but his numbers have never been special and his FG pct. of .468 is a glaring weakness. It’s very rare for a center prospect to succeed if he can’t get his FG pct. over .500. This is Lopez’s 2nd straight sub-.500 season, so this is obviously a problem. Before I get into too much analysis, I want to show Lopez along with other soph centers who were below or just above .500 in 2 pt. FGs:
| Player |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
A/TO |
| Chris Mihm |
.454 |
17.0 |
13.7 |
3.6 |
0.2 |
| Tim Young |
.504 |
21.0 |
12.9 |
2.6 |
0.6 |
| Eric Chenowith |
.452 |
18.7 |
12.7 |
3.3 |
0.4 |
| Lari Ketner |
.523 |
20.1 |
9.8 |
2.8 |
0.9 |
| Nazr Mohammed |
.516 |
18.5 |
13.6 |
3.1 |
0.2 |
| Marc Jackson |
.476 |
17.9 |
10.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
| Calvin Booth |
.428 |
13.4 |
7.6 |
5.2 |
0.2 |
| Kelvin Cato |
.503 |
14.9 |
12.0 |
4.1 |
0.4 |
| Jamaal Magloire |
.487 |
13.9 |
11.4 |
4.4 |
0.2 |
| Matt Geiger |
.511 |
22.1 |
9.2 |
1.2 |
0.4 |
| Sam Bowie |
.520 |
21.8 |
11.4 |
3.6 |
0.8 |
| Brook Lopez |
.475 |
25.1 |
10.6 |
2.7 |
0.6 |
There were more, but none were successful or high scoring like Lopez and I didn’t want the list to be too long. Lopez is a much better scorer than the rest of this group at least in frequency. He’s a weaker rebounder than most and is in the middle as a shotblocker. So it would be easy here to say that Lopez simply doesn’t score efficiently enough in college and is too soft to be an effective NBA center and leave it at that. But he did put in 25.1 points per 40 minutes, which is also a rare total. To be fair, we should look at how Lopez compares to other players who scored at 24 points per 40 minutes as sophomores:
| Player |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
| Shaquille O’Neal |
.628 |
35.1 |
18.7 |
6.4 |
| David Robinson |
.644 |
28.1 |
13.8 |
4.8 |
| Marcus Camby |
.548 |
24.5 |
11.0 |
6.1 |
| Elden Campbell |
.636 |
26.0 |
10.3 |
4.4 |
| Todd MacCulloch |
.676 |
25.9 |
13.3 |
1.6 |
| Victor Alexander |
.583 |
25.0 |
11.1 |
1.3 |
| Matt Nelson |
.643 |
25.0 |
8.3 |
2.1 |
| Brook Lopez |
.475 |
25.1 |
10.6 |
2.7 |
All except Camby had the high shooting pct. Lopez is nowhere near the defender Camby is though. The stat that separates the good players from the ones who fell short is blocks. Lopez’s low blocks number puts him with the ones who fell short. That’s without even considering the fact that his low shooting pct. pales in comparison to every other player here. Looking at his stats, Brook Lopez just isn’t a very good prospect. He’s not an efficient scorer and his rebounding and shotblocking are below average. That he scores a lot of points is a great thing, but efficiency is just as important.
Lopez can’t be dismissed though. He’s tall, long-armed and athletic. That’s a rare combination and something that will get him a 2nd, 3rd and 4th chance should things not work out initially. To me it seems his problem is he plays passively. That he’ll more often than not take a difficult shot rather than using his size to work for a better, more high percentage shot. That if he could just crank up the intensity a notch or two, he’d destroy the opposition. This seems like it should be an easy thing to do, but I don’t know that a player like Lopez can permanently change his demeanor to make himself more aggressive and a little meaner. I would think just about any change would be possible for someone at 20 years old, but I’m far from an expert on human development. I have to go with the numbers on this. Lopez, despite his talent, just isn’t a great prospect. He looks like he’ll be one of those players who drive fans batty with his tentative play, soft defense and the feeling that there’s more there than he’s showing. Unless he can change his style of play, he looks like nothing more than a long-time journeyman.
5. JaVale McGee, Nevada: McGee is one of the potentially good young players who teams must decide to pass or play on. In general I prefer a player who has proven something over a player who hasn’t. The question that has to be asked is: What has each player proven? McGee has proven that he’s on a par with players who were rotation regulars at this point in their careers. Reaching that level in his first full season of college ball is impressive and to me it makes him a little more than just a project. He does have the look of a project in that there’s obvious improvement to be made, but this isn’t just a raw, lanky specimen. McGee has scored, rebounded and blocked shots at a solid level already. I also want to point out that McGee had a nice finish to the season in March:
| JaVale McGee |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
A/TO |
| Nov-Jan |
.547 |
18.5 |
10.9 |
4.3 |
0.27 |
| February |
.483 |
21.1 |
9.9 |
3.6 |
0.19 |
| March |
.690 |
27.1 |
10.5 |
3.6 |
0.23 |
That this is a small sample of 5 games is acknowledged, but considering he’s a developing player wrapping up his first season as a regular, this is an impressive finish. I wouldn’t make too much of it, but doing this in March is much more impressive than doing it in December.
I see McGee as a player who will be a good defender once he gets his game together. He’s potentially a good scorer, but that could be sabotaged by his tendency to commit too many TOs. As a rebounder he’s barely adequate. That makes McGee a likely part-timer. Also to be factored in is at least one year of developmental time.
6. Shawn James, Duquense: In 2006 he set the single season NCAA record for blocked shots per game with 6.53. That’s his ticket, but he has some other skills too. He’s a good rebounder and can score from inside or out. Everything looks pretty solid for James the prospect, but there are some flags. He was wounded in a shooting in 2006. I’m not sure of the circumstances surrounding this, but it can’t be good. He’ll be 25 by the time the 2008-09 season starts, also never a good thing no matter how it’s spun. He’s foul prone, which limited his minutes in college to less than 30 per game each season and only 23.8 his final year. That’s not going to change in the nBA, since he’s an aggressive, undersized defender.
I do think James will succeed in the league and possibly even excel for a few years, albeit as a part time player. The reason is players who block shots at the rate he does rarely don’t make some impact. Here are players who topped 6.2 blocks per 40 minutes at a major college as James did this past year:
| Player |
B40 |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
A/TO |
| Dikembe Mutombo |
8.0 |
.707 |
13.8 |
11.7 |
0.2 |
| Hakeem Olajuwon |
7.5 |
.611 |
20.3 |
16.7 |
0.4 |
| Ken Johnson |
7.3 |
.553 |
10.6 |
8.2 |
0.3 |
| Justin Williams |
7.2 |
.517 |
14.8 |
14.6 |
0.3 |
| Shawn Bradley |
7.2 |
.517 |
20.5 |
10.6 |
0.5 |
| Alonzo Mourning |
7.0 |
.609 |
18.6 |
10.3 |
0.4 |
| Jim McIlvaine |
6.9 |
.579 |
16.8 |
9.9 |
0.4 |
| Samuel Dalembert |
6.7 |
.503 |
11.1 |
11.1 |
0.2 |
| Marcus Camby |
6.6 |
.502 |
18.7 |
11.7 |
0.7 |
| Shaquille O’Neal |
6.6 |
.615 |
30.1 |
17.6 |
0.5 |
| Theo Ratliff |
6.3 |
.551 |
17.7 |
9.3 |
0.5 |
| Shawn James |
6.2 |
.594 |
19.8 |
10.9 |
0.5 |
Some of these players topped 6.2 multiple times, but I only used their top B40 season. The only other players over 6.0 were Greg Ostertag and Calvin Booth, who also played several NBA seasons. There were a few small college players: David Robinson, Jerome James, Adonal Foyle and Lorenzo Coleman who also made it. Worth noting is that 3 of the 4 played long NBA careers. The only real bust on the list was Johnson, though Williams seems headed in that direction. Johnson was strictly a shot blocker with no other skill. James doesn’t have that issue, as he’s a good scorer and adequate rebounder. There’s no reason Shawn James shouldn’t latch on somewhere. He has the potential to be a dominating defender for short stretches and is good enough that the other parts of his game won’t be a glaring flaw. He’s probably a part-timer because of those fouls, but he’s a potentially good one.
7. Alecks Maric, Nebraska: Statistically Maric is the best center available. This follows a great senior season where he improved his game dramatically to post career highs in just abut every statistical category. While screwing around I created a new stat for centers called AS40, which is assists and steals per 40 minutes. I haven’t checked its value historically and it might be nothing. But just as it’s never bad for a guard to show some big player skills, it’s never bad for a big guy to show some guard skills. Maric led all centers in AS40 this year with 4.55. I thought I’d toss that out there without comment other than to say it’s better than being last in AS40. He’s one of those players I mentioned in the intro who probably would have been a top 10 pick 10-15 years ago in the way Jon Koncak, William Bedford and Felton Spencer were. In 2008 he’s too far on the slow and lumbering side of the aisle for today’s NBA. If Aaron Gray can log some positive minutes, Alecks Maric certainly can. Now that teams are no longer looking at players like Maric as even part of the answer at center, it might be a good thing. Players like Maric will be looked at a little differently and might be accepted for what they can do, rather than condemned for what they’re not. Maric is a big body who can rebound, pass and score well. He’ll lag as a defender, but he can give a team productive minutes. There should be a place for such a player on most teams.
8. Jason Thompson, Rider: As I’ve been doing with small college players, here’s a look at Rider compared with the most successful small college centers of the past 20 years or so at the same age:
| Player |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
A/TO |
FT/PF |
| David Robinson |
.591 |
32.6 |
13.7 |
5.2 |
0.5 |
3.6 |
| Rik Smits |
.626 |
31.0 |
11.0 |
4.9 |
0.2 |
2.6 |
| Chris Dudley |
.569 |
22.8 |
17.1 |
3.6 |
0.3 |
2.1 |
| Jerome James |
.501 |
26.8 |
14.1 |
6.3 |
0.2 |
2.2 |
| Adonal Foyle |
.571 |
25.7 |
14.0 |
6.8 |
0.5 |
4.4 |
| Chris Kaman |
.622 |
26.4 |
14.1 |
3.7 |
0.3 |
2.8 |
| Jason Thompson |
.578 |
23.1 |
13.7 |
3.0 |
0.9 |
2.3 |
Other than being the best passer of the bunch, Thompson falls a little short of this group. The big thing missing from Thompson’s line is there’s no dominant number. No 30+ P40, 15+ R40 or 5+ B40. His numbers look like those of a player who is a good prospect from a major college, but at a small college these numbers just aren’t that great. He has enough skills that he’ll probably knock around the league for a few years as a reserve. I doubt he’s a starter, or even a rotation regular.
9. Omer Asik, Fenerbahce Uber: With foreign inside players I look for 3 things. Can they score reasonably efficiently? Can they rebound? Can they block shots? Pretty much the same questions I ask with NCAA guys, but because of limited information that’s all I really have to look at. Omer Asik is the only foreign player who can answer yes to all 3 questions. For that reason he’s my highest ranked foreign player. Now he’s a little slight at 230 lbs and he’ll be 22 at the start of the season, which means there isn’t much here in the way of intrigue. But he looks like he’ll be able to offer some help on the inside, moreso than any other foreign center.
10. Alexis Ajinca, Hyeres-Toulon: He’s also a pretty solid player, but just a notch below Asik in my opinion. Ajinca is only 20 and has some perimeter skills, so he’s probably a more coveted prospect at this point. The only place he falls short is FG pct, which was .538. That’s a mark he can probably improve on. I’ll take my chances with Jordan, Koufos, Lopez or McGee before this 20 year-old, but he’s still worth a look.
11. Ante Tomic, KK Zagreb: I’m putting all the foreign players together based on a simple theory. Since none of them blow me away, I’ll place them behind the US prospects I like and ahead of the ones I don’t care much for. The thinking being that I’ll take what’s basically an unknown over something I know I won’t like. Tomic has hit 60% of his shots for 2 years running. Rebounding is barely there and shotblocking is poor. Not a great prospect, but probably worth a look based on his size and scoring prowess.
13. Robin Lopez, Stanford: The report I read that had him going as high as #11 had to be the craziest thing I read in this whole draft information overload. Robin Lopez just isn’t all that good. He has the name and has done a nice job riding his bro’s coattails, but the fact is most of his numbers are well below standard. I thought what might be interesting would be a look at how he played in games Brook missed. That perhaps he would rise to the occasion with his brother on the sidelines.
| Robin Lopez |
2 pt. pct. |
P40 |
R40 |
B40 |
A/TO |
| Without Brook |
.441 |
18.7 |
10.7 |
4.7 |
0.4 |
| With Brook |
.565 |
15.9 |
8.8 |
3.4 |
0.3 |
He did step up his numbers, but his efficiency suffered. Because all 9 of the games in question were played against a weak non-conference schedule the numbers are a little inflated and the .441 looks downright bad. He’s only a sophomore and he’s never had a chance to get out of his brother’s shadow. In that sense he’s in a tough situation. But his numbers just aren’t that good and in his one chance to shine on his own, he just wasn’t that impressive. It looks like he’s going to be drafted in round one. That seems like a huge mistake. This draft is too deep to be wasting a pick.
14. Trent Plaisted, BYU: Plaisted just isn’t a very good prospect. With a player like this, whose game is a little weak on scoring efficiency, defense and rebounding, it would be helpful if had could hit an outside shot once in awhile. Thompson can do that. So can James, Chris Daniels and Brian Butch. Plaisted is just a center with stats too weak that one would expect he could make the jump to the NBA. I don’t mean to be all negative on him. He could latch on if he can turn his game up a tad in every area.
15. DeVon Hardin, California: He has a good defensive rep, but I’m not quite sure where that comes from. He blocks some shots, but is hardly the second coming of Mutombo. In fact his blocks are below average for a prospect. Big men prospects like Love, Lopez, Koufas and McGee all did fine in matchups against Hardin and Cal. His rebound numbers look good, but after averaging 14 per game in the first 5, he reached double figures only 3 times the rest of the year, so that’s misleading. Another nagging issue is the fact that Cal was a better team the 3 games Hardin sat out. Hardin is a prospect based on his physical attributes and potential more than anything. Potential is an OK thing to draft on, but not with a 4th-year senior. If he hasn’t learned how to play in 4 years at Cal, there’s no reason to think it’s going to happen at the next level.
16. Kentrell Gransberry, South Florida: He’s a big body who can rebound. That’s about it. Last year he showed some minimal ability to score inside, but fell of to close to a .500 FG pct. as a senior. This year he upped his defense a tad, but probably not enough. He’s probably good enough to find work as a 3rd center. A banger/foul taker/rebounder if there’s room for such a player.
17. Brian Butch, Wisconsin: Good college player who might make a serviceable pro. He’s not great, but rebounds well enough and can hit the outside shot. Definitely a longshot, but he has enough tools to land somewhere.
18. Chris Daniels, Texas A&M Corpus Christi: Daniels is a lot like Butch. He became a good 3-point shooter this year as a 5th-year senior. He lost a little as a rebounder and defender as a senior. He’s been a better inside scorer than Butch, but he’s also a small college player without dominating stats. A past as a decent rebounder and a good outside shot give him a chance.