Is he ready ? Like remotely ready at all ? Can he contribute 10-15 minutes a game of solid, physical defense ? He has the tools . It's time to figure out what he can do. Throw him in the fire . If he doesn't perform well then no big deal , you deal with Clints absence how you normally would . Play small , and hope nene and Harrell can step up enough . But I think if those two guys can't hold down the fort . We need to try our in-house option before we start making trades. Playing small with Anderson is fine for stretches , but the bigger goal is the playoffs . You don't want our small lineup having to eat big minutes and getting worn down . Especially since Gordon and Anderson have injury riddled histories . Stick to the minutes plan for them to get them healthy in the postseason . Yes he's raw , yes he looked bad in preseason and summer league action , but the same models that ranked Capela highly also ranked Onuaku high . 6'10" , 250 , 7'3" wingspan. He's had some time in RGV to catch up to a faster game . Has it been long enough ? We should find out . I remember Capela spent almost the whole season in the valley ... When he came up he was dunking on people and playing solid defense . Sure he couldn't be counted on for more than 10-15 minutes ... But that's all we would need .
He looked terrible in the preseason. Just completely lost on defense. I actually didn't think he would even make it in the d league, but he's had some good games. I wouldn't mind giving him a shot as the second and a half center Especially with that sweet, sweet free throw stroke
Why Chinanu when you have Montrezl? Coach was perfectly fine with out 8-9 man rotation but he was forced to play Montrezl because of how he played. This meant that he was fine with 2 bigs
I've always had trouble grading a players performance when he's played with scrubs versus someone who can actuallly make him look and play good such as Harden. Remember when Capela was called up and no one thought he could even contribute? Well he got 10-15 minutes of action and made the most of it because he had the opportunity to play along side Harden who threw it up for Capela to catch it and dunk. Same could be done for Chinanu IMO.
He will eventually be a rotation player but I don't think he's ready. He's like the 10th youngest person in the entire NBA. Extremely raw. I would still call him up to practice and sit him on the bench in case. Give him 4-5 minutes in blow outs so he gets a taste of how far he is from ready.
I would guess he's not ready because he just turned 20. When's the last big man that was able to contribute reliably at that age?
