Only time will tell, but it looks like our intrastate rivals drafted very well again. Dude's got game: it's slow and controlled to the point of being disarmingly nonchalant. Check out his highlights from the other night. Here's another video of him as a prospect. I very much hope Clint Capella (5 picks earlier) pans out, but so far I've heard nothing of his impact other than forcing his way over here from Europe. Seems like more of a homerun shot for an athletic, scoring big, which are no doubt super valuable. If he's good, I'm guessing the young'un won't contribute for another 2-4 years after some seasoning in Hidalgo. Anderson is already drawing praise from Pop and clearly impacting his team by doing a bit of everything. He's made plays and drained 3s, has handles and runs the break well. (This comes with the caveat that the Spurs draft for the system, and usually make their players look extra good). We could have saved Kostas 'Pap Smear' 'Panik Attack' Papanikolaou's (who comes as advertised, a great signing) 5 mil in cap space, or had him as a trade chip for that big fish at the deadline. (As an aside, the guy who invented said pap smear, George Papanikolaou, shares the same last name; I wonder if they're related). Or we could have greater flexibility with another 6'9" body at the 3, or 4 playing small ball. That K-Pap/Anderson forward combo against other benches? Different than a recent success, ScoLandry, for sure, but maybe more effective for this team given our emphasis on running and 3s? I digress. Overall, Morey's done an admirable job of drafting with low positioning over seven seasons and I'm optimistic about our future. But even Morey would admit he'd take a couple mulligans. Look for this guy to succeed on the Spurs for a long time; let's hope he's not another case of 'could've drafted Kawhi...'
Kyle Anderson may end up being a rotation player down the line, but comparing him to Kawhi is crazy. I don't see him having anything close to that kind of impact. Nice highlights against the Heat. We'll see what he can do in real games. Looks like he has decent floor vision and can find open teammates. Sharing the ball is important on the Spurs. I'll say this: If he can consistently stick corners 3s and stay in front of SFs on defense, Pop will find a place for him.
I don't mean to suggest he'll be as good as Kawhi, rather he's another guy we could've had that looks to be good for a while at (somewhat of) a position of need. That said, I'm not sure anyone saw Leonard having this much of an impact to the point of winning Finals MVP within a few years of being in the league. I agree though, if he's not defending his position, he won't find consistent minutes under Pop. His offensive game, from the little I've seen, looks pretty mature.
I think the Spurs will experiment with him at the 3 and 4 spot. I have questions of him defending some of the beefier 4s, but we'll see. Next to Dwight on this team at the 4, I think he'd have some leeway for defensive lapses. At the bare minimum, I think he would have offered some flexibility in varied lineup looks off the bench at the 3 or 4. I'll definitely keep an eye on how he plays tonight.
I watched a lot of Anderson's games last year. he's a real fun player to watch. His game is very similar to Evan Turners. Both played PG in college both put up really good all around numbers in college. Anderson's problem is going to be he's too slow to guard SF's and not strong enough to play PF. On offense though he's slow he's deceptive he can change speeds well and uses a lot of fakes. Anderson is a really good rebounder, excellent passer and has a very high basketball, he really improved his 3 pt shot last season too. He ended up in a good situation with the Spurs I really wanted the Celtics to take him.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Kyle Anderson's working with 4 points, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals in 31 minutes tonight.</p>— Paul Garcia PS (@PaulGarciaPS) <a href="https://twitter.com/PaulGarciaPS/status/530563139017117696">November 7, 2014</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>