I've seen Whiteside a couple of times and came away lukewarm both times. He was outplayed by Jerome Jordan of Tulsa (who has horrible body language but is a fairly productive player) every time they faced Marshall. As a help defender Whiteside's shot-blocking will IMMEDIATELY be elite in he NBA. He is long and has great sense of timing. On the flipside he is far too easily backed down when defending one on one. He needs at least 20-25lbs of muscle and a lot of coaching on how to be an effective post defender (most rookies do). His rebounding is average considering the tools he has to work with but at times he dominates the glass albeit against inferior competition. His offense his raw as he is really mechanical and slow with his post moves and can be pushed off the block. His face up shot is fairly decent but he doesn't have any face the basket moves to compliment his shot. He needs A LOT of work offensively. He needs a coaching and a lot of private session type tutoring and he could blossom but IT WILL TAKE TIME!!!
My thoughts exactly. He doesn't have the athleticism to ever become a star-quality scorer, but his height and his ability on the offensive boards would allow him to be a solid roleplayer on the offensive end. But most importantly, like you said, he'd be the ideal backup to Yao on defense and the boards... exactly what we need.
The immediate comparison is the Yao-Deke ; Offense/Defense combo. Aldrich would be that guy, coming off the bench and being that defensive force in the paint while guys like Brooks and Martin carry the offensive load. The only thing is that in the future, I can't see him being that starting center for us to replace Yao, unless we get somehow an all-star PF. The problem is that most people - and I have to admit i'm kind of in this group - are think that being in the lottery means you are going/trying to find a star player, if they don't think it, they atleast wish it. But I know Daryl isn't like that, and we aren't the Wolves or Kings that have all these years to develop players, we are trying to win-now so I can see Daryl being more interested in players such as Aldrich, Turner, Patterson who are more NBA-ready and who can help us NOW rather than having to develop a Whiteside for about 3-4 seasons. You are drafting a sure commodity, a guy who's performance will not deceive you (kind of like Budinger except he lived up to being better than what we all expected). I wonder what Morey thinks of Ed Davis? I know he went to see the UNC-Wake game earlier this season, and even though Aminu and Henson are also players too watch, I could see Davis' stock drop to us if he decides to declare (which I think he shouldn't). When its all said and done, I truly doubt that we are going to try and solve our front-court problems through the draft. We already have a project bigman in Hill, unless he's traded, it would be r****ded to draft another big. I think Morey is definitely going to try to trade for that superstar/star PF/C in the offseason, and that he will draft (if we keep the pick) the best player available. Heck I could see him drafting a guy like Henry even though we are full of guards. I could also see him try to go after Rubio/Jefferson somehow.
I don't know if you even necessarily need an all-star PF to start Aldrich in the future, you just need a very good one, like Scola. I see that in Jordan Hill so far, albeit only in a small sample size. (His game actually does remind me a lot of Scola's when he is playing hard, except he has the athleticism to be even better if he works on his skills and bulks up a little.) I see us as having two all-star quality scorers in the backcourt, and I know some people are going to disagree on this, but I'm happy with our offense even without Yao.
Rockets need a replacement for the next time Yao gets injured. I believed Clanton said Yao's career is likely over, if he breaks the reconstructed foot the next time. Rockets need an all-star PF/C to fill the need. The PF/C coming out in this draft are raw and will take 2-3 seasons to develop. It would be great to hvae an all-star PF instead of just a shotblocker/rebounder.
Agreed, we need Insurance in case Yao goes down again, and that can come in a form of a project Big (Whiteside, Motiejunas, Cousins...) with all-star potential from this draft... --RB
The insurance potential on Yao isn't limited to big men - Yao is our only superstar. If we want a security in case Yao can't come back, we should be drafting the player that has the most potential to be the next superstar in this league. With Jordan Hill manning the four, I wouldn't mind the Rockets taking a hard look at Xavier Henry.
I really hope we get Greg Monroe. I would trade Chase to move up to do so. I think he is going to be elite in his ability to face up and shoot or get to the basket. I also think he will develop an inside game. This guy is going to be a star and he will also have an impact right away. He fits what we will be trying to do next year. I know it probably won't happen, but I look forward to watching Monroe wherever he goes in the league.
Like I said, Brooks and Martin have star-quality scoring ability, in my opinion, whether the media judges them that way yet or not. Even Scola is stepping up and showing us he can give us that kind of performance from time to time. Hill has the potential to develop into that, as well. What we really need is, as I said, interior defense. Give me a great defensive big with a little scoring ability and I'm happy even without Yao... especially since I know Morey will just use his three picks in two years to get more great players.
From what i've seen of the UK game Patterson is a sure thing. Great D, great hustle, explosiveness and pretty athletic! Would be a very nice role player and apparently has his head well on his shoulders! Ahhhhh, all these bigmen we can choose from!
How about Artsiom Parakhouski? Projected to go early second round, so maybe we would package our lottery pick in a trade for another player, then buy into round 2. Parakhouski is 6'11" 260lbs, true C size... scoring 21.4 points and grabbing 13.4 boards while blocking 2.1 shots per game. He seems like the kind of player Morey would like because he is very high ranked in efficiency ratings like PER and EFF. The results are certainly there on the college level, but it seems there is some doubt among scouts about how well his skills will translate to the next level.
I guess we can always package up our lottery pick+ NY pick to move up and try to get Cousins... I would also try to purchase a late first rd. pick and try to see if I can get Paul George of Fresno State... <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ERcmFdlrrXY&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ERcmFdlrrXY&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> Reminds me of Rudy Gay.... With him Playing SF off the bench, It would allow us to move Budinger to back-up SG Bench: Lowry Budinger George Hill Cousins --RB