Rockets.com on Casspi: Finding a perfect fit

I think somewhat of a comparison can be drawn between Ryan Anderson and Omri Casspi.

Ryan Anderson was drafted #21 in the 2008 Draft.
Omri Casspi was drafted #23 in the 2009 Draft.

Below I have compared the stats for the first three years for Casspi and Anderson. I left out the fourth year for Anderson because that is when his career took off due to Howard and Casspi's last year he was just buried on the bench.

Casspi: 23.23 mpg, 8.70 ppg, 4.10 rpg, 35.20 3pt %, 42.03 FG %
Anderson: 18.90 mpg, 8.57 ppg, 4.57 rpg, 37.60 3pt %, 41.96 FG %

As you can see, through Anderson's first three seasons, he was playing very little and his averages were first similar to Casspi's. The year that his stats jumped were the year that Hedot Turkoglu and Rashard Lewis were sent out and he was given a starting position. I think Casspi may have been playing out of position since he came into the league. I think a change to Power Forward will benefit him substantially and he has the *potential* to perform like Anderson. How ironic would it be that not too long ago as fans we were hoping that Morey would Omer Asik for Ryan Anderson when we had someone on our team that could be just as good?

 

Appreciate the work you did. If Casspi could turn into a poor man's Ryan Anderson, that would be awesome.