chris walker is my choice. he's going to frustrate the coaching staff and us fans. will probably be absent minded in practice. but you don't pass up on potential like that and it's the 15th spot. sign him, send him to RGV and hope for the best. if he puts it together, that's a big time player.
This, too. If we can hit gold one more time we will have the best top to bottom talent in the NBA in quite awhile. Tough choice with the three young bigs.
Any big man is good at this point, since Harrell is now out indefinitely and TJ is slowed down as well as Dwight.
Walker probably has the most upward potential amongst the three. His athleticism reminds me of the Clipper's DeAndre Jordan who the Rockets passed up in draft. Keep him and let him develop in the D-League for a couple of years. Houston's depth at the center position is quite shaky, just one injury away from being a problem.
Too many guys in front of him. I think the 15th spot has got to fill a need. A third big that can play center is a need. Especially with Dwight taking it easy on back to backs. Tyler, Smith and Walker all do things you like at center. Walker protects the rim, Smith eats rebounds for breakfast, and Tyler looks a bit seasoned and possibly trustworthy out there. This is a really cool preseason because of those 3 being able to fill a need while a slot is open. These guys are playing for something.
Walker has been touted to be extremely athletic but his main issue has been his work ethic. He has never had a problem blocking shots and an occasional highlight dunk. It's the other things that bother me. Is he willing to put in the work to improve? He reminds too much of Thabeet. I honestly would much rather have an aging veteran center that can very much do what Jason Terry is doing with the back court.
I think the chances of Josh Smith dropping 50lbs is higher than chances Walker will suddenly develop fundamentals. I can see Tyler putting it all together, but I think Smith may have more potential given how far along his footwork and rebounding fundamentals are. Walker is a dime a dozen. You can pick up an ultra athlete with unimpressive work ethic, mediocre technical skills and poor basketball fundamentals any day of the year. It will take at least half a decade for this guy to be able to put his athleticism to use IMO.
I don't think so. If Dwight spends substantial time injured, I think Capela will start and D-Mo will see plenty of minutes at center too. They'll just rotate Motie, Jones and Capela and we'll go small more frequently. We've already seen them experimenting with a lot of small ball lineups. Anyway, my vote goes to Josh "Four Sandwiches" Smith. I agree with those who think it'll be easier for him to lose weight than it will be for Walker to become a fundamentally sound basketball player. I'm sure Georgetown has a trainer, and it wouldn't surprise me if they had him see a dietitian either - but he's never had the combination of training staff, dietitian, catered meals, and financial incentive that he is about to have. I think Smith is the safest bet. Also, I'll love calling him Four Sandwiches.
Think about what we need in our 6th big (after Dwight, D-Mo, Jones, Capela and Harrell)...Dwight will sit out a good number of games, and D-Mo may not be ready. The other three are all young, with Jones having his court-awareness/consistency issues, Capela being early in his development and Harrell being a rook. You need someone who can come in, get rebounds, play serviceable D, and not be a net-negative on O. In other words, we have enough talent up-front, we don't need any special skills, you need a steady guy who can provide decent fill-in minutes if need be. Chris Walker is not an NBA player. He was a 6'9" freakish athlete coming out of HS, with enough fluidity and flashes to make recruiting services think he deserved his 5* rating based solely on potential. At the time it made some sense, even though he was like 195, with no range, bulk, court-awareness or skill-set to speak of. Two years later, he failed to warrant more than 11mpg on a sub-.500 SEC team, and entered the draft. He finished those two years with a 37% FT and a ridiculous foul rate. Every now and then, you'll get a monstrous fast break dunk or weak side block, but if you focus on him, you'll likely smh for a good portion of his minutes. Basically, a long, freakish athlete sounds great in theory, but only if that player has the natural instincts, awareness and motor to develop a skillset and harness those tools. Walker unfortunately doesn't. Joshua Smith is an interesting case as well, but for completely different reasons. He's enormous and completely out of shape, but he has a surprisingly soft touch around the rim, and is a good bet to score if he gets the ball in deep position. He obviously needs to shed weight (like at least 40-50 lbs), but his sheer mass is his biggest advantage. And taking conditioning into account, he's not going to do much on D. Any big with decent mobility/athleticism will beat him down the floor and possibly in the half-court as well. He's a specialty big, who we don't really need. But Jeremy Tyler fits the bill. He's neither too slight like Walker, or too overweight like Smith, and at 6'11" 260 with a crazy 7'5" wingspan, he's more than big enough to play C. He's not a great athlete, but he's mobile enough, and can hit the open J. His biggest strength may be his rebounding, which is a big plus considering that's not the strength of our group (though Capela's increased mpg and Harrell might help, even though Dwight will be sit a lot). I think Tyler is the clear choice. When we're short on bigs, and we need a guy to come in and play a solid 15mpg in meaningful game, do you want the thin/raw project athlete who hasn't produced since HS, the space-eating big whose biggest strength is post-scoring on our uptempo team, or the solid rebounder with size/length and a passable mid-range game?
This. Tyler probably has the lowest upside amongst the 3 but he's the insurance we need for this season and he has got a great NBA-ready body.
Smith is looking really good against the Suns. Not sure if Tyler will get any burn tonight but I like what Smith brings in limited minutes.
It's gonna be Joshua "The Wall" Smith <iframe width="420" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wMmXCKxwa0k" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
