DerMarr is not a good defender! He's not even an average defender as of this moment. ------------------
sir scarvajal, You're correct about Robinson and Mashburn in college (Mash was 21pts/8 reb his sr. yr). I was picking on them because of what their games have become in the NBA. As far a Battier...err...I mean GuyX, he's not coming out this year. If you want to argue for Battier over Morris, that's not too far fetched. Again, my whole point was that people keep saying that DerMarr Johnson is such a stud, when at the present time, that's simply not true. He's got a long way to go before he's at the level of good NBA player. DerMarr has potential, but at his age that doesn't guarentee anything. At the college level, so far,he's been slightly above average. He shot the ball ok, but hardly great.As Da Man pointed out, he's not a good defender. He doesn't like to pass the ball and he's doesn't have any strength. Does this mean that he'll be a bust? Nope. What it means is that he needs to stay in school and work on his game and get stronger before he tries the NBA. ------------------
Da Man, thanks for the breakdown on Thomas. Do you have any idea why a 6' 10" athletic forward get's hardly any blocks?? I would expect him to be up there with Horry/McGrady on blocks and he isn't even on the same map as those guys. Even Croshere, Marshall & Walt Williams are rejecting shots at a significantly higher clip. Having not seen him much, I would be much less lukewarm if he looked more promising as a weak side shot blocker. As for him getting much more than 2 million per season, I don't see it. With only 4 teams under the cap, it seems to me the great or at least very good players will get all the big money, there won't be much left for second tier players. Maybe he can get 3 or 4 million per year fromt he Bucks, but I would be surprised he could get more than that, unless I am missing something. As far as Morris's assessment, I see it more like UTballer, I am not that high on him. You expect a dominant athelete to score well over 16 points per game in college. I guessing if you compare his numbers to say other versitile SF's like Grant Hill, Glen Robinson, Jamal Mashburn or even John Wallace, Morris college stats don't stack up. This doesn't mean he won't be a decent player, but he sure looks way too passive and unexplosive to be a star. He looks to me far closer to a McKey or Horry than a Hill or Pippen. It's a little easier for me to discount Demarr sometimes less than stunning numbers being a freshman. ------------------
Aelliot, I haven't really seen Johnson play much so I am not confident of my evaluation of him. My main point is that I just haven't been overwhelming impressed with Morris. Might be a nice player, but I doubt an impact player. Of course he does a lot of things pretty well and is long, with a little more aggressiveness that could come with maturity maybe he will be an impact player. I don't think Battier will be an impact player either, but he looks like a pretty good one and shows more fire than Morris, something I like in a player. I didn't think Battier said either way about coming out, I guess he made a comment to the effect that Brand distracted the team last year with this issue--which is totally BS. A great UConn team just had a little better day than even greater Duke team did--no more, no less. Thus after the season dies down, it will be interesting to see if Battier joins his pal Carrawell in the draft (maybe Boozer will go too??). As for the Big Dog, I had forgotten his college numbers were that impressive -like 30 & 12 plus solid numbers in other stats. He was doing that against the likes of Webber, Howard and plenty of other good front-court players too if I remember. He hasn’t been quite the pro I had expected however. ------------------
