April 2010, just picture it... K is busy hanging his 4th banner in the rafters; Harrison, Kyrie and Roscoe are busy packing for summer school in Durham; Kyle has declared his intention to stay and repeat in 2011; and IC is rampant with fury and jealousy after a 7-9 ACC season and 2nd round NIT exit. Now picture DBR - will we have a "Mason Plumlee Draft Prospects" thread up at the top of the page??
I look at a couple recent examples from down the road... Brendan Wright, Marvin Williams, Ed Davis (and now allegedly John Henson), who all were/are long, versatile, athletic 6'9"+ forwards who were either drafted or projected in the lottery after their freshman year. What's more, with the exception of Wright, none of them put up (or are expected to put up) numbers that are out of range of what many posters on this board are projecting for Mason.
Now, Mason is probably the least polished, but I think he is the most intriguing physical prospect of the bunch. No matter how he performs this year, an agile 6'11 with a 7'2"+ wingspan (from the looks) and hefty vertical is a very unique talent. Given the NBA's propensity for drafting based on potential, I'm curious... do you expect we will at least be having this conversation next summer?
(And yes, it's way to early for rational people to "worry" about this... but what else are we going to speculate about that we haven't already worn out this summer?)