DukieInBrasil
03-30-2008, 09:11 PM
The Blue Devils and Coach K have been stung be recent departures of big men before they fully developed. Some people, including players themselves, have forgotten that in years past big men were seldom very good before their Jr. years. Guys like Amare, KG, 'Melo, King James and Dwight Howard are the exception rather than the rule, yet many people see that those guys have done it and think that all 18 y.o. 6'8-7'0 guys should be playing with great flourish, polish and jaw-dropping athleticism. They forget that the aforementioned took a couple of years to get to that revered status (minus LeBron and to a lesser extent 'Melo partly due to media hype).
It appears that Boateng made the right choice (for himself) to transfer, how can you argue against Shav's decision to go pro now that he has made it and seems to have won himself a place? Had Shav stayed with Shelden and with McRoberts as a Fr., we would have been exceptionally deep in the frontcourt and who knows how deep in the tourney we would have gone.
I think that everyone around Josh, maybe even JM himself, was trying to push him into this image of other super-athletic big-men forgetting that he still needed time to develop his game. I think he would have done himself a favor by staying and developing more. Had Josh stayed this year I think we would certainly have been a better team. We would have been starting Josh instead of LT, and Josh+Kyle would have produced very well and a "weak" frontcourt actually gets pretty deep with LT and Z coming off the bench. But how do they compare to each other?
In my estimation, Kyle was more valuable to this year's team than McRoberts was to last year's team. I will not say that Kyle was better this year than Josh was last year b/c there are too many confounding factors, mainly the development of everyone on the team from last year to this makes it impossible to isolate Kyle or Josh's stats. Josh was a better rebounder, defender and passer but Kyle certainly (still) has a more polished offensive game than Josh.
Kyle's value to this year's team came from his offensive versatility. Josh was pretty one-dimensional on offense, he had to be shooting from really close to be very effective. With Kyle dragging defenders away from the lane, our guards were able to use that space effectively. Josh just couldn't do that and with one less year of development in everyone around him, the focus necessarily fell on Josh.
Now, let's play some fantasy ball. Let's put Josh on this year's team and Kyle on last year's team, each independent of the other. I'm not sure that I see either one being superior to the other. Had Josh come onto this year's team as a Fr. with everyone else having played 2 years with Kyle before going NBA, would he have put up 13-6 as Kyle did? Probably not. Had Kyle come in as a Fr. in 2005-6, would he have averaged 13-6? Probably not, due to Shelden and JJ's presence, but he certainly would have put up some bigger #s than the 12-7 that JM put up his So. season.
I was certainly very frustrated by last year's ending (and this year too) but I think this year's team would still be playing had Josh stayed rather than jumping ship. This is the legacy that all of these big men leaving early at Duke has left, an empty feeling wondering how good we could have been over the years had Brand, Boozer, Dunleavy, Deng, Shav and McRoberts stayed (not to mention Avery, Burgess, J-Will, Maggette, Boateng, Boykin, Livingston and Humphries). That's practically an NBA All-Star team worth of talent.
It appears that Boateng made the right choice (for himself) to transfer, how can you argue against Shav's decision to go pro now that he has made it and seems to have won himself a place? Had Shav stayed with Shelden and with McRoberts as a Fr., we would have been exceptionally deep in the frontcourt and who knows how deep in the tourney we would have gone.
I think that everyone around Josh, maybe even JM himself, was trying to push him into this image of other super-athletic big-men forgetting that he still needed time to develop his game. I think he would have done himself a favor by staying and developing more. Had Josh stayed this year I think we would certainly have been a better team. We would have been starting Josh instead of LT, and Josh+Kyle would have produced very well and a "weak" frontcourt actually gets pretty deep with LT and Z coming off the bench. But how do they compare to each other?
In my estimation, Kyle was more valuable to this year's team than McRoberts was to last year's team. I will not say that Kyle was better this year than Josh was last year b/c there are too many confounding factors, mainly the development of everyone on the team from last year to this makes it impossible to isolate Kyle or Josh's stats. Josh was a better rebounder, defender and passer but Kyle certainly (still) has a more polished offensive game than Josh.
Kyle's value to this year's team came from his offensive versatility. Josh was pretty one-dimensional on offense, he had to be shooting from really close to be very effective. With Kyle dragging defenders away from the lane, our guards were able to use that space effectively. Josh just couldn't do that and with one less year of development in everyone around him, the focus necessarily fell on Josh.
Now, let's play some fantasy ball. Let's put Josh on this year's team and Kyle on last year's team, each independent of the other. I'm not sure that I see either one being superior to the other. Had Josh come onto this year's team as a Fr. with everyone else having played 2 years with Kyle before going NBA, would he have put up 13-6 as Kyle did? Probably not. Had Kyle come in as a Fr. in 2005-6, would he have averaged 13-6? Probably not, due to Shelden and JJ's presence, but he certainly would have put up some bigger #s than the 12-7 that JM put up his So. season.
I was certainly very frustrated by last year's ending (and this year too) but I think this year's team would still be playing had Josh stayed rather than jumping ship. This is the legacy that all of these big men leaving early at Duke has left, an empty feeling wondering how good we could have been over the years had Brand, Boozer, Dunleavy, Deng, Shav and McRoberts stayed (not to mention Avery, Burgess, J-Will, Maggette, Boateng, Boykin, Livingston and Humphries). That's practically an NBA All-Star team worth of talent.