Yes! The Coleman-Blair comparison has been on my mind for a while now... obviously Blair was a star at the college level, and we don't know whether Henry has that in him, but he's a proof in principle that you can be an undersized big and succeed at this level if you're strong and play hard.
I have no doubt Henry will continue to see minutes this year even with John, and I imagine having the two of them challenging Paolo and Mark all season in practice will be nothing but a net plus for the team's development.
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Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
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"One POSSIBLE future. From your point of view... I don't know tech stuff.".... Kyle Reese
Bonzie definitely did, Blair might have as well. But they aren't the only 6'7" (Colson was like 6'5", Blair might have been 6'6") or shorter guys that were big men. Others of note include Larry Johnson, Corliss Williamson, Charles Barkley, Rodney Rogers, etc. If you are strong enough or have long enough arms or both, you can excel despite not being 6'10".
Coleman is certainly shorter than your typical big man. But that doesn't mean he isn't a big.
Scott Rich on the front page
Trinity BS 2012; University of Michigan PhD 2018
Duke Chronicle, Sports Online Editor: 2010-2012
K-Ville Blue Tenting 2009-2012
Unofficial Brian Zoubek Biographer
If you have questions about Michigan Basketball/Football, I'm your man!
Bonzie Colson had like a 7'1" or so wingspan at 6'5", which is insane. That was a bigger differential in height than Kawhi or Draymond, both of whom are outliers.
DeJuan Blair measured at 6'5.5" without shoes and a 7'2" wingspan. He also had no cartilage in his knees.
Mark Vital, who just won a National Championship with the Baylor Bears, is another kind of guy that is 6'5" and crazy length and versatility.
I'm not sure what Coleman's measurements are, but it wouldn't surprise me if he's close to 7'0" at about 6'6" without shoes. That's good. Combine that with good vertical, and he could be a player like this in time.
I'll make the case for Henry if you like.
He had an OREB rate of 15.8% last season as a freshman. That was in limited minutes, but it's also the case that Mason Plumlee, Jahlil Okafor, Marques Bolden, Marvin Bagley III, Wendell Carter, Jr., Zion Williamson, Vernon Carey, Jr., and Mark Williams (to date) have NEVER had a season with a OREB rate as high as in their careers at Duke. The only guys I could find that had a higher OREB in any one season were the GOAT offensive rebounder Brian Zoubek and single seasons from Miles Plumlee as a senior, Marshall Plumlee as a RS sophomore, and Amile Jefferson in his shortened 2015-16 campaign. Henry is an elite offensive rebounder already. Good offensive rebounders are good rebounders. You can play him in a small-ball lineup, which is all the rage in basketball these days.
His lateral movement allows you to switch him on defense. He has to work on defensive positioning still, but it is possible that you can expect him to at least stay in front of most forwards, centers, and all but the fastest wings and guards. With his size and length, he can bother shots from all types of players. You can see from this clip in high school that he's pretty good at guarding a variety of players.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1246852153844682753
These aren't all D1 type players, but it's still notable that he's in a good defensive stance and can switch and move when he needs to.
Then you factor in the length and awareness when he's on the perimeter. That's where he can be really disruptive, getting in passing lanes, creating turnovers for opponents. The best version of Henry is going to be when he's stripping the ball from big men or sticking out those long arms to get deflections and steals. He may never be a high-level shot blocker, but he could be a guy that is just incredibly disruptive on defense to the point of thwarting the opponents' schemes.
On offense, I think it's going to be a work in progress. You'd love to see a reliable jumper from mid-range or beyond eventually. That might not happen at Duke. He is mobile and finishes around the rim well enough and against length. He's athletic and long enough to get good looks at the rim. I don't think he'll ever be the focal point on offense, but he can clean up the boards for putbacks, be a rim-runner or, be effective setting picks at the very least. You know he can get to the boards out of his area.
I REALLY hope Henry sticks around for a junior (or senior) season because he has a ton of upside. A lot of people throw around comparisons to the next Draymond Green, but this guy has that kind of skillset. I'm not saying he's as good as Draymond, but the tools are there.
He played all of 62 minutes, a lot of them not during crunch time, so I'm not as eager as some of you to hang my hat and these thin statistics...but like I said, I hope you're right.
I think you’re mostly spot-on, CDu: very credible backup center who could easily start and provide what we need down low. Tho when I looked at his advanced stats I found his TRB% was surprisingly mediocre for a guy of his size. He had the same TRB% as Matthew Hurt last year (11%). You noted the injuries...his soph and junior years were better around 13-14% so maybe his career average of 12.7% is best to anchor on, but that’s still not great for a guy of his size and athleticism (and its event more surprising b/c his shot blocking is strong, so the length and timing aspects appear to be there...)
As reference for folks, good Duke centers are in the 16-17%+ range.
Skinny Mark was 17% last year
Mason was 17% for his career (same for Miles)
Jah 16.6%
Even Marshall was 15%+
Theo has been closer to the Hurt’s, Tatum (12.6%), Ryan Kelly (11%), Ingram (10.8%) of the world than to our traditional centers, which I found surprising.
Still think he’ll be effective and can play an important role (and is one injury away from that being a BIG role), but would like to see him get that RB% up given his size, strength and athleticism.
You didn’t state what Question He would have been asked, but if the implication is that Coach K asked Henry “if we was OK with it” — I highly doubt that question was ever posed. Coach K is too smart to ask a question like that.
All these guys know that they have to compete for minutes every year. We recruit studs every, we look at all options every year, and the coaches will work their butts off to improve every player who is on the team to reach their max potential. That’s how its framed to these guys—the GOAT isn’t asking a guy who played 5mpg for ‘permission’ or anything close to it. Not how it works. That would be ineffective management and Coach K isn’t an EIR for Leadership at Fuqua for nothing!
Hysterical!!
https://twitter.com/JasonDukeEvans/s...67048566632448
(not my tweet, the one I am commenting upon)
Why are you wasting time here when you could be wasting it by listening to the latest episode of the DBR Podcast?