Now’s the time of year when college players try to overcome the NBA’s preconceptions. Talk about jousting at windmills.
Al-Farouq Aminu, Ed Davis and Cole Aldrich are all lottery locks, but, like most prize prospects, the NBA will spend the next month or so picking apart their games, their attitudes and highlighting their shortcomings.
Take Aminu. The 6-8 swingman is an ideal NBA swingman, blessed with size, skill and a willingness to rebound. So what’s wrong with him? He’s a slacker.
“Because I’m a real laid-back kind of guy, they think I’m real lazy,” Aminu said at the NBA’s draft combine. “Certain things come to me easy, and that makes people think I’m not going as hard as I can.”
Lazy wouldn’t be my biggest concern regarding Aminu. I’d be worried about his streaky shooting. He made just 27 percent of his 3s last season, and had an eFG% of just 47.1, hardly befitting a guy who can knock down a 15-foot jumper with regularity. But hey, Aminu has it made compared to Davis. Teams are convinced Davis is a back-to-the basket guy.
Nnnnnt! At his best, he’s Chris Bosh. At worst (when he’s not an offensive factor), he’s Marcus Camby. Davis isn’t going to show off any post moves at his upcoming workouts.
“I need to show them I have a face-up game because most teams see me as a back-to-the-basket player. I’m not. I’m a face-up forward,” Davis described Friday.
But the strangest one I read during the weekend? Aldrich as a guy who hangs out around the perimeter. He couldn’t be further from a soft, European-type big man.
Yet Kings fans - Sacramento has the fifth pick and wants a big to rebound and block shots - seem to be dreading the thought of Aldrich in Sactown. This comment on the Sacramento Bee cracked me up:
Unfortunately, the Kings have a history of acquiring mediocre 7-foot white guys: Mark Olberding, Greg Kite, Brad Lohaus, Dwayne Schinzius, Vlade Divac (sorry Vlade), Mike Peplowski, Kevin Salvadori, Spencer Hawes, Randy Breuer, Joe Kleine, Les Jepsen, Pete Chilcutt, Scot Pollard etc., etc. PLEASE KINGS, NO MORE!!!!!!!!!
Next thing you know, I’ll be reading about John Wall as a Stephon Marbury-type...
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