Ronnie Lester Comments on Bynum

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">RL: Well, we felt- Andrew Bynum?s a center, he?s 7? with a 7?6? wingspan, you normally don?t find centers tenth in the draft. If you?re gonna draft a center, you?re probably in the top four or five. And the good centers, they go real early. We liked a lot of things about Andrew. As a kid. His work ethic. His size. His frame. Being able to draft a center at number ten, which you normally can?t do. We felt he was too good to pass up. We know it?s gonna take time. He was 17 years old when we drafted him. But if he had gone to college for a couple of years, we probably never would have been able to draft him at ten. So we felt he was a player at ten, to get a center, that we just couldn?t pass up.

AK: What was the organization?s feeling on his rookie season, in terms of progress and the way things went?

RL: Well, I know if you ask him, he?ll say he didn?t play nearly as much as he wanted to. And we?d like to see him play more than he did,too, honestly. But once you draft a player and you hand him over to the coaching staff, it?s those guys? decision how much a kid plays. But we think Andrew?s gonna be fine. We think he?s gonna be a cornerstone player for us for a number of years. He?s a young kid. He works hard. He wants to learn. He asks a lot of questions. So I think the future for him is very bright.

BK: This year, the top center on a lot of people?s boards is Patrick O?Bryant. And then some people talk about Mouhamed Sere Sene, from Senegal. How does Andrew compare to them, in what's generally considered a down draft, especially for centers?

RL: Well, the kid from Bradley (O?Bryant), he?s a long kid, too. He?s pretty athletic for a seven foot kid. He?s long. I think it?s going to take him a while to develop physically. He doesn?t have the body Andrew had. This kid played two years of college and Andrew was coming out of high school as a 17-year old. Andrew has a bigger body, a bigger frame. I think this kid is a center, the Bradley kid. But it?s gonna take him a while because he?s not strong. He gets pushed around. The other kid, the African kid, Saer Sene, he?s the same way. He?s a thin kid. He?s very athletic running. He?s long. He?s a shot blocker. I think if you put him in an NBA game today, what he can do is block shots, because he?s long. He goes after shots. But if you?re talking about him physically, Andrew is a much bigger center than those two guys are.

BK: And while it?s still developing, he does have a more polished low post game and low block offensive game.

RL: Yeah. I?ve seen the kid Saer Sene play once, in the Hoops Summit. I saw him practice a couple times. And I don?t know him as well as I know Patrick O?Bryant or our kid, Andrew. But I think physically, Andrew is a center. He can stand up and play in the post. Pound guys. Be physical. I think the Patrick O?Bryant kid, he?ll develop some physically. But I think Andrew?s gonna be a bigger player. A physically bigger player, as far as strength and weight. I don?t even know if the other kid, Saer Sene, is even a center in our league. And that?s what you run up against when you see young kids that play center in college or in Europe. Most of them can?t play center in our league. They?re not big enough. They?re not strong enough. But Andrew is. Andrew?s a center.

AK: So while there?s obviously guesswork with Andrew when it comes to measuring his true potential, but looking at him physically, there?s no guesswork.

RL: No. He?s 275 now as an 18-year old kid. Two years in the weight room, working in the weight room, he?s gonna play in his prime right around 300 pounds, which is pretty big. He?s gonna be there. 290, 300 lbs. That?s what he?s gonna play at. </div>

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For those not in the know, Ronnie Lester is the Lakers top scout. Hopefully Bynum lives up to the hype.

 

Honestly, to me, I don't see Bynum as a player who can win us a title. I see him as a Jermaine O'neal type of impact player. An all-star who can get us to the 2nd or 3rd round of the play-offs, but to get us to the finals, he's going to need some key pieces around him. His defensive game is surprisingly nice for a kid fresh to the league, his offense needs work though. I think he'll be able to easily work on his offense, though. He just has a feel for the ball and when he makes his shots, they look silky smooth. I think the best we can expect out of Bynum is 23 PPG, 11 RPG, 2 APG, and 2 BPG. If we can put some pieces around him that are capable of winning, we could have a wicked team on our hands.