Too old? I thought he was 2nd in Vegas in rebounding. I wouldn't say scrub, just not a regular rotation type.
He's 23, which tends to imply "what you see is what you get" there probably won't be much more growth.
too small? Dude might not be talented/coordinated enough, but over half the HOF is filled with guys smaller then him. Dude is about the same size as Amare and is a solid run jump athlete too. STOMP
Jeff plays like a center. I know he's listed as a power forward, but in reality his skillset makes him an undersized 5 ... and as for Hall of famers smaller than him, I'm guessing they were a helluva lot more talented than Jeff.
Amare has made several All Star games as a center. Athleticism and size aren't Jeff's limitations, skills/coordination are STOMP
His macho reputation for not being nice is the only advantage he supposedly has. He's a C, not a F, with a ceiling of maybe a Duane Causwell or even maybe a Kelvin Cato, but that's just dreaming. The new development being discussed here is that the Summer League showed he has less potential than thought.
I think that gets into the area of combine-type athleticism vs. real game athleticism. Tough to separate out athleticism and coordination in that respect... Likewise, we've seen Pendy demonstrate a good shooting stroke in practice, but little ability to translate that to game speed. I would have to say the skills are there. He just doesn't have the tools to put them to use. I've always felt he's way too slow/deliberate laterally to be a productive rotation player, and that affects all phases of his game.
Maybe all he needs is a bit of seasoning. More practice time. Maybe he'll earn some more playing time and the game will slow down a bit for him. I suppose it's also possible he could go to the D-league.
Kelvin Cato was a pretty good rotation center. I liked him as a Blazer, and actually didn't like that he was traded; would have rather kept him through the lean years. If that's Jeff's ceiling, I'd be pretty pleased. But you might be right in that Cato's probably a bit too high for Pendy to reach.
That's the old catch-22 of needing playing time to develop but not being good enough to warrant playing time...
Blazers fans had a lot of hope for Cato and he was showing promise. In fact, he was a major peice in that Pippen trade. But, he never really lived up to his potential. I don't really see any kind of hype surrounding Pendo's potential.
Hmm... I don't see how he's been any sort of disappointment. There's a reason that he went in the second round: he's never been thought to have THAT much potential. He does, though, have more than players at his playing ability who are 5 or 6 years older than he is. Ed O.
