What Mr. Montross says encapsulates how I feel as well. In fact, it reminds of when a young writer asked a college coach after an upset if he could have imagined it in his wildest dreams. Replied the coach, my wildest dreams don't involve basketball. True story.
Well if we're comparing our youngsters, Yi is definitely the one with the most long-term potential because of the combination of length, athleticism, smarts, and incredible shooting ability. But Lopez will probably be more valuable in the short term because of all-round sound fundamentals, sheer size, defensive deterrence, and the fact that he's much, much better near the basket at this point than Yi. It's exciting to have two bigs with that kind of potential and to have Ryan (and CDR) on top of it.
Let's just hope that by 2010, all of them are close to reaching their potential, because it sure would be nice that summer to be able to say to free agents, "we have three 22-year-old bigs who anyone can see are pretty damn good."
You know alot of people immediately compared Ryan Anderson to Boki or KVH, but i disagree. They say its unfair to compare the next white guy to Larry Bird, but i see some comparisons here. Same size, much tougher than boki or Kvh, but more rugged like a bird, and has a real nice shot like bird. Kvh had a nice touch and range, boki was more of a streak shooter when it was all said and done Defensively he will be far superior than either Kvh or Boki. He does have a nose for the ball unlike boki or kvh in the rebounding dept. His Assist numbers are already high for a rookie and will only improve becasue he already exhibited a great BB IQ. I felt on draft night he wouild be the most productive rookie and i believe that will still happen by years end. He has the potential to start over Yi at anytime, just like brook does over boone. It could happen in the next month or so if Yi stumbles or hits any kind of wall. I also see Frank using Ryan to start on certain matchups as well. Wouldn't mind see PF by committee anyway. Nobody should be guaranteed a starting spot when all are playing so well.
Since I once watched Larry like I now watch Vince, I have to strongly disagree with this. The disparity in talent, skill, and team roles between Ryan and Larry is simply too gargantuan to meaningfully compare the two beyond them both being Caucasian forwards about 6'9"-6'10". Larry was as great and creative a passer as has ever played this game and as a rookie became the offensive hub and unquestioned go-to guy for a team that enjoyed a 32-game turnaround from the previous season to finish with 61 regular season wins. That year he led his team in scoring, rebounds, and steals, shot 41% from 3, 47% overall, and was second on the team in assists, all with the defensive focus on him. And all this was BEFORE Robert Parish and Kevin McHale even came to town. It's a disservice to both players, IMO, to attempt to draw parallels.
User01 is the man. I've seen Anderson compared to KVH, Troy Murphy, Bargnani, Boki and now Larry Bird (yikes!!). But he went outside the box and threw an Al Harrington in there. I don't throw rep around, but that deserves some dap.
I don't understand how a guy that led the Pac-10 in scoring could be so underrated. When he was picked, everyone loved CDR, they liked Lopez for the most part, but this guy was viewed as OK to irrelevant.
Let alone a guy that is a 6'10" 240lb PF that also averaged 9.9 rebounds per game... all as a sophmore.
