Or SA or Cleve either. Probably half the teams in the NBa would have stripped him. lol. But yes. Nicest spin move on the team hands down.
His demeanor and skill set is similar to Kawhi Leonard. Mo would really flourish in SA's system, with all the attention to detail that went into making Kawhi the player he is today.
What more do you think he's going to develop into? He's a solid defender and hit a wide open shot with some consistency. I don't see him creating his own shot or becoming a great 3-point shooter. He's close to his ceiling in my estimation. In terms of Vonleh, his ceiling is capped by his lack of height.
You're undeniably right. His height will prevent him from ever becoming a Barkley-level power forward. I mean, he's not even tall enough to reach Kevin Love, or even Paul Millsap heights, really. Much too short to be a quality starting PF.
I kind of agree with you on Harkless. Although he has not reached his ceiling, the way he is hitting 3's at the moment, is pretty close to it. Which is good enough. But yeah he is never going to be a go to guy on offense. Vonleh's height on the other hand should not be a hinderance. His wing span is over 7'4" and his standing reach is 9'0". Nothing wrong with that.
His improved shooting is a HUGE step forward for Mo. Good for him for working on improving that glaring weakness in his game during the offseason. That work is paying dividends. He does still have one other weakness - he's a below average rebounder for his size/position. Batum, Hayward, Parsons, Durant, LeBron (of course) and pretty much all other decent starting small forwards rebound the ball better than Mo. His TRB% of 8.3 is pretty weak. And it's not like he's playing next to some rebounding stud that hogging all the rebounds. Rebpnding is a HUGE weakness for this team right now. At this point, I'm not sure if weak interior defense or poor rebounding is our biggest weakness. After the last couple games, without Aminu, I'm leaning toward rebounding. We get out rebounded on a nightly basis, usually by a LOT. That's the major reasons teams like DEN and PHO are able to hang with us and make the games closer than they should be. Give any team, even a bad team, enough extra possessions and they will eventually find a way to score. We are now officially dead last in the league in TRB/G and ORB/G. We give up an average of 5 ORB/G more than we get (12.3 vs. 7.3). That's five extra possessions per game right there. Throw in our weak interior defense and a good portion of the offensive rebounds are converted into second chance points. Of course, this isn't all, or even mostly, Mo's fault, but if he can improve his rebounding, like he did his shooting, it would really help the team. And PLEASE stop suggesting we use him as a small ball 4. We already get killed on the boards. Moving a weak rebounding SF up to the PF position would be a fucking disaster for an already weak rebounding team. BNM
Wait, what? Are you talking about Harkless, or Vonleh? The post you quoted said: "In terms of Vonleh, his ceiling is capped by his lack of height." As Pinwheel1 pointed out, Vonleh's standing reach is 9'0". That's exactly the same as Ed Davis, who plays both the 4 and 5, Meyers Leonard, ditto and Mason Plumlee, who plays strictly center. A 9'0" standing reach is perfectly acceptable for a starting power forward. Paul Millsap's standing reach is 8'9.5". So Noah has 2.5" on him. Kevin Love has an 8'10" standing reach. 2" advantage Vonleh. Now, if you are talking about Maurice Harkless, I agree 100%. This is no situation ever, in the NBA, that Mo Harkless with an 8'6.5" standing reach and an 8.3% TRB% should NEVER be forced to pay power forward. BNM P.S. Others of note: Anthony Davis - standing reach = 9'0". Miles Turner - standing reach = 9'0". Al Horford - standing reach = 8'11".
Must be something wrong with my laptop. Shows up as black text on a white background on my computer. BNM
Oh well, completely missed that one. I was too busy obsessing on the opinions that Harkless can play PF in small ball line ups. He can't. BNM
True satire doesn't require green font. Yes, I intentionally listed three all-star power forwards who are shorter than Vonleh so as to undermine the point of the poster to whom I was replying.
You're totally right..... he can't play the four in a small ball lineup...... but...... how about the five?
"His height will prevent him from ever becoming a Barkley-level power forward" This line should have been a giant huge blinking red light on the old sarcasm meter. It wasn't just blinking.... it was blinking AND flashing. It was blinking, flashing, and it had sirens. Not just sirens.... air raid sirens..... and a train horn.
