It takes big guys longer to develop. Everyone said this to me when I was calling Leonar_ a bust early. You were one of them, actually. Could the same not be said about Sabonis? Age is similar, but years of NBA coaching and NBA experience are both heavily in Vonleh's favor.
Bigs do take longer (in general, there are always exceptions), but it's not about calendar time, it's about paying time. The only way to get a feel for the game is to actually play the game. The difference in actually playing time isn't that great between Sabonis and Vonleh. Vonleh played a pretty meaningless 259 minutes of garbage time his rookie year. Sabonis as at 1415 minutes, almost all of it as a starter, and counting. He's getting way more minutes and the minutes he's getting are more meaningful (not the glorified street ball known as garbage time). By the end of his next game, Sabonis will have played more minutes is his rookie season than Vonleh played in his first two. As far as this season goes, Sabonis is at 1415 minutes played and Vonleh is at 845 minutes. The other thing that helps young players develop is a consistent role. Sabonis has had that, starting 64 games. As mentioned, Vonleh barely played his rookie year. Other than an a few occasional minutes of garbage time, he had no role. Last year, he went from barely playing to starting back to barely playing. That can mess with a young players confidence, which seems to be one of the things holding Vonleh back. Same this year for Vonleh. He went from barely playing to starting. His current stretch is three games is the first time all season where he has played => 20 minutes in two straight games. He seems to finally have a consistent role and is showing significant improvement. But, even beyond that, Vonleh is bigger, stronger, more athletic and appears to be more skilled. His wide body, big hands and long arms make him a much better rebounder than Sabonis (that's a skill I find very valuable in a power forward). Those same physical attributes also make Vonleh a better defender. Sabonis was a good shooter (although an average 3-point shooter, at best) in college, but that hasn't translated into the NBA. That may come over time, but right now, Vonleh is a better shooter at the NBA level. In any case, my post was in response to the assertion that Vonleh may be the worst starting PF in the NBA. He's not. He's clearly better than Domantas Sabonis TODAY. Vonleh is also better than Luke Babbit, who has started 46 games at PF for the Heat this year. In his 7th season with almost 5000 minutes played, we can't use the youth/inexperience card to explain why Babbit is worse than Vonleh. He just is. BNM
2 questions: who are the PF's in the NCAA/International that are currently better than Vonleh? My guess is none. Who are the PF's who will be better than Vonleh. Undoubtably there are at least a few. But they are a couple years off. I still think TJ Leaf is one who is worth a 2 year investment and who is currently in our projected draft position
I can't remember his contract situation. Aren't we in kind of a tough situation that if he improves next year we would have a tough time affording to pay him?
There are major reasons I would prefer a developmental rookie league to a straight pro draft. In baseball, players don't get acrue sevice time till they make the bigs, but when they do they contribute immediately. In the NBA, that two to three years time spend on the bench is a killer. And while they only become restricted free agents they still take up a large part of your cap. It would be awesome if there was a buffer period of cheap controllable talent in the NBA that allowed you to compete and then trade those players for more picks. But with the lack of overall talent to go around the league and current labor rules, that's difficult.
Potentially--but you could move Meyers and Turner for your first if you think Vonleh is that important.
Which means we could be showcasing him before the draft to improve value and either move up or package him for a need. No way we will be able to afford Nurk and Vonleh in all likelihood.
It's his pick and roll D. He kinda has TT (LMA) syndrome. He doesn't play it well and ends up on the guard instead of getting back to his man.
I've got more hope for Vonleh now than I did last year. If he could just consistantly stick that mid range jumper and get better at finishing....
Over a season from now is a LONG way off. IF your statemjent is true, wouldnt that be just a HUGE concern? We are discussing if Vonleh is going to be good enough, but if he is, we cant afford him. so what makes us think we can afford someone better than him? I actually still have faith in NO that he will make all the money work out and this team will continue to improve, both in roster and experience. You wanna know what would make everything soooo much easier? If Dame showed HOW much he loved it here and got with Crabbe Turner and CJ, and allowed the Blazers to rework their contracts a bit, so we could afford the missing paces to the puzzle. Come to think of it, I really think Crabbe was the cause to the financial situation. If he wouldn't have signed that contract with Brooklyn(or was it the 6ers") and forced our hand, we probably would have then also got Turner for less. Knock off ten mil of of each of their contracts and we would be sitting just fine.
Why not? You think Allen cares about luxury tax if he's paying for a winner? I think the smart thing to do would be to lock one, or both of them up this summer. Anyways, let's talk about Vonlehs perimeter defense instead. He was shutting that shit down today. Every time Vonleh switched onto a guard, I had no worries, I had confidence he'd hold his own. And he did.
If you could get him for a good discount (and I don't see why we wouldn't) then I would absolutely lock Vonleh up this summer. Same goes for Nurkic (although he would be smart to wait as we won't offer max first time around).
