From Where I Stand (A Series)

Is it going to be blasphemous when I put Russell's comparison?

 

D'ANGELO RUSSELL


PROJECTIONS
Scoring Efficiency: 5.71
Passing Efficiency: 3.38
Hustle Efficiency: 2.67
Position: PG
Positional Efficiency: 74
-Russell showed decent scoring punch, good vision, strong effort on defense, and a serious lack of readiness for running an NBA offense. He should, however, learn pretty quickly, and could be a solid all-around player by end of year one.

Role: Starter

Russell will likely start at PG and play heavy minutes. He may end up being fairly interchangeable with Jordan Clarkson, and he might end up taking a back seat with initiating the offense when Kobe is on the court. Youthful mistakes will probably lead to some premature benchings, limiting his overall minutes.

Player Comparison: Penny Hardaway

It is difficult to find a comparison for Russell for two important reasons. First, he could become more of a floor general or more of a scorer; he could legitimately be either of those players. Second, he's so young that he has so much potential to develop on either of those very different paths. Still, when I see a young guy needing some time in the weight room with flashy passing and good vision, someone who looked despite his poor shooting performance and TOs like someone who could be looked to as a leader, I see Penny. (As a second best, Chris Paul when he entered the league; there's a good deal of that player in D'Angelo.)

 

ROBERT UPSHAW

PROJECTIONS
Scoring Efficiency: 4.77
Passing Efficiency: 1.85
Hustle Efficiency: 3.67
Position: BIG
Positional Efficiency: 73
-Upshaw might struggle to score buckets, especially if he is ignored like he was in Summer League: he doesn't have a good shot, and he's a terrible FT shooter. He should block shots very well and rebound reasonably well. He won't turn the ball over much in passing situations, but he might be whistled for a bunch of fouls setting screens.

Role: Role Player / Defensive Big

Upshaw might not play in many games this season, and he might not see many minutes either. He has shown, however, that he can hold his own defensively against the two top bigs from this season's draft. That bodes well for his ability to earn some playing time. Seven footers with some skills (he has shotblocking and screening) get minutes.

Player Comparison

Because of his size and flashes of determination, coupled with his shot blocking and occasional glimpses of footwork, Upshaw sometimes looks like a young Andrew Bynum. To be fair, Upshaw is a few years older than Bynum was when Bynum was flashing these skills, but if Upshaw could polish his game a bit, he could end up better than Bynum on defense even if not as good on offense.

 

Actually I think Upshaw's best analog might be Hibbert.

Tall, a little ungainly, defensive oriented, simple but fairly successful post moves, nice little mid-range touch, not as great a rebounder as they should be for their size...

I think we have two Hibberts.

 

BRANDON BASS


PROJECTIONS
Scoring Efficiency: 5.51
Passing Efficiency: 1.90
Hustle Efficiency: 3.52
Position: BIG
Positional Efficiency: 80
-Brandon Bass is a pretty complete player, a major coup given what the Lakers are paying him. He can score well, he he's a good offensive rebounder, and he doesn't turn the ball over very much. He has starter-level chops.

Role: Second String / Heavy Rotation

Bass can start, and he will push Randle for minutes at the 4. In fact, he will likely at time surpass Randle on the depth chart and in the esteem of Byron Scott. He will likely play about half of the minutes of Lakers' PFs this season.

 

I figured I wouldn't do a comparison with these gents, as they are mostly established vets. Remaining to add:

Kobe Bryant
Roy Hibbert
Ryan Kelly
Robert Sacre
Nick Young
Lou Williams

Or perhaps I could add a section on player comparison - who these players are now/in the Lakers plans.

 

So, here are the composite ratings so far...

Scoring
7 - exceptional
Kobe Bryant 6.59
6 - excellent
Jordan Clarkson 5.88
5.75 good
D'Angelo Russell 5.71
Jabari Brown 5.59
Julius Randle 5.52
Brandon Bass 5.51
5.5 solid
Anthony Brown 5.38
Larry Nance Jr. 5.21
Dwight Buycks 5.17
Tarik Black 5.11
5 - adequate
Robert Upshaw 4.77
4 - poor
3- terrible

Passing
4 - exceptional
Kobe Bryant 3.57
3.5 - excellent
Jordan Clarkson 3.47
D'Angelo Russell 3.38
3 - good
Dwight Buycks 2.79
2.5 - solid
Jabari Brown 2.47
Anthony Brown 2.32
Larry Nance Jr. 2.20
Julius Randle 2.16
2 - adequate
Brandon Bass 1.90
Robert Upshaw 1.85
Tarik Black 1.83
1.5 - poor
1 - terrible

Hustle
4 - exceptional
Robert Upshaw 3.67
Brandon Bass 3.52
3.5 - excellent
Tarik Black 3.40
Julius Randle 3.36
Larry Nance Jr. 3.00
3 - good
D'Angelo Russell 2.67
Jordan Clarkson 2.54
2.5 - solid
Anthony Brown 2.44
Kobe Bryant 2.31
Dwight Buycks 2.24
2 - adequate
Jabari Brown 1.68
1.5 - poor
1 - terrible

Positional
100+ superstar
90+ star
....Kobe Bryant 86
..........Brandon Bass 80
80+ starter
.Julius Randle 79
......Jordan Clarkson 74
......D'Angelo Russell 74
.......Robert Upshaw 73
........Tarik Black 72
..........Larry Nance Jr. 70
70+ role player
60+ rotational
.....Jabari Brown 55
.....Dwight Buycks 55
......Anthony Brown 54
40+ NBA body
20+ potential NBA body

 

I think the metrics will eventually show Jabari as a rotation guy, Buycks as nothing, Randle as a starter, and Russell and Clarkson right under it around 77-79 or so. Clarkson might break the plane. Upshaw I expect to move downward a bit (or stay the same if he doesn't have a huge sample size). Same with Nance Jr.

 

Knowing what I know about the rating system, I think Uphsaw will improve; bigs tend to be able to hit 70s and 80s easier than other players, especially wings. Maybe my system is too hard on wings

I agree with you on Jabari, but part of what separates Jabari from some other players is his high scoring efficiency; if you're looking for a scorer, he does it well. I'll compare it with Nick and Lou later on. I bet they'll be pretty impressive, FWIW. Young was often at 6+ in the past.

 

KOBE BRYANT


PROJECTIONS
Scoring Efficiency: 6.59
Passing Efficiency: 3.57
Hustle Efficiency: 2.31
Position: Wing
Positional Efficiency: 86
-Kobe can still do it when healthy, and even when he wasn't healthy, he could still dictate the tempo of a game and the look of a team. Kobe should settle down somewhere between what he has done the past two seasons and what he did prior to his Achilles' injury. He's still a devastating scoring and passing combo.

Role: Starter

What Kobe should do and what he will do will likely converge this season, as the Lakers have learned the hard way what happens when you try to push an aging star beyond his limits repeatedly. Bryant should be able to start half of the games this season and play between 24 and 30 minutes per game.

Player Comparison

There are numerous players Kobe could pattern his game on in these late stages of his career. He could be a Jason Kidd type floor leader, but we should expect the young bucks to handle the ball more than that. He could be a Vince Carter type gunner who doesn't do much else, but something tells me that Kobe will - and should - get into the paint more and be relied upon as a creator from the elbow. In his final season in the NBA, Michael Jordan operated with Jerry Stackhouse, Larry Hughes, and Tyronn Lue doing a lot with the basketball. Kobe should continue to emulate MJ.

 

Well I just think Upshaw's raw-ness will come into play eventually and he'll be prone to mistakes/lack of statistical production. He's got such a long way to go that despite his great talent I think statistically he won't show much on the floor.