I think Mo can be a more athletic Ryan Anderson. He certainly has the speed. Strength can be worked on. If his shot is money, then everything will fall in place for him. Its not like Dirk was an amazing athlete....yet he still managed to be an all-time great. Dirk is once a generation type of player but as a matter of fact, it is possible to survive in the NBA and be an asset even without the crazy jumping ability. What matters though is that he must keep his weaknesses in check and he needs to be able to make 40% from the 3 point range.
young dirk was an underrated athlete, actually. current dirk can barely move, but he's 40. still think his comp is more like a smaller brook lopez or a more fluid frank kaminsky.
I think in a lot of ways we'll have a "steal" already. Maybe not a Kuzma level steal, but a guy who is an NBA player at the end of the 1st which is in itself a success. I'm thinking more along the lines of Nance, but with a much higher ceiling. And yes his defense will be an issue. Something I notice about him is just a complete lack of focus on that end. In that respect, he was very Kuzma-like. There's times when he hedges on screens and recovers that are absolutely shocking and will be very helpful, but then there's times when he'll get abused because he's not moving his feet at all. Very strange, but seemingly coachable.
Kaminsky isn't a bad comp although I think Moe's ceiling is higher given his athleticism and mindset. Kaminsky doesn't have enough heart.
You should have just passed Pete some of your notes. Saved him some time. Although I know he really enjoys the process of making those videos especially when its a new toy (player) on the team.
I appreciate it, but he does such a better job of explaining the points I always appreciate his take. I'm just glad to be on the same page as him, it makes me feel more confident in my takes.
So, defense is going to be the main limitation of his game? I was watching him today, and he reminded of P. Gasol in some respects (offensively; stud). As LFR says, if he can get to "okay", we might have something; he can do almost everything offensively you want in a modern-day big...with the exception of defensively.
Defense will by far be his biggest challenge. He's very Kuzma-like in his complete lack of defensive awareness, but it's more accentuated because he's going to play the 4/5 in our system and will have to defend the rim a little. If he can't learn to defend the rim, he's going to struggle to find a role. If he can pick up defensive concepts (and there's no indication he can't yet), he may be a starter in the league.
If we have lebron, pg, lonzo, and Kawhi switching everything on the perimeter rather than funneling, we could have one of those inflatable wacky flailing arms balloon guys at center and still get stops.