[StewParticipant]

Two elite big men in the class of 2017, both have tremendous potential. Which one will you take going foward. I know Ayton is headed to Arizona, and heard Texas is leading currently for Bamba but Kentucky may emerge with Quade Green as future PG and good friends with bamba and calipari really likes him. 

[Robb_CParticipant]

Ayton is more ready to play in the NBA right now, Mo Bamba is still a little raw but is extremely promising as far as development.. He’s really long and moves laterally pretty well  which all translates to being a great defender at the next level.. 

Bamba should stay away from Kentucky, He still needs development.. Cal is a glorified AAU coach at Kentucky, I cant name one player whos stayed with him over the course of his college career and dramatically improved.. Marcus Lee never was developed at Kentucky neither were the Harrison twins..

 

[Bankroll PJParticipant]

 Willie Cauley-Stein? Tyler Ulis? Patrick Patterson? DeAndre Liggins? Josh Harrelson? 

[Robb_CParticipant]

 Ullis was already pretty developed as a PG, watch him in HS the kid was a stud, Ive watched him plenty.. Whole reason why Cal recruited him so hard is because  of this fact..DeAndre Liggins is sitting in the D-League right now.. Was one of the top ranked prospects in Chicago still the same player he was in HS.. 

Patrick Patterson was more efficient under Billy than Cal.. Go look at the numbers

Josh Harrelson owes his Enes Kanter and his own hardwork for Developing, Enes played at Kentucky Calipari would have sparingly used Josh..

Willie Cauley Stein showed minimum improvement from his freshman year, go look at the numbers..

 

 

 

 

[SubZeroParticipant]

Don’t just look at numbers. I’ve watched every Kentucky game that was available for the past at least 8 or 9 years, so I saw a whole lot of AWillie Cauley-Stein. His numbers might not have been great but his improvement was extremely evident. Him getting hurt is one of the biggest reasons we didn’t go all the way in 2014. Saying he didn’t improve is just flat out wrong. And obviously Cal wouldn’t have played Harrellson as much if Kanter was there. What coach in their right mind would choose to not play the more talented player?

[Robb_CParticipant]

My point is Cal is not good at developing players.. I dont want to nit pick players but the development is minimal whats the excuse for Dakari, Skal, Marcus Lee etc etc. I can go on and on..

[SubZeroParticipant]

Skal’s not a fair example because I believe he would’ve gotten better and he showed signs of life near the end of the season. And Marcus Lee went from barely playing to starting, he just wasn’t as good as the guys that were brought in. I agree he’s not the coach for you if you’re a 4 year project, but if you’re a top prospect there’s no doubt you’ll get better in your year under him

[Kokayne_DawkinzParticipant]

Even Towns and Davis got better as the year devolped under Calipari. Towns always tells the story about how Cal brought out his inner Alpha dog because he was shy and wasn’t very vocal on the court.  Same with Davis.

[holefillers1Participant]

 Mo Bamba is definitely the better defender. His offense is Nerlens Noel raw though.  I hope he plays more then one year in the NCAA

[binetParticipant]

 Most elite defensive big men right now did struggle a lot coming into the league regardless of age (Gobert, Adams, Biyombo, Ezeli, Whiteside even Mahinmi) with generally success after some years, I would say the younger the better. Defense is something that is harder to learn, and even with great potential like him, NCAA is not a level where long bigs are challenged enough. Very few teams have excellent pick & roll PGs, and hardly any team has an NBA size big man. It’s not enough to develop your defensive instincts while you are still young and agile (important with bigs like him).

Given the improvement Embiid has made since he got drafted on the offensive end (largely due to his injuries and innate talent though), I also think that NBA quality coaching is better also for fundamentals and skillset.

 

[HitsterParticipant]

 I haven’t seen a lot of Bamba yet, so I’d have to go with Ayton at this moment as he is more proven and has an NBA size already. Bamba needs to gain weight but is 19 months away from being drafted and nearly 2 years from a possible NBA debut so has time to remedy this.

Wendell Carter is an interesting prospect too, talked very highly of as a natural leader and being a high character guy. Other players may be more naturally talented but he looks the sort of guy who would make the most of what he has. Plus he is going to play under Coach K at Duke next year so could really improve as he looks the sort of prospect that Coach K loves to work with.

 

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