NBA Comparison: Brook Lopez/Raef LaFrentz

Strengths: Smooth bigman with great length and developing skills who has quickly become the premiere center in the country ... Shows solid basketball understanding/fundamentals and a high motor ... Made a huge jump during his sophomore season (going from a 3ppg 3 rpg player to 15 ppg and 11 rpg) and appears ready to take his game to another level in his junior season ... His long arms (7'4 wingspan) allows him to play a few inches bigger than his 6'11 height and patrol the paint ... Has good agility for a player his size and is beginning to develop good body control and offensive moves ... His overall feel for the game has begun to come around. His footwork in the post is superb and his post game is starting to become highly efficient ... He employs an effective hook shot as well as the ability to step out and hit shots facing the basket ... But to his credit he is not overly enamored with drifting away from the basket and focuses on using his size, strength and touch to score easy baskets in the paint ... Though the mechanics on his shot aren't pretty, they are effective ... A bigman who runs the floor well and can finish on the break ... Shows excellent coordination with the ability to convert plays in both the half court and on the break ... Defensively he has become a real presence as a shot blocker using his huge wingspan to inhale close to 3 blocks per game ... He shows solid vision finding teammates when he gets doubled and does a good job of finding open teammates cutting to the basket ... Soft hands give him the ability to gather rebounds or post passes and limit any fumbling of the ball ... Developed very good consistency in his sophomore year scoring in double figures in all but 4 games, and at least 8 points in every game ... Highly efficient offensively, shooting close to 60% from the floor ... His free throw shooting has shown improvement (68% to 79%) and become very effective ... Very solid in most areas ... Appears to be all 6'11 that he's listed and could even potentially measure that barefoot making him a legit 7-footer ...

Weaknesses: Not overly explosive or a freakish athlete but his length and agility make him very effective ... His unorthodox shooting style (has a large range of motion on his shot and follow through) makes him appear to be less coordinated and less efficient than he actually is ... Not overly fiery. His demeanor is extremely even keeled ala Tim Duncan, but he shows a competitiveness when challenged ... Could look to extend his range out a little ways, but has shown nice development in his short to mid range shot ... Shows nice speed in the open floor, however his defensive speed laterally is a little slow. Granted most centers aren't as fleet of foot as other positions ... Has excellent strength for the college level, but will need to continue to bulk up and get nastier to contend with the beasts in the paint at the NBA level ... Added strength will also allow him to finish off plays around the basket even more effectively ... Developing a nastier on court disposition will help him. However, his choirboy appearance can be deceiving as he has no problem with physical contact ... Should focus on becoming more of a vocal and all around leader ...

Outlook: With KU figuring to be in the National title picture all year, he will likely be considered as a top 5 pick. Should the Jayhawks win it all, his chances of going top 5 will be enhanced ...

Aran Smith 9/29/09

YouTube Clip - 11/26/2008