My Thoughts On a Few 2010 1st Round Locks

Here are some of my early impressions of some of this season’s 1 Rd talent.

Cole Aldrich: Solid, but is he overrated? Doesn’t seem to have a lot of agility, but has decent end to end speed and exceptional instincts. The thing that intrigues me is a lot of scouts aren’t THAT high on him, but it seems to be a consensus so far that he’s a top 10 pick. I think that has a lot to do with Brook Lopez falling to 10 and to a much lesser degree Kevin Love being questioned as a top 5 pick. Both guys are killing it in the league despite not being freakishly athletic big men. To me right now I say pick 11 to 20 for Aldrich.

Derrick Favors:A lot of people disagree with me, but this guy will be an unstoppable NBA player in 4 years, and will either be the #1 player of the 2010 draft or be right there with Wall. Mark my words. This kid manages to get double doubles despite playing alongside one of the fiercest rebounders in the country and he hasn’t figured it all out yet! I’m telling you…

John Wall: The consenus #1 pick except for about 5 or so teams. I’m sure everyone has heard (and seen) how great Wall has been so far, but allow me to put on the breaks on the “greatest of” talk. What separates Wall from his current competion is his end to end speed and athleticism. Those attributes are found in NBA point guards on every team…even on every bench for goodness sake. What separates Jason Kidd, Chris Paul or Brandon Jennings from two solid NBAers Mike Conley or a Mario Chalmers? It’s not physical gifts. It’s superior court vision. So far John Wall has shown average NBA court vision. But he’s still in the top half of NBA point guards. It will be scary if he has the mindset to get a lot better.

Xavier Henry: I admit I like the guy’s game a lot. But the Paul Pierce comparisons are ridiculous (at this point) for one main reason: ballhandling. Henry has shown himself to be lethal off the ball, but he almost never has the ball in his hands. Pierce did everything when he was in college, and he was a top offensive option for his team. Henry may not even be the 3rd option on his team, which allows him to roam and catch awesome alleys while defenses focus on the other stars. Henry will be snatched up by a team with an established point, which most likely will be in late teens but no later than early 20s.

Greg Monroe: I hope people keep sleeping on this guy, since it looks like my team (thunder) may not be picking in the top 9 next year. Most people don’t understand that what makes you sucessful in college isn’t neccesarily what makes you an NBA all-star. Georgetown’s system has a Princeton flavor to it, which is why a mobile big man won’t stand out as much as a traditional center. And Monroe still produces. No he’s not the next Olajuwon and no one has said that, but he’s better than a lot of people give him credit for. Just watch.

Evan Turner: Maybe my favorite player of this draft class. I love versitile guys, and this guy reminds me of one of my all time favorites: Penny Hardaway. The thing about Turner I fear though is he may be TOO versitile in the NBA. He’s not great at anything yet but he’s good at everything, so his contributions could tend to get drowned out or overlooked. For example if Turner gets 12 pts, five assists, five rebounds and a steal or two but his teammate goes for 40 pts, a measley 2 assists and a couple rebounds, who gets the all-star love? You guessed it. Now that’s fine for a game here and there, but there’s the problem. Turner is capable of AVERAGING 12, 5, 5, and 1 or more as a rookie, which is phenomenal. Turner needs to work on his outside shot and even though he is a solid ballhandler, he needs to become better if he wants to play consistent point guard minutes at the next level.

Any thoughts on my thoughts? Or how about yall’s thoughts on other 1st round locks?