D*ng looks like all the Draft Hype outside of Wemby is 6'8 or below If we don't get Wemby I think we need Height!! Rocket River
If we don't get Wemby, hopefully we get Scoot. And if we don't get Scoot, we take the best player available (for the most part).
Why Ware? Does he even get many minutes on his own team? He was heralded coming out of high school, but I haven't watched much of him in college, and the only thing I know of him is he doesn't get much court time.
If you want a big guy, Zac Edey would be available in the 2nd (buy a pick). But maybe we want a more mobile 7 footer?? Look for a backup 7 footer in FA? Thomas Bryant?
There's an article in The Athletic about the multiple-skilled (HS, Euro, NCAA) 7-footers who are coming up soon-ish.
The traditional big man is extinct. The rules changes have caused that. And the bar has continued to move away from that traditional prototype. First it was they had to be able to shoot from distance, now they have to be able to attack off the dribble and be great passers too .... otherwise they are role players and nothing more - even the Capela archetype of shot blocker / rebounder / rim runner is nothing more than a role player in the modern NBA. Dwight Howard is playing in freaking Taiwan ....
The last 3 MVP likely won by a 7 footer though. The two before that by 6'11. International Bigs the both of 'em.
Even with the new rules, seems like size is still a valued attribute. Wow total Bigs > mids + smalls. Just reminds me just how much better skilled a smaller player has to be to overcome the size advantage. Even today... @Corrosion describes is how Id have assumed it'd be today. Maybe both are true. There are fewer overall because there's no room in the NBA for huge stiffs staples or role players like every team used to have, but a huge player with guard skills is still highly valued. BTW what was the height cutoff from small to mid and mid to big in the MVP breakdown?
Bigs dominating the early decades really skew the percentages. Since the game moved away from the post, the majority of MVPs were perimeter players. The recent bigs that have won MVP (Jokic, Giannis, KG, Dirk) brought outlier perimeter skills to the position. Cam Boozer, Cooper Flagg, and Matas Buzelis are up and coming. Not sure if they'll reach 6'11+, but I think the pool of skilled bigs will continue to grow. Side note, it seems like youth levels in the US are finally realizing that forcing the tallest kid to play center all the time isn't great for developing talent.
Actually big men are coming back. Mvp contenders are Embiid and Jokic. 3rd on Roy is Kessler. Jarrett Allen an allstar and of course lets not forget CF's favorite golden boy Evan Mobley.
Ware just declared he will not enter the 2023 draft. So yeah this class is pretty short on centers to say the least.
That said--Jarace Walker has a 7'1" wingspan and is already built like a tank, so I definitely think he can play small ball 5 in today's league.
Even if Ware declared for the draft, I doubt he'd go really high. That dude barely even played for Oregon. Coming out of high school, he was highly-regarded. I don't follow college all that much, but it's obvious something wasn't clicking when you look and see he isn't getting minutes. Maybe he'll get some minutes wherever he ends up.
FIBA U19 must have problems finding 7-footers. Looked like he was playing against 6'9" and under dudes. That was Alexandre Sarr he went by at around 0:16 and throwing his shoulder into around the 0:50 mark of the video. Most of the other guys look like midgets. He's actually talked about somewhat, but most of the focus when it comes to bigs is on players like Sarr and Almansa, but most of those dudes are beanpoles. This guy has weight on him. A lot of people woke up to him after the U19 FIBA tournament over the summer.
