I thought it might be interesting to assess our own player evaluations... This is based on the honor system (we didn't guess every players abilities correctly). Lotto picks don't count (guessing Yao would be a player doesn't take a lot of insight) There are four categories: 1) Players you thought would have been further along now (amount of PT is not considered) 2) Players you thought would do well when there wasn't much public recognition when they were drafted.... and they did! 3) Players that have done better than you thought they would 4) Players that haven't done much yet but you think will still take off Ok I'll start with my confessions: 1) Players I thought would be better by now... Brendan Haywood Jerome James Carlos Arroyo Jumaine Jones Jamal McGloire Jason Maxiell Jeff McInnis Chris Mihm Olowokandi Vasillis Spanolis 2)Underrated players that I predicted would do better than their draft position: (and they did): Sammy Dalembert Willie Green David Lee Gerald Wallace Earl Watson Leandro Barbosa Jason Terry 3)Players that have done better than I thought they would: Caron Butler Carlos Boozer David West Gilbert Arenas Memo Walter Hermann Now the hard one: 4) Players that I think will still have good success even though they've started slowly: Desagna Diop James Posey Mikael Pietrus Johan Petro Luke Ridnuar Jamal Tinsley Loius Williams Amir Johnson Alex Acker Wanna give it a try?
Player I thought would be further along... 1) Dwight Howard (it's not hard to power dunk when you are big, where is the refinement?) 2) Kareem Rush 3) Brian Cook 4) JMax 5) Amir Johnson (yeah, I was hoping for more from him on the perimeter) 6) Adam Morrison 7) Johan Petro 8) Martell Webster Players you thought would do well when there wasn't much public recognition when they were drafted.... and they did! 1) Chris Duhon (a second rounder folks) 2) Monta Ellis 3) Jarret Jack 4) Alex Acker 5) Danny Granger I'm not a big draft buff. Apparently I am unable to evaluate big men. :( Players that have done better than I thought they would: 1) Joey Graham 2) Andrew Bynum 3) Andrea Bargnani 4) Tyrus Thomas 5) Renaldo Balkman 6) Kris Humphries (figured he was just a throw-in on the Haffa trade) 7) Jorge Garbajosa (FA rookie) 8) Al Jefferson Players that I think will still have good success even though they've started slowly: 1) Ersan Ilyasova 2) Thabo Selofosha 3) Mikael Gelabale 4) Lawrence Roberts 5) Ronny Turiaf 6) Marvin Williams
