Grizfan-24 said:
DCH is a freak athlete for his size, but and here is the big but, he doesn’t likely have a true position at the college level. He was a man among boys down here last year, and is more physically developed than any other high school hoops player that I have seen in recent memory.
I had heard, and I don’t know how precise it is, that his recruitment had been stifled by the fact that some schools saw him as too short for his true position at a power forward. How true that is, I honestly don’t know but that is what was relayed to me a colleague down here.
He was as I have noted elsewhere, the most physically imposing player in San Diego Division last year. Seeing a bit of him on TV or live feed, I can see why or where the concerns might have been. What I do know, is that he was a bitch of a matchup for anyone. I think Kareem Jamar would be a similar comparison, but I think DCH was and is further ahead athletically than KJ was. From what I saw, I think KJ was further ahead offensively. He could beat bigger guys off the floor, and absolutely man handle smaller players physically.
I really was and am excited about what he could provide. He plays taller and bigger than his size and happy the UM ended up with him. While I think there is little to no chance he gets redshirted, I would have thought of the three freshmen he probably had the greatest chance when he was first recruited.
Grizfan 24:
The first fallacy of debate is arguing from specifics, yet your post sparked a specific example of a player that reminds me a lot of what you said about Carter-Hollinger, especially about his size. This is a kid who as a collegian was an excellent rebounder and played bigger than his size, but because he came from a small school and was only 6'8", the consensus was his post-moves and rebounding skills would not translate to the NBA. Great collegian? Yes. Pro? Nah. The drafter "experts" had weighed in!
And so here's who went ahead of him in the first round in his '06 draft class: Andrea Bargnani, Adam Morrison, Tyrus Thomas, Sheldon Williams, Randy Foyle, Partick O'Bryant, Mohamed Sene, Hilton Armstrong, Ronnie Brewer, Cedric Simmons, Rodney Carney, Shawne Williams, Olesky Pecherov, Quincy Douby, Renaldo Blackman, Marcus Williams, Josh Boone, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar, Sergio Rodriguez, Maurice Acee, Mardy Collins aand Joel Freeman. And that was just in the first round. There were another 16 picks in the second round before somebody took a chance on this kid!
That team was the Utah Jazz, and luckily for them, given all the "expert" opinion that this kid was not as good as any of the players mentioned above, he turned out okay, in fact has been a four-time NBA all-star and is in the second year of a $90 million contract: Paul Millsap.
Watching Carter-Hollinger's videos, like Millsap, he seems to me just too talented, too dominant at the high school level, not to excel at the collegiate level. My hunch: Sooner than many of us expect. And I believe I have an ally who is on record about this, stating that Carter-Hollinger can contribute immediately: Travis DeCuire.