Cleanthony Early Makes List of "Most Unguardable Players..."

[ripemupshocks]

How do they know some of these incoming frosh are unguardable? No one plays defense in AAU....

I'll bet if the BELCHER report were to rank the top 50 incoming NCAA Freshmen, they'd have high school juniors on the list.

[RoyalShock]

Early comes in at #6 in NBCSports.com's top wing forwards list.

[moshock]

Early comes in at #6 in NBCSports.com's top wing forwards list.

#4 if you count the one's who have actually played a game of D-1 Basketball

Congrats Cle !!!

[Dan]

Exhibit A: Harrison Barnes. Pre-season AA before stepping foot on the court. I think he may have made second team All ACC before going pro, congrats to him for doing that.

[WstateU]

I'll bet if the BELCHER report were to rank the top 50 incoming NCAA Freshmen, they'd have high school juniors on the list.

The "BELCHER" Report:

[pie n eye]

He definitely looked unguardable at shocker madness.

[wsushox1]

Exhibit A: Harrison Barnes. Pre-season AA before stepping foot on the court. I think he may have made second team All ACC before going pro, congrats to him for doing that.

Well, he had a very good rookie season.

[Dan]

he's a pro now, no doubt, but all the pre-season accolades were overdone before he played for UNC

[The Mad Hatter]

This is where the difference between college and pro basketball becomes important. Plenty of people talk about good college players that can't make the transition to the pro game (McDermott is likely to fall into this category, but there are plenty other dominant college players who either wash out or are just role players in the NBA). There seems to be less discussion, however, of the fact that there are also players that turn out to be far better in the NBA than they were in college. Harrison Barnes seems to fit that bill. Rajon Rondo is a great example. On a per 40 minutes basis, in his last year in college he averaged 14.4 ppg and 6.32 apg; in his most recent NBA season his numbers were 14.7 ppg and 11.8 apg.

The reason this is relevant to this thread is that recruit rankings are largely geared towards evaluating how good a pro player a prospect will ultimately be, and they are generally pretty good about that assessment (as we see with Harrison Barnes), but that doesn't mean that an incoming freshman who is accurately predicted to be a good NBA prospect will necessarily be a dominant college player. This is why it is dangerous to include incoming freshman on these kinds of lists, because even if the scouting report is dead on, it may not reflect how they will be in college.

[Aargh]

A little over a year ago, Marshall was commenting on his surprise at how raw Early was. Going from "raw" at the beginning of last year to dropping 24 and 10 on L'ville in the F4 was a fairly steady - and rapid - progression.

I think it's safe to say that Early picked up the basic fundamentals of D1 ball last year. Early appears to be a fast learner. There was a lot of speculation that Early was supposed to be working on handles and driving with the ball last summer.

At Shocker Madness there were indications he had done that. Early had a year to watch Aarmstead - and VanVleet. He's got enough quicks at 6'8" to use some of the moves he's seen. If he's developed the handles to move with the ball with his quickness, there aren't many guys his size (or 4" shorter) with the athleticism to guard him.

With the athleticism, coordination, and ability to learn that Early has shown, I'll bet he's got some handles coming into this year. He's a great inside finesse player. He's got a good stroke from range. So far I feel like I'm describing a little bit quicker and a little bit more athletic version of Kyle Wilson.

There needs to be a stat kept on points per touch. The Shox seemed to have scored more often than not when Paul Miller got the ball for the 2006 team. Maybe Miller didn't get the score, but the Shox got the score. I think the same thing is going to happen with Early this year. If he touches the ball, either he scores or someone else gets the equivalent of a free throw. Early needs to have vision and passing skills for that to happen.

[im4wsu]

A little over a year ago, Marshall was commenting on his surprise at how raw Early was. Going from "raw" at the beginning of last year to dropping 24 and 10 on L'ville in the F4 was a fairly steady - and rapid - progression.

I think it's safe to say that Early picked up the basic fundamentals of D1 ball last year. Early appears to be a fast learner. There was a lot of speculation that Early was supposed to be working on handles and driving with the ball last summer.

At Shocker Madness there were indications he had done that. Early had a year to watch Aarmstead - and VanVleet. He's got enough quicks at 6'8" to use some of the moves he's seen. If he's developed the handles to move with the ball with his quickness, there aren't many guys his size (or 4" shorter) with the athleticism to guard him.

With the athleticism, coordination, and ability to learn that Early has shown, I'll bet he's got some handles coming into this year. He's a great inside finesse player. He's got a good stroke from range. So far I feel like I'm describing a little bit quicker and a little bit more athletic version of Kyle Wilson.

There needs to be a stat kept on points per touch. The Shox seemed to have scored more often than not when Paul Miller got the ball for the 2006 team. Maybe Miller didn't get the score, but the Shox got the score. I think the same thing is going to happen with Early this year. If he touches the ball, either he scores or someone else gets the equivalent of a free throw. Early needs to have vision and passing skills for that to happen.

Wouldn't (points + assists * 2.05)/(FG attempts+(FT attempts/1.5)+ assists) be some approximate measure. Would be better if the divisor could include shot attempts by the ultimate scorer on passes from the assister, but that would be extremely difficult. Also missing is the FT shots that result from the pass but get no credit for an assist. I used 1.5 to account for two-shot FTs and 2.05 to approximate three point plays.

[jocoshock]

Paul Suellentrop @PaulS:uellentrop 13m
Early receives votes on AP preseaon All-America team. http://www.kansas.com/2013/11/04/309...rica-team.html …