Accomplishes a lot of what I was bitching about yesterday. Shows D’Antoni is willing to play a traditional C and you just have to hope the soft rap is incorrect.

Frank, I think you are onto something, but I also think part of it was that this was such a deep draft for bigs. Game has changed, too, where physical but slow Cs like Alabi are not as valuable.

Brian, it’s tough to say. I think that was a very reasonable first reaction given how few mocks he appeared it. Knicks apparently got 3 guys they liked so can’t really complain. Wonder if they were pissed when Hobson went 1 pick before them?

I went up to Duke for the Tulsa game this year, specifically to check out Jordan play against Zoubek, a much stronger player. I got busy and never got around to writing anything up pre-draft. I like Jordan.

It is so tough to evaluate bigs in the college game. They let the defense park in the lane and fouls are called seemingly at random (unless you’re at Duke–then you just get hosed). Jordan has good footwork, good athleticism but he’s not explosive. He has improved in key areas. His TO/pos declined steadily every year (from 26 to 17%) while his FTAs/pos went up every year (from 18 to 53%). All this on the same FGAs/pos his last three years (71%). He’s not a good passer, though I don’t get the feeling he’s Eddy Curry. I just think he played on a meh offensive team lacking in shooters or movement. I think he can make the right read in the screen roll. Plus, with reasonable range on his jumper he may be able to play in the high post and bring opposing centers out of the lane.

At the Duke game Jordan picked up a couple quick fouls which took away his aggressiveness until the 2nd half. My impression is that foul propensity may be the genesis of the “he doesn’t have a motor” meme. Also, even though my impression is that he plays hard, he’s a smooth athlete rather than an explosive one. I think a lot of people have a built-in bias against that, especially in a 7 footer.

Jordan *is* legitimately foul prone — not surprising given how late he’s picked up the game and his limited functional strength. That alone may keep him from ever being anything but a valuable backup. But, he should be at least that.

interesting how 3-4 big athletic center types (Pittman, Alabi, Jordan, Pittman, almost Orton) lasted until the second round this year — was just a few years ago that the Patrick O’Bryants, Robert Swifts, and Rafael Araujos of the world were getting picked in the lottery even though they obviously sucked. I guess the pendulum has started to swing the other way on the “you can’t teach height” thing. (probably due to all the centers that have been on our team the last 5 years)

Looks like a great fit for D’Antoni’s system too.

By the by, reading more about Fields, it surely sounds that he would not have gotten past San Antonio, Phoenix and Los Angeles in the second round. So I continue to call BS on the whole “he wouldn’t have been drafted!” meme.