Posted by Paladin55:

Posted by TMS:

i didn't watch the combines but undefined arms is not what i've seen when i've been watching this kid play... he looks pretty damn cut to me, & his bodyfat is way low compared to other guys in this draft even on those measurement charts... something like 4% bodyfat or something i think from my last recollection, whereas Harden was measured at something like 10% bodyfat.

Those arms sure did not do too much bench pressing at the combine.

I do body fat tests on my wrestlers all the time- low body fat does not have to be equated with strength, and when your body fat is very low, you tend to look more cut. DeRozan came in at 211 lbs at 6'5.5" Harden came in at 222 at 6'5." Harden has the longer arms which would usually mean more trouble with bench pressing, yet he tripled DeRozan's numbers.

I don't mind DeRozan as a potential Knick pick, and can see his upside- I just wonder about why he is only willing to work out for certain teams- 8 & earlier (In fairness, for Harden it is 5 & earlier, but DeRozan has never been looked on as a lower 10 lottery pick by most BB pundits.), and why he seemingly came to the combine in less than spectacular athletic condition.

I have been brutal with Harden over his athleticism- he has seemingly done something in response to this perceived weakness of his, and if you look at the combine #'s you have to be impressed. He seems like an intelligent and proud kid, and his pre-combine program, whatever it was, made a difference. Compare him to Evans, whose athleticism so many drool over- Harden beats him hands down, at least in the combine numbers. Do we take the numbers as some kind of anomaly, or do they actually tell us something? To me they tell me more about work ethic and desire than anything else.

I would rather have seen actual competition among the players, but that is not what we ended up with. In fairness to DeRozan (or his agent), at least he was involved in the 3/3 drills. Harden did not do any of them, although even he did more than Thabeet.

In terms of what they do on the court- Harden had much more responsibility than DeRozan on his team. He was basically a PG and a SG. DeRozan rarely had to dribble the ball or make major decisions with it. At this point I cannot say who the better player will be in the future, although Harden is more NBA ready at this point.

[Edited by - Paladin55 on 06-04-2009 3:40 PM]

Harden was also measured at much more body fat percentage than Derozan, so obviously he weighs more... i don't really care how much Derozan can bench press, all i care about is if he can play or not... i watched him completely outplay Harden on 2 occasions last season including in the biggest game of the season for both their respective teams... Derozan came up big as a go to guy & Harden disappeared... that's all i need to know about who i'd rather have between those 2... but i'm not saying Harden's a bad kid or even a bad basketball player, only that i prefer Derozan over him by a pretty wide margin.

btw, he looks to be a pretty good blocker of shots too... & i don't think anyone would complain about having someone else on our team who can posterize guys on a regular basis... i know i wouldn't.