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Finestrg
Posts: 27296
Alba Posts: 1
Joined: 1/1/2006
Member: #1069
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Back to Darko for a sec. He's never gonna be that elite C/PF Dumars thought he was gonna be, that much is obvious, but with enough minutes (say 30 mins. a night) and a defined role I say he could settle into an Andris Biedrins/Samuel Dalembert-type player production-wise, maybe even a LaMarcus Aldridge provided he ever got enough touches on the offensive end.
07-08 stats for these three players compared to Darko:
Biedrins (22 yrs. old) - 27.3 mins., 10.5 pts., 9.8 rb., 1.2 blk. 62.6% FG, 62% FT, 7.1 shots/game
Dalembert (27 yrs. old) - 32.2 mins., 10.5 pts., 10.4 rb., 1.7 blk., 51.3% FG, 70.7% FT, 8 shots/game
Aldridge (23 yrs. old) - 34.9 mins., 17.8 pts., 7.6 rb., 1.24 blk., 48% FG, 76.2% FT, 15.26 shots/game
Milicic (23 yrs. old) - 23.8 mins., 7.2 pts., 6.1 rb., 1.6 blk., 43.8% FG, 55.4% FT, 7.14 shots/game
Now the first three players all have defined roles and play about 8-10 mins. more a night on average (something Darko's not had since joining the NBA). Now with 30+ mins., I say Milicic matches Biedrins' and Dalembert's numbers easily. Which is why I bring up Aldridge. Not saying he'll be as good as Aldridge offensively, but I know he gets less than half his shot attempts at the basket on a nightly basis and we know he's got much better offensive ability and potential than either Biedrins or Dalembert (good footwork inside, nice looking lefty jumper with range out to about 15-20 ft.).
With enough PT I believe we'll eventually see a better player than Biedrins or Dalembert and maybe as good an all-around player as LaMarcus Aldridge as long as he puts the work in to improve. We'll prob. never be comparing this kid to Patick Ewing or David Robinson (nor any of these other 3 guys for that matter), something I think Detroit hoped when they selected him that high in the LeBron James draft a few yrs. ago, but there's a good chance we could at least see a well-rounded combination of these other players, and that would hardly be something to sneeze at.
[Edited by - finestrg on 08-14-2008 3:58 PM]
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