Not far from it. Reminds me of Shawn Bradley's legs, only with a far more disproportionate upper body to support. I am now as concerned with injury as I am with effectiveness.
Charles wasn't all that built in his upper body. But you are right about the legs and glutes. He said that as a teen he would do side hops every day over a 3-foot fence in his back yard.
Pre-season impression of Stix: He's a project. I like his confidence on offense, he isn't afraid to shoot the 3 but he needs to improve his percentage. He isn't afraid to drive either and he almost always draws a foul. He needs to improve his lower body strength greatly to be able to finish drives. He doesn't have the power to explode upward after contact, forcing him to play smaller than he is. Defensively he needs a LOT of work. His hips are pretty stiff and his lateral agility is almost non existent. He is better suited to defend near the rim than the perimeter, but he's not big or strong enough yet. I hope he proves me wrong but I don't see him being a real contributor for a few years.
If the Suns wanted an immediate contributor at power forward Achiuwa might have been the better pick. He already has the NBA body. Jalen has more skills and may be the better player long term. Suns will have to be patient with him.
As a fan of his, I said this from the beginning. He has a lot of long term potential, but he has a lot of developing to do, including at the most basic physical level, and he is at least 2 years away from being a reliable contributor to an NBA rotation. He really shouldn't get more than 8-10 minutes per game as a back-up to Ayton. We should also consider using spot #15 on the roster for more interior depth.
This has been the craziest offseason ever. No summer league, really no camp hell he was just drafted 3 weeks ago
Really like this kid’s aggression on the court, but it’s going to take a while for him to catch up to the speed and size of the game. Even more so because of the accelerated season and no summer league long training camp.
I don't think they will need a whole lot from him this year with Crowder, Saric and Cam getting most of the 4/backup 5 minutes. Anything he can provide will really just be icing on the cake.
Agreed, and thank goodness cause he isn’t close to being ready. Everything looks rushed or hesitant, no in between which comes with confidence and calm. I really have no idea if he’s going to be a good player at this point because the only thing we know for sure is he’s aggressive. He hasn’t shown any other ability at the nba level at this point. edit: he shows some promise as a rebounder
