Anthony Davis: What's his ceiling?

Two names that keep coming to mind are Tyson Chandler and Tyrus Thomas.

 

Amen.

 

Is that because the quality of coaching at the professional level has improved? Or the quality of coaching at the college level has declined?

 

It's more about the level of competition he would be facing.

 

While I agree with Bob, the problem is that there's no real way to test either theory. Back when players stayed in school longer, they were also then playing against better competition (relative to their era) so it wasn't the same kind of decision as it is now.

If, for instance, LeBron had gone to college for a couple years, he would have destroyed everyone and he wouldn't have improve by doing so. Instead, in that same time, he became one of the top five players in the NBA. What would the purpose have been for him to play in college?

 

Not to mention twice as many games and no school to worry about.

 

If you want to go crazy with comparisons -- and everyone seems to want to with Davis -- I would put up Olajuwon as similar. Very skinny and raw player with limited offensive skills who still got his hands on a lot of shots and altered many many more. I don't know if Davis has that kind of versatility in him, but he's probably at about the same starting point.

 

The "no to school to worry about" is a wash if he stays at Kentucky.

 

Better competition isn't necessarily a teaching tool for how to respond to better competition.

 

I'm not following your argument here.

Does better competition "necessarily" teach him how to respond to better competition?

I guess not.

Just like reading the New York Times instead of the National Enquirer doesn't "necessarily" make one better informed. Perhaps the NYT reader doesn't retain anything. Or the NE reader has a spouse that keeps him or her informed.

But I would venture to confidently guess that the NYT reader "tends" to be better informed than the NE reader.

Better competition "tends" to make someone a better basketball player. Just because it doesn't occur in every instance is of little consequence to the general premise.

 

Az is hanging his hat on the inherent differences in "coaching."

In basketball, coaching is way overrated. I mean, look at the guy who won last night.

 

Better competition in conjunction with better coaching and teaching about how to respond to better competition would seem to me the best of all possible situations for a young player.