This is totally not on my list of things I need to get done at 2:18 pm. This is not even on my list of things to get done for this blog (I have 6 long posts to churn out before this weekend, at least). But out of the goodness of my heart, and possibly, because I don't think we need to re-create the wheel here . . . I need to warn you all about the dangers of falling in love in the internet age . . . with an international prospect. The short story is that it is a crap shoot. You can get lucky and get a Serge Ibaka, or you can get an Andrea Bargnani. The more mysterious (translation: previously un-scouted) a prospect is, the harder it is to deny their potential upside (translation: you have no clue if they'll be a hall of famer, or go out like Nikoloz Tskitishvili). Right now it's easy to fall in love with Bismack Biyombo. He's tall. He's athletic. He absolutely made a name for himself at the 2011 Nike Hoops Summit.
Yeah. We've seen this before. I know I have, when years ago when I fell in love with Mouhamed Saer Sene:
Mouhamed Saer Sene
Don't remember him? He was drafted 10th in the 2006 NBA Draft by the Seattle Supersonics and finished his NBA career after 260 total minutes, and with worse stats than Kyrylo Fesenko (my current international leading man). Sene was two inches taller than Bismack, and just as fast an athletic. He didn't make it in the league. Ibaka did. Bol did. Hakeem did. Dikembe did. Right now I see this kid is way closer to Sene (and by extension, Fesenko) than any of those other African players.
Right now the Jazz are already FULL when it comes to playing time at the PF and C spots. Big Al Jefferson needs his minutes. Paul Millsap needs as many as he can get without breaking down. Derrick Favors, on the other hand, isn't even getting the type of minutes he needs to continue his bare minimum development. Those four guys needs about 30-34 minutes each per game. There are only 96 minutes total at the PF and C spots in a regular, non-overtime game. I don't know how good you are at math, but that means there are already no more minutes. This doesn't even bring up the necessary minutes that a healthy and motivated Mehmet Okur may earn. We're already forgetting all about super athletic 6'9 skywalker Jeremy Evans who now has to transition to small forward. Bismack is heavier and stronger (we presume) than Evans, but would only be taking more playing time away from the three guys I started talking about at the beginning of this paragraph.
Greg Miller stated a desire to get bigger with the draft. That's always a goal for all teams so don't read into it like he dropped some secret. That said, we appear to have more glaring holes outside of the paint, than in it. It's super easy to fall in love in the internet age with some mysterious international prospect . . . but it's also easy to have your heart broken as well.
If this was a movie, this is where I (the director) brings the main character back to reconcile with their high school sweetheart and get married, and live happily ever after. Or in basketball terms, draft an American PG, SG, or SF with our picks. After all, we already have Ante Tomic on lay-away, with no intention of bringing him over (and no intention of even developing him here).
Note: Amar has no clue about anything related to the draft, NCAA basketball, or how to use the oven. That last part was me just covering all the bases really. I really don't know how to use the oven. Similarly, our coaches have no clue how to coach young bigmen . . . I don't think we should draft another raw one we don't have playing time for.