Rankings so far:
Andre Drummond (very good+upside)
Derrick Favors (poor man's Drummond+upside)
Jimmy Butler (good 2 way, little upside)
Eric Bledsoe (very good 1 way)
Andrew Nicholson (decent 2 way, little upside, winning game?)
Moe Harkless (decent 1 way, plays safe)
MarShon Brooks (decent 2 way, but needs to tone it down)
Brooks was always overrated as a "Kobe Bryant" clone in the first place. Didn't like his game in the draft (had him as a mid-2nd rounder), and all his bad habits are pretty much in display this season. But there's definite virtues if he'd tone down his game a bit. I like how he gets to the basket and attempts all these little runners in the lane, and as a shooting guard he's quite good at both and actually shows a knack to draw fouls. Very robust slashing game. Defensively he's quite good as well, all in all, but isn't much of a defensive playmaker. There's some athletic two-way potential here. He doesn't take too many jumpers, for good reason, as he can't really hit them particularly from long range, and he's an awful ballhandler and poor passer so his offensive upside is limited between that and the poor shooting, although that doesn't stop him from gunning excessively. But as an off-the-bench slasher who can defend, if he can buy into that role he'll have a decade-long career.
Bledsoe's defense is obviously lockdown, and that's going to be his ticket, easily. Might be the second best defensive PG in the league, and he's still super young. Also a crazy good rebounder particularly on the offensive glass. Offensively...eh. I don't think he's really a PG at all--he's a poor ballhandler and also a poor passer for a PG, for starters, and pretty much never takes threes as far as PGs are concerned. He loves to slash the basketball for himself in particular and will spatter that with a few runners and mid-range J's, but he doesn't finish as well as you'd expect, doesn't draw fouls that well considering the frequency of slashes and is an absolute mid-range brickster. His offense overall is just poor on so many levels, and unlike Rondo he isn't anywhere close to that ballhandling/playmaking ability. If he gets a super fat contract this summer, that team might be in for a rude awakening...particularly offensively. Defensively, he's easily top two. But just don't expect too much on offense.
Favors is a decent defender, not considering all that "lockdown D" hoopla he got several years back and given his freakish athleticism, it's a bit of a disappointment. He's only a cut above average and only Utah's third best defender overall this year. Still, he's an excellent rebounder, gets a ton of steals and blocks and makes defensive plays, but as with many athletes that are this young, defensively the sum's slightly less than its parts. But only slightly, and an excellent foundation nonetheless. Offensively Favors is an average ballhandler and a subpar passer but knows how to create almost a ton of his shots around the rim, where he's a pretty good but not great finisher and can draw fouls decently. Overall, he's largely just athletic clay as of this moment, but of course with clay there's potential.
Jimmy Butler's more or less peaked and has little upside left to explore. Still, that means he's like Shane Battier--mature from get-go, NBA viable, will be in the league for at least a decade. Butler's best asset is his defense--which is surprisingly very good to excellent for a guy who basically is in his rookie year after not playing much last year. Very impressive. He doesn't really d-board though. Offensively he's a low usage hybrid with great ballhandling ability and OK passing ability, and operates seeking out shots directly at the rim and at mid-range. Butler can really finish and does a decent job of drawing fouls and also is a pretty good spot-up mid-range jumpshooter. Again, he's a smart player within his usage space and can handle and get to the rim and finish and hit mid-range J's, but that upside is limited by his muted usage and lack of great range. Still, he knows how to play and is a very viable two-way player, and should be a key part of winning teams for years to come.
Drummond. He's a good but not great defender at this stage, but what do you expect out of a rookie? Combined with his otherworldly rebounding (third best rebounder in the league) and ability to get steals and blocks (both top five among centers), he's a defensive machismo. Sure, the oomph stats are bigger than the impact, but all raw young defensive cornerstones are initially like that, and if he doesn't become an absolute lockdown within the next few years I'll eat my hat, or something like that. Also, he only has an average foul rate, so he's not a hack like we'd typically expect out of young centers. For a center, Drummond doesn't pass but he has excellent handles and is able to manufacture quite a few shots for himself especially off o-boards (3rd best), even under a low usage rate. Offensively, Drummond has no range--85% of his shots are directly at the rim--but he's a very good finisher, even though he doesn't quite draw fouls as you'd expect (probably because he's scared of getting to the line). Still, he's useful offensively because he can really finish and gets extra possessions and doesn't turn the ball over, and in general plays smart, and on defense...yeah, let's just put it this way: even if he were Ben Wallace offensively, he could still be a starter. But because he's quite decent offensively, if he isn't an All-star in a few years...something would have went awry.
Andrew Nicholson's very interesting--he's actually Orlando's best defender this year, and between very good to excellent overall, surprising as that might sound. Still, it's not all rosy here, since he's a subpar rebounder and doesn't make many defensive plays, but he's very fundamentally sound, even if the lack of rebounding dampens things a bit. Offensively Nicholson is somewhat of a go-to guy, but he's a hybrid with awful ballhandling ability and awful passing ability. Nicholson rarely engages the rim directly, but even with that he draws fouls even worse, so he might be a bit soft at this end: instead, he opts for runners and spot-up mid-range shots most of the time, and he's amazingly excellent at both areas (4th and 6th among PFs). Needless to say, he's has excellent touch and is crafty both in terms of the runners and defensively. His game is not really winning material as a top option--he's lacking in core big men traits like rebounding, shotblocking, and finishing at the rim, for instance and also has very loose handles and poor vision--but as a secondary cog piece, preferably off the bench, his two-way offensive/defensive play could be valuable.
Moe Harkless is a tick above average defensively--again, that bodes well for him particularly as a rookie--but a bit of a subpar defensive rebounder, but his best asset here is his defensive playmaking--he's 4th among SFs in blocks, gets quite a few steals, and does all this while controlling his fouls pretty well, impressive for a rookie. Again, as with most young guys there's more sizzle than steak, but if he's doing this as a rookie there's potential. Offensively, Harkless is by and large invisible and has zero court vision, but operates as a good ballhandling hybrid who seeks the rim extremely often (nearly two-thirds of his shots are at the rim) within his limited usage. Harkless is a pretty good finisher and it helps that he gets a lot of second chance opp's via o-boards, but he struggles to draw fouls for playing so much around the rim. This cuts both ways though--the reason why Harkless plays only at the rim, and is a bystander offensively with limited usage, is because he has no range. He pretty much never takes any shots beyond 10 feet. So with zero range and zero court vision, he's limited to accruing garbage buckets which he can't draw fouls on, even if he plays very safe and limits turnovers. Defensively, there's a lot of athletic raw potential though. Still, he looks to be an absolute wreck offensively in this league, but could be a Luc Richard Mbah a Moute type as the upside. Not huge, but at least he's a NBA role player and will get opportunities for his defense and athleticism.
I'll do the rest later.
