At first glance 7′1 B.J. Mullens reminds me of the classic stiff, the guy who had all sorts of people saying great things about him prior to even lacing up sneakers in the NBA.

Robert Swift, Michael Olowokandi, Chris Mihm, Jim McIlvaine, uhh, maybe not Jimster there, but those first 3 were supposed to be the next really good, even spectacular, pivots, but are the epitome of Muresanian stiffness and Will Perdue blandness.

Beating up on Gheorghe like that isn’t like me, so I’ll say Ostertag stiffness instead.

Muresan had game.

Hoops analysts and geniuses –just about every one of that species—has proclaimed B.J. to be the next Oden type impact in college basketball. He can shoot it like Dirk, dunk it like Dominique, run the floor like a gazelle and can kiss it in off the glass like Mr. Fundamentals.

Just imagine how much more we would hear about B.J. if he was going to an ACC school?

Dickie V. would be saying he’s the number one Diaper Dandy!

Milicic

Is Mullens the next Darko flop?

Does he wow people in solo workouts like Darko apparently wowed Joe Dumars?

I’m not going to sit back and say Mullens will be a total disaster his freshman year.

First off, he’ll play at least 19 games against a disaster of a conference, the Big Ten. That alone should guarantee him at least a double digit scoring average.

Northwestern, Michigan and Iowa probably have enough combined talent to make a run in the NIT if they joined together, but split up that core and you have three downright weak teams.

Penn St. and Illinois won’t turn any heads either.

Indiana, it will be awhile.

Second, Mullens will (already has) easily impress others with his hops on wide open dunks and such, inflating the esteem of the many futile videos that already exist exhibiting his growing heap of skills. With every little highlight play he makes, the koolaid will be traveling more and more.

I’ll be really blunt… there haven’t been any white (American) centers who have taken the NBA by storm in recent years. There have been quite a few who were projected to be real good, like a couple mentioned above. Add on Bryant Reeves and Travis Knight to that list save Kandi Man.

Chris Kaman is the closest definition of a solid white “center” out there now. And by all means, Chris is a valuable player and really had a breakout year in 07/08. He’s a border line All-Star caliber player.

Brad Miller is on the honorable mention list, but he’s never been a back to the basket player anyways.

So this B.J. guy has a lot to live up to and many people he must prove wrong, and also, prove right.

I think too many basketball fans and “analysts” are often overly gaga over an athletic white guy, a smooth white guy, someone who they think can break out and be considered the next Larry Bird or Bill Walton, Rex Chapman, Brent Barry, Kevin McHale, John Stockton, Chris Mullin.

Good American white players are hard to come by lately.

B.J. is a phony as of now.

You can’t teach height.

True.

But you can teach others to be aware of Darko.

Post from: EveryJoe

B.J. Mullens hype machine warm and ready

Thanks to rushthecourt.wordpress.com for bringing these numbers to my attention. And much thanks to draftexpress.com for their up close and personal work from Orlando last week.

You can see all of the numbers aka player heights, wingspans, body fats, verticals, etc here

Now on to some musings that may or may not completely correlate to the numbers

The no shoes height number is interesting to look at and all, but basically I wouldn’t worry about whether a guy is only 6’7.5 without shoes, because he’ll likely be 6’9 in shoes and after all, NBA basketball players do wear shoes when in competition. And even if the NBA adopted a no shoe policy, the difference would still be essentially the same.

I think many analysts, and even fans especially, just look at the no shoes (and to an extent, in shoes) stat to further rip on and prove why so and so will not make it in the league. Petty. Sometimes a guy can just flat out play and an inch here or there in height means nothing.

Brook Lopez, now this is a legit 7 footer with some athleticism (30.5 vertical) to go along with his nice frame. I’d bet a lot of coin that Jason and Jarron didn’t have half the athleticism Brook and Robin have. Something tells me both Lopez’s will have better statistical rookie campaigns than any of the campaigns Jason and Jarron have put up in the league. And by looking at the numbers, it shouldn’t be too difficult to pull off, well, at least for Brook anyway.

This Othello Hunter guy will probably prove me to be a chump after it’s all said and done. Othello has a 7’3’’ wingspan, and a 34.5 vertical leap while being 6’7.5’’. Now all he needs to do to become Ben Wallace is to just work on his strength (just 7 reps of 185 lbs, Ben can do about 150 reps of 185 lbs). Although I’m sure Othello would like to pass on the “undrafted” part of Big Ben’s resume.

Staying on the Big Ten front here, I’m mildly shocked at the wingspan of Michigan State’s Drew Neitzel. When you’re just a hair under 6’1 and don’t possess a ton of athleticism, it would be nice to have at least some long arms or something. But Drew, unfortunately, only has a 6’2.5” wingspan. Compare that to 6’2.25’’ DeMarcus Nelson’s 6’10 wingspan and you’ll understand where I’m coming from. But Drew Neitzel indeed had a good showing at the camp and as far as I’m concerned will eventually make a roster because of his ability to handle the ball like a point guard and shoot like a 2 guard. And the fact that Chris Quinn and Travis Deiner are still in the league bodes well for Neitzel too.

The recently updated/renovated Spartans Weblog will surely keep you up to date on the goings on of Neitzel and not to mention the 08/09 season outlook for the Michigan St. Spartans as well, a team that should produce at least 3 or 4 more NBA caliber players in the near future.

Any comments, questions and beefs are always appreciated.

Post from: EveryJoe

Some #’s from the Pre-Draft camp