Something about ON’s game (and nothing more) reminds me of Rasheed Wallace. Obviously 4-4 in 15 minutes is an outlier…but it enforces that he has a skillset that is different than TJD. The best comparison between them is that you can run your offense through the 4 at times, which is pretty unique. But yeah, Trace was awesome last year.
Watching his screening game and the way he found those gaps makes me very confident that you can run a lot of Juwan’s sets and tailor them to ON (or make teams that cheat be punished).
I like his game a lot and it stinks that he seems like an ideal PF for Juwan’s system and for Juwan himself to coach up. Livers was great, but more of a wing playing the PF. Diabate was really good at times, but really a center playing PF. Last year was…well…yeah. ON has a good blend of size, shooting, defense, athleticism, rebounding, post confidence, etc. It is too bad that we have so many other concerns with the roster because he feels like a really ideal fit. Hopefully Dug, Burnett, and Reed have big seasons and we’re competitive.
I couldn’t think of a comparable player in Michigan’s past. He’s the guy we wished Brandon Johns was. Maybe Maurice Taylor with a better motor?
He wasn’t even the most skilled PF in the Western Conference at that time. C-Webb was dominating in Sacramento. Sheed was really good, but he never had a season where he put up 20 PPG. He never averaged 10 RPG.
C-Webb was dominant when he was 25-29 years old. Sheed’s numbers weren’t that close to him.
My whole thing on comps has been “try to be generous w people making them” bc the alternative is what always happens w comps.
Do I really get the Sheed one? No, but I’m not a Pistons guy. I think my inability to see it probably does not mean the person making the comp thinks Nkamhoua is going to be a top 10 player in CBB. People usually make comps to very popular players bc their games are well known not bc they expect them to be crazy awesome. What’s meant is that they will be involved in similar actions, or have a similar shot diet, or defend similar players, etc.
IOW: appending “poor man’s ___ “ is almost always implied.
I just don’t think the TJD comparison tracks, is all.
Olivier is going to be a stretch four. TJD was basically a true center who couldn’t shoot outside of 8 feet.
TJD was an elite and explosive rim protector, Oliver has this weird thing where his athleticism never really pops and then he throws down an insane alley-oop.
If you want to make a best-case scenario vision of the ideal role and usage, I would say that Tubelis is probably the better track from last year’s CBB.
Not perfect by any stretch, and Tubelis was one of the most consistently productive bigs I can remember, but that’s the role as a second big, playing off of another center, etc.
Tubelis is an interesting one. Do you like either DJ Wilson or Mo Taylor from a Michigan point of view? He shoots more like DJ but I think he’s more physical and well rounded. Taylor wasn’t a perimeter player at all - but bigs never were in the mid 1990s.
(Yes, I agree with @colin who said that comps are fun but grace should always be given since they are meant to help us calibrate the type of player we’re going to see join the squad and not necessarily set unrealistic expectations.)
Don’t really see DJ Wilson at all. Wilson was a long, drifty shooter. Nkamhoua is way more of a guy who can operate in the 16 foot range, post up, stuff like that. Way more rugged.
i think olivier nkamhoua’s comp is michael jordan. not accepting feedback at this time
as an aside, i think michigan fans of a certain age/onlineness are very primed for “same type of player as X” not meaning “they will be as good a player as X” thanks to the yearly popularity of mgoblog’s football recruiting thing, which explains “YMRMFSPA” in every single post. otherwise it might just be “olivier nkamhoua has one comp: olivier nkamhoua” or, like, we all settle on one comp in april and then use that all offseason. even me, a basketball moron, doesn’t think nkamhoua will be trayce drackson-javis (again, he’ll be michael jordan), but i do think it’s informative when someone smart like colin points out something that piqued his interest and gives us a new angle on a player.
not saying every comp has to be accepted or called useful as a result; just saying that i think the type of michigan fans who are reading the umhoops forum in august the day fall camp starts for the most anticipated football season in decades are probably a self-selecting bunch (or addicted to the attention they get for telling jokes on the internet, dunno who that’d be though)
on the other hand dylan i suppose you hear a lot during the season from people whose expectations get way too high during the offseason and then are furious that bench player #3 is not living up to what they thought he could be in his best case outcome (hope: reliable 3 and D guy; reality: it turns out he shoots 26% from 3 and also gets picked on every time he’s on defense), so i’m sympathetic to trying to nip that in the bud