So Has Kemba Assumed The Title Of Current Best UConn Pro?

[aceboon]

I think with the combination of Kemba's growth and improvement this year and the continued decline of our vets and Rudy's quest to become one of the worst contracts in the L, I think it's safe to say Kemba is now our best UConn pro, right? If that's the case who is our 2nd best? Even in a limited role I don't think it's a stretch to say its Ray.

 

[Huskies4ever]

I think with the combination of Kemba's growth and improvement this year and the continued decline of our vets and Rudy's quest to become one of the worst contracts in the L, I think it's safe to say Kemba is now our best UConn pro, right? If that's the case who is our 2nd best? Even in a limited role I don't think it's a stretch to say its Ray.

Good question.
Kemba
Tie: Ray, Rudy
BG
Tie: Rip, Caron
AD
EO
Tie: AJP, CV

 

[champs99and04]

Kemba's been great this season - no question he's the best from our program right now. I still think Emeka's a double double guy if he's on a team like the Heat, but the Wizards seem inclined to give their minutes to younger guys.

 

[Tenspro2002]

Funny, I just made the same speculation in the other Rudy thread. It's kind of disappointing, really, how a lot of our guys have underwhelmed in the pros.

Whether it's their own faults or the faults of bad GM's doling out ridiculous contracts, you could say Okafor, Gordon, Villanueva, Thabeet have been disappointments, not to mention guys like MW, Boone, and Hilton who went from first-round picks to out of the league in a few years.

 

[aceboon]

Kemba's been great this season - no question he's the best from our program right now. I still think Emeka's a double double guy if he's on a team like the Heat, but the Wizards seem inclined to give their minutes to younger guys.

Emeka started off slow but he's been playing very well of late, he's averaging a double/double for the month in January. Really hope Emeka gets on at least a top 4 seed type of playoff team before he becomes over the hill, at least just to see what he can contribute in that kind of environment.

 

[aceboon]

Funny, I just made the same speculation in the other Rudy thread. It's kind of disappointing, really, how a lot of our guys have underwhelmed in the pros.

Whether it's their own faults or the faults of bad GM's doling out ridiculous contracts, you could say Okafor, Gordon, Villanueva, Thabeet have been disappointments, not to mention guys like MW, Boone, and Hilton who went from first-round picks to out of the league in a few years.

The 04-06 group pretty much dropped the ball in terms of holding up the UConn NBA brand. Emeka and BG had great starts but really fell off(BG I never understood, because he was a 20ppg scorer on a playoff team), and the 06 draft class was a disaster, with Hilton, JB, and MW all flaming out and Rudy not really being able to take that next step and now falling behind some of his peers among the tier 2 SFs in the league. Kemba seems like he's going to be a stud tho, same with Drummond. Hopefully Lamb gets his shot with OKC soon, although KMart sounds like he's willing to accept a paycut to stay in OKC but who knows how that will work out once $ starts getting discussed.

 

[Huskies4ever]

Emeka started off slow but he's been playing very well of late, he's averaging a double/double for the month in January. Really hope Emeka gets on at least a top 4 seed type of playoff team before he becomes over the hill, at least just to see what he can contribute in that kind of environment.

Agree. I always thought he would be great on a contender because he can rebound, block shots, and defend very well at the four.

 

[UConn990411]

I'm still waiting for people (not on this board, obviously) to acknowledge that he's better than Brandon Knight.

Not sure why Kemba got ripped to shreds as a rookie, yet Knight - who sucked even more - got a free pass. And still gets one even though he's been terrible again this season.

 

[champs99and04]

Emeka started off slow but he's been playing very well of late, he's averaging a double/double for the month in January. Really hope Emeka gets on at least a top 4 seed type of playoff team before he becomes over the hill, at least just to see what he can contribute in that kind of environment.

Yeah, it's a shame he has such a terrible contract, otherwise he would be a great piece for a contender to grab at the deadline - ditto on BG. I actually don't think Emeka and BG have been that big of disappointments. They're both good players with the potential to be rotation guys on championship winning teams. What's mystifying has been the decline they've experienced as their careers have progressed.

 

[aceboon]

I'm still waiting for people (not on this board, obviously) to acknowledge that he's better than Brandon Knight.

Not sure why Kemba got ripped to shreds as a rookie, yet Knight - who sucked even more - got a free pass. And still gets one even though he's been terrible again this season.

All they ever talked about was how Kemba was a SG in a PG's body, yet Knight has been much more of a SG than PG since his high school days when he was gunning like crazy even back then. I keep reading how Detroit has this great core of Knight/Monroe/Drummond to build around, Knight is anything but a sure thing to eventually get Detroit where they need to be in the future.

 

[Mano]

I'm still waiting for people (not on this board, obviously) to acknowledge that he's better than Brandon Knight.

Not sure why Kemba got ripped to shreds as a rookie, yet Knight - who sucked even more - got a free pass. And still gets one even though he's been terrible again this season.

Agreed. Knight is simply not very good. He has room to grow but doesn't seem all that great at distributing and is an even poorer shooter.

The very real possibility is that with starters minutes, Drum might be our second best guy after Kemba next year. I think Gay's situation is hurting his abilities. All the trade speculation must be getting into his head. Also he never seemed to have the mentality to be the guy. He needs to be somebody's Pippen to their Jordan.

 

[champs99and04]

Many would disagree but I actually think Kemba's having a better season than Deron Williams. Williams plays with much better offensive weapons yet is shooting 3% worse from the field, scoring about the same, and dishing a couple more assists. I don't think Kemba should be an all-star but I do think if they're going to take another PG they should take Kemba before a guy like D-Will or Jennings (both chuckers).

 

[Silk City]

Agreed. Knight is simply not very good. He has room to grow but doesn't seem all that great at distributing and is an even poorer shooter.

The very real possibility is that with starters minutes, Drum might be our second best guy after Kemba next year. I think Gay's situation is hurting his abilities. All the trade speculation must be getting into his head. Also he never seemed to have the mentality to be the guy. He needs to be somebody's Pippen to their Jordan.

I really think that if Detroit took Kemba over Knight they'd be a playoff team right now. Not to mention a UConn fan's dream with Kemba Drummond and CV31 together

 

[aceboon]

Agreed. Knight is simply not very good. He has room to grow but doesn't seem all that great at distributing and is an even poorer shooter.

The very real possibility is that with starters minutes, Drum might be our second best guy after Kemba next year. I think Gay's situation is hurting his abilities. All the trade speculation must be getting into his head. Also he never seemed to have the mentality to be the guy. He needs to be somebody's Pippen to their Jordan.

But Memphis really isn't asking him to be the guy, the offense revolves around the bigs, I think Memphis would be more than fine with him getting 20 & 6 if he could do it efficiently. I understand with Gasol & Randolph taking up space on the blocks that limits Rudy to out on the perimeter and having to slash more(which he's incapable of doing w/o turning the ball over), but even when Randolph was out last year with that torn MCL Rudy wasn't really beasting in the blocks, he was just knocking down more jumpers than he is this year.

 

[Mano]

But Memphis really isn't asking him to be the guy, the offense revolves around the bigs, I think Memphis would be more than fine with him getting 20 & 6 if he could do it efficiently. I understand with Gasol & Randolph taking up space on the blocks that limits Rudy to out on the perimeter and having to slash more(which he's incapable of doing w/o turning the ball over), but even when Randolph was out last year with that torn MCL Rudy wasn't really beasting in the blocks, he was just knocking down more jumpers than he is this year.

Yea, but as far as a perimeter scoring threat for Memphis he's just about all they have. Conley and Allen aren't much of a threat to light it up from out there. And once the ball goes inside to blackhole Randolph there isn't much of an inside/outside game going on, so Rudy's left to create for himself (never his strong suit), which means a lot of jump shots. At least with Mayo there last year (as volatile as he was) there was another perimeter threat. They need a high level perimeter scorer to balance out their team or a more creative point guard.