Detroit Bad Boys

I don’t have anything right now of meaty substance, but I did want to draw attention to a couple of issues I’ve seen come up recently:

First, height: Justin Rogers of Full-Court Press spotted this in a recent mailbag Keith Langlois did on Pistons.com:

David (Toledo): There are rumors that Amir is 6-foot-11 and going up. Is it true?

Langlois: Johnson was 6-foot-9 when the Pistons drafted him in June 2005. When they measured him to start fall camp in October 2006, he was 6-foot-11. We’ll find out if he’s still growing when they measure him again this October.

This is old news, really — the team first announced this last fall. But I think there’s been some confusion among Pistons fans (hence, why a reported fact is confused as rumor) because NBA.com/ESPN.com have been slow to update their bio data. That both sites are behind is likely not a coincidence — I’m guessing they each get their data from the same supplier, STATS Inc.

Personally, I won’t be surprised to see him see time at all three front court positions this year — he’s tall for a small forward, sure, but he has the athleticism and Langlois describes him here as “perhaps the fastest Piston.” (And yes, I know the difference between fast and quick and everything else — I still see it possible.)

Secondly, weight: I posted this blurb from Pistons director of basketball operations/international scouting guru Tony Ronzone speaking of Cheikh Samb earlier in the week:

“You look at a guy like (DeSagana) Diop from Dallas,” Ronzone said. “He was like 190 pounds, 6-11 when he first came to the league. Now you see him six years later (at 280 pounds). I think (Samb) could be like that.”

Now, that sounds really great … if only it were true. As DBB reader R.O.C. points out, Diop was already 300 pounds when he was drafted, at least according to ESPN.com, some site called HoopsStats.com and NBA.com (who listed him at a hefty 315!).

It’s possible that Ronzone meant Diop weighed just 190 pounds when he came over from Senegal, but I don’t have a clue when that was. Wikipedia says he didn’t start playing ball until he was 15 years old, and the only mentions of his high school career I could find off hand were his last two seasons, so for all I know he arrived in the U.S. just in time to play two years of H.S. ball before turning pro. (somebody out there has to remember his story — let me know in the comments.)

But in any case, even if he did come over at that age, we’re talking about a growing boy with a healthy metabolism, not a string bean who could stand to add 60-70 pounds at age 23. In fact, and I’m also drawing from my own memory now that it’s been jogged, part of the reason Diop was considered a bust for the Cavaliers was because of weight and conditioning issues — not only was he raw, he was also a bit pudgy. So unless Ronzone explains himself, I’m not sure the comparison holds.

That’s not to say I’m suddenly losing faith in Samb’s potential, just that we need a new player to compare him to. (And don’t say Manute Bol — at 7-7, that guy was half a foot taller than Samb. Saying those two are similar is like saying Jason Maxiell is seven feet tall.)