BearsTruth Board

I would say temper expectations, he isnt much fun to watch on the offensive end. He is very, very good on the other end of the court. He is going to be awfully good but he is not the one I am most excited about.

austin plays hard, but will likely be inconsistent and have some foul issues due to his size. aggressive, physical defenders could give him problems.

even though he is skinny he will get some points inside simply due to his length. but he could get pushed around on the boards and will have trouble gaining position in the post against a lot of high D1 defenders. Drummond abused him one game a couple of summers ago simply due to his physicality.

luckily, austin has developed a very solid all around game, and has a skill set that will allow him to face up and score on jumpers and even off the dribble against bigger defenders.

he will also be fortunate to have some big bodies to pair with him up front in jefferson, gathers, morgan. this will hopefully draw bigger defenders away from austin.

i think the real heart of the question asked here is - "will austin produce at a high level immediately, or is he a potential guy like pj3 and miller"

the answer to that, unfortunately, might be a potential guy, if you are going to compare his production to his ranking in HS and draft projection (#6 in the first 2013 mock I saw).

I expect 15-25 mpg, 7-10 ppg, 5-7 rpg, and 1-2 bpg averages from austin next season. I think he will be a very valuable contributor to an outstanding team, but his numbers will disappoint some.

he reminds me a lot of john henson, but I think his freshman numbers will be better because he will be more important to us than henson was to UNC as a freshman.

the main reason i dont think he gets those numbers is because we are going to be so balanced. gathers and jefferson alone will clean the glass, and pierre and heslip could combine for 35 ppg alone.

I of course do expect Jefferson manning the 5 and getting 10 reb and 4-5 bpg.

if jefferson is not playing that much we are in trouble.

I am hoping Walton, Jackson, and jefferson are practicing layups all summer. Never seen a team miss so many layups in one season.