Damion James, Quincy Pondexter - Celtics need to keep an eye on them

[nickagneta]

I don't know how many people here follow college ball but I am a huge fan. I've been meaning to write this for a while and just figured this would be a great time considering it might make a good distraction from the woes of the team.

I've been trying everything I can to watch as much college ball as I can as I just love the game and get my kicks out of watching young kids play the game and develop. Two guys that caught my eye early and I've seen play 2 times each are Quincy Pondexter and Damion James. If you have the chance, people, watch these guys. It shouldn't be to difficult to find them on the TV as James plays for #2 Texas and Pondexter plays for #16 Washington.

Just to give you the heads up here's a quick, nickagneta scouting report on the two:

Damion James: 6'7" 225 lb. SF for Texas. Current stats are 16.8 PPG, 11.0 RPG, 49.3 FG%, 68.8 FT% 33.3 3PT%. If I had to liken him to a player in the league I see him as Gerald Wallace. He's a rebounding machine out of the SF position and has a sweet looking jump shot with a nice high release. He's is a tremendous athlete and has the perfect, strong SF body and athleticism to become a superior defender of all types of small forwards in the NBA. The LeBron and Pierce types too. He is strong enough to give an NBA team some PF minutes in a small ball lineup for periods of a game. He has 3PT range and ability. Not the greatest handle and can play passive during periods of games like he's pacing himself.

Quincy Pondexter 6'6" 215 lb. SF for Washington. Current stats are 21.9 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 58.6% FG%, 84.5 FT%, 27.3 3PT%. The kid is another athlete. And a defensive guru. He has improved himself every single year he's played college ball. He's athletic like there's no tomorrow and has a sweet shooting form. His 3PT range isn't there yet, but it will. He compares favorably to Paul Pierce in that he does everything extremely well but nothing spectacularly.

These two guys are both 4 year players at the college level and we all know how teams hate to draft these type of players. The NBA teams in the top 20 of the draft want potential. Well, that's good for the C's. Danny needs to do what he can to try to see about drafting these guys as replacements for Walker and Giddens. I feel they have long successful NBA careers in front of them and will be the steals of the draft coming up this year.

[jr_3421]

I've seen Pondexter play and I will agree he impressed the hell outta me. I haven't seen enough to say this with confidence but it seemed like he play a lot in the post. I didn't see his face up game and I don't know about his defensive potential in terms of guarding 3s.

[scoop]

I haven't watched Damion Jones since early in the last year, but he looks to me more as a Ryan Gomes type of defender (too small to defend 4s, too slow to defend 3s) than a Gerald Wallace one. And that's why he won't be a top 20 pick.

Pondexter, yeah, I can see develop into a top notch NBA defender. He certainly won't be half as good as Pierce, but has the potential to be an excellent role-player for many years in the league. The draft must be really strong for a player like him to fall to the late 1st round. I saw him the other day in a game vs. UCLA and he was making 3 point shots with ease. He's now shooting 44% from beyond the line. If he starts hitting the long-shot consistently, he's a borderline lottery player, IMO.