On draft night I was disgusted by the Harangody pick, the reason being that two former lottery picks were still on the board. Well, good luck to Stanley Robinson and Willie Warren, but basically it's a another case of ignorance-generated disgust. Imo we now have the second coming of Gomes but with a better outside shot. Not great shakes, but not bad at #52. Not bad at all.
My problem with Gomes is that he did best when he played big minutes, and mainly at the PF. Ryan gets better and better the longer he's on the floor. His intensity seems pegged to # of minutes played.....That's why it's a shame he's small for PF. If not for his size he could start there, play big minutes and put up really good numbers. ( He'd be better off either taller or much much thicker so he could be used as a space creater). Anyway, back when we had Powe and Gomes I began to see that in short minutes off the bench Gomes was less effective, and I became a huge Powe fan because Powe was capable of coming off the bench and could immediately start bringing down rebounds, as if he was already warmed up, as if he'd been playing in another game (imagine two courts next to each other) and just slid over into the Celts lineup and starting bringing down boards with full intensity.
Because Gomes can't be played big minutes at PF, one has to play him at the 3, and I guess his 3-point shot has improved, so maybe he's more 3-like than he was when he had him. I hope wherever he ends up he gets lots of minutes, but also works on being more physical from the moment he steps on the floor....He needs to add a bit of dirt to his game to go with his high IQ....big Gomes fan, just some observations...
In terms of intangibles, Harangody seems like he'll have that Powe-like ability to hit the floor running, able to contribute without needing to first build up a head of steam.
Of course Harangody will get some minutes at the 4, but to me he seems better suited to keeping weight off and doing what he can from the 3 (footwork drills galore!). He seems to get his shot off very quickly which should keep it from getting blocked too often. If the Celtics can find some big back-up bigs, a defensive twin tower off the bench situation, then Harongody could really do some great things on offense without worrying too much about getting beaten by the Paul George's of the world....We're not likely to get that kind of lineup off the bench frontcourt, but way down the road I don't see why Harongody couldn't start at the 3 alongside, for example, Cole Aldrich and Josh Smith, Perk and Ed Davis, Perk and Anthony Randolph, those kinds of frontcourts......
Well, I have no clue if Harongody can make it longterm at the 3. But that's my wish. If he can make it there, then don't be surprised if in 3 years Paul Pierce comes off the bench to replace Harangody!
