Originally Posted by hasoos

I believe it is. HA needs to learn how to dominate smaller guys and react before he is ready for play at this level. College centers play against small competition for a few years before they come to the NBA with the occasional big man to match up against. HA needs to do this so he can figure out where he needs to be on the court to make plays, how to hold the ball so the little guys don't strip him of it, and how to establish post position. Defensively he needs to learn how to be the last wall of defense in case the perimeter players get smoked, and how to time it so he can block shots instead of just fouling somebody hard.

Mike Rice mentioned last night he was concerned that the NBDL guys won't pass him the ball. This is a genuine concern, but if HA is to improve, one of the things he needs to learn how to do is to be effective without getting the ball. In fact being effective at anything other then plugging up the middle a bit would be pretty nice.

Basically what it comes down to for me, is that I believe that HA really needs to learn how to play basketball in general, before ever being an option for the Blazer bench. Send him down, even against smaller players he will at least get a basketball IQ training session, and get used to the speed of the game.