[Minstrel]

Yeah. You think Tayshaun Prince has long arms at 6'9 with a 7'3 wingspan? North Carolina has a kid coming in next season named Brandan Wright who is a 6'10 power forward with an 8'0 wingspan. That kind of wingspan makes Kevin Garnett look like Kevin Willis.

I think an eight foot wingspan is probably something of an exaggeration.

Here's a picture of Wright, fairly extended:

He has a nice wingspan, but it doesn't look super-freakish, like 8' would be. Maybe just a little freakish.

 

[Minstrel]

Maybe an exaggeration, we'll have to wait for official measurements I guess. Everything I've read says anywhere from 7'8 to 8'0 on various draft sites and such.

According to Rivals.com, he measured out significantly lower in 2004:

Wright measured 6-8 1/2 (barefoot), weighed 190-lbs., with a reach of 8-7 and wingspan of 7-1 1/2 at the 2004 Youth Development Festival held in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache...pan&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=4&client=firefox-a

I'm sure he's grown a bit since then, but enough to add 10-11 inches to his wingspan seems impossible.

In any case, he does have a huge wingspan. He should be an interesting player.

 

[Minstrel]

He's 6'10 now Minstrel. It's not that he just has long arms. He also has tremendous leaping ability.

No doubt. I fully believe he's long, has a great wingspan and great leaping ability. An eight foot wingspan just seems hard to believe. But if he has it, that's cool. I'd love to see official measurements showing it.

 

[Minstrel]

Oh my God. Some of you people really need your head checked. Especially the guy who stated that a high school player is almost on the same level as David Robinson RIGHT NOW. Do you have no shame? That takes overhyping to astronomical proportions. BTW, I'll take the guy who's already averaging 15 & 12 in the NBA, thanks.

Would you really rather have a guy putting up 15/12 in the NBA now over Greg Oden in 2007? Virtually all of the high schoolers who have been given the "special" tag have been great in the NBA...Kevin Garnett, Kobe Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O'Neal, LeBron James, Amare Stoudemire, Dwight Howard.

Kwame Brown is really the only incredibly highly-regarded high schooler that bombed. (Leon Smith, as I recall, didn't have the same cache as these other guys.)

Considering that, I think Greg Oden is very likely to be a major impact player in the NBA, and worth speculating about even before he enters the league.

 

[Minstrel]

Err, yeah. I wouldn't have said it if I didn't mean it.

Well, I was making a counter-argument. So maybe you'd have changed your mind.

And by 2007, you don't think Howard's stats will have improved?

I didn't know you were a Magic fan, so I didn't realize that you were referring to Dwight Howard, who's also a high school phenom and, yes, I expect to get better. I thought you meant a player who had leveled out at 15/12.

I think Howard is one of the most valuable assets in the NBA, but I'd probably still have Oden, since all reports have him as a once-a-generation type of big man. But I can see why someone would rather have the more proven Howard.