The Kid Can Definitely Play- Isaiah Austin

I wanted to take some time away from my previous posts about potential sleepers in the 2012 and 2013 class. This next person I will be talking about is definitely not a sleeper. I figured one rarely sees the number 1 overall recruit in any class, so I had to blog about the opportunity to do so. So despite this whole blog’s premise of focusing on recruits from Illinois, this recruit hales from Texas. So this post is probably like Star Jones getting liposuction and thinking there is a chance she could be hot only to be disappointed on how unappealing she still looks. However, seeing this player in action right here in Chicago is worth breaking up the theme. And what makes this player so special, well here we go…..

Sr. C Isaiah Austin (7-0, 200 lbs, committed to Baylor)- When’s the last time you saw a 7 foot high school freshman. Unless your hanging out with the girls of the Amazon, probably not in a while. So when a 7 footer makes an appearance atop the recruiting lists, you know this kid is amazing. This is not your typical 7 footer, though. Don’t think 7 footer like Shawn Bradley (remember that guy, he’s on the same poster as your favorite dunks by other players), think Kevin Durant with less of a shot and more post-up ability. I did not see much of Austin’s shooting display because in pool play of an AAU tournament game, let’s just say there is as much effort displayed as Charlie Sheen trying to quit drinking. From what I read about Austin, however, is that he has a developing shot but could turn into a decent shooter from outside for his size. Looking at him, I would say his best comparison right now would be this previous year’s number 1 recruit in Chicago’s own Anthony Davis. The only difference I think in the two is Austin can post up defenders better but Davis is slightly better with the ball in his hand and a better defender than Austin. And if you don’t know what Davis’s game is like, dig through some previous blog posts. Without seeing much of a jump shot, it is tough to see what other scouts see in his game on a regular basis. However, what Austin did in and around the paint is enough for me to reconfirm his status near and in some cases, at the top of recruiting lists.

Austin is not your typical back to the basket big guy. He uses a lot more finesse and faces up defenders sometimes, too. When I say this kid can finish around the rim, I mean he can really finish around the rim. Austin has extremely quick feet for his size and seemed to be quicker than his defenders on what turned out to be a very good AAU team. Two things stuck out about Austin’s appearance: his extremely lanky body and his Sideshow Bob sized shoes. Austin and Shaq must go shopping together at the big and tall shoe store. The Jordan’s that he was wearing easily could have been a size 20. So with quick feet like Austin’s, it’s even more ridiculous how quick his feet were. If Austin had the ball within 5 or 6 feet from the rim, he was dunking over and around defenders. On one play, he caught an errant pass, faked for the dunk, took a dribble to avoid the defender, and two-hand power slammed the ball through the net. While he wasn’t throwing down dunk after dunk, Austin, on occasion, brought the ball up the court and passed the ball efficiently. By no means is he going to become the first 7 foot point guard, but it is extremely rare to find a player that big that can handle the ball well, so you know teams he plays on in the future will utilize that asset. For someone that freakishly big, Austin did not seem awkward running the floor. By looking at him, you can tell he definitely needs to add a lot more weight to his skinny frame. Sticking with the Anthony Davis comparison, picture Davis plus slightly more thickness around the body and more cut arms. However, you can tell by the size and width of his shoulders that he can easily add a lot more weight and girth to make him more of a force.

Areas of improvement would be better defense and more aggressive rebounding. I only saw one game of his and his role on this AAU team probably will be different than in college where he will be asked to do more. Defense is not known to be prominent in AAU pool play tournament games so that definitely added to the lack of intensity on defense on Austin. There are a lot of signs that he could be a great one. The big thing for him, no pun intended, is adding more weight and working more on his jump shot. To be the size of a center and play more like a power forward is something that has made guys like Kevin Garnett and Dirk Nowitzki a lot of money. He has good post moves now but if you couple that will a halfway decent jump shot, he could become almost unguardable.

NEXT WEEK: YOU DON’T KNOW ‘EM, BUT YOU BETTER START TO: PART 4