Summer League Team : Russell smooth 21 (1-4)

I give Upshaw a 10% chance of getting his head right and I'm pretty optimistic with 10%.

Chances are he won't. But IF he can really focus on basketball and leave his baggage behind him, boy he is a defensive BEAST. He will be exactly the defensive anchor this team needs and I'm really crossing my fingers for him to do that. He can block pretty much every shot and might be the second best defender in this draft right behind WCS who is going to be a DPOY candidate in the NBA for years to come.

The Huskies were 14-5 or something before he was thrown out. I think they won just one game or two without him. He is a game changer, if he can keep himself clean. Unfortunetly he is dumb and stupid.

His stupidity might cost him an NBA career and 8 figures of annual salary down the line.

 

Well the media has been careful to be vague but:
- Drug addiction (suspected cocaine)
- Some injury concerns
- Super vague but scouts say a lot of flags in his background check. I'm thinking they're likely relatively minor like bullying or vandalism, but show character flaws.
- He's admitted to being prone to making bad decisions, letting others lead him down the wrong path
- Admitted college life was too robust for him, too much and too many temptations

Basically he's susceptible to vices and most teams don't trust that he can live a professional NBA life without giving in to those vices.

To HIS credit he's trying to turn it around right now. Others have said he's hired a life coach and Upshaw has said he's focused 100% on basketball. He says he wants to be an NBA player, it's his dream, so he knows he has to give up a lot of the things he's been doing. He knows he's made a lot of mistakes and at least for the moment he's trying to stay clean and make his dreams come true. Like most addicts, you have to take it with a grain of salt, but he's trying for now.

 

Haven't seen him enough, I'll get back to you on it. Just by looking he's got some really thin calves, but his bones are extremely long. His proportion looks similar to Samuel Dalembert off the top of my head, but I'll look into it some time today.

 

I'm hoping this kid can straighten himself out. Would be great for us, but even more importantly, great for him. Rooting for him all the way. I remember Roy Tarpley very well. He was a tremendous talent but just tortured by his demons. The good news is Upshaw is trying to tackle that stuff now while he's young.

 

Okay went back and watched some footage. Overall I'd say he looks alright. Mostly he makes better decisions in traffic, usually jumping and landing off of two feet. He runs really well for his size. He doesn't lumber like Jahlil did, he's much lighter on his feet (makes sense considering his defensive abilities).

There's some really concerning knee movement especially when he posts up on offense. He tends to lean instead down at the waist instead of bending his knees which puts a lot of pressure on his lower body.

His frame is excellent for basketball. He's got long legs and arms and a smaller torso. If he hits the gym and builds some some muscle in his thighs he should be alright. Especially since at the next level he won't be posting very much and instead will be relied on almost solely for his defense and rebounding. The risk is still there for injury, but I'd say it's somewhere between Towns and Okafor. Okafor is relatively low injury risk because he's rarely getting very high off the ground and he's got big legs.