Post by jhb on Jul 8, 2021 9:56:55 GMT -5
Mark Eaton
C
7'4"
275
25
UCLA
You can't teach size! That's going to need to be the motto of whoever decides to take Eaton. A backup on his high school team at only 6'11" (and apparently extremely uncoordinated) who was discovered after growing an additional five inches while working several years as an auto mechanic, he went to Cypress College before transferring to UCLA. There he rarely saw the floor as his first head coach, Larry Brown, saw him as too slow and unathletic to play in his fast-paced system. Even after Brown left, his new head coach only gave him a total of 41 minutes...so the team that would draft him has all of 196 minutes at the major college level to judge him off of.
Eaton has major upside, even at 25 years old, perhaps more than any other player in this class, simply due to his lack of experience and his physical tools. He's not been taught how to be a post scorer, he's a career 40% free throw shooter (on all of 22 attempts). He had four times as many turnovers as assists (oof). But with as green as he is with the skilled elements of offensive basketball, he is just simply a natural at most of the defensive aspects of the game because of his size. In his small sample at college, he averaged over 14 rebounds per 40 minutes and 5.5 blocks per 40 minutes. He needs to refine his footwork and positioning and learn the more technical aspects of playing post defense, but his rebounding, rim protection, and tantalizing potential will keep him in the league while he works on refining his flaws.
