Post by TinyTimPig on Oct 17, 2022 10:51:26 GMT -5
Cherokee Parks
C
6'11"
235
22
Duke
Cherokee Parks came to Duke as the most heralded big man to come out of California since Bill Walton. He was billed as impressive and dominating, both offensively and defensively. While he never quite lived up to that hype in his career at Duke, he did manage to carve out a very effective four years, with excellent shooting and (especially) shot-blocking numbers. Parks really shut down some impressive bigs in the ACC and in deep tourney runs by limiting their ability to shoot at all near the glass - while he doesn't look the part, he is an explosive leaper and can jump off of either foot, or both feet, in an acrobatic display to swat shots, but he won't be able to out jump everyone in the pros, so it's not clear how much the blocking and especially the inside scoring will translate. His offensive arsenal expanded during his senior year to include a passable 3pt shot... which is very good for a big and should translate well to the longer TMBSL 3pt line, but he struggles from the free throw line. Despite his physical gifts and penchant to be around the rim, he is a surprisingly weak rebounder... this extends to the offensive end as well, where he rarely crashes. He put up big numbers in college, but the tape shows that they were hardly ever contested and when they were he often lost the battle for the ball. This lack of fight will limit his growth going forwards. He struggles to move the ball in an offense and often becomes a ball-stopper in the halfcourt.
