18 years old playing against grown men. He’s 2 inches longer than Walker Kessler and he might even grow some more at his age like most Timberwolves draft picks. And check out his one corner three near the beginning of the video. Not pretty but not ugly either.
Right now, this is Ant’s team. But in a few years, this could be Rocco’s team.
18 years old playing against grown men. He’s 2 inches longer than Walker Kessler and he might even grow some more at his age like most Timberwolves draft picks. And check out his one corner three near the beginning of the video. Not pretty but not ugly either.
Right now, this is Ant’s team. But in a few years, this could be Rocco’s team.
I believe I've seen Rocco take 2 jumpers in game highlights now and they don't look terrible. One the reasons Kessler was kinda exciting is there was some signs he might have some offense. At this point that doesn't seem to be the case but he is a nice enough player.
Back to Rocco in the highlights one thing that jumps out and it makes me want to watch a full game but he seems to actually know how to play on offense. His screen actually look useful and he moves to open spaces and also looks like he is actually engaged fighting for position for rebounds. I don't know how well I think he moves but he isn't wildly slow footed for someone his size. There is a bit of lightness to him when he plays Ina good way. Some guy that big just seem kinda ground bound. He looks like he can play with some energy.
In all seriousness, anyone who is that damn tall and fairly coordinated has a legit shot to play. I like the fact that Connelly drafted two archetypes of bigs - one is a more modern day big that can switch, play high wall coverage, and run the floor really well. The other is a more traditional drop Center that could may be some day be a threat beyond the arc. Both are lob threats. It's an interesting pair of bigs and they have literally years of upside in front of them given their current age.
Watching that clip reminded me a couple of things. I think it was Sam Vecine that said standing next to Rocco he is the largest human being he has ever seen. Rocco was chatting with Ryan Kalkbrenner and he made him look like some PF undersized center prospect. Also when you asked me who could be the next Kornet and I expended it out to Hartenstein type I think Kalkbrenner could be that type of player which would be great where he was picked.
Also in that first clip Lip posted it was fun to see good old former Nebraska player Tai Webster in Rocco's poster. He never lived up to the guy he was supposed to be but I enjoyed his senior year where he had sort of a breakout into a reasonably valuable college player. I'm sure he is enjoying getting paid to play ball back at home.
I watched a game where Rocco played heavy minutes because his team was down quite a few players. It was basically a 30 point blowout. I'm not sure how much to take from it but I'll give a few thoughts.
I read somewhere that Rocco needed some work on conditioning. That became apparent pretty quickly in the game. He looked pretty winded after a decent stretch. This looked to be a theme as the game went on although later in the game it could have been because of the score but I think it was Rocco was gassed. This is obviously a concern but he hasn't turned 19 yet is a massive human being and I think this is something a lot of big centers struggle with to some extent as younger players.
He does move pretty well for his size. He had a sequence that's on the highlight reals where he blocks a guy and then runs the floor for a score. He isn't a plodder especially when he isn't tired.
Late in the game when it was basically over he got fouled and went to the line. He missed both FTs which meant burger for everybody but the shot form and release looked...like someone who could actually shoot. That doesn't mean he will ever be a shooter but it didn't look broke. It maybe was a little more impressive about that since he was tired and played a fair amount of minutes.
Watching this game made me think he has a ways to go especially if he is gonna play any kind of extended minutes. If he plays in Summer league don't be surprised if he is in for pretty short stint and that will be OK if they play all the centers minutes.
And check out his one corner three near the beginning of the video. Not pretty but not ugly either. 
