I don't know for sure if me breaking the story of Hasheem Thabeet being sent to the D-League has made NBA front offices start reading Ridiculous Upside, but it sure seems like it.
First, Reggie Williams was called-up after I'd touted him for the Golden State Warriors for two solid months.
Next, Will Conroy picked up a 10-day with the Houston Rockets right after my post titled "Will Conroy Showed Why He Deserves A Call-Up Last Night In The D-League."
Then, Othyus Jeffers was picked up by the Utah Jazz after I'd been touting him for an NBA job since last May.
And now, today, the Washington Wizards have called-up Alonzo Gee, whom I raved about in my recap of the most recent Austin Toros game.
Gee is a 6-foot-6, 220 pound well-built forward out of Alabama who was averaging 21.0 points and 6.6 rebounds while shooting 51% from the field in the D-League. Essentially, his upside is ridiculous and at this point in the season, he's a guy I assumed would be getting a lot of looks because of this.
At this point in his career, Gee's offense is strides ahead of his defense. I'm not necessarily saying his defense is terrible, it's just that his offense is pretty impressive. I'll let DraftExpress set the stage and then I'll elaborate a bit.
Gee still isn't the greatest in terms of advanced ball-handling, but he has done a good job figuring out the best ways to utilize his athleticism, relying on subtle changes of direction in combination with his very good body control. At the basket, Gee is capable of finishing over defenders and is extremely aggressive, never shying from contact.
Actually, that pretty much says it all, so I'll just add an extra emphasis on the "capable of finishing over defenders" and "extremely aggressive" parts. Essentially, whoever is defending him is capable of ending up on a poster any time Gee has the ball in his hands. It'll look like he's just hanging out, getting ready for a ho-hum lay-up and then BAM! he'll rise up and throw down out of nowhere. It's fun to watch and, more importantly, it's effective.
His jumper isn't very pretty, but it seems it's something he's been working on (developing in the NBA Development League, you could say) quite a bit. While I don't have any concrete evidence that he's beeen working on his jumper, but the fact that he shot just 24 3-pointers in his first 24 games tells me that he wasn't very confident in shooting from distance. In his last 12 games, though, he's jacked up 38 shots from beyond the arc with some recent success - he's hit 7-of-14 in his last three games.
Defensively, I'm going to defer to Draft Express once again. I could write it, but they're more reputable so you may as well hear it straight from the big guns:
On the defensive end, Gee has great physical tools and show flashes of effective defense, doing a good job hustling off the ball, but he's a bit inconsistent here, and his man-to-man stance leaves something to be desired. For him to find a spot in the league and stick, this is probably the biggest area he will need to work on, as it is definitely where most of his untapped potential lies.
Washington's last 10-day call-up, RGV's Mike Harris, didn't get much burn and thus Gee will probably suffer the same fate - unless an injury happens. Still, this will be a great opportunity for Gee to show what he can do in the NBA, at least for the next 10 days.