Bright Side Draft Preview 2011: Chris Singleton

To countdown the days (7 left) until D-Day, your faithful servants here at Bright Side of the Sun will try their best to bring you a wee bit of knowledge about some of the likely candidates to be chosen by the Phoenix Suns. Comment, REC, Kill it and continue to be awesome.

Chris Singleton or "The Modern-Day Scottie Pippen" as he refers himself to be is a name that Suns fans could possibly hear when David Stern stands at the podium to announce the thirteenth pick in the 2011 NBA Draft. Let's get to know the kid.

• Position - SF/PF (NBA Projected SF)
• Height - 6'9"
• Weight - 230 lbs
• Wingspan - 7'1"

David Aldridge of NBA.com has the Phoenix Suns taking Chris Singleton at #13 in his mock draft, and here's why -

Indeed "defense" seemed to be the buzzword when the season ended what seems like ages ago... and if Babby, Blanks and co. are indeed committed to scratching out a new defensive culture here in PHX the obvious thing to do would be to draft a defensively skilled player.

Chris Singleton is that player.

But let's first take a look at what he offers on offense.

Offense

Here are Chris' stats from his 3 college years at FSU - (Click to enlarge)

With a quick glance at the stats - nothing jumps out a whole lot (except maybe his terrible free-throw shooting...bleh). In fact, DraftExpress.com, in evaluating his strengths and weaknesses show that virtually all of his weaknesses were offensive ones. Despite fairly sound shooting mechanics, he isn't a great shooter, he settles for far too many jump-shots when that isn't his forte and he has a hard time creating his own shot off the dribble and finishing in transition because of his lack of ball handling skill.

The one offensive positive noted is his low-post scoring - he has good patience and an ugly but effective skyhook/RoLo-sideways-flip-shot.

This is what the final offensive evaluation was from D.E. -

...he projects as more of an off-the-ball role player than someone expected to carry a heavy offensive load in the NBA. Clearly he would be best suited playing on an up-tempo team that likes to get out in transition, alongside a point guard who can get him the ball in a position to score. In his current situation at Florida State, with its slow and disjointed offense, it's tough to imagine that at times.

Defensively is where Singleton shines.

Defense

The Florida State Seminoles ranked #1 in the NCAA last year in defense - and a big contributor to that title was Chris Singleton. Defense is where Chris will help the Suns or any team immediately in his rookie year.

Here's the defensive 411 - again from D.E.-

With his terrific size, length, lateral quickness and intensity, Singleton puts tremendous pressure on the ball and is an absolute menace in passing lanes. He gets his team tons of extra possessions every game with his ability to collect rebounds, blocks and steals, and is the type of player who would have no problem guarding multiple positions at the NBA level —be it face-up 4's, shot-creating wings, back-to-the-basket forwards, or even switching out onto quicker guards on the perimeter (if that's how his coach elects to defend the pick-and-roll). This type of versatility makes him extremely attractive in today's NBA.

The dude can defend - and to be honest with you, watching him kind of gives me a little Earl Clark deja-vu, both uber-athletic defenders, can be explosive (but sometimes out-of-control) to the rim but settle for an ugly jump-shot that is not their strength far too often.

Some brownie points that Singleton does earn in his favor come from his attitude - in all his interviews he mentions how he's ready to play and to help the team win. Meaning that he is willing to do and fill whatever role the team needs him to fill.

Before I get to the videos I found - here's my final thought on Chris Singleton:

If we pick him at 13 it will most definitely mean that either Childress, Hill, Pietrus, or Dudley will be getting the boot before the start of the season. And to be quite honest I would be very surprised if the Suns do draft Singleton solely based on what Alvin Gentry said last week when asked about drafting another Wing player -

"We would try and avoid that," Gentry said after the Suns finished a workout with a group of prospects. "It would have to be a really, really good wing because I like the guys that we have and the guys thats coming back, so that would be something -- it would have to be somebody pretty special."

General Manager Lance Blanks had a slightly different take on it saying, "On the perimeter, we have a surplus of threes (small forwards) but the off-guard position is something that we'd like to inject."

Could we play Singleton at the off-guard? I don't think so. His shooting skill is mediocre and he is not the best at creating his own shot, something the off-guard should be able to do in order to take pressure off of Nash or the back up PG.

Final Verdict a la Euty - Pass.

He does appear to speak a little better English than Earl Clark...