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DeJuan Blair: The NBA's New Per-Minute All-Star

Like a lot of college basketball fans, I was shocked to see Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair drop to the 37th overall pick in this year's draft.

Sure, he doesn't have ideal power forward height, and he has a history of knee problems... but he played much bigger than his listed height would indicate, routinely abusing the likes of Hasheem Thabeet in Big East play. Based on the (very) early returns, Blair looks like a steal. In last night's preseason loss to the Rockets, Blair scored 16 points and grabbed 19 boards in just 22 minutes. And he didn't even shoot that well, going 6-of-15 from the floor.

Yes, the sample size is painfully small... and Blair might not get a ton of minutes playing for a very deep San Antonio team... but I have a distinct feeling he's going to be one of this year's "per minute" superstars.

And you absolutely cannot convince me there were 36 players better than him in this year's draft pool.

Comments

By: smckeown
On: 10/7/2009 12:59:00 PM		 As a Pistons fan, it was painful to see the team pass on Blair twice -- 15th and 35th picks. And when he was selected by a quality organization like the Spurs, it only made me feel worse.
 

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