Unfettered Optimism: Developing James Anderson

I'm actually a little surprised I haven't read a "Mr. Anderson" joke somewhere about this guy yet, but hey, we've had limited exposure to James Anderson at the NBA level, what with his hamstring injury and all.  Anderson has now been dubbed a possible steal in this year's draft for the Spurs, which, to me is a good thing, but really, who is James Anderson?  Since PtR has already beaten me to the punch, let's ask then, who do we want James Anderson to become?  Because you can all look up the college numbers and how his high efficiency game will be effective in the NBA, and despite mislabeling him as the 1985 5th round pick James Anderson, DraftExpress has all the other stuff right.  But for those of you not so inclined to do so, I'll give you the base numbers:

34.1 MPG, 22.3 PPG, 5.8 RPG, 2.4 APG, 1.4 SPG, 0.6 BPG, 2.4 TO, 2.2 3PTM, 34.1% 3PT%, 45.7% FG%

Those were his per game metrics.  Not bad right?

25.5 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.6 three pointers, 1.6 steals, 0.7 blocks, 45.7% field goal percentage, 34.1% three point percentage, 81% free throw percentage with 9 free throws attempted per game on 2.7 turnovers

What're those?  His pace-adjusted per 40 minute metrics.  I'd say he's pretty efficient about how he goes about things.  While he won't be getting 26% of the Spurs possessions, his efficiency leads me to believe that he at least knows how to put the ball in the bucket, and that's fine by me.  So what do we want from James Anderson?  Do we want just three point shooting?  What identity will Anderson find on this team?  Well, let's take a look at some comparisons I drew up (as you all know I love comparing to Spurs championship past):

James Anderson: 6-6, 195 lbs
Player A: 6-7, 185 lbs
Player B: 6-5, 210 lbs
Player C: 6-7, 215 lbs
Player D: 6-8, 218 lbs

	FG	FGA	FG%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	ORB	DRB	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
Player A	3.4	8.2	.420	1.4	3.5	.403	1.0	1.5	.634	0.7	3.2	3.9	1.7	0.8	0.5	0.8	2.4	9.3
Player B	4.4	9.2	.471	1.1	3.0	.374	2.9	3.3	.866	1.0	2.8	3.8	2.5	1.3	0.3	1.7	2.5	12.7
Player C	5.4	13.1	.412	2.1	5.6	.364	1.8	1.9	.918	0.7	3.7	4.4	2.1	0.6	0.3	0.9	1.5	14.6
Player D	5.7	13.1	.435	1.5	4.7	.320	2.2	2.9	.760	1.1	3.5	4.6	2.9	2.0	0.5	2.8	3.2	15.1

Hm... would it be so wrong to at least ask this kind of performance from Anderson, at least in his first year?  Hopefully he'll improve even more.  A lot of people have stated that Anderson is potentially a starting caliber rookie, which leads to even higher expectations.  While I see him primarily being a 3 point specialist, I can definitely see him leading the team in scoring at times when nothing seems to be going right.  So who are these guys?  Well, Player A is Bruce Bowen circa 2005, Player B is Mario Elie circa 1999, Player C is Michael Finley circa 2007, and Player D is Stephen Jackson circa 2003.  Now what if Anderson developed into Finley and Jackson at their best?  I don't know if Anderson has the defensive tenacity and passing ability of Stephen Jackson, but the offensive explosiveness and potentially hot shooting of Michael Finley?  Hey, that's entirely in the realm of possibility.  With such a high ceiling (I'm talking 2000 Dallas Mavericks Michael Finley) a revamped Richard Jefferson and a rested Manu Ginobili, you can't help but wonder how awesome a best case scenario wing situation we might actually have.  Sure, Bruce Bowen is gone and we don't have a replacement, but you can't be entirely disappointed with what we have instead if this works out.  Draft Express has him compared to Marcus Thornton, who had an excellent rookie season, by the metrics, I'd say that James Anderson looks even better.

He's not going to be the second coming of Manu, but hey, he'll still be pretty darn good if he pans out.  I'm hopeful, because you know who had similar stats in college?  Ray Allen.  Yeah, I said it.  In all seriousness though, I can definitely see him becoming a more explosive Finley, which in my books, I like.