i'm going to say the thing that everyone's afraid to say: Amir Johnson isn't close to ready.

i really, really, want to buy into the Langlois koolaid and believe that Amir will be the first Pistons' max player, but watching him on the floor.........the dude is still way too raw to be effective. he's extremely agile for a bigman, but he's just too unrefined and he looks clueless when it's not free-wheeling fastbreak basketball. i just don't see any improvement skill-wise since last season. i KNOW he hasn't had much "real" NBA PT, but he's had a chance to play in the NBDL and he's had a few summers to develop his game. this is his third season and he still shoots like a girl (sorry, WNBA) and has no semblance of an offensive game.

i'm going make a prediction and say that Amir barely makes a blip this season. he might average career highs across the board, but those will be deceiving because he'll be in more blow outs, racking up dunks against 3rd stringers.

i think he's still 2-3 years from becoming a reliable bench player. i don't think he's a bust, but i really think he's further off from making an impact than the Piston's brass will lead us to believe. no doubt Amir will be exciting for moments because of his athleticism, but i don't think he's going to be an impact player for 2, 3 maybe 4 years. i stand by my claim that this piston's bench will be exciting/fun to watch (amir being a part of that), i'm just disappointed when i put down my pistons pom-poms and realize that Amir is still more project than player right now.

does anyone else feel this way with Amir? i'm praying that he'll prove me wrong and we can mock and ridicule me for this thread.....