Not to beat a dead horse, but right now Deloach is outplaying Ward and the gap between the two is getting wider. Ward had 8 pts. and 2 rebounds in 18 minutes last night against a horrible GW team. DeLoach had 6 points and 7 rebounds in 14 minutes. De Loach also had 3 blocks and Ward had 1 block. In the +/- stat, Deloach ended up +18 and Ward ended up -8. Not sure what is going on with Ward, but there has been very little, if any, discussion about his foot injury since he returned. DeLoach is definitely playing with a higher motor and it's showing in the stats. Last year, posters were talking about how Ward was going to be drafted after this year. I'm not seeing that happen at this point.
Both have played exceptionally since coming back from the break, their offensive ratings are pretty much the same and both bring energy on the defensive end, though Hason has had a few timely and high degree of difficulty blocks…..not sure it is an either/or between the two, i am very pleased both are on the team and getting better as the season progresses.
As one of those who has been assertive about Ward as a draft prospect—it has never been about college production, the games are too different, especially for bigs. It is about physical upside and the fact that he is an exceptional rim protector per scouts—that hasn’t changed. That said, the recent trend needs to continue and a breakthrough on the offensive side would be ideal.
The dude has only played competitive organized basketball for a few years—Jalen is not that much younger and actually way more experienced. If anything, it is less about comparing to Ward and more about being impressed with Jalen—he is much better, earlier than I had expected.
