Just had a visit from Cruzdude, and we watched several games I had recorded. And to sum up Ayton, I told him that Ayton, in his freshman year at Arizona is a better player than Cousins was in his freshman year at Kentucky. Of course I thought the same thing of Karl Anthony Towns, and he's turning out to be a pretty damm good player. I would say that Ayton and Towns are about equal in their freshman years. Of course they're different, but skill against skill, I'd say their fairly equal.
So if your using Towns and Cousins as a measuring stick, I'd say that Ayton is a pretty safe bet. I watched Bamba in his conference tournament games and he has improved in some areas. He still has tunnel vision with the ball when out at the top of the key with the ball. He doesn't seem to see cutters, or if he does, he reacts a bit too late. or not at all. He doesn't make terrible passes, the problem is, he just doesn't seem capable of creative passes. At least not now. He does rebound well, but I suspect that will decline in the NBA for a while until he adds some muscle. His long range potential is extremely high, but it's going to take some time.
In the conference championship game for Villanova, Bridges continued his stellar play with 25 points, only 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. He went 9 of 13 overall and 4 of 7 from the three. His one block came while guarding the other teams center on a postup. The dude tried to bully Bridges in to the basket and couldn't, so he tried to go straight up for a shot and Bridges blocked it. He one of the those players that's fun to watch on defense.
Kentucky has gone from a team that I thought was struggling to make the tournament, to a team that no one in the tournament wants to play. They're peaking at the right time. Gilgeous Alexander continued to play out of his mind in their conference final with 29 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. I still think he's more of a combo guard than strictly a PG, but regardless of what you want to call him, he's a hell of a basketball player.
One last comment on Ayton, who was terrific in his conference final game with 32 pts and 18 rebounds. The one thing that bugs me is his slow reaction on defense at times. It's as if he's slow to read the play. He'll be in the key, and he'll be watching an opposing player beat his man baseline, and do nothing, while there was still time to stop the ball. He does this 4 or 5 times a game. I'm nit picking, but it's one of those things that bugs me.