On The Height And Growth Of 7 Footer Connor Vanover
Only recently have I heard about this 15 year old boy (just turned in June) from Little Rock, Arkansas who has reached national news after he went through an insane growth spurt going from a listed height of 6′ 6″ to 7′ 1″ in the last 9 months. This reminds me of the type of insane growth spurts which turn relatively unknown quick point guards from the thousands of the high schools around the country (which are a dime a dozen) to a potential future NBA team franchise star.
Think Anthony Davis, who grew from 6′ 3″ to 6′ 10″ over a 1 year time frame, which catapulted him into basketball superstardom. Of course, we could make the claim that every single NBA player (except maybe point guards) went through at least one dramatic growth spurt at some time in their vertical growth period which put them in the spotlight and get scouts to notice them. So is it fair to already claim that this kid who hasn’t even started his high school classes yet will become a future professional basketball player due to a super-growth spurt? He is supposed to be 7 feet tall and has a great fluid mid to long jump shot, and can even do the fadeaway so he is not going anywhere, barring a horrible injury.
Of course, no one has analyzed the X-rays of his bones so maybe he is still growing. Some people on the NBA Draft forums have gone so far as to claim that he might have a growing problem since he is still so young. I don’t have any sources which mention his father or mother’s height, but he seems to be normally proportioned so he is probably always going to be idiopathically tall statured. The recent news about 7 footer Isaiah Austin having Marfan Syndrome makes us really take a cautious look at this kid (Refer to post “What 7 Feet Tall Isaiah Austin Having Marfan Syndrome Suggest To Professional Basketball Players“) and hope that Connor Vanover doesn’t have Marfan as well. It might be safe however at least to get a full blood work done on this kid and have an MRI of his brain area to check for any increased pituitary gland activity. There is no indication based on the kid’s facial features that he has a pituitary tumor or irregularity but his extremely skinny and long limbs might make use a little bit worried. It is just normal long bone interstitial growth, or is there something else going on, like Marfans Syndrome, Weaver Syndrome, or Klinefelters Syndrome. I would never claim that the kid has it, but is just naturally tall, like his parents, but if his parents are just average in size, we would need to get him checked out immediately.
Hopefully, when he gets older, he will fill out. When NBA analysts talk about a skinny potential NBA player filling out, they are usually looking at the wide of the kid’s shoulder blade bone width so see how wide he will become on the top part of his torso. The perfect example to see whether a NBA freshmen will fill out is to look at their relative shoulder width. Just look at the pictures where I had compared Kevin Durant and Anthony Davis (How Tall Is Kevin Durant’s True Height Compared To Anthony Davis’s Height?), Kevin Durant will not be filling out, while David will fill out.
What about this kids’s game and shot-making?
Above average, and some people are already saying he has many game similarities to Dirk Nowitski, which I sort of agree. He can shoot fadeaway jumpers, which is almost light to the touch, which reminds me of when the first videos of Yao Ming was shown back when he was still with the Shanghai Sharks. Connor is fast in getting up and down the court, and has improved his ability to play with his back against the basket, just like how the tradition big men have played, while still having the power forward type of ball handling skills only seen in Dirk and maybe Tim Duncan. He is got the mid-range and the 3-point shot down at a high percentage as well. His lack of a go-to post move may be the only thing missing in his basketball skill set right now, but that is something we wouldn’t need to worry too much. He seems to have a high basketball IQ, and can learn quickly since he is so young and eager to learn the details of the game to take his own game to the next level. There are some NBA centers that are in the game right now who still hasn’t been able to develop a go-to move to take their offensive game to the next level (ie Dwight Howard) so this kid has at least another decade to work on and perfect that post move.
When the time comes when he is ready to go to the NBA, the scouts and analysts will list him at 7′ 2″ to make him seem even bigger than he already is. If I had to make a guess, the kid is probably not yet 7 feet tall though. The pictures that shows of him makes me believe that Connor is probably closer to 6′ 10″-6′ 11″ than over 7 feet.
Most analysts have already said that he will most likely be in the class of 2018 or 2019 NBA Draft, assuming he is not injured or some unlucky event happens to him, and he avoids trouble.
