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In a draft desperately short of low post talent, DeJuan Blair stands out as its absolute best. Blair exercised his will down low against all opponents during his sophomore season at Pitt. How he performs against taller, stronger and more skilled defenders in the NBA will be the prevailing question on what type of second contract Blair sees.

Blair is ridiculously strong, especially with his hands. He takes up a lot of space and has great fundamentals and will get as prime of position as he can muster.

But in many ways Blair is a paradox as a low post scorer. He is purely power and brute force when battling for position ahead of the pass and when he is attempting to beat his man by creating space for his shot attempt. But once he gets to the trigger point in said shot attempt, it is almost entirely finesse.

Rarely will Blair finish buckets at the rim, he is almost strictly touch whether it is off the glass or a little jump hook.

Because he is unable to sky over bigs with a size differential against him, Blair uses his strength and body mass to create separation and distance. He does a good job of triggering and absorbing contact against post defenders. He also has a deadly up and under move that will be bought by even the keenest defenders.

He is excellent at catching difficult post entry passes, where he frequently uses his long arms. Blair also can pin just about any defender where he wants him ahead of the incoming pass.

Despite being so large, Blair actually moves gracefully without the ball in the halfcourt offense. He frequently is the last player down the court (for better when he gets finished scrapping for a defensive rebound, for worse because he isn’t the fleetest of foot) and in those situations he will set a high pick for the point guard. Blair sets one mother of a big screen, maximizing the size of his frame and clearing out space for his teammate. He will then roll down the lane with great agility, ready to receive a dump off and finish.

He will never pick and pop and the little 10 to 15 foot jumper is not part of his game. He nearly shot better from the floor (59.3%) as he did from the line (60.5%).

Blair clearly won’t be as dominant as he was playing against small frontline such as Villanova and he won’t be that same statistical beast, but he also won’t be competing 1-on-4 or 1-on-5 down low, which became the frequent norm.

Defensively, Blair does a nice job of getting as big and long as possible, distracting and affecting shots without committing a foul. His long reach saves him in many ways because there’s no getting around the fact that he is undersized and underathletic as a power forward. He also will need to use his strength and body weight to fight for position on the defensive end the way he does in the post offensively.

He has some nice ‘sneaky’ quickness when popping out to defend the pick and roll, but it isn’t a strength and it also takes him out of position to rebound. He has a great motor for rebounds on both sides of the floor and extends well to the ball. Blair will instantly make his team stronger on the glass by a fairly wide margin.

Blair has good confidence and poise whenever he is on the floor regardless of the situation and has excellent maturity.

Click here to read RealGM's draft reports on other members of the '09 class.