I think youre getting a bit carried away. He’s looking very very good, but franchise player is a stretch right now. Teams dont exactly build their gameplans around how they are gonna deal with Beans just yet.

But in no way is he the franchise player just yet.

I think throughout the year teams would start focusing on him as he starts getting the ball more. If he can then continue to put up the same stats or better, then he can make a claim of being our franchise player.

And that’s essentially what I’m asking. When we start feeding him the ball more, and teams started focusing on him, can he still put up the same numbers?

There were plenty of times last year when he got reduced minutes because Nellie wanted a different matchup. Sometimes when we would fall behind, Nellie would put in the “TMNT @ Center” lineup just because he thought it would give better scoring. Look at his December game log from last year:
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/players/3828/gamelog;_ylt=Ap2L4Erkq11cyZY4cN0UEgf8PKB4?year=2007

More than half the games, he collected less than 3 fouls, yet played less than 30 minutes. January & Feb follow the same deal. Sure, sometimes he would pick up a lot of fouls, but it was Nellie deciding to go with a different lineup that effected his PT far more. Nellie needs to play Beans more. End of story.

You might also point out that he’s already a better rebounder and defender than the Mailman ever was.

Obviously, the mailman had unbelievably refined post skills for his size. Then again, thanks to his lack of D and his softness when it counted, he ended his career with the same number of rings as Biedrins currently has, despite playing his whole career with the second-best point guard of all time.

Then again, the whole comparison is utterly ridiculous. But then, you knew that already. Biedrins’ game is much more comparable to Dennis Rodman’s than to Malone’s. (NB: Rodman has seven rebounding titles and five rings, compared to Malone’s zero and zero).

As for his “finding it hard to improve”: the haters have been saying saying that his whole career, yet somehow, hard or not, he keeps improving. His last four seasons, by PER:

age 19: 13.6
age 20: 16.2
age 21: 19.2
age 22: 23.2 (so far)

As to the thread question: it depends on your definition of “franchise player,” obviously. If you mean elite player capable of leading his team to a championship, he’s not that, and may never be. If you mean most valuable, most irreplaceable player on the Warriors, he’s that already (and would be even if Baron were still with us).

Usually the franchise player is best player on the team if i’m not mistaken. That’s something that can be objectively measured. But on top of that, he’s the singular player that the team is built around especially for the future. Not just a piece of the puzzle, but the keystone to the whole team. At least that’s how i understand it.

I’d say it’s the one player you’d keep above all the others. Kobe for the lakers, CP3 for the yellow jackets, etc.
   Right now depending on Montay’s recovery Dris might be our franchise player but that only says we are pretty weak not that Dris is a top drawer player. He doesn’t have shooting or handling skills to be more than a lane clogger and occasional garbage goal type of guy. A lot of his effectiveness is just opportunity, we don’t have very good rebounders and we play a style that keeps a lot of the players away from the basket so either Dris gets it of the other team gets it. Brandon Wright shows about the same effectiveness(in limited minutes) as Dris with more potential for scoring away from the basket so maybe they are co-franchise players?