So, like ... have you guys heard about this Anthony Randolph kid? ;-)

In honor of his 20th birthday (yup, a teenager no longer -- in another year he can legally drink) I thought it might be appropriate to consolidate all our current hopes, predictions, speculation, dreams, praise, poetic descriptions etc. for this kid into one diary. I suppose a sober, clear-headed critique or two would be welcome too, if you're a turd-in-the-punchbowl type of guy or gal.

To get things started, here are a couple of recent blurbs from ESPN's TrueHoop.

1. (through two games)

Anthony Randolph should have a Summer League exemption. It's really not even fair to the rest of the competition: 24 points on 10-of-13 from the field, 11 boards, five blocks. We saw him finish with his right, run the break in transition coast to coast, post, shoot from the perimeter. It was the full Randolph canvas on Saturday, and he's far and away the best talent here over the first two days.

2. (in the wake of his Vegas-record 42 points -- on a superefficient 22 field goal attempts, with zero turnovers -- three majestic swats, four steals...)

Randolph's dominance this week can't be overstated. The scoring exploits are impressive, but Randolph has been at it defensively (12 blocks and nine steals in four games), on the glass (8.5 rebounds per game), and passing out of double teams with poise and precision (zero turnovers today). Randolph isn't only the primary scorer on the floor, but the most creative facilitator.

Also, while it was hard to tell from my fuzzy four-inch square internet feed of the games how much muscle he had put on in the last few months, it's pretty clear in the NBA.com Summer League front-page image. Also pretty cool that his sad, regal visage is currently the splash page of both nba.com and the espn.com basketball page.

Once again: Twenty. Years. Old.

Plus ... #14 pick in the draft??? Incredible to think that after all my years wishing and hoping the Warriors would some year suck enough to get a high enough pick to land a franchise player, they may have finally landed one the year they went 48-34 -- their best record since the Webber debacle. Maybe there is something to this whole karma notion.

Anyway, fire away with your Randolph thoughts, observations, and shameless paeans (I was going to entitle this "Anthony Randolph: a Sploogefest," but wasn't sure it was suitable for a "family show").

p.s. One thing that I hope this diary won't descend into is another bad-nickname-fest, though I will admit that yesterday as I was pondering the wonder of Randolph and listening to the awesome early 70s Oakland funk/soul band Tower of Power, it occurred to me that we could do worse for an AR handle than "Tower of Power"...