Great point my friend. Let me counter it. Taurean Thompson was recruited as a power forward to Syracuse. The player, coach, team, university all refer to him as a Forward. Here is the official roster from Syracuse University Athletics website to end that silly conversation.
2016-17 Men's Basketball Roster - Syracuse University Athletics
So he was a forward. The fact that somebody plays out of position due to necessity doesnt change who they are, or the players position. For example last night vs BC Tyus Battle sure played alot of PG, but hes not a point guard is he? Dolezaj surely played C but obviously he isnt a Center is he? But back to the curious case of Taurean Thompson who is being heralded as the "one 4 star big we won in the last 4 recruiting cycles". Its important to keep in mind he ONLY played 5 out of necessity at the end of the year. You might recall Dejuan Coleman started the year at center. We started the season at Colgate Friday Nov 11 at Colgate with a front court of Roberson and Lydon at forward and Dejaun Coleman at Center. As we all know Coleman re injured his knee and ended his season after 17 games or so. From that point on Lydon played majority of the minutes at Center. Another interesting note is Andrew White started season as our starting 2 guard. After the Wisconsin loss Battle moved to starting G and Andrew White to SF Lydon to PF and Roberson to the bench. Two games later I was in attendance as we lost at MSG to UCONN 52-50 again our starting lineup G Howard and Battle, Lydon and White Forwards and Coleman at center. Roberson played 13min of the bench and Thompson 4 minutes of the bench. Lets just look at this game for a moment. Here are our minutes from the froncourt players that game
Lydon 40 minutes
Coleman 28
White 37
Roberson 13
Taurean Thompson 4
For the 12 minutes Coleman was on the bench who played C???????????? Obviously not Thompson if he only played 4 minutes. It was Lydon. I bring this up for two reasons. The first is everybody in the group i was with was shocked that Lydon was playing Center and not Thompson and the second is the pecking order was clearly established. I state the minutes because its fact that is indisputable as to who played more center. We could go game by game if people want. Ironically Lydon wasnt recruited to play Center either as he also was a forward lol. The point is Lydon, Thompson both played it Center out of necessity. But that didn't make either a Center. The secondary point is that Lydon played more at center than Thompson.
Now that we got that out of the way to your question. I think players should be recruited,taught, developed based on the players ability. If Syracuse recruited TT as a forward and plays him at Center as a true freshmen and he makes mistakes its really not on him. DEVELOP him AND put him in a position to take advantage of his strengths not in a position he has never played vs competition better than he has ever seen. That literally is the only reason we need coaches lol. If he makes the same ole mistakes then he might need to be benched or play his true position. To be honest we kinda got off in the weeds on this. My initial post was regarding why we have consistently missed the last really 5 cycles on 4 or 5 star bigs. I will submit the "curious case of Taurean Thompson" as another exhibit as to why we are missing on bigs.