Would I much rather have had Faried and Rudy for the last 2 years than Nolan Smith and Felton? Uh, yeah. And as Pinwheel said, a large part of his value comes from being the #21 pick and getting paid like it. (He's made less in the last 2 years than Juwan Howard and Ronnie Price, for instance
)
But he's NOT polished. This is not a Millsap or Jefferson situation, where you could debate sticking them at the starting 4 and seeing what you could get for LMA. Faried is not starter material yet, and (as also pointed out) is basically Robinson with lower ceiling but who's achieved more of his potential.
Where he IS great, though, is in rebounding and transition. I think it was in Lowe's Grantland article where it said that his post-up points-per-possession were about .61 PPP or so (I'll look it up in a minute), but in transition it's 1.32 PPP. That's pretty amazing. He's anti-LaMonster in the paint, but an absolutely elite rebounder.
(Edit: It was
SB Nation, quoting Synergy.
Last season he posted up just 39 times, making only 14 of his attempts, according to Synergy Sports Technology. That's a paltry .61 points per possession. In comparison, he averaged over double that in transition with 1.31 points per possession.
For defense,
here's the list of all-time players who've averaged a DRB>22%, in more than 2200 minutes, with a block and steal per game.
Of active players, only KG, Howard, Camby and Faried have done it. They're pretty good defenders. Others on the list: Kareem, the Admiral, the Dream, Moses, Barkley, Ben Wallace, Shawn Kemp, Elvin Hayes, Bill Walton, Buck Williams, Jack Sikma. Pretty darn good company.
If for some reason LMA could play C all the time, having someone like Faried at the 4 would probably work well. But I can't see relying on Faried being on the floor for 35 mpg next to RoLo's or MyLe's offense. And that makes him a backup, though a valuable one. And if you traded Robinson or Leonard for him, I wouldn't cry too much. But you can't give up a starter's ransom for him, and you can't really give him an extension beyond the MLE, which I'm not sure he'd take.
