Posted by Ira:

This is the time of the year for enjoyment and that's ok, so long as we don't take these optimistic reports too seriously. We'll have a better idea of how things are come November. But for now, everyone's great and will do much better than anyone ever thought.

Posted by TMS:

"His toughness and being more athletic than what I thought,'' D'Antoni said. "(Those were) two questions from watching film and until you see him...''

nothing about his stiff legs?

Posted by Pharzeone:

Weaknesses: While there is no doubting his ability to hit the three point shot, Gallinari does struggle with consistency issues … Athletically, he isn’t very explosive and would be considered a slightly below average athlete on the NBA level … This hurts him defensively as he struggles to defend athletic assignments on the perimeter … Some of this will improve as his instincts and, most importantly, his lateral quickness continue to develop … Doesn’t have the blow by speed needed to gain full separation from his defender ... Neglects the mid-range shot too often, which he should utilize more in his game - most of his shots are three pointers or drives to the basket … Despite his size he doesn’t rebound the ball all that well, which speaks a little about his athleticism … Doesn’t move with the greatest of agility as his legs and waist are a bit stiff - while this doesn’t hurt him, most of the time Gallinari’s body control suffers a bit on drives to the basket because of it … Lack of post-up skills prevents him from being able to take full advantage of mismatches … Like most young players, Gallinari could stand to add more strength to his body, but there are some concerns that his athleticism could take a bit of a hit … While he has passing ability, he doesn’t always use it when situations call for it, as he can become too focused on scoring … At nineteen years old he will improve, but his potential isn’t tremendous because he’s not going to grow by vast amounts due to athletic limitations …

Posted by playa2:

Posted by misterearl:

Did Larry Bird have stiff legs?

When Bird played he had some athletcism, but very little athletic ability.

Bird knew the game and knew how to position himself very well, the guy was fundamentally sound.

In birds's era, if you knew how to play fundamentally and played on a team who moved the ball around intelligently you would do well.

But remember when he and magic played , the league best teams didn't rely on athletcism alone, they relied on ball movement and defense.

It wasn't about going one on one and performing just to get a new shoe deal, they played a different game than what is played today.

Today if you are not athletic, you must play on a team that moves the ball around to limit the exposure for your lack of athletic ability.



[Edited by - playa2 on 13-07-2008 15:55]

Posted by playa2:

Posted by newyorknewyork:

Posted by playa2:

Posted by misterearl:

Did Larry Bird have stiff legs?

When Bird played he had some athletcism, but very little athletic ability.

Bird knew the game and knew how to position himself very well, the guy was fundamentally sound.

In birds's era, if you knew how to play fundamentally and played on a team who moved the ball around intelligently you would do well.

But remember when he and magic played , the league best teams didn't rely on athletcism alone, they relied on ball movement and defense.

It wasn't about going one on one and performing just to get a new shoe deal, they played a different game than what is played today.

Today if you are not athletic, you must play on a team that moves the ball around to limit the exposure for your lack of athletic ability.



[Edited by - playa2 on 13-07-2008 15:55]

Which is exactly the way that D'Antioni plays.

That's the way STEVE NASH PLAYS.

We are all waiting to see if a coached D,Antoni team can play the same way without Nash at the helm.

Too many people give D,Antoni credit when Nash was the one who made passing the ball contagious on the phoenix team.

They installed that style of play as soon as D'Antoni became coach of the Suns. They traded Marbury away and continued to run that style throughout the rest of the sesaon. They didn't win much games, but they were fun to watch and played pretty scrappy ball.

Granted Nash had a huge part in getting D'Antoni to win as much as he did in Pheniox. But we aren't talking about that. We are talking about Gallo and his ability to play in D'Antoni's style.

Nash excells in Euro style ball, D'Antoni and Nash made the perfect tandem. Gallo's game is built to play in D'Antoni's style Steve Nash or no Steve Nash.